Please select your home edition
Edition
Barton Marine Pipe Glands

New York Yacht Club looks to end Morgan Cup Drought

by New York Yacht Club 3 Aug 2023 13:39 PDT August 4-6, 2023
The Morgan Cup © Stuart Wemple

The last weekend of July, in Newport, R.I., traditionally means one thing: Folk Fest. At the height of summer, the legendary music festival takes over Fort Adams State Park, and the surrounding waters, for three days of music and social harmony. When the sea breeze comes in, the music filters across the harbor and into downtown Newport.

For members of the New York Yacht Club's team racing squad, however, the melodic sounds of Jason Isbell, Lana Del Rey and Billy Strings, among many others, came a distant second this year to the sharp blasts of an airhorn, the flapping of crisp sails through a tack and the terse verbal cues integral to a heated team race. August is team racing season at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, and with the home team setting its sights on winning the Morgan Cup for the first time since 2015, the last weekend in July was dedicated to a grinding two-day practice session. The Morgan Cup starts on Friday, August 4, and runs through Sunday. August 6.

"We've underperformed the past five years, and the consensus on the team is that we don't get enough time to practice together, and we don't get enough time on the water," says Pete Levesque, a 14-time Morgan Cup competitor who will skipper for one of the two New York Yacht Club entries. "We're trying to solve that."

The New York Yacht Club helped usher in a new era of adult team racing with the creation of the New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy in 2000. That race, which requires skippers to be at least 45 years of age and crew to be over 40, was soon followed by the New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Morgan Cup, an all-ages event, in 2003 and, in 2010, the New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race Regatta, which mandates skippers be at least 60 years of age and crew at least 50. The three team races are traditionally held over consecutive weekends in August at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, using the Club's fleet of 22 Sonar keelboats, and annually attract some of the best adult team racers in the United States and Europe. New York Yacht Club Regatta Association sponsors for 2023 include Helly Hansen, Hammetts Hotel and Safe Harbor Marinas.

At the scholastic and collegiate level, team racing typically involves six sailors per team. Adult team racing in 23-foot Sonar keelboats doubles that, making cohesive team work significantly more elusive. And that's before factoring in the challenge of organizing practice when everyone works for a living. The last two winners of the Morgan Cup—Corinthian Yacht Club in 2021 and Eastern Yacht Club in 2022—both hail from Marblehead, Mass., and benefitted from being able to schedule regular weeknight practices during the summer.

While the New York Yacht Club has a large pool of talented team racers from which to draw, the geographic diversity of the membership makes it challenging to gather a dozen sailors in one place at one time. The past weekend of practice was something of a rarity for the New York Yacht Club team. While it's no guarantee of success this coming weekend, it certainly won't hurt.

"It takes a little while to figure out personalities, and we have had a lot of turnover in the past few years," says Levesque (at left, facing camera). "I don't think we've entered the same Morgan Cup team once in the past five or six years, maybe even longer. It all comes back to just getting time together and time on the water. We had these chalk talks last weekend, a lot of it was getting on the same page with the fundamentals."

The weekend of practice aside, the list of favorites for the Morgan Cup in 2023 still starts with Eastern and Corinthian, who have taken the top two spots each of the past two years. Levesque's New York Yacht Club teams finished third in 2021 and fourth in 2022. San Diego Yacht Club and St. Francis Yacht Club should also be included as they combined to win four straight Morgan Cup regattas from 2015 and 2019.

For the Hinman Trophy, it's a different story; New York Yacht Club won in 2022 for the first time since 2014 and will be looking to become the first repeat champion since Noroton Yacht Club in 2016. In the Grandmasters Team Race, Texas Corinthian Yacht Club from Kemah, Texas, is the two-time defending champion.

When Texas Corinthian (at right) won for the first time two years ago, team captain Clark Thompson was asked how the tiny club, with just 160 members, had made its way to the top of the podium.

"We have a big team and we're able to practice a lot with the weather in Texas," said Thompson. "That helps a lot."

