San Diego Yacht Club triumphs in Morgan Cup Team Race

by NYYC on 8 Aug 2016 2016 Morgan Cup Team Race - For the second time in three years there is a first time champion of the Morgan Cup Team Race, a regatta that has taken place every August since 2003 at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. This year San Diego Yacht Club joined what had been an exclusive trio of previous winners after a long weekend of races against nine other top clubs from England and across the United States, San Diego placed themselves at the top of the heap in one of the premiere keelboat team racing championships.

“We are psyched. We have only been here a few times and each time we have learned a lot,” says Nevin Snow, two-time college sailor of the year and skipper for San Diego Yacht Club. “We are totally ecstatic and feeling great.”

While only the fourth team to ever win the Morgan Cup, San Diego is the second Californian team to do so after Newport Harbour beat out New York Yacht Club in 2014. The next year New York Yacht Club came back strong to reclaim the title. These teams, along with Eastern Yacht Club, were again the top contenders for the trophy.

Great breeze over the three-day championship allowed for 99 races. After running the 10 competing teams through two full round robins, the decision was made to put the top four teams into a mini round robin. San Diego Yacht Club and New York Yacht Club were ahead and tied for first, and given their advantage over third, they were the only two clubs that had a shot at winning. Even so the margin between winning and losing individual races was very narrow the whole regatta.

“All the teams were really close, we lost a few of our races to Southern Yacht Club, who ended up being fifth place in the regatta, I do not know if that in itself is a testament to how deep the regatta is but all the teams were close,” says Snow. “The ICSA All-Stars ended up in last place, but our races with them, up until the last bit, were always tight, we could never take a breather because each race was pretty intense.”

That fast paced and close competition is characteristic of team racing. An exciting and spectator-friendly form of sailing, team racing matches are sailed in a three-on-three format in the Club's fleet of 21 identical Sonar sailboats. The races are short, the action is intense and the final outcome is often decided just boatlengths from the finish line. Unlike in collegiate or scholastic matches, spinnakers are utilized for the Morgan Cup Team Race, which places a premium on sail handling and technique.

“The fleet race aspects of team racing (are our biggest strength), a lot of us come from a college sailing or a dingy sailing background, learning to take those skills and translate them to keelboat racing is difficult because they do not maneuver as quickly and the maneuvers are different,” says Snow. “So we were really just focused on going fast and being a team while racing towards the marks as opposed to racing against the other team.”

That winning strategy worked for the team as by the end of the day they were the ones holding the trophy above their heads. Descending champion New York Yacht Club came in second, with Eastern Yacht Club coming in third and Newport Harbor Yacht Club finishing fourth.

2016 NYYC Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Morgan Cup

Final Results

1. San Diego (Calif.) YC (17 points)
2. New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club (16)
3. Eastern Yacht Club, Marblehead, Mass. (12)
4. Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Newport Beach, Calif. (10)
5. Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans (8)
6. Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, N.Y. (8)
7. Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, Mass. (8)
8. Bristol Outlaws (6)
9. Royal Thames Yacht Club, London, England, (6)
10. Intercollegiate Sailing Association All-Stars (5)