Sailing's equivalent of World Cup soccer was held in Newport this year -- embodied by eleven countries doing battle for the 2005 Grey Goose ISAF (International Sailing Federation) Team Racing World Championship. Like the fast-action stadium sport, this sailing event was geared to please spectators who watched from shore as the teams worked to advance their overall positions while holding off their competitors.

Utilizing offensive and defensive techniques, each boat moves strategically to advance a teammate or slow a challenger. With two teams sailing three vs. three at a time, the emphasis is not on one boat's finishing position, but on the overall performance of the three-boat team for which there are 10 winning and 10 losing scoring combinations.

Spectators caught the action from Goat Island where bleachers were set up north of the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel and Spa. Color-coded sails and commentary, courtesy of Tufts University sailing coach Ken Legler, aided observers in following the progress of each team, including the defending champions -- Team Whishbone -- from the U.S.A.

This is the sixth time since 1995 that this biennial world championship has been held. And it's only the second time in the U.S.A. New York Yacht Club has hosted the championship. Two teams each from Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S.A., and one team each from Canada, the Czech Republic, India, Italy, and the U.S. Virgin Islands competed for the championship.

The competitors spent two picture-perfect days leading up to opening ceremonies taking advantage of scheduled on-the-water practice time in the Vanguard 15 sail boats that have been supplied for the regatta.

The Opening Ceremony

An enthusiastic crowd cheered and clapped as sixteen teams representing ten nations paraded across the lawn of the New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court for the Opening Ceremony. With regatta organizers, local dignitaries, and sailing officials from around the globe in attendance, the sailors carried in their national flags as a Dixieland band set the tone for the festivities.

After defending champions Tim Fallon (Somerville, Mass.), Ery Largay (Beverly, Mass.) and Karen Renzulli (Somerville), all members of Team Whishbone, hoisted the flag that signaled the official opening of the world championship, Team New Zealand energized the crowd with a spirited performance of the Haka. A Maori war chant that precedes battle, the Haka is delivered with fierce shouting, sharp arm movements and thunderous foot stamping. "It is always performed before a competition to show your intention to take the trophy home," explained one of the team's supporters.

Day 1

The action was fast and furious as the first day of racing got underway on Narragansett Bay in a strong southerly breeze (21 knots with gusts to 31). The field of play -- set between Rose Island and Goat Island by the New York Yacht Club Race Committee -- allowed the large crowd of spectators gathered on the northern end of Goat Island to see, and in some cases hear, everything taking place on the water.

Undefeated after their first two races of the day, Australia 2 faced Ireland 1 (0-2) for race 19 as foam kicked up on the racecourse midway through the morning. There was a lot of commotion at the windward mark, accompanied by loud conversation, as the teams converged with two boats virtually stopped dead in their tracks. One of the Australian boats then did a 360 the hard way -- nearly deathrolling into a capsize after taking their penalty turn and losing control while reaching for their protest flag. While the incident did spread the fleet out, it was still a close race once the smoke cleared. Down the leeward leg with all the penalty turns done, AUS 2 with a 2-3-5 combination held a narrow lead over IRL 1 with a 1-4-6 as the race tightened up going into the next mark where IRL 1 rounded with a 1-4-5. Although AUS 2 was temporarily successful in slowing down the middle Irish boat, they would suffer their first loss of the day as IRL 1 improved to 1-3-5 at the finish in a race that saw tremendous action at the first mark. AUS 2 would come away from the day with three wins and four losses while IRL 1 settled out with three and three.

Quickening the pace was the addition of a third flight of umpires that allowed races to start every five minutes. By mid-afternoon, when conditions were judged too windy both for the equipment and some of the competitors, the halfway mark of round one had been passed with 55 races sailed. At the end of day one, predicted to be the windiest day of the week, GBR 2 and USA 2 were both undefeated with seven wins apiece, establishing themselves as the fastest in the conditions seen on day 1. But lighter northerly winds are predicted for day 2, so a shake-up in the standings could be in short order.

Day 2 Competitors enjoyed a relaxing breakfast on the terrace of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) today while they were kept ashore for two hours. After several days with a strong southwesterly blowing the tide into Narragansett Bay, this morning's brisk northerly against a strong incoming current made for very rough seas.

While allowing conditions to settle, the NYYC Race Committee decided to forgo running the remainder of the round-robin races in round one, and instead proceeded to split the 16 teams into gold and silver fleets to get right to the heart of the matter. This allows more time for the completion of three rounds each for both the gold and silver fleets, giving the teams ample opportunities to move up -- or down -- in the standings before being seeded into the quarterfinals.

