NYYC International Cup (Photo by Dan Nerney / NYYC)
It took the Corinthian sailing world by storm in 2009, and its impact promises to be even greater when it returns again to the shores of Newport, R.I. this September 10-17. The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex will host 19 yacht club teams representing 13 nations from six different continents in the ultimate sailing contest among amateur competitors proudly representing their homelands.
“There are many returning as well as new entries,” said Event Chair John Mendez, “and they are coming from as far away as South Africa, Portugal and Argentina. Just like in the halcyon days of the America’s Cup, competitors must be non-professional (Corinthian) sailors and members of the yacht clubs they represent; they must also be nationals of their countries.”
Mendez explained that the top-five finishers from the 2009 New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup received automatic berths for the 2011 event, and all have accepted. They are (in order of finish) the New York Yacht Club (USA); Royal Canadian Yacht Club (CAN); Japan Sailing Federation (JAP); Nyländska Jaktklubben (FIN) and Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL).
New entries include the Yacht Club Argentino (ARG); Cruising Yacht Club of Australia; Yacht Club Capri (ITA), Yacht Club Punta Ala (ITA), Clube Naval de Cascais (POR); Royal Cape Yacht Club (SA) and Itchenor Sailing Club (GBR).
Also returning from 2009 are the Royal Yacht Squadron (GBR); Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (BER); Yacht Club Italiano (ITA) and Real Club Nautico de Barcelona (ESP).
Rounding out the fleet will be three additional U.S. teams that were determined by the outcome of a 24-club U.S. Qualifying Series held at the NYYC in September 2010: Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Annapolis Yacht Club (Annapolis, Md.) and Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Newport Beach, Calif.).
The event will again be sailed in NYYC Swan 42s on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay, with the headquarters being the NYYC’s Harbour Court clubhouse overlooking Newport Harbor. In addition to Rolex, which for 2011 and 2013 is the presenting sponsor, Sperry Top-Sider and Nautor’s Swan have also returned as sponsors to enhance the experience of competitors as well as those who will be following the races.
“The inaugural event was tough and demanding, allowing yacht club teams from around the world to display the competitive skills of their best sailors,” said Mendez. “And with the help of our sponsors and the enthusiasm and patriotism shown by the teams, it was an experience for the contenders that cannot be duplicated by any other event in the world.”
Among the high-profile skippers returning to the competition this year are Makoto Uematsu (Japan Sailing Federation); Leonardo Ferragamo (Nyländska Jaktklubben); Anthony O’Leary (Royal Cork Yacht Club); and Mark Watson (Royal Bermuda Yacht Club), who finished third through sixth, respectively. The NYYC, which won the inaugural event with Phil Lotz (Newport, R.I./New Canaan, Conn.) skippering, will hold a sail-off to determine its 2011 team, as will many of the other clubs that have accepted invitations.
In anticipating the challenge for 2011, returning skipper Leonardo Ferragamo said, “It would be difficult to imagine a venue more evocative of the great sailing challenges than Newport, Rhode Island, where the America’s Cup was held from 1930-1983. The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is an innovative event focused on fair and gentlemanly competition, outstanding organization and high-caliber international exposure. It is difficult to find a parallel event in the world of sport, and I believe it has already become a lighthouse in the world of international sailing competitions.”
Sailing World magazine agreed when it wrote, “The New York Yacht Club pulled out all the stops for its first Invitational Cup, creating what is sure to become a high-profile Corinthian Classic.”
Day 4 Racing 2009 NYYC Invitational Cup (Photo by Dan Nerney/NYYC)
Carina Winner Of St. David's Lighthouse Division At Start (Photo by George Bekris )
Owned and sailed by Rives Potts (Westbrook, CT) with a crew blending four families, Carina is the 46th winner of the race’s top trophy in the 104-year history of the race, which runs 635 miles from Newport, RI to St. David’s Light, Bermuda.
