Battle of Clubs at the Resolute Cup

Hosted by New York Yacht Club, the 2024 Resolute Cup serves as a Corinthian Championship for U.S. Yacht Clubs. The seventh edition is being held September 11-14 as 28 club teams race Sonars on Narragansett Bay in Newport, RI. Here is the day two report:

Letting one’s guard down for a mere second is absolutely not an option in the ever-challenging Resolute Cup, as the team from Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, MA) can attest. Just shy of first by one point after delivering consistent scores over the first two days of racing, CYC crew member Miranda Bakos knows that no position on the course is ever safe.

“Even if you have a gap around other boats, it’s never comfortable, so we’re really trying to fight and fight,” says Bakos. “There’s a lot of defending, just trying to keep boats that are behind us behind us, and not necessarily worrying about the boats that are beating us.”

Stunning late-summer weather blessed Narragansett Bay for the second day of racing as the southerly continued to build throughout the day to a fresh 10 to 12 knots, and six races were sailed. Through 11 races, 10 different teams have won a race.

After winning the event in 2022 and finishing as the runner-up at the 2023 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, the CYC team skippered by Wade Waddell is 100 percent focused on staying at the top of the results table by planning smart and executing with confidence.

“Our teamwork today was really focused on keeping calm and making really smart decisions, we were super focused on boat speed, moving our weight and adjusting as needed, we were never really too slow; keeping power forward was our focus,” adds Bakos.

“We tried to think ahead and plan many moves in advance, so we never felt rushed, and we always felt like the four people on board could contribute their perspective. That helped us stick to smart plans and feel confident in our decision so that we could learn and improve for the next leg.

“We had some good moments on each side of the course and some bad moments on each side; it was a matter of sticking in that moment, because what was working the prior race wasn’t necessarily working the next.”

Sitting in third at the end of Day 2, Eastern Yacht Club’s Alden Reid notes that his team focused on clean starts after a rough first day. Eastern finished fourth in 2022 and are striving for a podium finish.

“On Day 1, we let ourselves get bounced toward the middle and then tried to come back; today we focused on getting off the line as best we could, keeping our bow clear and going as fast as we could,” says Reid.

“It’s not a one-way racecourse; getting off the line clean sets you up, it puts you in the top pack. And once you’re in the top pack, you’ve got more choices. It is a great event so far. The competition is very good. You can’t make any mistakes; make a mistake and people definitely take advantage.”

After finishing second in the silver fleet in 2022, the New York Yacht Club team is putting together an promising performance this year. The host club is currently fourth, a solid start to the regatta for a team that has not competed much together.

“I think a lot of it’s coming down to the crew work,” says crew John Mastrandrea. “We haven’t spent much time sailing together and our communication is getting better, like decision-making on the racecourse.

“We stumbled a bit yesterday with boat speed, but we seem to have figured that out. We had a bit of a tough start in the first race today, then found our stride; we’re trying to minimize distance to the line when the gun goes to zero which has been helping.”

Racing for the Resolute Cup will continue through September 14. On the final day, the fleet will be halved for up to three final double-point races.

Details: https://nyyc.org/2024-resolute-cup

Competing teams: American Yacht Club (Rye, NY); Austin Yacht Club (Austin, TX); Bay Waveland Yacht Club (Bay St. Louis, MS); Bayview Yacht Club (Detroit, MI); California Yacht Club (Los Angeles, CA); Carolina Yacht Club (Charleston, SC); Charleston Yacht Club (Charleston, SC); Chicago Yacht Club (Chicago, IL); Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, MA); Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco (Tiburon, CA); Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, MA); Edgewater Yacht Club (Cleveland, OH); Fort Worth Yacht Club (Fort Worth, TX); Lakewood Yacht Club (Seabrook, TX); Larchmont Yacht Club (Larchmont, NY); Little Traverse Yacht Club (Harbor Springs, MI); Mystic River Mudheads Sailing Association (West Mystic, CT).; New York Yacht Club (New York, NY); Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Newport Beach, CA); Pensacola Yacht Club (Pensacola, FL); San Diego Yacht Club (San Diego, CA); Seattle Yacht Club (Seattle, WA); Shelter Island Yacht Club (Shelter Island Heights, NY); Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans, LA); St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco, CA); Stamford Yacht Club (Stamford, CT); Storm Trysail Club (Larchmont, NY); The San Francisco Yacht Club (Belvedere, CA)

Source: NYYC