Team racing, also known as team sailing, is a popular form of dinghy racing and yacht racing. Two teams compete in a race, each sailing two to four boats of the same class. The winning team is decided by combining the results of each team's boats. This differs from an inter-club fleet race where boats from three or more clubs compete, with the results of each club's boats combined to determine its overall position.
Team racing uses the low-points scoring system, in which the boat finishing 1st scores 1 point, 2nd scores 2 points, and so on. The scores of all boats on each team are then added together, and the team scoring fewest points wins. Additional rules applied to decide ties in the 2 and 4-boat formats.
Short 6 to 10 minute courses are used for team races. One course form is a digital 'S' on its side, sometimes called a digital 'N'. This gives a beat from start and mark to starboard; a short reach and mark to starboard; a run and mark to port; a short reach and mark to port; and a beat to finish. The other form is a starboard hand 'box'. This gives a beat from start/finish; a short reach, a run; a short reach; and a beat to start/finish. These course formats put a premium on racing tactics so that the outcome is not decided by boat speed alone.
On-the-water umpiring has become the standard since its first introduction in 1987. After an infringement, a boat voluntarily perform one penalty turn. However, if it continues sailing and is subsequently penalised by an umpire, it must complete two penalty turns instead.
History of Team Racing in the US, UK, and Ireland - First Events
Inter-club fleet racing and team racing of a kind has existed as long as yacht racing itself. The earliest recorded regular 'modern' team racing event, with just two teams of two, three, or four boats battling it out over several races, is the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Match. Varsity Match history page of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society (O&CSS) website between the Cambridge University Cruising Club (CUCrC) and the Oxford University Yacht Club (OUYC). The match was first sailed as a two-a-side team race in 1913 and again in 1914 (1913 at Oxford - they won, 1914 at Ely - Cambridge won). The first sailing contest between the two Universities actually took place in 1912 - as three match races at Ely (Cambridge won 2-1). After World War I team racing recommenced (two boats a side) in 1920 on the neutral waters of Oulton Broad in Norfolk, when Oxford won. It has continued annually at locations around the UK, usually on the coast and three boats a side since the mid 1930s.
In addition, an annual team racing contest (two boats a side) between the colleges of Cambridge has been held since 1924, History page of the Cambridge University Cruising Club website and a similar competition has been held at Oxford since 1926.Atkins, Jeremy (1984). A Hundred Years of Sailing at Oxford University, Jeremy Atkins, Leamington Spa CV32 6EE. (Available in some libraries and from Jeremy Atkins, Thorn Villa, Thorn Way, Long Itchington, Southam, Warwickshire CV47 9PF, United Kingdom - jeremy at bjatkins dot demon dot co dot uk) The first recorded international team racing event was the British-American Cup series in Six-Metres (4 boats a side). It was first sailed in 1921 at Cowes, as a result of a UK challenge, and the UK won 4-3.Personal communication in late 2013 from Tim Street, unofficial Six-Metre Class historian The series was hotly contested every two years, particularly pre-World War II. It ceased in 1955, when the US won 4-0 yet again, because costs escalated and interest declined due to the class losing Olympic status in 1952.
American Universities
In the US what is now the US Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) website was established in 1930 as the ICYRA. Records of the Inter-Collegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA) Collegiate dinghy sailing in the US blossomed in 1934–36 with initiatives taken by Princeton with its 'Tiger' dinghies (1934), MIT (the famous Pavilion was founded and built in 1935 at the instigation of Walter C. 'Jack' Wood), History page of MIT Sailing website and Brown (1936). Sailing history page of Encyclopaedia Brunoniana website The initial emphasis of the ICSA was very much on fleet racing (see Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association for historical details), but during the 1930s, team racing between individual colleges started to emerge - with 2 to 4 colleges meeting up, each fielding 2 to 5 boats.Personal communication in late 2013 from Mike Horn, sometime Head Sailing Coach at Harvard and CEO of ICYRA/ICSA
After World War II collegiate sailing spread across the US and parts of Canada, with ICSA membership rapidly growing to modern numbers. George O’Day (Harvard), Harry Anderson (Yale) and Bill Cox Sr. (Princeton) all helped develop the ICYRA team race rules in the 1940s, and these were the forerunners of the NAYRU (now US Sailing) and International Yacht Racing Union (later International Sailing Federation or ISAF, now World Sailing) team race rules. (International harmonisation of the Racing Rules of Sailing did not take place until 1960.) A Short History of World Sailing
A regional team racing championship, four-a-side format, first took place in 1950 in the New England District (now 'Conference') for the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy - a separate trophy from the new Fowle Trophy that is awarded to the best college across all 6 national ICSA championships. Trophy section of US Naval Academy website (ICYRA → Fowle Trophy) National team racing for the Walter C. Wood Trophy, four-a-side format, commenced in 1960 between teams formed from colleges within a particular ICSA district or 'conference', and results from 1970 are available online Trophy section of US Naval Academy website (ICYRA → Walter Cromwell Wood Bowl). From 1977 competing teams have been limited to sailors from one college, and Rhode Island University was the first (1977) winner of the current 'individual college' team racing championship for the Wood Trophy.Personal communication in late 2013 from Ken Legler, Sailing Coach at Tufts The Wood Trophy now runs on a three-a-side format because of the greater ease of accommodating 6 sailors in the one car! Across the border in Canada, intercollegiate sailing has also grown strong since the late 1990s. Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CICSA) website Courses evolved to current formats in the 2000s.