The 48-foot McCurdy & Rhodes designed sloop won on corrected time under the Offshore Racing Rule by the very large margin of 3 hours, 35 minutes over Gregory B. Manning’s Sarah (Warwick, RI). Belle Aurore, a Cal 40 owned by R. Douglas Jurrius (Easton, MD) was third, seven minutes behind Sarah.
Carina’s chances for winning looked good but hardly certain when she finished the race at dawn Tuesday. Her chief challenge came from Belle Aurore and three other boats in Class 1, the small-boat class. Any of them could save their time and elbow Carina off the victory podium should she finish by about 7 PM. Many sailors at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and elsewhere spent much of Tuesday following the quartet’s progress on the online iBoattrack tracker. In the end, nobody was able to save their time on Carina.
Those four smaller boats still did well. Belle Aurore won Class 1 and took third place in the St. David’s Lighthouse Division. Two other Cal 40s, Peter Rebovich’s two-time defending champion Sinn Fein (Metuchen, NJ) and Bill Leroy’s Gone with the Wind (Tiburon, CA), took second in the class and seventh in the division, and third in class and eighth in the division, respectively. The fourth boat, David G. Dickerson’s Peterson 38 Lindy, was fourth in class and 20th in the division.
Carina also won the North Rock Beacon Trophy as the top boat under the IRC Rule, with a margin of nearly four hours over Gracie, a custom 69-footer owned by Stephen and Simon Frank (Darien and Rowayton, CT). Gracie was also designed by McCurdy & Rhodes. Third under IRC was Arbella, a First 44.7 owned by James Shaughnessy (Greenwich, CT).
As of Noon ADT Wednesday, 9 boats in the 183-boat fleet were still on the race course. This is the third largest Newport Bermuda Race since it was founded in 1906. The St. David’s Lighthouse Division, for amateur crews, is the largest of the race’s five divisions, with 103 boats this year.
Invictus At Start (Photo by George Bekris)
FOR NEWPORT BERMUDA RACE START PHOTOS CLICK HERE
2010 Newport Bermuda Race
PROVISIONAL RESULTS
| Place, Yacht, Owner, Origin, Results (ORR(Cls, Div) / IRC(Cls, Div)) |
| Class 1 (11 Boats) – St. David’s Lighthouse Division
|
Genuuine Risk At Start Of Bermuda Race (Photo by George Bekris )
Bermuda executive Mark Watson made his first race to Bermuda memorable with a corrected time win in Genuine Risk in the Open Division for cant-keel boats. Speedboat, owned by Alex Jackson, took line honors for the race, finishing just before dawn at 3:47:56 with an elapsed time of 59:17:56, well off the course record. Rán, the Fastnet and Sydney Hobart race winner, finished first in Class 10 and is a strong contender for the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse trophy.
Il Mostro (Puma) skippered by Ken Read, crossed the line second and corrected just behind Genuine Risk. “We were ahead of Il Mostro and Speedboat after we all came out of the Gulf Stream west of the rhumb line,” Watson said. “We decided to take a more easterly angle to avoid a cold eddy with negative current, but that let Speedboat separate from us.” Ralph Steitz, Sailing Director for the US Merchant Marine Academy (owner of Genuine Risk, which Watson sponsored), was one of many sailors who said how much they had enjoyed the race. “This was the easiest Bermuda Race I’ve ever done and I’ve done a few.”
Photos of Bermuda Race Start By George Bekris HERE
- PUMA Ocean Racing’s IL Mostro (Photo by George Bekris)
Rán, Niklas Zennstrom’s JV 72, is the provisional winner in Class 10 for big professional boats in the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse Division after being pushed hard by Tom Hill’s Titan XV for more than 600 miles. George David’s Rambler matched up with Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste and took line honors for these fixed-keel boats. “I’ve never sailed a Bermuda Race when you’re head to head with another boat for so long,” said Rambler’s tactician, Jerry Kirby. “It came down to the last tack to St. David’s Light.”
