WindCheck Magazine New York YC Wins Thayer Trophy Women’s Team Race

3v3 format with spinnakers got spicy with breeze up in the finals.

By Christina Pandapas

With winds gusting into the 20s and double-point scoring evening the playing field for the finals, a strong New York Yacht Club team sealed the deal in the last ten yards of a dramatic race against Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association to win the 2024 National Women’s Invitational Team Race for The Thayer Trophy, hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, MA and sailed in Sonars on June 22 & 23.

Competition in the National Women’s Invitational Team Race for The Thayer Trophy is always fierce. © Bruce Durkee

New York YC came into the second day with six wins and only two losses. PRO Will Bailey and his race committee team held 80 percent of the first two round robins on day one, and although there were still five races to left to sail to determine the top four, New York had punched their ticket to the finals.

After a long wind delay Sunday morning, the breeze began to fill from the south and built steadily to 15 knots with gusts in the low 20s. That made things particularly sporty on the downwind legs. Racing was tight, spinnaker-handling mistakes were costly, and there were plenty of opportunities for conversions.

All of that came into play in the final race between Chesapeake and New York. Winning positions changed multiple times in the last few minutes of the race. Chesapeake had a tenuous 2, 3, 4 combination a stone’s throw from the finish when New York went on the attack, forcing one of the Chesapeake boats to duck and slowing another enough to barely eke out a 1, 4, 5 to win the race and the event.

“Boat handling was key as the wind came up,” said New York Team Captain Emily Maxwell. “There were definitely moments when that was a challenge. Our team really had to stay focused.”

The loss was costly for Chesapeake as Eastern Yacht Club came on strong in the finals to edge them out on points to take third overall. Newport Harbor Yacht Club, took second, two wins behind New York.

Sunday’s action was captured live and can be viewed on Corinthian Yacht Club’s YouTube channel. All the event information including detailed results are posted on ThayerTrophy.com.

About The Thayer Trophy

Looking to create more opportunity for women sailors to compete at a high level, the Corinthian Yacht Club introduced The Thayer Trophy regatta in 2021. It is the only women’s 3v3 team racing event held in keelboats with spinnakers, which add a degree of difficulty that has become a hallmark in the upper echelons of team-racing competitions.

The Thayer Trophy honors Corinthian’s Joan and Elynore “Elli” Thayer’s significant contributions to women’s sailing: Joan as a passionate one-design skipper and organizer of the National Women’s Sailing Association Conference, and Elli as the first women skipper in the 110 Class and a Marblehead Racing Association officer for more than twenty years. ■