Law Trophy Report 2024 written by Erin Wojdaszka
Indian Harbor Yacht Club held its 95th Commodore Law Trophy Regatta on July 1, 2024. Event Chair, JC Zucconi said, “this is one of the oldest running JSA regattas and has typically been the first regatta of the season.” But this year they decided to change the date so that more sailors attended the regatta because many racers could not attend last year due to school still being in session. This year nearly 50 boats registered consisting of three different classes Club 420, the ILCA 4.7, and the ILCA 5l. The day started off and ended as a beautiful New England day, but with lots of wind. 
There were quite a few clubs that traveled down to Greenwich by water. One of the Norwalk Yacht Clubs’ coaches said, “ We are happy that we sailed down the Sound because it gave us a preview of what the day would be like, but it was a tough sail due to the gusty winds.“ The coaches met and discussed how to rig for heavy air. Pequot Yacht Club coach took some time to meet with his group of C420 sailors and talked about strategies for racing in heavy air. Some tips from the PYC racers were, “Don’t capsize, pay attention to wind shifts, and use a lot of boom vang so the air flows off the sail.”
The race committee decided to have a delayed start in hopes that the wind would come down. They decided to delay the harbor start by one hour. As the harbor start approached, the wind started settling, and everyone got to their boats to start launching.
The race committee made their way out to the inner Captain Harbor, and set a windward- leeward course with an offset mark. The wind started to fill-in again, which made for a quick harbor start. Despite the challenges of fighting through the wind and capsizing, both of the ILCA classes and 420s did a great job handling the wind gusts. All three classes got off to a great start for Race 1 and the race committee completed two races on the first day in very challenging conditions of 12-24 knots . The sailors were all treated to the super popular Chicken Joe’s food truck when they got off the water.
Day two of the Law Trophy they reeled off four races in 2-8 knots so the Law Trophy competitors faced the full range of weather conditions at Indian Harbor’s s marquee junior sailing event of the year. Event chair JC Zucconi said, “Ultimately the 95th annual Law Trophy Regatta was a huge success in terms of the number of competitors that was up at least 40% from last year. I would like to thank the regatta management organization (big thanks to PRO Eric Feigel and the support team) and to IHYC General Manager Remus Ciolomic, Sailing Director Chris Foley and Assistant Sailing Director Will Florio.”
Prizes were awarded for first to third place in each class to skippers and (when applicable) crews. The name(s) of the winning skipper crew of each class racing will be inscribed on the permanent Commodore Law Trophy, established in 1929, which remains at IHYC. View the complete list of finishers at the event website.
This article was written by Erin Wojdaszka.
