On August 28-30, sixteen Sonar sailors from the Wayzata Yacht Club participated in a team racing clinic and regatta at the US Sailing Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin located on the western shore of Lake Michigan. Bert Foster of WYC coordinated the event with Hans Graf, Executive Director of the US Sailing Center.

What is team racing? The game involves two teams of 3 boats each racing against each other. It’s a combination of fleet racing - getting a good start, sailing fast, catching shifts etc. and tactical moves to help your team mates move up in the race standings. If you leave your team mates behind, the other team will try to slow them down so their own boats move ahead. Since there are 21 possible points, the goal of each race is for your team to finish with a “winning” combination of 10 points or less. The best winning combinations are 1st, 2nd and anything or finishes of 2nd, 3rd and 4th place. With these “stable” combinations, it’s difficult for the opposing team to pass your team mates. On the other hand, if your team has a 1st and 3rd during the race watch out because the opposing 2nd place boat will attack your 3rd place and try to slow them down with a “pass back” move. If you don’t go on the offensive first and are attacked by the other team you may find yourself going from 2nd to 6th place in a hurry.

To help prepare for the regatta, several members of the WYC Sonar Fleet 5 practiced team racing drills throughout the summer with the help of Blake Middleton. In a previous life, Blake was Coach of the Stanford University Sailing Team. Their practice paid off as Team Wayzata won the regatta in the final against Team Sheboygan.

Three teams competed at the Sheboygan Invitational Team Clinic and Regatta – Wayzata, Canada and Sheboygan. The Sailing Center owns 8 Sonars but in order to have three teams racing we needed a 9th Sonar. Bert Foster trailered in Captain Hook to round out the fleet. Bert’s wife Carmella and Ernest Brody set up and launched Captain Hook. Teams arrived on Thursday afternoon to launch boats and do a little shakedown cruise. Cocktails and appetizers followed at the yacht club. Friday was a practice day for the teams followed by a debriefing by Coach Ken Legler, Head Coach of the Tufts Sailing Team. Ken provided valuable instruction to the entire group throughout the weekend on the nuances of team racing strategy, tactics and rules.

The three teams competed in a series of round robins to determine who would make it into the finals. The top two teams would compete in a best of five series after all the round robins were completed.

Competition started on Saturday in a Northwesterly wind of 15-20 mph. There were a lot of close races and everyone was trying to figure out the competition. Sheboygan showed early dominance and Canada rallied after lunch winning 4 races to put them in contention to make it into the final.

On Sunday morning the wind clocked to the Northeast which brought 3 to 4 foot swells and winds of
10 – 15 mph. Team Wayzata had a huddle before racing began and decided to change their starting strategy from “one boat start on the boat end, one in the middle and one at the pin” to – “get a good start, sail fast and go from there”. The strategy paid off. Team Wayzata rallied to win 3 races in a row and make it into the “Best of 5” final against Team Sheboygan. Team Canada watched the final from the coach and umpire boats and listened to Coach Ken Legler’s commentary on the radio about the plays that were developing on the race course.

In the final, Wayzata won the first race against Sheboygan. In the 2nd race, Sheboygan rallied and won the race to tie-up the series 1 to 1. In the third race, the race was close ending in a 5 boat pile up at the finish line. When the dust settled, one of the umpire boats informed a boat from Sheboygan that they had fouled a Wayzata boat near the finish line and had to re-finish. This infraction gave Sheboygan a losing combination and put Wayzata up 2-1. In the 4th and final race, Team Sheboygan had created a wedge at the start with two of their boats on either side of Wayzata boat #5. The Wayzata boat was an innocent victim with nowhere to go. To make things more interesting, Mark Kochendorfer from Wayzata fell overboard trying to clear a competitor’s boom from the forestay and get clear. The penalty against the windward Sheboygan boat that failed to keep clear was fair and immediate. An umpire watching the mayhem required the guilty Sheboygan boat to do penalty spins until Mark could get back on board and sail on their way. One of the other Sheboygan boats who helped create the incident retired. The other two Wayzata boats had a clean start and finished in a winning combination of 1st and 2nd place to seal the victory for Wayzata in the final over Sheboygan with a score of 3 wins and 1 loss.

Results after Day 1 Results after Day 2 Final
Team Sheboygan 5 wins, 3 losses Team Sheboygan 7 wins, 4 losses WYC 3 wins, 1 loss
Team Canada 4 wins, 4 losses Team Wayzata 6 wins, 5 losses SYC 1 win, 3 losses
Team Wayzata 3 wins, 5 losses Team Canada 4 wins, 7 losses

It was a great weekend of sailing and learning about team racing. Sonar Fleet 5 will continue to practice their Team Racing skills and compete next year in Sheboygan to battle it out on Lake Michigan with other teams.

Team Wayzata
WYC Boat #4 – John Rainaldi, Ernest Brody, Becca Lundberg
WYC Boat #5 – Marty Fossen, Kathy Fossen, Mark Kochendorfer
WYC Boat #6 – John Sligh, Liz Sligh, Jeff Harris

Team Canada
CYA Boat “Captain Hook” – Bert Foster, Carmella Foster, Leonard MacKinnan
CYA Boat #7 – Tom Brown, Dan Hollinger, Chandra Wobschall Millner
CYA Boat # 8 – Fred Finlayson, Jim Fogg, Rob Eby

Team Sheboygan
SYC Boat #1 – Hans Graf and Crew
SYC Boat # 2 – Albert, Rachel and Max of Tufts Sailing Team
SYC Boat # 3 – Greg, Duane Olmsted and Crew