The team scoring fewest points wins, with additional rules applied to decide ties in the 2 and 4-boat formats.
These course formats put a premium on racing tactics so that the outcome is not decided by boat speed alone.
After World War I team racing recommenced (two boats a side) in 1920 on the neutral waters of Oulton Broad in Norfolk, when Oxford won.
[4] The first recorded international team racing event was the British-American Cup series in Six-Metres (4 boats a side).
It ceased in 1955, when the US won 4-0 yet again, because costs escalated and interest declined due to the class losing Olympic status in 1952.
[10] After World War II collegiate sailing spread across the US and parts of Canada, with ICSA membership rapidly growing to modern numbers.
The UK equivalent of the ICSA, the British Universities Sailing Association (BUSA),[17] was founded in 1957, partly at the suggestion (in a 'Longshoreman' article) by Michael Ford of the Oxford University YC team that had toured the US in 1954, initiating what is now the biennial ICSA - BUSA team racing tour, which alternates between the two countries.
The first UK universities team racing championships was held in 1957 and has taken place annually since then, three-a-side format.
Cambridge also held a one-week coastal 'Marine Meeting' event for dinghies, and for larger craft in pre-WWII years.
[20] The event, for what was then a very large entry of 17 teams (three-a-side format), used Firefly dinghies conveniently available after the 1948 London and Torquay Olympics.
So began, as mentioned in the last paragraph of the preceding section, what became the famous Wilson Trophy,[21] which remains a leading international team racing event.
Royal St. George YC won the event in September 1948, but was almost defeated by the relatively unknown West Kirby team in the final.
[22] After 1934, an international team racing event was held every two years, interrupted by World War II from 1940 to 1958.
The competition was sponsored at different times by Little Ship (later British) Paints and Dunhill/Rothmans, and was encouraged by HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who attended some of the National Finals.
On-the-water umpiring for team racing was pioneered by West Kirby at the 1987 Wilson Trophy, with the first 'On The Water Adjudicators' being Tony Cross, Ian Berry and Peter Price (West Kirby), Mike Bailey and John Anstey (Wembley), and Brian Heron (Hollingworth Lake).
The first national team racing championship for the George R. Hinman Trophy was held in 1981 at Fort Worth, Texas and organised by US Sailing.
[31] The winning team was from the Great Lakes region (US Sailing Area E): Terry McLaughlin and Carolyn Brodsky, Jeff Boyd and Peter Jones, Tam Matthews and Jay Cross.
The early winners tended to be collegiate teams but, through the influence of Gary Brodie who became Chairman of the Team Racing Championship Committee in 1992, and Brad Dellenbaugh who followed him in 1996, the event now attracts a wide entry, though the presence of post-collegiate sailors remains strong[32] - as it does in UK competitions.
The old Prince Philip Trophy from the 1980s was awarded to Spinnaker SC, who won the trials held to select the UK team and went on to win the first World Championship.
Then, in 1997 the RYA[39] and the UKTRA restarted the UK National Team Racing Championship for the Prince Philip Trophy that had ceased in the early 1980s.
The RYA also organises the very popular UK annual Eric Twiname[40] junior (under 16) and youth (under 19) team racing championships.
[41] The association caters especially for UK private independent schools, organising annual regional and national team racing championships since 1989.
The BSDRA was founded by Nick Prosser of Tonbridge, Crispin Reed Wilson of Bradfield, and Bruce Hebbert of Sevenoaks School - who was also a member of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society.
In 1989 Winchester College won the first BSDRA event for the Whitstable Trophy, and Tabor Academy was the first international winner in 1990.
[45] The CJ Buckley Memorial Regatta is a very popular US annual junior (under 19) Club 420 team racing event, held at East Greenwich.
[46] The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA)[6] is active in team racing at the district or 'conference' level as well as nationally.
The Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA)[47] has organised an annual national team racing event, for the Baker Trophy since 1989, when Tabor Academy was the winner.
[49] In 2011 Bruce Hebbert, a member of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society, conceived and launched (with help from a number of sailors in the Netherlands, Germany, Monaco, Italy and Spain) a European series of team racing in keel boats (two-a-side format) called '2K'.
[50] The series is hotly contested and now takes place in over eight locations across Europe in varying keel boat classes.
An on-the-water umpire will then make a decision, almost instantly, and impose a two-turn penalty on any boat judged to have broken a rule in the incident.