CYC Home
March 23, 2009
On Monday night, March 23, fifteen people gathered at the CYC clubhouse, to listen as Rusty Lhamon and Joe Burcar presented an introduction to the many forms of team racing happening around the globe.
Team racing has been a major component of high school and collegiate sailing for decades. Over the last few years, there has been a resurgence in the Northeast with team racing growing in popularity among recent college grads and adults of all ages.
"Team racing in keelboats may be one of the fastest growing segment of sailboat racing in the country," said Ben Glass, head Seattle Yacht Club Race Team coach and former collegiate sailor at east coast powerhouse St. Mary's College.
After discussing the basics including courses, rules, and scoring, discussion focused on the different formats used for team racing and the goals of the CYC program. Team racing can take many different forms: 2-on-2, 3-on-3, or 4-on-4. It can be sailed in dinghies such as Vanguard 15's, Flying Juniors, Fireflys, or others. And, as mentioned earlier, the popularity in small keel boats such as Sonars, J-22s, and J-24s is growing rapidly.
As a first step, the CYC team race program will focus on teaching the basics during the next two chalk talks (April 20 and May 18) at the CYC clubhouse. This will be followed by on-the-water practice in Flying Juniors at Sail Sandpoint, which will start in May.
"The objective of the CYC team race effort is to learn together, increase local interest and experience in team racing and encourage CYC members to participate in regional and national team race events" said Lhamon.
Directed by former collegiate All-Americans like Mike Hare, Jen Glass, Chuck Asper and others; the next two chalk talks will drill into strategy and tactics involved in team racing.
In addition to lectures and war stories, the chalk talks will be supplemented by a DVD recently produced to specifically teach team racing. By the end of May, we hope to have all the people interested up to speed on basic team race strategy and ready to hit the water and put their newfound skills or renewed interest to the test.
Slide Presentation for this meeting. (2.5Mbyte pdf)
Announcement of Team Racing program