2025 Yachting Cup at San Diego Yacht Club - Overall
by San Diego Yacht Club 5 May 10:44 PDT
May 2-4, 2025
Wharf Rat - 2025 Yachting Cup final day © Colin Grey
Day 2 of SDYC's Yachting Cup started with a bit of rain and overcast coastal skies. The race management team was concerned about the forecast conditions - specifically the sea state, which built as a result of an overnight offshore front.
A race committee boat went out about 7:30am to check the conditions on both ocean courses; the decision was made to postpone racing by one hour, and to move both courses to more protected areas closer to shore.
With the handicap classes using ORC ratings in 2025, the 5-band model allowed for optimized ratings to be used based on the conditions seen on the race course. The Race Committee was tasked with monitoring wind conditions across the course in the lead up to and during the races, and then to apply the appropriate rating for those conditions. On Day 1, the "low" wind speed model was used for all 3 races, but Sunday saw more breeze to give competitors new conditions to race in.
PRO Bill Stump managed the racing on the Far Ocean course this weekend. "Overnight we were worried about today's conditions. We started the first race in low/med for our ORC 1 and in the second race it got up to 12 knots to race with the medium band. For the ORR folks on the 20 mile course, we could see them almost all the way around the race course even though they were pretty far out. And then they went on to finish in the bay as the wind died down. Just another day on the San Diego Roads."
For the second day in a row, Thomas Furlong's R/P 52 Vitesse won the 20nm distance race in the ORR class followed by Ivan Batanov's R/P 51 Zero Gravity 51 and Kjeld Hestehave's Tanton 73 Velos. The consensus among the big boats was the random leg distance course was a much better fit than a windward/leeward set of races, and SDYC will look to offer this type of race in future editions of the Yachting Cup.
Valkyrie dominated the ORC-1 fleet on Saturday, and Sunday was nearly as good for the Moore 24 team: they won Race 4 by 4 corrected seconds and narrowly missed a straight line of bullets after finishing second in the final race by just 3 corrected seconds. An incredible weekend overall for the smallest boat in the regatta.
Peter Wagner's Skeleton Key continued their hold on the top spot in the J/111 class after winning 3 of 5 races, taking top honors in the class for the second year in a row. Skeleton Key is also the current J/111 North American champion after their win in January in Key West. Several of the J/111s racing this weekend in San Diego (Creative and G u r l i) will be shifting gears into offshore mode to prepare to race to Hawaii this summer in the Transpac Race.
Tied with 7 points each going into the final race of the day were Eric Hanson's Given-Ho (defending their 2024 win) and Chick Pyle's Kea (8-time Yachting Cup class winner). With enough points ahead of 3rd place, these two Beneteau 36.7s could focus solely on beating each other to win the class. In the end, Given-Ho was able to pull ahead of everyone in the last race, finishing first by 3 minutes, clinching their back-to-back win as class winners at the Yachting Cup. Eric Hanson shared the Given-Ho strategy for racing on Sunday. "We knew exactly what we needed to do today. Every race, we won the start, first to the weather mark, and extended our lead on the downwind leg. We knew we just needed to sail our own race and execute our positions. Exceptional crew work and great tactics."
The J/105 class also came down to the last leg of the last race. Bennet Greenwald & Dave Vieregg's Perseverance held a 2-point lead going into the final race; however, last year's overall winners Chuck and Stephen Driscoll on Juiced were not going down without a fight. "We knew we needed to put one boat between us and Perseverance going into the last race", said Stephen Driscoll. We managed to get on the right side of a couple of shifts and pull off the win. It was a really challenging weekend, and we are really happy with our teamwork."
In the 6-boat ORC-1 class, Mark Stratton's J/122 Cheeky took top honors, winning two races and hanging within less than a minute of the race leader in two more.
While the two ocean courses were postponed for an hour and moved to more favorable locations to avoid the bigger swells, the J/24s racing the bay went ahead as planned for 3 races starting at 1130. Course PRO Susi Graff gave the condition report for Sunday. "Today's conditions at the city front were mixed with periods of squall and light air. There is close racing among the J/24s, with Take Five and Wharf Rat duking it out and others are not far behind."
Christian Seidel and crew on Wharf Rat won the first two races on Sunday and went into the final race with a 2-point lead over last year's class winner, Susan Taylor and Take Five. Wharf Rat just needed to hang close to Take Five during the final race in order to win the class this year, and they did just that, finishing 45 seconds and one place behind them to give Wharf Rat the class win by one point. "Our job was just to stick with Take Five in the last race, which we were fortunate enough to execute."
In addition to the narrow win in the J/24 class, Christian Seidel and Wharf Rat were selected as the Yachting Cup overall winner by the organizing committee to receive the Overall Yachting Cup perpetual trophy. "We'd like to thank San Diego Yacht Club, and all the volunteers involved. We'd also like to thank all the competitors who came from as far away as Arizona to join us in this well attended event. It is amazing to watch our J/24 fleet improve. Thanks for putting on an amazing event."
Competitors gave many thanks for the race committee and event chairs, Donica Ryder and Pete Whitby, for hosting a great weekend of racing.
San Diego Yacht Club would like to thank the Yachting Cup sponsors - Maui Brewing Company, Cutwater Spirits, Mount Gay Rum, Baila Tequila, South Coast Yachts, Helly Hansen, North Sails, First National Bullion, Sun Bum and The Bay Club Hotel & Marina - who help made this signature event special.