Vanquish, co-skippered by Bermudian Buddy Rego and Americans Russell Lucas and Jamie Hilton, crossed the line first in Class 8 for the big boats in the amateur St. David’s Lighthouse Division, but Gus Carlson’s Aurora is the provisional class winner. Some smaller boats have a good shot at winning the division. Carina, skippered by Rives Potts, has a 60-mile lead over her Class 3 competition. In the highly competitive Class 1, Sinn Fein, Peter Rebovich’s Cal 40 and the two-time defending St. David’s winner, has sailed farther west than anybody and is fighting for the lead with David Dickerson’s Lindy.
In the Double-Handed Division, iBoattrack showed Michael Hennessy’s Dragon at the head of the pack, 160 miles from the finish, with the four-time winner Lora Ann not far behind. The Cruising Division’s leader, Clover III, was about 70 miles out on Saturday afternoon with a healthy lead on the 80-footer Nirvana.
Genuine Risk (Photo by George Bekris)
Genuine Risk At Maxi Rolex Cup 2004 (Photo by Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi)
After putting his signature on the sponsorship agreement, Mark Watson called his friend and North Sails advisor Ken Read and said, “Ken, I think I’ve gone and done something kooky.” Kenny replied, “Knowing you, I don’t think so, but tell me what you’ve done.”
Watson replied, “I’m going to sponsor and skipper Genuine Risk in the Bermuda Race.”
Read quipped back, “Now that’s kooky.”
Mark Watson is excited and anxious about this ride in the Newport Bermuda Race that starts June 18 in Newport Rhode Island. He has stepped up as the sponsor and skipper of the US Merchant Marine Academy cant-keel, offshore rocket, the Dubois 90 Genuine Risk.
No novice to offshore racing, Watson owns the Swan 42 Tiburon. He won the 2008 Swan 42 National Championship. Once again he is looking forward to racing with and against some of the best sailors in the world. It’s a genuine risk, just not the kind he is used to.
“This is really as close as we can get to a Corinthian campaign,” Watson said. “We are joining three racing teams, amateurs who have sailed with me before, a few pros who know the boat well to handle its complex systems and five Merchant Marine Academy cadets and one recent graduate who have also sailed her. This is my way of passing on the spirit of offshore yachting to the next generation.”
Newport Bermuda will be quite different for Watson. It has been one of his dreams to do the race. He has been invited, but unable to fit the time into his schedule as CEO of Argo Group, based in Bermuda.
“Fellow Royal Bermuda Yacht Club members had teased me about not doing the race.’ he remarked. “And after I sailed the Fastnet Race aboard the TP52 Lucky, I decided this was the year for Newport Bermuda.
Ben Nichols from Bermuda, who sails aboard Tiburon with Watson, will join him on the 90-footer. He commented on the adventure, his first Newport Bermuda Race. “I am very much looking forward to sailing aboard Genuine Risk with Mark, Nichols said. “Mark’s passion for sailing comes a close 3rd behind his family and his work as President and CEO of the Argo Group. “
“Despite my extensive sailing experience, this race aboard Genuine Risk will be my first ocean race, and what a boat to be doing it on!” Nichols said. “This radical boat was designed and built in 2004, but remains at the forefront of sailing technology today. The fleet assembling for the 2010 Newport Bermuda contains some of the World’s most talented sailors; a great friend of mine, Tim Powell is skipper of a race favorite Ran,” Nichols concluded, “so I hope we can beat them across the finish line even if it is not on corrected time!”
Jim Marshall will be the navigator. Marshall has a lengthy sailing CV and worked for North Sails from 1976 through 1984 and for Ockham Instruments from 1984 to 1995. He was part of the Young America team for the America’s Cup challenge in 2000. Since then, Jim has regained his amateur status and has been navigator and trimmer for some top amateur racing projects. He has sailed eighteen Newport Bermuda Races, four Fastnets, a Trans Pac, Admiral’s Cups and much more.
Andreas Josenhans joins the crew as a project manager and watch captain. He is busy in the last days before the race, putting the crew together and making sure the boat is measured, inspected, ready and provisioned for the race. Andreas. a world-class keelboat racer in the likes of Solings, Stars, and Etchells, is a North sailmaker by trade.
