New York Yacht Club speeds to fourth consecutive Hinman Masters Title
by New York Yacht Club 11 Aug 10:14 NZST
August 8-10, 2025
Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy © Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht
Familiarity is often the not-so-secret sauce that binds together successful team racing squads. The ability to know how a teammate—who is often too far away to communicate with effectively—will react to any given situation, is as valuable in team racing as it is in football or basketball or any other fast-paced team sport where there's scant time to vocally express what needs to happen to save a good race, or turn a losing one into a win.
But with every rule comes an exception, and the New York Yacht Club team captained by Pete Levesque found one today en route to a convincing win in the 23rd edition of the New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy. The regatta was held at Harbour Court in Newport, R.I., August 8 to 10.
"I haven't sailed with Tom Kinney or Brian Doyle much," says Levesque of his two fellow skippers for the regatta. "We talked so much more than we spoke as a Morgan Cup team last week. Maybe the Morgan team gets too comfortable [with each other]. Since [the Hinman Masters team] was unfamiliar with each other, we had to force the communication, and it's better."
Claiming second in the regatta was Corinthian Yacht Club of Marblehead, Mass., with Maryland's Eastport Yacht Club in third. Rounding out the top five were Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club from Oyster Bay, N.Y., and New York Yacht Club - Leonard.
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. This year the Club has added the New York Yacht Club Great Grandmasters Team Race Regatta to the schedule, for skippers 70 or older and crew 60 or older. The 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 2025 include Helly Hansen, Peters & May, and Safe Harbor Marinas.
The regatta was ultimately decided by a three-boat knock-out round sailed earlier today in a mushy southerly breeze enhanced by a strong ebb tide. After winning 17 of 21 races in the three full round robins that comprised Stage 1 of the regatta, New York Yacht Club - Levesque earned a bye into the finals while Corinthian and Eastport battled in a best-of-three semifinal series to see who would join them in the championship battle. After three taut, back-and-forth races, it was the Massachusetts club that earned the spot in the finals and a chance to go back-to-back after winning the Morgan Cup Team Race the previous weekend.
While an express path to the finals is always nice, this is also a risk with sitting while other teams are racing.
"We were pretty worried," says Levesque of the impact of a long break while everyone else raced. "We have memories of the 2014 Morgan Cup when Newport Harbor Yacht Club came out of silver, and immediately beat the team that was asleep from gold, and then beat the next team that was asleep from gold, and then they won."
A delay due to light air only prolonged the break, but when the breeze returned it was from a slightly different direction and with a little more velocity.
"By the time we got in, the conditions had changed," he says. "So it was kind of new for everybody. Had it been consistent and weird the whole time, we would have been at a bigger disadvantage."
Like with the semifinal match, the racing in the championship tilt was very tight; both teams had multiple chances to lock down one of the strong combinations that so often lead to victory. When the outcome hung in the balance, however, New York was able to rise to the occasion, winning both races to claim the Hinman Masters trophy for the fourth consecutive time.
"We had a fast team," says Levesque. "TK and BD are Sonar masters, and as long as we got off the starting line, we're pretty much in every race, just from our boatspeed."
And once the team got off the starting line in good shape, precision crew work enabled it to play the game at the highest level.
"I have a boring answer, and it's always my same answer: boathandling," said Levesque (at right) when asked what's most essential to winning team races. "It's the language of team racing, and if you can speak it better than other people, you have a different playbook. Rounding a mark better, tacking better, you have a different playbook if you can do all those things better."
The New York Yacht Club's team racing schedule will continue next weekend with New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race, August 15 to 17. The inaugural Great Grandmasters will take place August 22 and 23.
NYYC – Levesque, 2025 Hinman Masters Champions: (L-R): Shane Wells, Whitney Peterson, Tom Kinney, Pete Levesque, Caroline Levesque, Steven Frazier, Amy Ironmonger, Alison Widmann Kinney, Ben Gent, Ernie Bourassa, Bill Lynn, Brian Doyle and Whitney Rugg - photo © Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht Club
Overall Results:
Finals: New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club - Levesque def. Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, Mass. 2-0
Semifinals: Corinthian Yacht Club def. Eastport (Md.) Yacht Club, 2-1
Round Robin Results: (Rounds Robins 1-3, Silver Fleet Round Robin)
1. New York Yacht Club - Levesque (17-4)
2. Corinthian Yacht Club (15-6)
3. Eastport Yacht Club (15-6)
4. Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, N.Y., (10-11, 2-2)
5. New York Yacht Club - Leonard (9-12, 3-1)
6. Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans, La., (10-11, 2-2)
7. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Yacht Club, (7-14, 3-1)
8. Annapolis (Md.) Yacht Club, (1-20, 0-4)