164th NYYC Annual Regatta: Miles no obstacle when great racing is on the horizon
by New York Yacht Club 7 Jun 2018 00:28 BST
8-10 June 2018
Leading Edge USA 32581 J35 Tom Sutton Houston Texas USA Houston Yacht Club & Lakewood Yacht Club - New York Yacht Club 162nd Annual Regatta © Rolex / Daniel Forster
Large race boats are made to move, through the water. Over land? That's another story. One indication of the draw of any regatta is the distance teams will travel to compete. While most of the yachts competing in the New York Yacht Club's 164th Annual Regatta hail from within a day's sail, there are a more than few road warriors willing to pull the rig, put their beloved yacht on a trailer, hitch it to a large truck and head out on the highway, all in the name of superlative sailing.
"The New York Yacht Club puts on a great regatta," says Tom Sutton of Houston, Texas, who will sail his J/109 Leading Edge in the Annual Regatta. "This is a sailing mecca as far as we are concerned. My crew loves coming up here."
The Annual Regatta is North America's oldest annual sailing event. It was first run in 1845 on the Hudson River and has been sailed out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, in Newport, R.I., since 1988. The 164th edition will include an around-the-island race on Friday, June 8, and then buoy or navigator-course racing for one-designs and yachts sailing under IRC, ORR, CRF and PHRF handicapping systems on Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10. The 164th Annual Regatta is sponsored by AIG Private Client Group.
Sutton and his team (at left) first competed in the Annual Regatta in 2015, towing their trusty J/35 (above and at left) from Galveston Bay to Newport. They haven't missed a year since. This year, Sutton switched boats, bringing his J/109 north while leaving the J/35 at home for local events. The team's summer campaign is broken into two parts, four regattas during the first half of the summer, including the Annual Regatta and July's Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, and then a pair of events in October on Western Long Island Sound, including the J/109 2018 North American Championship.
"It's really exciting for us," says Sutton. "My wife and I, and my son, will stay here for two months. And then we'll head back to Houston. Then we'll come back [in October] for those two events, one at American Yacht Club and then the J/109 championship."
Competing against a fleet overflowing with local sailors is a challenge for any out-of-towner. But Sutton and his team have had more than their share of success at the Annual Regatta. Two years ago, they claimed overall honors in IRC for the Around the Island Race, beating 44 other yachts. Last summer, the Leading Edge crew took second in IRC 3 in the weekend portion of the Regatta.
"We try to learn quickly," he says with a chuckle. "We have a good navigator, really good crew. Most of these races have legs that are 1.5 or 1.25 miles long, so you do have to pay attention to the current."
For many New England events, a boat from Lone Star State would easily win the furthest-traveled award. But for the 164th Annual Regatta, that doesn't even merit a spot on the podium. Four boats hail from Great Britain, four from California and three others from Texas.
Among the entries from the West Coast is Victor Wild's PAC52 Fox (at right, sailing in the 2016 Rolex Big Boat Series on San Francisco Bay), which will join three other 52-footers, all based around the grand-prix TP52 rule.
"Team Fox has been sailing on the West Coast the past three years," says team manager Keiran Searle. "Originally we had a large 2018 season planned with the PAC52 class in California. Victor does not steer Fox at all times, the PAC52 class made some rule changes to make it owner/driver only on the eve of the first 2018 event. After the first event, we decided to head east and enjoy the sailing with the team we already built. We have been welcomed with open arms."
That welcoming spirit often fades a little once the starting gun sounds, especially in boats of this size, which are crewed largely by top professional sailors. Last year, Steve and Heidi Benjamin's Spookie battled Tony Langley's Gladiator tooth and nail for overall honors in the Around-the-Island Race, with Gladiator winning by just two seconds. With four TP52s competing virtually boat-for-boat in IRC 2, the intensity should be even greater this year.
"We look forward to racing against all the boats," says Searle. "The Around-the-Island race will be special as it will be a first for many of the crew. Our goal is to sail our boat as well as possible, and let the results do the talking."