New York Yacht Club Announces the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005

by Barby MacGowan on 31 Oct 2002 The New York Yacht Club has announced plans for the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 yacht race for larger sailboats attempting to break the world's oldest racing record.

The 3,000-mile race from New York to England will start in mid-May 2005. It is open to single-hulled sailboats with a minimum length on deck of 70
feet and with no maximum size for entrants. The race is expected to attract many of the world 's largest sailing yachts, some 200 feet (61m)
and longer.

Starting off New York Harbour and finishing in the English Channel, the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 will be sailed over the same course
as the famous race 100 years earlier in which the transatlantic racing record was set. In May 1905, the 185-foot (56m) three-masted schooner
Atlantic covered this course in 12 days, four hours, one minute and 19 seconds.

The record for the New York Yacht Club's Transatlantic Race is recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, part of the
International Sailing Federation (ISAF), and is included in its list of Ocean Race Records. See: http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/oceanrace.html.

'Atlantic's record is the marquee record in yacht racing,' said A. Robert Towbin, chair of the organizing committee for the Rolex
Transatlantic Challenge 2005. 'The fastest yacht to race from Sandy Hook
to the Lizard Point in less elapsed time than Atlantic will be
recognized as the New York Yacht Club's new transatlantic racing-record
holder,' continued Towbin, who in the last running of this race, in
1997, won the classic division aboard Sumurun, a 94-foot ketch designed
and built by William Fife in 1914.

Said Rolex Watch U.S.A. President and CEO Walter Fischer: 'In the
spring of 2005, it will be a full century since the America's Cup legend
Charlie Barr skippered Atlantic to its historic transatlantic race
record. It is a fitting celebration that the Rolex Transatlantic
Challenge will test the world's finest sailors racing the world's most
impressive ocean going yachts. It also defines the excellence Rolex
pursues in its partnerships with sailing.'

The race will be run by the New York Yacht Club with the cooperation of
England's Royal Yacht Squadron. The New York Yacht Club has a long
history of running transatlantic races over this course. It organized
the first race in 1866, started the fastest in 1905 and reprised this
race most recently in 1997.

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 will have at least three
divisions: Classic, Performance Cruising and Grand Prix. The divisions
may be further divided into classes. Prizes will be awarded by Rolex and
the New York Yacht Club for top boats on both elapsed time and on
handicap.

Social events are planned in New York as well as at the Royal Yacht
Squadron Castle at Cowes, England. A highlight of the post-race
festivities will be a race around the Isle of Wight on the same course
where in 1851 the yacht America, representing the New York Yacht Club,
won what became the America's Cup. This race was recreated in 2001 by
the club and the Royal Yacht Squadron at the America's Cup Jubilee on
the 150th Anniversary of America's win.

More information is available on the web site: http://nyyc.org/
Potential entrants in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005 should contact:

Sailing Office
New York Yacht Club
Harbour Court
5 Halidon Avenue
Newport, Rhode Island 02840-3815 USA
sailingoffice@nyyc.org

Tel: +1(401) 845-9633
Fax: +1 (401) 846-3303