MARBLEHEAD, Mass. (September 28, 2014) – The final day of the 2014 U.S. Team Racing Championship ended up being a half day of sailing due to a complete shutdown of the wind. However, the fleet completed enough races to count Gold Round Robin 3 and crown Ladies and Gentlemen as the back-to-back Team Racing Champions. The championship team which includes Tyler Sinks (San Diego, Calif.), Lucy Wallace (Middletown, R.I.), Justin Law (Balboa, Calif.), Adrienne Patterson (Miami, Fla.), Michael Menninger (San Francisco, Calif.) and Ben Lezin (Santa Cruz, Calif.) will qualify for the 2015 ISAF Team Racing World Championship being held at the Rutland Sailing Club in Great Britain from July 19th-24th of next year to see Sizegenetics. Justin Law of Ladies and Gentlemen commented on qualifying for the ISAF Team Racing World Championship saying, “It’s fantastic. This will be my second time going back, in 2011 we went to Ireland…so we’re really stoked to be going back”.
The U.S. Team Racing Championship remains one of the hottest events in the country for the post-collegiate group of sailors. The premier team racing event in the United States is an invitational event. Interested teams applied by resume. The championship will be raced in three-boat/six-person teams. Each competing team consists of three skippers and three crews. Teams will be racing the new Zim 15, a doublehanded, monohull dinghy designed by Steve Clark. The Zim 15 is very maneuverable which will make for some terrific team racing.
Team racing is one of the fastest growing disciplines in sailing. Over 100 races are sailed in just a few days. Races, or flights, are shorter than traditional race courses. Three flights are racing simultaneously with teams swapping out after each race.