Women’s Team Race Invitational 2021

Looking to create more opportunity for women sailors to compete at a high level, the Corinthian Yacht Club announced a new invitational women’s team racing regatta that will be raced in Sonars with spinnakers, June 26 & 27, 2021 in Marblehead, MA.

Teams from yacht clubs and college alumni sailing associations across the US will be invited to compete for the Corinthian Yacht Club National Women’s Invitational Team Race for the Thayer Trophy. Eight to ten teams are expected to participate.

Team racing is an exciting and growing game in the sport of sailing. There are currently more than 20 national, adult team-racing regattas on the calendar each year in the United States, but very few women’s events and no women’s team racing with spinnakers, which add a degree of difficulty that has become a hallmark in the upper echelons of team-racing competitions.

According to Corinthian Yacht Club Commodore Bill Quinn, the club saw an opportunity to fill a void. “As a club founded with the mission to foster small boat sailing, team- and match-racing have become a focal point for us because it keeps sailors coming out of college engaged in the sport,” Quinn explained.

“The Thayer Trophy teams will be allowed to recruit up to 50 percent of their sailors from outside their clubs, which should create a deep field of talent and provide the opportunity to get more women sailors involved.”

Competing teams will be vying for a trophy honoring Joan and Elynore “Elli” Thayer, two Corinthian members who made a significant contribution to women’s sailing. Joan, a passionate one-design racer, established the National Women’s Sailing Association Sailing Conference and co-chaired the event for more than a decade.

Her mother, Elli who passed in 2013, just shy of her 100th birthday, was the first woman skipper in the 110 class and helped establish Marblehead Racing Association going on to serve as its scorer for more than 20 years. Both Joan and Elli are Marblehead Yachting Hall of Fame inductees.

Recognizing the state of public health in June 2021 is uncertain, the regatta organizing committee has planned contingencies to ensure a safe environment for all competitors including, if necessary, mandating the use of masks while sailing, minimizing boat rotations and completing boat cleanings when rotations occur and providing space for social distancing for teams when not sailing.

Invitations will be issued in January 2021. Interested teams should contact regatta chairperson Miranda Bakos at thayertrophy@corinthianyc.org for more information and a formal invitation.

Details about the Corinthian Yacht Club National Women’s Invitation Team Race for the Thayer Trophy are available at www.corinthianyc.org.

Source: Christina Pandapas