Rolex TP52 World Championship headlines Race Week at Newport's 14th edition
by New York Yacht Club 15 Jul 2024 12:45 PDT
17-20 July 2024
Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex © Daniel Forster
For just the second time in its 16-year history, the Rolex TP52 World Championship will be contested on American waters. Sailing's premiere monohull fleet-racing championship will take place as part of the New York Yacht Club's Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. The 14th edition of this biennial summer classic is the first regatta run under an historic new 10-year agreement between the New York Yacht Club and longtime partner Rolex.
"There is no better event to kick off our new partnership agreement with Rolex than Race Week at Newport featuring the Rolex TP52 World Championship," says L. Jay Cross, Commodore of the New York Yacht Club. "The support of Rolex has been essential to our commitment to running best-in-class regattas whether it's a world championship for a grand-prix fleet such as the TP52s, one of our four renowned team races, our Annual Regatta, which was held for the 170th time in June, or any of the other 15 to 20 fine events we run each summer. We're excited to look ahead to another decade of great competition and unparalleled shoreside hospitality."
Other major titles on the line at Race Week include the IC37 National Championship and the J/109 North American Championship. Boats racing under the ORC rule will be competing for class honors—many with an eye on the upcoming ORC World Championship in early fall—and the Rolex timepiece that will be awarded to the best overall boat.
The New York Yacht Club's Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was first run in 1998, and takes place this year from July 13 to 16 out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, in Newport. R.I. The biennial regatta, run at the apex of the summer sailing season, has established itself as one of the premier summer race weeks in the Northeast thanks to the attractive combination of great racing conditions off Newport and the superlative shoreside hospitality at the Club's waterfront Clubhouse overlooking Newport Harbor. Partners for the 2024 edition of Race Week at Newport include presenting sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Peters & May, Safe Harbor Marinas, Helly Hansen and Hammetts Hotel.
The scratch sheet can be found here.
The IC37 class will have 16 boats contesting its sixth national championship. The class in enjoying an influx of new teams, six of which will be sailing in the event. While Steve Liebel's New Wave team is on quite a roll, having won three of the last four major championships in the class, the results of the Annual Regatta in June proved its possible for new teams to skip a few steps on the standard learning curve.
"Every boat has very good sailors," says Peter McClennen, the 2022 North American Champion and the IC37 Class Association President. "The boats are perfectly even. There are no advantages in any equipment. The sharing is extreme across the fleet with Class Coach Moose McClintock picking up any new learning of modes and sharing. Nobody has a secret mode."
While the IC37 class goes to extremes to ensure a level a playing field as possible, the TP52 allows for variations in design and construction and encourages development. As a result the modern TP52 is much faster around the buoys than the originals from the early 2000s. But a new boat doesn't mean an express ticket to the head of the fleet. Harm Müller-Spreer's Platoon Aviation team won the 52 Super Series season championship 10 months ago, then debuted a new ride for 2024. The results have been decidedly mixed to date, but the team remains confident a breakthrough is around the corner.
"I am very positive," says Müller-Spreer. "We have a real fighting spirit in this Platoon Aviation team, we have been together so long we know what it takes to win, and I very much believe we will be contenders here. It has taken time to get to know this new boat and in Newport last month we felt like we were really getting there when we damaged the rudder. But here we are, we are fighters. We are confident and that is so important in sport, as it will be at these world championships."
Local sentiment will surely focus on the three American-flagged teams: Quantum Racing powered by American Magic, which is led by Harry Melges IV, Austin Fragomen's Interlodge, and Takashi Okura's Sled. Fragomen, Melges and Okura are all members of the New York Yacht Club.
Racing for the Rolex TP52 World Championship starts on Tuesday, with the remainder of the participants commencing racing on Wednesday. Sailing will take place on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay through Saturday. The regatta will conclude Saturday evening with a Rolex Awards Banquet on the historic Harbour Court property.