Youth movement continues to transform Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup
by New York Yacht Club 28 Aug 16:48 BST
September 6-13, 2025
Youth movement continues to transform Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup © Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht Club
Among the bigger surprises from the 2023 edition of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup was the preponderance of youth on the podium, particularly at the helm. Tyler Sinks, of the winning San Diego Yacht Club team, was the eldest of the three at 36.
Corinthian Yacht Club's Wade Waddell was 26 while the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Jordan Stevenson was just 23. In fact, the third-placed RNZYS team—perhaps the biggest upset of the regatta given their lack of previous experience with the IC37 and sailing in Newport—was the youngest ever to participate in the Invitational Cup, averaging just shy of 29 years of age.
Due to logistical challenges, the storied New Zealand club will not contest the ninth edition of Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup this September. But the youth movement continues unabated with numerous teams relying on their respective yacht club youth training programs to provide the talent, agility, strength and enthusiasm required to excel in the all-amateur regatta.
"The team we put together is a majority youth," says Chris Way, the tactician and co-skipper for the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club team from Newport in New South Wales, Australia. "One guy's really young, and he's learning on a very steep curve. That was our intent, to bring a youth team to sail with us. The RPA has a long tradition of developing match racers and offshore sailors, and we're just pushing that envelope with this team."
Twenty teams from 12 countries will compete in the ninth Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, a biennial regatta hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I. Since the event was first run in 2009, it has attracted top amateur sailors from 51 of the world's most prestigious yacht clubs from 23 countries.
After five editions in the Swan 42 class, the 2025 event will be the fourth sailed in the IC37, designed by Mark Mills. The strict one-design nature of this purpose-built class, combined with the fact that each boat is owned and maintained by the New York Yacht Club, ensures a level playing field not seen in any other amateur big-boat sailing competition. The regatta will run from Saturday, September 6, through Saturday, September 13, with racing starting on Tuesday, September 9. A live broadcast on Facebook and YouTube, starting on Wednesday, September 10, will allow fellow club members, friends, family and sailing fans from around the world to follow the action as it happens. The 2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is brought to you by title sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Helly Hansen, Safe Harbor Marinas and Peters & May.
Royal Prince Alfred twice sailed in the Invitational Cup when it was contested in Swan 42s, finishing 11th in 2013 and 13th in 2015. As with all teams from the Southern Hemisphere, IC37 experience is hard to come by at home, so the RPAYC team traveled from Australia for the New York Yacht Club's 171st Annual Regatta in June. Training in the IC37 in Newport was valuable, but it wasn't the only reason the trip proved worthwhile. Every Australian sailor feels a particular kinship to Newport, whether he or she was alive when the country's most significant sailing moment took place on September 26, 1983.
"I think for us all, it was a very emotional moment to sail out on [Rhode Island Sound]; I said to everybody, 'Remember, this is a place in 1983 that the Australians took the Cup from the Americans,'" said Way. "I'm originally from Canada, so I was watching it on a drilling rig offshore, and I said, 'That's a country I've got to move to.' It's very cool to be here. It's such a neat, neat venue, with so much tradition and history."
Whether the Royal Prince Alfred team can write a bit of its own history come September will come down in no small part to the performance of its younger sailors. Subtracting Way and Ritchie, the team averages just 27 years of age.
While not quite as youthful, the crew that will be representing the Royal Canadian Yacht Club represents a changing of the guard for Canada's oldest yacht club. After sailing in seven editions of the Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup, and winning two, Olympic silver medalist Terry McLaughlin has turned over the tiller to Lance Fraser, his tactician in 2023 and, at 32, 37 years McLauglin's junior. With the exception of 64-year-old Scott Collinson, the lone holdover from the old guard, the sailors comprising the RCYC's 2025 entry will be of Fraser's generation.
"RCYC, Team Defiant, under new management," said spinnaker trimmer Liam Millen, 30, with a laugh. "We have a great crew. [The RCYC] really wanted to get a team of young, talented individuals who are passionate and ambitious about sailing at the highest level, which you can always find at the Invitational Cup."
Millen's father John sailed with McLaughin in numerous Invitational Cups and has passed along some of his tradecraft to his son.
"It's really great to be able to rely on my dad and be able to chat with my father as well as my sister, who's a very avid sailor, arguably better than myself," says the younger Millen. "We've got big shoes to fill. Having those conversations with my family just makes me want to put my best foot forward every opportunity I can."
No other team can match the track record of the Toronto-based Club. In seven attempts, the RCYC has been inside the top six five times. Fraser's crew has been dogged in their preparation, sailing in nearly every IC37 event over the past two years and scoring its share of top finishes, including a second at the Annual Regatta in June.
Hannah Lynn Reid was 26 when she was asked to sail for the New York Yacht Club team in the 2021 Invitational Cup. She's back this year, sailing alongside her dad Bill Lynn for Eastern Yacht Club.
"When I sailed with New York in 2021, I was one of the youngest people on the team that year," said Reid, now 30 and married to Eastern's main trimmer Alden Reid. "I really am trying to use [the 2025 IC] as an opportunity to get our young members at Eastern, who have so much raw talent and just kind of haven't really stepped into these boats yet, to not only get them good, but get them having fun and confident, so they adopt this passion that the rest of us feel from doing this event over and over, and we can carry that forward."
Other young sailors looking to carry forward the pride of representing the home town yacht club include Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club tactician Duncan Gregor, competing in his second Invitational Cup at just 21, Howth Yacht Club's Sienna and Rocco Wright, and Johanna Sommarlund, the 29-year-old helmswoman for the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, aka KSSS.
"KSSS is really proud to be one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world," says Sommarlund, who sailed in 2021 at the team's tactician. "It's just so good fun to be in a place where also the sailing tradition is so obvious. I see so many boats out in the Bay every day. It doesn't matter if it's racing or not, everybody's sailing, and it's just super inspirational."
2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, invited clubs: Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.); Howth Yacht Club (IRL); Itchenor Sailing Club (GBR); Japan Sailing Federation; New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club; Royal Canadian Yacht Club; Royal Cork Yacht Club (IRL); Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club; Royal Irish Yacht Club; Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (AUS); Royal Swedish Yacht Club; Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR); Royal Vancouver Yacht Club (CAN); San Diego (Calif.) Yacht Club; Yacht Club Argentino; Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (ITA); Yacht Club de Ilhabela (BRA); Yacht Club Italiano; Yacht Club Punta del Este (URU).