British Universities
The first recorded UK team race between universities, other that Oxford vs Cambridge, was a match between Cambridge and United Hospitals in 1935, which United Hospitals (UH) won. Cambridge medics had to do their clinical training in London until 1976, so there were several ex-Cambridge sailors on the UH team. Cambridge University Janus Catalogue: Records of the Cambridge University Cruising Club The first recorded team races against other colleges were in 1947 (University College, London), 1948 (Imperial College, London), 1949 (Trinity College, Dublin), and 1950 (London University) - all won by Cambridge. In 1956 the Association of Northern Universities Sailing Clubs (ANUSC) had been in existence for a few years and was already running its own (Northern) team racing championship. London was invited to the 1956 event, providing further impetus to the founding of BUSA (see next paragraph), in which London played a major role.
The UK equivalent of the ICSA, the British Universities Sailing Association (BUSA), British Universities Sailing Association (BUSA) website was founded in 1957, partly at the suggestion (in a 'Longshoreman' article) by Michael Ford of the Oxford University YC team that had toured the US in 1954, initiating what is now the biennial ICSA - BUSA team racing tour, which alternates between the two countries. BUSA focused solely on team racing in its early years, fostering international student team racing, and later widened its interest to dinghy fleet racing, 'big boat' yachting (currently in Sunsail F40s), and keel boat match racing.
The first UK universities team racing championships was held in 1957 and has taken place annually since then, three-a-side format. The 1957 knock-out event for what is now the Thompson Trophy took place on the Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir in London) and was won by London University from an entry of 14 teams. Partly because of the influence of Oxford and Cambridge team racing, universities in the UK had sailed individual team racing matches up until that time, or had participated in local contests of three or four teams. There was no fleet racing comparable to North American practice.
Dinghy racing at Oxford started in the 1880s, at Cambridge in the 1890s, and has continued at both universities without interruption to the present day. Cambridge also held a one-week coastal 'Marine Meeting' event for dinghies, and for larger craft in pre-WWII years. It ran from 1903 to 1966, interrupted only by the two World Wars. Oxford held a similar event for dinghies between 1946 and the 1970s. London University colleges were active in sailing from the late 1920s onwards, along with United Hospitals. Furthermore, London was a major force in UK university team racing in the 1950s and 60s - winning 5 of the first 8 championships.BUSA 1965 Championships Programme, Page 14
In part, Oxford-Cambridge team racing rivalry resulted in the formation of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society (O&CSS) History page of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society (O&CSS) website by Stewart Morris in 1934 to promote team racing in the UK. Other influences were concern at the 'thrashing' (4-0) of the British Six-Metre team in the 1932 British-American Cup series, and the interest in team racing being generated by the International 14 Dinghy Class (and its Canadian variants) from 1926 onwards. The O&CSS was successful in its aims, later helping West Kirby SC (near Liverpool) to arrange a single-class open team racing championship in 1949, under the title 'North West Firefly Championship'.John Millar, 'Anything but Sailing' The event, for what was then a very large entry of 17 teams (three-a-side format), used Firefly dinghies conveniently available after the 1948 London and Torquay Olympics. Itchenor SC from Chichester Harbour won this first knock-out event by beating the O&CSS in the final.
Wilson Trophy / North West of England Firefly Championship / Irish Team Racing
So began, as mentioned in the last paragraph of the preceding section, what became the famous Wilson Trophy, History page of the Wilson Trophy website which remains a leading international team racing event.
The West Kirby initiative was triggered by the results of a joint Irish Dinghy Racing Association (IDRA) and Royal St George YC team racing event held in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland in 1948 (three-a-side format). This was the first team racing event in Britain and Ireland to have national rather than very local entry, but it still made use of several dinghy classes, including the Firefly, because of the shortage of dinghies of one particular class. Royal St. George YC won the event in September 1948, but was almost defeated by the relatively unknown West Kirby team in the final. One of the West Kirby team, (Sir) Cyril Clarke, was a member of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society, and he and the other two helmsmen (Harry Dennis and Glyn Evans) resolved to run a similar event at West Kirby the following year.
After the 1948 Irish event, Dun Laoghaire and its three yacht clubs (Royal St George YC, Royal Irish YC, National YC) became hosts to an Irish equivalent of the Wilson Trophy, known as the Sean Hooper Trophy, which facilitated considerable British-Irish university and club team racing. Since the 1980s the event has been hosted by the Royal St. George YC alone.
International 14 Class Team Racing