Seawanhaka Corinthian YC wins International Jackson Cup Team Race

by Laurie Fullerton on 29 Apr 2014 It was a down to the wire finish at the 16th annual Jackson Cup team racing event this weekend with Seawanhaka Yacht Club team skippers Tim Wadlow, Joel Hauneman and Nick Ewenson edging out skipper Peter Levesque and three New York Yacht Club teams in the final seconds of the final race on the final day.

'We are very fortunate to sail in such a great event and it came down to the last race so we have to thank the New York Yacht Club team for giving us such great competition until the end and keeping it fun for us,' Wadlow said whose team included Congressional Cup skipper Chris Poole among many other renowned sailors. Marblehead’s Boston Yacht Club placed third in the event.

In an event that featured 84 races over three days, 40 degree weather, heavy rain, gusty winds that then dropped to 0-2 knots on the final day, the round robin format included eight teams of 12 in what was long days racing in some tough, nearly winter like conditions.

In the history of this long running event, both New York Yacht Club and Seawanhaka Yacht Club had won it four times each and on this final race of the day in a fast fading breeze Seawanhaka took the win for the fifth time.

Held at the Boston Yacht Club each year, this regatta attracts teams from as far away as Canada, the Cheseapeake Bay and the UK but it also shows the depth of talent in the local Marblehead fleet which includes sailors like Bill Lynn, Tyler Doyle, and Amy Drinker to name a few.

'A lot of the sailors here are amongst the best team racers competing on the world circuit today so racing out there gives us a good benchmark,' said Tyler Doyle of Marblehead, whose Doyle CFD team placed fifth while the third place boat included staff at Doyle Sailmakers. 'We all definitely keep our calendar open for this regatta and all of these teams out there demonstrated a high level of team racing skill. '

'This is one of the premier team racing events amongst the teams each year,' added Amy Drinker. 'And it is great that what we have here in Marblehead is such an active team racing fleet and that are able to pool our resources here in town and produce three great teams.

For more information on the winning teams, click here.