Team Race Chalk Talk 2026

New Jersey Youth Sailing Foundation hosted a Team Race Chalk Talk on Saturday, January 10, 2026 at Colie Sails. The session drew 24 attendees, ranging in age from 11-24. Local yacht club Metedeconk River had the largest representation with 6 sailors in attendance, while sailors from Shelter Island and Ocean City took farthest-traveled honors.

“Clay was really engaging… he knows a lot!” — Lachlan C.

Clay Johnson led a lively discussion on general team race strategy and shared his favorite plays and schemes in an interactive session over 90 minutes.  Sailors regularly asked and answered questions, took notes, and used the whiteboard to diagram and work through race scenarios.

Topics included:

• Review of winning combinations

• Common team racing combinations and the role of each boat

• Team racing skills, including different types of passbacks

• Setup and execution of the three-boat weave

• Setup and execution of the wall

• Starting strategy, including fleet distribution, forming winning combinations, identifying post-start pairs, and recognizing which play is in progress

• How judges are trained to follow and umpire races

• Practice drills suitable for varying fleet sizes

The session emphasized practical concepts sailors can apply in training and racing and was an ideal warm-up for sailors heading to the C420 and USODA Team Race Midwinters in Florida later in the month.

“I learned a lot about starts.”  —Henry H.