2025 Team Racing World Championship Draws on Variety of Skill & Experience

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Team Racing World Championship


Last time Pete Levesque raced in a Team Racing World Championship was 2011, in Schull, Ireland, when he was a skipper on Team Extreme representing the New York Yacht Club. He was racing against the West Kirby Hawks who won that event and are one of 12 teams ready to battle in the 2025 Team Racing World Championship taking place on Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island this week, organized by the New York Yacht Club in conjunction with World Sailing.

Team racing is a niche of the sport that pits against each other two teams sailing two to four boats of the same class, with races typically 15 minutes or less. The winning team is decided by combining the results of each team’s boats. Superior boat handling, quick thinking and a strong understanding of the rules are required for success. In scholastic and collegiate competition in the United States, the preferred format is 3-on-3 using lightweight two-person dinghies. This was also the format for each of the previous world championships. The 2025 Team Racing World Championship will be sailed 2-on-2 using 23-foot Sonar keelboats. The 2-on-2 format has won fans due in part to its simplicity. The team of the last boat to cross the finish line in any race loses that race.

Registration and practice racing took place on Wednesday and the vibe at Harbour Court was one of keen anticipation as sailors representing 10 countries including Argentina, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden and the United States prepared for the week ahead. Each team consists of between six and eight sailors; a minimum of two women and two men are required on each team. Teams with solid team racing experience made it clear that they are here to win races, while those with less knowledge of this complex racing game are just happy to be a part of this exciting regatta which returns to international competition for the first time since 2015.

See the team rosters here.

Johan Backman Berg, representing the Gamla Stans Yacht Sällskap of Sweden, which has been racing together for some five years, noted that preparation for his team has been two-fold; learning about the boat and improving their team racing skills.

As always, the Kiwis will be a team to watch. While they confess to not having much team racing experience to draw from, their combined match racing backgrounds will be quite transferable to 2v2 team racing. Practicing today, Jordan Stevenson, a skipper with the team representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, got a taste for what’s coming down the pipe this week as they sailed the course in several short practice races.

The mix of international teams competing is indicative of the interest that team racing is gathering worldwide and while the teams from the United States and Great Britain who have traditionally dominated the team racing scene are expected to do well, there is much enthusiasm among the newer teams.

20-year-old Malika Bellomi from Lake Garda, sailing on the Italian Team, grew up in a sailing family and started in the sport when she was eight years old. “This is my first time to the United States and my first time team racing so it is a wonderful experience for me. Our practice session today was great, the conditions were perfect; it wasn’t too windy, the water was flat and perfect for trying out some new things before racing starts. We are grateful to the Italian Sailing Federation for giving us this opportunity and we will be doing our best.”

The Argentinian team mostly have a background growing up in the Opti class and other dinghy sailing. While they’ve competed together in keel boats, team racing is very new to this team, notes skipper Francisco (Fran) Bellocchio, skipper.

The youngest crew racing this week is 16-year-old Trystan Hocking, sailing with the Bermuda Sailing Association team, most of whom have team racing skills thanks to college sailing and boarding school sailing experience, noted crew Julia Lines, which they were able to put to the test on the water today.

Racing in the 2025 Team Racing World Championship will start mid-morning on Thursday, May 29, and run through the late afternoon each day, weather permitting. Conditions are lining up to be sporty for the first two days of racing, with a southeasterly flow on Thursday bringing possible wet conditions with windspeeds in the teens to 20 knots, while Friday looks to bring a strong southwesterly breeze in the teens to 20 knots.

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