Team racing returns with new boats, bold format
NEWPORT, Rhode Island - After a decade becalmed in sporting limbo, team racing's world championship is set to roar back to life next month when Newport's storied waters host 12 crews determined to rewrite the sport's hierarchy.
The 2025 Team Racing World Championship will see teams from 10 nations battle at the New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court from May 28 to June 1 in a revamped format designed to captivate spectators, organisers said on Friday.
Out goes the traditional dinghy racing consisting of three two-person boats per team, and a complex scoring system. In come sleek 23-foot Sonar keelboats and a far simpler format: two boats per team, and the last to finish loses.
Each team is made up of six to eight sailors, including two skippers and their crew, racing two boats. Each boat must sail with at least three and no more than five people. Once the event begins, crews stay fixed, with no substitutions.
There's also a clear requirement for gender balance: every team must include at least two men and two women.
The United States dominated the championship's previous incarnation with six titles between 1995 and 2015, with Britain and New Zealand claiming two each.
"Keelboat team racing has been a point of emphasis for the New York Yacht Club for more than a quarter of a century," event co-chair Susan Daly told local media on Friday.
Newcomers from Argentina, Greece, the Bahamas and Sweden bring fresh enthusiasm against established powers, while Ireland is also represented.
"Team racing is intense, fun, challenging, quirky and quite backwards," said Sweden's Lukas Bergman. "It's not about being first, but instead about not being last." REUTERS
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