What is Team Racing?
Team Racing is a popular form of dinghy or yacht racing where only two teams compete against each other in a race. A team consists of 2,3 or 4 matched boats from the same class, often identified by sail & boat colours and numbers alternatively the helmsman may be wearing coloured bibs. Using the low points scoring system, a combination of a team’s results decides the winner. i.e. 1st = 1 point, 2nd = 2 points and so on. The team with the least points wins.
Irish Sailing have some funding from BIM FLAG for team racing coaches. Find coaches here.
Anyone considering organising a team racing event and wants advice should contact teamracing@sailing.ie
Why Team Racing?
Team Racing is an ideal way to retain youth sailors after they leave the structured environs of youth classes or Irish Sailing programmes. Team Racing is very sociable as whilst there are a lot of races against different teams, there are also times where team members will be waiting on their next race in change over boats, pontoons or ashore. This allows teams to mix, chat and socialize. It also adds the dimension of practicing and racing as part of a team. The more you practice and work together, the more successful you become.
Each race lasts around 10 minutes and multiple races can be run at the same time using the same course. With around 8 hours of racing in a day and a well organized race team, It is possible to run up to 96 races in one day using a Round Robin format. (8hrs x 3 per flight x 4 flights per hour = 96)!
Whilst on the whole, the rules are the same, there are a few adaptations for Team Racing. Most Rule books have an appendix on the Team Racing Rules. E.g. boats infringing the rules can take a voluntary penalty spin. However if they are spotted by an umpire and do not take a spin, the umpire can enforce a two spin penalty. Another key rule is that the ‘zone’ is changed to two hull lengths.
As Team Racing uses Umpires, it reduces the ability for people to shout and scare opponents. This is often frowned upon, so reduces attempted Male dominance. It also has lest reliance on physical strength, with more reliance on strategy, communication, rules knowledge and tactics making it a much more attractive sport to females. Umpiring speeds up the process of protests allowing for immediate on water decisions, which in turn ensures that results are quickly updated.
Team Racing focuses on Starts, manoeuvres, tactics, boat handling and rules knowledge, which makes it ideal training for fleet racing medal races. It is ideal to be included as part of youth sailor development. Often you will find that the top fleet racers also compete in major team racing events.
The Course
Courses are short and use up to 6 marks with a start boat and board displaying the race number. Competitions with multiple flights often use rolling starts in intervals of three minutes to get more races through in a tight time frame. For Premature starters, boat numbers are hailed as OCS’d and must return to correct side of the line. Umpires marshall the racing and the rules using a whistle and flags to notify boats of penalties. Umpires decisions are final.
Races generally last around 10 minutes using continuous starting and are raced over a digital ‘S’ course offering a Start, Beat, Reach, Run, Reach, Beat, Finish. It’s best to run the races in no current.