Competing Teams

New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Morgan Cup, August 4 to 6: Bristol (R.I.) Yacht Club; Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Larchmont (N.Y.) Yacht Club; New York Yacht Club; Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Newport Beach, Calif.); San Diego Yacht Club; Seawanhaka Yacht Club (Oyster Bay, N.Y.); and St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco).

New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy, August 11 to 13: Eastport (Md.) Yacht Club; Larchmont Yacht Club; New York Yacht Club; Noroton Yacht Club (Darien, Conn.); Seawanhaka Yacht Club; Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans); and St. Petersburg (Fla.) Yacht Club.

New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race Regatta, August 18 to 20: Annapolis (Md.) Yacht Club; Gamla Stans Yacht Squadron (Sweden); Larchmont Yacht Club; New York Yacht Club; Newport Harbor Yacht Club; Southern Yacht Club; St. Francis Yacht Club, Storm Trysail Club (Larchmont, N.Y.) and Texas Corinthian Yacht Club (Kemah, Texas).

Related Articles

NYYC International Women's Championship update
The final group of five invited skippers is announced The final group of skippers to be announced for the 2026 New York Yacht Club International Women's Championship radiates enthusiasm for this groundbreaking opportunity in one of the world's most famous sailing cities. Posted on 23 Jul
New Wave Claims Third IC37 National Championship
A busy weekend at the New York Yacht Club with Coastal Races Regatta and the 69th Queen's Cup For the third time in four years, Steve Liebel's New Wave team emerged victorious in the the IC37 National Championship, sailed over the weekend out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I. Posted on 21 Jul
HYC names Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup team
Howth Yacht Club is proud to confirm its final team selection Howth Yacht Club is proud to confirm its final team selection for one of the most prestigious events in world amateur sailing: the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, taking place in Newport, Rhode Island from 6-13 September 2025. Posted on 16 Jul
NYYC International Women's Championship update
Third group of skippers includes Nicole Breault, Dominique Proyoveur, Laura van Veen While there is no nationality requirement for the crews that will compete in the 2026 New York Yacht Club International Women's Championship, a number of teams are embracing the opportunity to wave their respective national flags at the debut edition. Posted on 14 Jul
NYYC International Women's Championship update
Teammates and Competitors Join Forces The strength of bonds forged in competition is a common theme among the second group of skippers and teams invited to compete in the 2026 New York Yacht Club International Women's Championship. Posted on 8 Jul
A dream realised for Litchfield's Hound
The Nielsen 59 Hound finished the Transatlantic Race 2025 on July 5 Dan Litchfield's classic Nielsen 59 Hound, co-skippered by Tom Stark, finished the Transatlantic Race 2025 on July 5 in an elapsed time of 16 Days, 08 Hours, 49 Mins and 22 Secs. Posted on 7 Jul
Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta concludes
A triumphant start to the Classic Yacht Challenge Series The 2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta, hosted by the New York Yacht Club, delivered a spectacular start to this year's Classic Yacht Challenge Series. Posted on 3 Jul
Unforgettable Transatlantic Race 2025 finish
First to arrive was Ocean Fifty Calamity, co-skippered by Timo Tavio and Kimo Nordström. It was rush hour in Cowes on Day 15 of the west-to-east Transatlantic Race 2025, as boats crossed the finish line in Cowes within minutes of each other after an epic 3,000-mile battle for top honors in IRC 1. Posted on 3 Jul
NYYC International Women's Championship update
The first group of invited skippers have been announced Elite-level international women's keelboat competition will return to Newport, R.I., in late summer of 2026 when the New York Yacht Club hosts the inaugural International Women's Championship. Posted on 30 Jun
2025 Tiedemann Regatta
Experience shines alongside the brightwork at the Nw York Yacht Club A century ago, R Class yachts were the sports cars of the yachting world, sleek and low to the ground, nimble in the corners and quick around the course, and, above all, demanding to drive. Posted on 30 Jun
RS Sailing 2021 - FOOTERPredictWind - Routing 728x90 BOTTOMNorth Sails Loft 57 Podcast