The Charles River Open is a team racing regatta of epic proportions. For the past 10 years, Sailing Master Fran Charles and an army of MIT waterfront folks and volunteers have run this event at the MIT Sailing Pavilion on the Charles River, and every year it gets bigger. With 42 teams this year, it's now the biggest team racing event on the planet.
20 years ago, I had the good fortune to sail in the Wilson Plate, an invitational team racing regatta in West Kirby, UK. At that time, it was a totally unique event - 32 3-boat teams sailing matched sets of Fireflys: 3 red boats with red sails, 3 green boats with green sails, 3 blue boats... well, you get the idea. Easy to figure out who's who and what's what. The West Kirby Sailing Club folks would run something like 250 races over two days with the crews jumping in and out of boats and high-tailing it to the start line as if their lives depended on it (which they did - if you were late getting out there, they weren't going to wait for you).
Back in those days, team racing was very popular in the UK, but it hadn't really caught on yet in the US. Now the US is the team racing capital of the world, and when kids graduate from college, they don't want to chase one-design world championships or Olympic medals - they want to go team racing. And it's pretty easy to do. You don't really need to own a boat - they're provided at quite a few of the events. All you really need to do is round up three skippers and three crews, join the USTRA, and start showing up at events like the Charles River Open.
The 42 teams in this year's event sailed FJs and 420s provided by MIT, Boston University and Community Boating. Could have been more teams, but a few had entered but not paid, so Franny capped it at 42. Sailors ranged in age from late teens to early 50s, and the racing was fast and tight. No umpires at this event - top-flight team racers can generally be counted on to self-police, and there was "three-minute justice" on the dock for those who felt compelled to seek a ruling. Wouldn't have been room for umpire boats on the river anyway - it was pretty much wall-to-wall with 54 dinghies on a "digital N" course.
After two days and 490 races (seriously, they ran 490 races in two days!), one team won and 41 other teams had an incredible time trying. I sailed as part of an "over the hill Tufts Jumbos" squad with some other really good sailors (we got our asses kicked, so they may not want to be identified), and if you looked around, you could see what gives this version of the sport the potential to be really magic: in addition to the 4-5 outstanding world-class teams such as WHishbone and Silver Panda, there was a team of college coaches sailing together (and doing pretty well), a couple of high-school teams with kids doing their first major team racing event, and family team (the Storcks from Long Island - mom and dad must have been pretty proud to see that) and a river-load more teams made up of just plain really good sailors.
In many ways, the surge in team racing popularity is breathing new life into a sport that seemed to be in decline. In the heyday of olympic sailing in this country, we were winning medals right and left, but there was a problem with the foundation of the sport: kids coming out of college were looking around and not seeing anything that they really wanted to jump into. Classes were either really expensive or just not that compelling, and younger sailors were sitting on the sidelines. Team racing seems to be changing that.
The downside is that you're not seeing the US on the podium as much at one-design world championships, and the US medal count has become something of a joke - particularly when compared to the 1984 and 1988 hauls. But at this year's Wilson Plate, the final was between two American teams (WHishbone and Silver Panda), and you could make the case that the US could probably field 5 of the top 10 teams in the world.
So when you read the results for the upcoming Combined World Championship in Cascais, Portugal, don't be discouraged. Team racing is where it's at, and right now, the US is the best in the world at it. And if you don't buy that, come down to the river next June and see for yourself.
20 years ago, I had the good fortune to sail in the Wilson Plate, an invitational team racing regatta in West Kirby, UK. At that time, it was a totally unique event - 32 3-boat teams sailing matched sets of Fireflys: 3 red boats with red sails, 3 green boats with green sails, 3 blue boats... well, you get the idea. Easy to figure out who's who and what's what. The West Kirby Sailing Club folks would run something like 250 races over two days with the crews jumping in and out of boats and high-tailing it to the start line as if their lives depended on it (which they did - if you were late getting out there, they weren't going to wait for you).
Back in those days, team racing was very popular in the UK, but it hadn't really caught on yet in the US. Now the US is the team racing capital of the world, and when kids graduate from college, they don't want to chase one-design world championships or Olympic medals - they want to go team racing. And it's pretty easy to do. You don't really need to own a boat - they're provided at quite a few of the events. All you really need to do is round up three skippers and three crews, join the USTRA, and start showing up at events like the Charles River Open.
The 42 teams in this year's event sailed FJs and 420s provided by MIT, Boston University and Community Boating. Could have been more teams, but a few had entered but not paid, so Franny capped it at 42. Sailors ranged in age from late teens to early 50s, and the racing was fast and tight. No umpires at this event - top-flight team racers can generally be counted on to self-police, and there was "three-minute justice" on the dock for those who felt compelled to seek a ruling. Wouldn't have been room for umpire boats on the river anyway - it was pretty much wall-to-wall with 54 dinghies on a "digital N" course.
After two days and 490 races (seriously, they ran 490 races in two days!), one team won and 41 other teams had an incredible time trying. I sailed as part of an "over the hill Tufts Jumbos" squad with some other really good sailors (we got our asses kicked, so they may not want to be identified), and if you looked around, you could see what gives this version of the sport the potential to be really magic: in addition to the 4-5 outstanding world-class teams such as WHishbone and Silver Panda, there was a team of college coaches sailing together (and doing pretty well), a couple of high-school teams with kids doing their first major team racing event, and family team (the Storcks from Long Island - mom and dad must have been pretty proud to see that) and a river-load more teams made up of just plain really good sailors.
In many ways, the surge in team racing popularity is breathing new life into a sport that seemed to be in decline. In the heyday of olympic sailing in this country, we were winning medals right and left, but there was a problem with the foundation of the sport: kids coming out of college were looking around and not seeing anything that they really wanted to jump into. Classes were either really expensive or just not that compelling, and younger sailors were sitting on the sidelines. Team racing seems to be changing that.
The downside is that you're not seeing the US on the podium as much at one-design world championships, and the US medal count has become something of a joke - particularly when compared to the 1984 and 1988 hauls. But at this year's Wilson Plate, the final was between two American teams (WHishbone and Silver Panda), and you could make the case that the US could probably field 5 of the top 10 teams in the world.
So when you read the results for the upcoming Combined World Championship in Cascais, Portugal, don't be discouraged. Team racing is where it's at, and right now, the US is the best in the world at it. And if you don't buy that, come down to the river next June and see for yourself.
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