With 15-18 knots and puffs over 20, 56 races were sailed as the breeze fell off slightly through the afternoon. A brief postponement to realign the course moved the leeward mark to less than 50 yards from the spectator stands at Goat Island that were full of team supporters along with numerous local sailors who had turned out to cheer the competition. One start elicited a huge roar from the crowd, as all six boats were over the line early at the start of the race between IRL 2 and NZL 1. All the boats returned to restart without prompting from race officials.

In their first match up of the series, the pre-start action between Great Britain's two entries --GBR 1 and GBR 2 -- was well away from the line. After significant maneuvering, the teams finally made their approach to the starting line with GBR 1 winning the start with a 2-3-4 combination and covering the previously undefeated GBR 2. Even with one of its team well back in last, the first-place GBR 2, sailed by Owen Mordal and Linda Eadie, did not stop at the second mark to perform a mark trap and thus avoided the chance of being passed. Although GBR 1 had a winning 2-3-4 combo, they opted for a high-low maneuver at the leeward mark against Modral and Eadie, who, despite being pursued, still had the lead and the opportunity to do a big mark trap that could stop two or three boats at once. GBR 1 smartly split to avoid being caught and kept their 2-3-4 intact as they blasted down the last leg and ultimately handed GBR 2 their first loss of the championship.

At the end of the day the standings for the gold fleet saw both teams from the USA with 6 wins and 1 loss; GBR 2 and NZL 1 (4-3); IRL 1 and GBR 1 (3-4); and IRL 2 and NZL 2 (1-6). The silver fleet standings: AUS 2 (6-1); ISV, ITA and AUS 1 (5-2); CZE (3-4); JPN 1 and JPN 2 (2-5); and CAN (0-7).

Day 3

Turning Newport harbor into a mirror, a light northerly wind turned calm this morning and kept racers ashore for several hours at New York Yacht Club?s Harbour Court on day three of the 2005 Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing World Championship. Around noon when the breeze filled, the race committee was able to keep a consistent pace of racing in the seven knots of breeze by shrinking the course length in order to keep races at seven minutes duration, while working to complete 56 races for the gold and silver fleets. The lighter conditions, maxing out at 10 knots, is plenty of breeze for Vanguard 15s and was not expected to significantly impact the series standings as the boat?s rigs had been "powered up" in anticipation of the lighter air.

With impressive team racing resumes on both sides, GBR 2 and USA 2 -- teams that were undefeated on the first day of this championship -- faced off early in the afternoon rotation. An umpire call against GBR 2 during the pre-start maneuvers had one of the team working to finish their penalty spins by the time the starting horn completed the countdown. Winning the start, all three USA 2 boats tacked across GBR 2, with Patrick Hogan (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Carlos Lenz (Clearwater, Fla.) moving out to a huge lead for USA 2. Hogan and Lenz then turned their attention to blanketing the GBR 2 boats that were catching up to Pete Levesque (Portland, Maine) and Liz Hall (Tiverton, R.I.) in second. Stuart Hudson and Hamish Walker, leading the way for GBR 2, were leaned on by Hogan and Lenz, but remained in position to pin Levesque and Hall. USA 2 with a 1-4-5 combination maintained a slight lead coming into mark two over GBR with 2-3-6. Those positions stayed intact around the course while GBR 2 attempted a double-team to reduce the gap between 4 and 5. The GBR 2 pair hammered away at Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.) and Amanda Callahan (Canton, Mass.) in fifth and were ultimately successful in getting their teammate out of last. Unfortunately, because they went after Merrick and Callahan, GBR 2 lost a spot to USA 2 who crossed the finish with a winning 1-2 combination in a classic example of team racing tactics demonstrated by two veteran teams.

Buy this Art Print at AllPosters.com

Provisional standings at the end of the day?s racing, for the gold fleet: USA 2 (7-0); USA 1 (6-1); GBR 2 (5-2); GBR 1 (4-3); IRL 1 (3-4); NZL 1 (2-5); ISV (1-6); AUS 2 (0-7). In the silver fleet: ITA, JPN 1, NZL 2 (5-2); AUS 1, CZE, IRL 2 (4-3); JPN 2 (1-6); CAN (0-7).

Day 4

The New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) Race Committee got the racing rotation underway promptly at 9AM on day four of the World Championship in a valiant effort to beat the wind gods. A weather prediction that included high wind warnings for most of coastal Rhode Island ultimately came to fruition, but only after 10 races were successfully completed in a breeze that was building to 25 knots.

Competitors were flying around the course in their supplied Vanguard 15s when the apparent edge of the frontal passage made itself known with gusts of 30 knots recorded on Rose Island which anchors one side of the race area. The decision by organizers to bring the sailors back to Harbour Court was later borne out by the weather service that recorded gusts to 47 mph shortly before noon. At 1:00 p.m. the decision was made to cancel racing for the remainder of the day.

