U.S. Sailing
After three days of intense racing, culminating in a nail biting 3-2 final series, Team Blueberry Faygo have won their first U.S. Team Racing Championship.
The team, comprised of Shawn Harvey (Miami, FL), Sonia Lingos Utley (West Yarmouth, MA), Teddy and Graceann Nicolosi (St. Thomas, VI), Sean Segerblom (Costa Mesa, CA), and Caroline Teare (St. Thomas, VI) came back from a two-loss deficit to Holiday Sideshow in the final to capture the Hinman Trophy.
“Winning the Hinman feels awesome – we’ve been giving it our all this weekend,” said Shawn Harvey. “We had this exact team and exact situation last year where we went best of five racing against Holiday Sideshow, but the ending of this movie was a little different.”
“I like this ending better!” chimed in crew Sonia Lingos Utley.
Three-time Hinman winners Holiday Sideshow had their winning streak interrupted, taking second. After two wins in the petit finals, Team SDYC took third. Competitors saw mostly light conditions on the Lafayette River throughout the weekend.
“It was a great weekend – we got 249 races in over three days,” said Sam Patterson, Event Co-Chair. “30 teams, 36 boats, and the weather cooperated.
The community rallied behind this event. So many people brought their boats down, and we had over 50 volunteers over the course of the weekend. It is insane to see the community show up like that – but it takes a village to run an event of this size.”
This year saw a record 30 teams competing for the George R. Hinman Trophy. It also had a record number of female drivers and all-female teams participating, with 48 percent of all athletes being female.
US Sailing would like to thank Norfolk Yacht and Country Club and Costal Virginia Youth Sailing Foundation, who were the driving force behind running this record-breaking event.
US Sailing would also like to thank national sponsors Gill Marine and Regatta Craft Mixers for their support of this event.
