Teams from across the USA set sights on 2016 Resolute Cup

by New York Yacht Club on 28 Apr 2016 Scott Young has long enjoyed the plug-and-play simplicity of provided-boat regattas such as the 2016 Resolute Cup. And, apparently, the feeling is mutual. Young is a six-time winner of the Mallory Cup, one of US Sailing’s oldest championships, and another regatta where participants rotate through a fleet of supplied boats.

This summer Young and longtime friends Doug Kern and John Morran, all hailing from the Austin (Texas) Yacht Club, will set their sights on what has become the Corinthian championship for U.S. Yacht Clubs, the Resolute Cup. From September 12 to 17, teams representing 30 clubs from every coast and corner of the United States will race Melges 20s and Sonars on Narragansett Bay. The top team will claim the 100-year-old silver trophy and a berth in the 2017 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, the premiere international Corinthian regatta. The regatta will be hosted out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I.

“We have a lot of races under our belt, but it’s more and more difficult, as kids gets older, to be able to sail as actively as we used to,” says Young, 56, a commercial real estate developer from Austin. “This event has a feel very similar to [the Mallory Cup], in that basically we can pack a bag and show up, and there’s a lot of appeal to that.”

While Young—a three-time All-America selection at the University of Texas—may not be sailing as much as he once was, he and his team will be one to watch. They won the Mallory Cup in 2006 and 2008. Young’s also had success in Newport. Were it not for a broken rudder in the final race, he and Morran would’ve likely won the 2010 J/80 World Championship, held both inside Narragansett Bay and on Rhode Island Sound.

A return to Newport during the magical month of September—“we have such great memories of racing up there,” he says—was another reason Young decided to rally his crew for this event. And then there’s the opportunity to toot the horn of the home club.

“The club feels it was a very prestigious invite,” says Young. “Our club isn’t a big, fancy yacht club, but we’ve had a lot of good sailors come through here. Doug was on the silver medal team in the Soling class in the 1992 Olympics. I think the AYC views this as an opportunity to show what kind of sailors we’re capable of fielding.”

National, even international, recognition isn’t a problem for the San Diego Yacht Club. But the club, one of just six to win the America’s Cup and the home to numerous world champion sailors, will nonetheless be sending a formidable team led by Rick Merriman, a college All-America selection while attending the Naval Academy, an America’s Cup veteran, and a former member of the U.S. Sailing Team in the Star class.

“The Resolute Cup is attractive due to the large cross section of sailors racing,” says Merriman, a commercial pilot. “From top level intercollegiate to one-design to rating-based racing, every discipline is represented, as well as all the geographic areas of the United States.”

A broad diversity in the entry field, both in terms of the location and the size of the competing clubs, has been a hallmark of the Resolute Cup since the inaugural edition, then called the U.S. Qualifying Series for the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, in 2010.

“By expanding the field to 30 entries, we have been able to invite a full range of American sailing clubs,” says Patricia O’Donnell, the event chair. “We can’t wait to welcome back old friends from clubs such as Larchmont, Newport Harbor, Eastern and Carolina, which have raced in all three previous editions. We’re also excited to see first-time entries from lesser-known sailing hotbeds such as Austin, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, and Wisconsin's Lake Geneva. We anticipate an extremely competitive regatta.”

The regatta is broken up into two parts. The 30 teams will be split into three divisions for two days of qualifying, sailing in both the Melges 20 and the Sonar fleets. The top 10 teams will qualify for the Championship Fleet, which will sail the final two days in the Melges 20s. The Silver Fleet will race the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of Sonars.

Live race tracking for the duration of the regatta and a live webcast of the event’s final two days will enable friends, family and fellow club members around the country to follow their team as compete for one of sailing’s most challenging Corinthian honors.

2016 Resolute Cup
New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, Newport, R.I.
Sept. 12 to 17
Competing Clubs
American Yacht Club (Rye, N.Y.); Austin (Texas) Yacht Club; Balboa Yacht Club (Corona del Mar, Calif.); Bayview Yacht Club (Detroit); Beaufort (S.C.) Yacht and Sailing Club; Beverly Yacht Club (Marion, Mass.); Carolina Yacht Club (Charleston, S.C.); Chicago Yacht Club; The Cleveland Yachting Club (Rocky River, Ohio); Coral Reef Yacht Club (Miami); Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); The Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia (Essington, Penn.); Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Lake Geneva Yacht Club (Fontana, Wis.); Larchmont (N.Y.) Yacht Club; Long Beach (Calif.) Yacht Club; Nantucket (Mass.) Yacht Club; New Bedford Yacht Club (South Dartmouth, Mass.); New York Yacht Club; Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Newport Beach, Calif.); Riverside (Conn.) Yacht Club; San Diego Yacht Club; Sandusky (Ohio) Sailing Club; Sea Cliff (N.Y.) Yacht Club; Shelter Island Yacht Club (Shelter Island Heights, N.Y.); Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans); St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco); Storm Trysail Club (Larchmont, N.Y.); Wadawanuck Club (Stonington, Conn.); Winnipesaukee Yacht Club (Gilford, N.H.)