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Three years ago, Team Extreme won the 2009 US Sailing Team Racing Championship for the Hinman Trophy; a few weeks ago, they repeated that feat and became the 2012 Hinman Trophy winners for a second time! The team lead the event through the entire weekend, losing just two races through two full round robins and a six team final gold round. The event is sailed in Vanguard 15s year’s regatta was hosted by the Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY.
This year’s Hinman team rosters were full of nationally renowned Olympic sailors, US Sailing Team members, All-American collegiate sailors and championship team racers, including numerous ICSA College Sailor of the Year nominees and winners. Bringing the both the impressive resume as well as a cohesive dynamic, NYYC Team Extreme is made up of a superb group of Yale Sailing Team Alumni – skippers Stu McNay (’05) of Providence, RI who has represented the US at the last two Olympic games in the 470 class; Zach Brown (’08) of San Diego, CA, the four-time All-American and 49er Olympic campaigner; Thomas Barrows (’10) of St. Thomas, USVI, also four-time All-American and 2010 College Sailor of the Year; and crews Emmet Smith (’09) of New Haven, CT; Mike Hession (’10) of Chicago, IL; and the three-time All-American crew Marla Menninger (’10) of New York, NY.
Photo courtesy Peter Brauné
Needless to say, the team had plenty of experience and expertise under their belts to take on talented fleet at the Hinman this year. The origins of the team date back to 2005 when Stu and Zach were on the Yale team racing team together in school, and since then has gained momentum in team racing events through the summers with the additional members added to the team. When asked what has worked with this particular group, Zach Brown emphasized the importance of the team dynamic:
“The chemistry works perfectly. We all have unique skills that compliment each other. Our style of team racing is speed focused where we try to do as little team racing as possible, although I thoroughly enjoy the boat-to-boat action. Learning and sailing together in college was pretty important to our success. We had the best coaching from Zack Leonard who is a team racing Jedi master. Stu and I have always team raced together so when Thomas came to college and we started working so well together, it was an obvious choice for the 3 of us to complete Team Extreme. A lot of our success is due to our friendship and how much we enjoy racing together. It makes it easy to communicate amongst the team and push through difficult races or situations when the friendship is strong. I am always so excited to race with the team because Stu and Mike and Thomas and Marla are just so good and so fast. Our crews Mike, Emmet, and Marla are the best crews out there. Our team’s speed and boathandling advantages come from their talent, strength, and consistency. Without our shared Yale experience, we never would have been this team.”
After their 2009 Hinman win, the team has returned to the regatta and finished 3rd and 2nd in 2010 and 2011, respectively, so this year they were on track to take back the title. The mix of strong and light conditions challenged all of the sailors, and though the team tends to like more breeze, the diverse skills of NYYC Team Extreme allowed them to succeed in the range of conditions. And the team did not take the highly skilled fleet lightly. Learning from previous mistakes, the team shifted their game plan to taking on each team one race at a time. On the team mindset, Emmet Smith commented that in previous years, “we had let the uncertainty of the format affect our results, but we changed our mental game this year to focus on winning each race at a time so that we could control our own destiny. Stu really kept us all focused on staying mentally sharp and prepared for each race. With so many races, and each race counting, it was important to maintain the intensity and focus.” The team lead the regatta with twenty points going into the Gold Round, and the 5-0 record in the finals sealed the win.
In addition to working hard together as a group, the team attributes some of their success to the New York Yacht Club, who has supported the team and its endeavors. NYYC has always been an active and proud supporter of team racing in both management and participation from its members, and NYYC Team Extreme has been thrilled to “have the support of the club and sail under NYYC at local, national, and world team racing events,” says Brown.
Though all six sailors have busy lives outside NYYC Team Extreme, including multiple Olympic campaigns, coaching, and other full time jobs, they are looking forward to getting the team back together again. They hope to do more team racing between now and then, but at the very least, comments McNay, “we plan to race in next year’s Hinman. At this point, it looks like it does not conflict with any Olympic class events, so we hope to be able to get back together as a team then.” So watch out for NYYC Team Extreme to come out strong for third title next year. Congratulations to the team on a commanding win in the 2012 US Team Racing Championship!
For more information on the 2012 US Team Racing Championship, visit championships.ussailing.org/adult/USTRChampionship.htm.
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