Ralfie Steitz, sailing director for the Merchant Marine Academy, will also be aboard with five cadets and one recent graduate. Steitz named some of the crewmembers, “Charlie Enright was a watch captain on Morning Light in the TransPac and brings valuable offshore experience to the team. Mitch White from Australia is a talented and experienced bowman. Peter Tans is the electronics expert who will keep the power on and the canting keel’s computer running.”
Ralfie comment on the speed potential for Genuine Risk. “During the recent delivery from Ft. Lauderdale to Baltimore,” he said, “the shorthanded crew using delivery sails in a cruising mode guided Genuine Risk to over 650 miles in under two days. With the right wind that translates into a record run to Bermuda,”
Genuine Risk will have to out-smart and out-sail some big, tough competition in the Open Division. Alex Thomson’s 100 foot long Speedboat, first to finish in 2008, hopes to repeat this year in record time. Ken Read on the V70, Il Mostro [Puma], that was second overall in the Volvo Ocean Race, has the race record in sight as well. The Open Division record was set in 2004 by Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory with a time of 48 hours, 28 minutes and 31 seconds.
by Talbot Wilson
Genuine Risk (Photo Courtesy of Dubois Yachts)
Photo courtesy of Dubois Yachts. More information about Genuine Risk can be found at http://www.duboisyachts.com/Yachts/GenuineRisk/
New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup (Photo by Dan Nerney)
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) won today’s opening race in the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup and was pre-empted from showing its prowess in a second race when sailing had to be abandoned due to wind and technical difficulties. The race, sailed in lumpy seas and an 18-knot easterly on Rhode Island Sound, started the regatta off with lots of action, as the Canadian boat, helmed by Terry McLaughlin, battled most closely with the New York Yacht Club, Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL) and Japan Sailing Federation for best position between the start and the first mark two miles to windward.
“Japan (with Makoto Uematsu steering) had the best start,” said McLaughlin “and we had a good lane, but a huge left shift made us overstand the mark. There were boats farther to our left, but the Japanese were not as affected and rounded first.” The Canadians passed the Japanese team on the run to round the bottom mark first and carried their lead to the finish. New York (Phil Lotz of New Canaan, Conn./Newport, R.I., skippering), Royal Cork (Anthony O’Leary skippering), and the Japan Sailing Federation finished second, third, and fourth, respectively, with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (Mark Watson skippering) rounding out the top five.
New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Fleet (Photo by Dan Nerney)
L-R, 10, Royal Yacht Squadron, Oscar Strugstad; Mutiny, Yacht Club Italiano, Carlo A. Puri Negri;
16, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Mark Watson; 06, Royal Thames Yacht Club, John Greenland, and
15, Real Club Nautico de Barcelona, Jordi Tarré. Dan Nerney photo.
The Yacht Club Italiano’s skipper Carlo Puri Negri could have been happier at the end of the day. As it was, shortly after the start, the stitching at the head of his jib failed, causing the webbing to pull from the sail and render it useless. He was sitting in fourth, he said, at the time of the mishap. “We sailed the rest of the race with just a mainsail,” said Puri Negri. The same thing happened to the Nylandska Jaktklubben team (FIN), with Leonardo Ferragamo at the helm, and the jibs were promptly rushed to shore and repaired while the fleet moved from “outside” on the Sound to an “inside” course on northern Narragansett Bay where the waters are more protected.
“While the fleet waited for the second race to start, the wind increased to 22 knots,” said Swan 42 Class President Paul Zabetakis, explaining that this is the limit for constant winds in this regatta in accordance with the NOR, “Another jib had failed in the meantime, and that, coupled with the sustained wind strength, made it clear the racing needed to be abandoned.
“To North’s credit, they jumped right on the situation to fix the first two jibs, and tonight they will rework all the jibs so that racing can get underway again tomorrow,” said Zabetakis.
The regatta continues through Saturday (Sept. 19) when a Parade of Nations through Newport Harbor will precede the final races to determine the winner and will showcase the 19 teams from 14 countries competing here.