The gold fleet saw the completion of six races this morning, with AUS 1 racking up two strong wins over AUS 2 and IRL 2. AUS 1 are the reigning Australian Open Team Racing Champions with team members Rod Chamberlain, Caroline Ross, Tim Cubit, Emma Flukes, Stewart Wells and Michael Sorrell-Saunders -- who, at age 15, is this event's youngest competitor. At the other end of the age spectrum is Canada's David Sprague, the 55-year old former president of the Canadian Yacht Association. Although Canada has yet to see a win in this series, losing this morning to the US Virgin Islands in its only outing today, Sprague is hoping to use this event to generate more excitement for team racing in Canada.

In the silver fleet, four races were completed among teams who are jockeying for position in hopes of avoiding the first knockout round. Racing resumes tomorrow, Friday, September 30, and concludes Saturday, October 1, when awards will be presented at Harbour Court followed by Closing Ceremonies. Competing are two teams each from Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S.A., and one team each from Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Day 5

There was a lot on the line as day five got down to business on Narragansett Bay. After four days and over 200 races, the 16 teams representing 10 nations were starting the knock out rounds that would eliminate some, after seeding six teams directly into the quarterfinals. Putting a crimp in the style of the New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) Race Committee was a light northwesterly breeze that ultimately died and resulted in the postponement of racing for several hours during the mid-afternoon. With temperatures on the chilly side, the complete lack of wind made it feel warmer for the substantial spectator crowd gathered along the Goat Island shoreline and who got an opportunity to work on their tans during the lull in the action.

Around 4:30 p.m. the breeze picked up to a manageable 5 knots and the rotation resumed with the Knock Out and Grey Goose series. Ireland 1 and Italy, along with both teams from Great Britain and the USA had advanced to the quarterfinals by virtue of their placings in the earlier rounds. That left Australia 1, Ireland 2, Japan 1, both New Zealand teams and the US Virgin Islands to sail the Knock Out series which would determine two teams who would move on to join the seeded teams. The four who were "knocked out" would settle into places 9-12 in the overall championship standings based on the results of the Knock Out. At the end of the rotation, five of the six teams stood tied with win-loss records of 3-2. Once the tie-breaker was computed, Ireland 2 and New Zealand 1 would move on, with the US Virgin Islands finishing ninth, followed by Australia 1 and New Zealand 2, and Japan 1 (0-5).

The Grey Goose series, which was fought out between Australia 2, Canada, the Czech Republic and Japan 2, would determine 13-16th place overall. Final championship standings at the end of this round saw Australia 2 with 3 wins in 13th place, followed by The Czech Republic (2-1); Japan 2 (1-2) and Canada (0-3).

Final Day

With eight of the original 16 teams eliminated from contention, the competition format moved to the "first-to-three wins" for the final day of racing for the 2005 Grey Goose ISAF Team Racing World Championship.

The New York Yacht Club’s Race Committee made short work of the quarterfinal rotation in the 10 knot southwesterly on Narragansett Bay, and by noon both Irish teams had been eliminated, followed by New Zealand 1 and Italy. Those teams then completed a sail off that determined their overall positions for the championship with IRL 2 coming in fifth, followed by IRL 1, ITA and NZL 1.

Buy this Photographic Print at AllPosters.com

The results of the quarterfinals had also set the stage for a showdown between the two superpowers of team racing – Great Britain and the USA. The pairings for the semifinals put USA 1 against GBR 1, each sailing with team racing world champions, and USA 2 against GBR 2. Although the USA cleaned up in both pairings, with win-loss records of 3-0, Great Britain didn’t go down without a fight. The American teams had come into this regatta very well prepared, having spent a considerable amount of time training and competing in Vanguard 15s, the boat that was supplied for this championship.

In the end, the all USA final was a nail biter. USA 2, with Patrick Hogan (Newport Beach, Calif.), Carlos Lenz (Clearwater, Fla.), Pete Levesque (Portland, Maine), Liz Hall (Tiverton, R.I.), Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.) and Amanda Callahan (Canton, Mass.) was showing a little more speed. Team WHishbone, a.k.a. USA 1, the defending champions, with Tim Fallon (N. Falmouth, Mass.), Karen Renzulli (Needham, Mass), Mark Ivey (Hungtington Beach, Calif.), Matt Lindblad (Newport, R.I.), Tim Wadlow (Beverly, Mass.), and Ery Largay (Osterville, Mass.), demonstrated both composure and skill in the light to moderate breeze with decisive moves and back-to-back wins.

USA 2 returned to win a thrilling race three, but USA 1 came back in the fourth race to clinch the championship.

Readers Comments About This Page:

Be the first! Add Your Comment!