Club pride to be tested in San Diego

The yacht club challenge circuit points west in the fall toward San Diego Yacht Club’s Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup. Attracting top teams across the USA, the round-robin format in J/105s held within San Diego Bay on October 28-30 in San Diego, CA.

“Planning for this signature regatta has been going on since January and I couldn’t be more excited about the 107th running of the Lipton Cup that dates back to 1904,” noted event chair JR Young, and while SDYC owns sets of sails dedicated to the event, Young relies on local owners to donate their boats, and a volunteer army to look after them.

Eleven teams are registered from yacht clubs east to west for three-days of racing. Some novice to the Lipton Cup, and some experienced, all skippers were selected by their home club to best represent them on (and off) the water.

Participants:
American Yacht Club – Skipper Dwight Greenhouse
California Yacht Club – Skipper Will Peterson
Chicago Yacht Club – Skipper Will Holz
Coronado Yacht Club – Skipper Scott Harris
Del Rey Yacht Club – Skipper Chris Weis
Long Beach Yacht Club – Skipper Keith Ives
Newport Harbor Yacht Club – Skipper Justin Law
New York Yacht Club – Skipper Peter Levesque
San Diego Yacht Club – Skipper Tyler Sinks
San Francisco Yacht Club – Skipper Shawn Bennett
Storm Trysail Club – Skipper Bill Zartler

Returning on behalf of San Diego Yacht Club is skipper Tyler Sinks, with crew members Max Hutcheson, Lucy Wallace, Nick Kaschak, Eric Shampain, Jake La Dow, and Nevin Snow. “The format of the Lipton Cup is very unique given the boat rotations between each race. Plus October in San Diego is tough to beat, I just hope we have some wind.”

With four Lipton Cup wins under his belt (including 2021), Sinks is surely a team to beat. Sinks skippered for Team SDYC this September at the New York Yacht Club Resolute Cup where they finished second in Newport, RI.

Finishing a place behind Sinks at the Resolute Cup was Storm Trysail Club, and they will be led at the Lipton Cup by skipper Bill Zartler and his nationwide crew consisting of folks from Texas, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Connecticut.

“I have raced J/105s for nearly 20 years on and off, so have plenty of time on the boat,” noted Zartler. “We have a very experienced crew on many kinds of boats and may be able to assemble the crew on the east coast for a practice day. It will be a great experience to put a new crew together and test our skills.”

Chris Weis, skipper for Team Del Rey Yacht Club, has been interested in competing in the Lipton Cup since a young age, and named it a ‘must-do’ for sailors in the region. “Our team has been practicing these last few months in preparation for the Lipton Cup on a J/105 in Marina Del Rey.

“As a team, we competed in the Catalina 37s at Long Beach Race Week and were happy to come away third. From that, we identified a few areas we really want to focus on and will be working on those until the event.”

Details: https://sdyc.org/liptoncup/