2023 Global Team Racing Regatta

Published on September 23rd, 2023

Newport Harbor Yacht Club defended their title at the 2023 Global Team Racing Regatta, hosted by Royal Thames Yacht Club and held September 21-23 at Queen Mary Reservoir in London.

The Global Team Racing Regatta was established in 2018 and has been hosted at New York Yacht Club, Royal Yacht Squadron and again NYYC.

Nine teams from England, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Scotland, and USA raced the 2v2 format held in Sonars with teams of mixed gender and helms of the same nation.

A double robin series advanced the semi-finalists, with Royal Thames YC topping the field with two losses from their sixteen races. Three American teams rounded out the knockout stage with Eastern YC finishing in fourth while New York YC and Newport Harbor YC tied for second place.

Eastern YC took a 2-0 win over the Royal Thames YC, while Newport Harbor also went 2-0 to eliminate New York YC.

In the finals, Eastern YC took the first win over Newport Harbor YC which fought back to level the series and set up a winner takes all final race.

As the finalists were preparing for their last race, the petit-final to decide third place was concluding with the Royal Thames YC taking third place ahead of New York Yacht Club.

With pressure on both teams for the final race, Newport Harbor YC kept their cool to control the race throughout taking the race with a 1,2 win and with it, claim the title of Global Team Racing Regatta champions for the second time running, and the only club to have won the event twice.

“The event highlights the comradery and energy of club team racing around the world,” said Kayla LaDow from NHYC. “Our team had three repeat sailors from last summer including Andrew Person, Colin Voigt, and me.

“I was so stoked to sail with our other five team members (Bill Menninger (legend), Sean Segerblom, Sally Mace, Wills Cook, and Randall Hause. Our club loves team racing, enjoys practicing together as an entire club, and looks forward to supporting the development of two boat keelboat team racing.”

Having been involved with the event from it’s inception, GTTR Trustee and umpire at the event, Bruce Hebbert saw some of the closest, most evenly matched team racing. “The 2v2 has simplified the mystery behind team racing and given a more event playing field for more teams to compete on this international stage.

“Standouts for me this year was actually the team from Japan. Not a traditional team racing country like the US or the UK, they have clearly put some thought and effort in to how they were going to approach this year’s event with great boat handling and tactics and this was reflected in their fifth-place finish over more established team racers.”

Event information – Team rosters – Results