Newport This Week

NY Yacht Club Annual Regatta Returns




Expect Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay to be teeming with boats June 14-16 as the New York Yacht Club’s 159th Annual Regatta presented by Rolex gets underway this weekend.

The annual race, which is billed as the oldest such regatta in the country, serves also as an early exclamation point for the sailing season.

According to organizers, this year’s race will feature an impressive lineup of talent on a record 150 boats.

For three days, yachts will compete in IRC, Classic, 12 Metre and One-Design classes as well as a PHRF Cruiser-Racer division on courses in and out of Narragansett Bay.

“Newport is a great place to sail and is a very impressive nautical town steeped in tradition,” said Terry McLaughlin, the Canadian Olympic silver medalist and former America’s Cup skipper who will be at the helm of John Hele’s Swan 42 Daring. “The New York Yacht Club always does a bang-up job on and off the water. The event has a long history and a lot of competitive classes, so it attracts a wide range of boats and people.”

The Swan 42 class, one of eight One-Design classes competing, promises to be among the toughest, and Daring one of the most formidable entrants, as McLaughlin steered that boat to victory while representing the Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) at the 2011 New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex. He is on the roster to represent RCYC again in the 2013 edition of that event and will use the Annual Regatta as a tune-up for it. Meanwhile for several NYYC Swan 42 teams the Annual Regatta will serve as the first leg of the selection series to determine who will represent the host New York Yacht Club at the Invitational Cup.

Following Friday’s Around the Island Race, on Saturday and Sunday, competitors will split into four fleets to race in the traditional twoday series.

In addition to IRC and PHRF classes, other one-design classes are J/111, J/105, J/80, J/70, Etchells, and Herreshoff S Boats. Classic Yachts and 12 Metres will round out the fleet, lending their own elegant flair to the regatta.

The New York Yacht Club 159th Annual Regatta presented by Rolex is part of the 2013 Gulf Stream Series and the first event in the New York Yacht Club Classic Yacht Series.


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