Lee Trophy Report

Lee Trophy 2010 Report

 

The 2010 Lee Trophy, hosted by Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, was held over the weekend of 9 - 10 October in Oyster Bay, NY. The event, now in its 8th year, has firmly established itself at the forefront of the US keelboat team racing calendar.

The Royal Thames team, skippered by James Boyce, Ian Dobson and Ben Ainsworth, travelled to New York on Thursday night to give the newly formed team some time to acclimatise to the boats and the venue. 

Saturday morning dawned with very little breeze but very bright and warm sunshine. The lack of breeze was not welcomed by the Thames team since the Americans traditionally hold a speed advantage over us Brits in the lighter winds. Racing commenced in two flights of Sonars, allowing four of the seven teams to race at any one time. Following the popular decision for competitor umpires 2 years ago, once again the non-sailing teams were put to work by policing the racing from 6 provided umpire boats. A skipper from one team would be matched with a crew from another team to ensure a balanced umpiring boat. 

The Thames team got off to a difficult start suffering from a lack of boat speed and handling in the extremely light winds. The Americans capitalised on this despite the Thames having consistently strong starts and often winning combinations around the windward mark before losing it on the runs.  There was a brief break in the middle of the afternoon whilst the wind died completely and then filled in stronger then before and from a new direction.  This put the Thames back in contention with the team's first win in the first race of the second round robin against Southern Yacht Club and a very narrow defeat against New York 2. The final race of the day produced the most drama as a well executed mark trap by the Thames boat in 1 led to boats 2 and 3 becoming intertwined by the spinnaker halyard whilst the fourth placed Thames boat was forced between the two interlocked boats producing a cheese wire effect. The dubious umpire call was that Royal Thames had been in the wrong and so the winning 1, 2, 4 combination was lost to give Eastern the victory

One and a half round robins complete, the competitors headed back for a cocktail party hosted by event sponsors, Mr and Mrs Bruce Lee. With lighter winds forecast for the Sunday the Thames team set about finding out from their competitors exactly how to make the Sonars go in the light.

Contrary to the forecasts, Sunday produced a gusty 10 - 16 knots much to the delight of the Thames team. A complete second round robin and maybe a third would be sailed in favour of sailing a knockout series. Thames had stiff competition in the first races of the day against Seawanhaka and New York 1.  A mornings umpiring had allowed the teams to get a good grip of the wind on the race course.  A great Thames pre-start allowed James to lead two of the Seawanhaka boats over to the right hand side of the course (less favoured), whilst Ben and Ian took advantage of the pressure on the left hand side of the course to obtain a solid 1, 2 which they held to the finish.  If we could take nothing else away from the weekend, the moral victory over the Seawanhaka BA cup team for our fellow team mates back in Britain was enough.  Unfortunately we were unable to repeat this performance against New York who only dropped one race in the weekend and ultimately went on to win the regatta. 

Congratulations go to NYYC 1 who again sailed an excellent regatta, winning the Lee Trophy.

Thanks must go to Seawanhaka CYC for inviting the Thames back to this excellent event for the fourth consecutive year. We look forward to returning in 2011.