Four-peat for New York Yacht Club

The New York Yacht Club team captained by Pete Levesque with skippers Tom Kinney or Brian Doyle enjoyed a convincing win in the 23rd edition of the New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy. The regatta was held August 8-10 at Harbour Court in Newport, RI.

Racing Sonars with spinnakers, each helmsperson must be at least 45 years of age and each crewmember must be at least 40 years of age.

Claiming second in the regatta was Corinthian Yacht Club of Marblehead, MA with Maryland’s Eastport Yacht Club in third. Rounding out the top five were Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club from Oyster Bay, NY and New York Yacht Club – Leonard.

The regatta was ultimately decided by a three-boat knock-out round sailed on the final day in a mushy southerly breeze enhanced by a strong ebb tide.

After winning 17 of 21 races in the three full round robins that comprised Stage 1 of the regatta, New York Yacht Club – Levesque earned a bye into the finals while Corinthian and Eastport battled in a best-of-three semifinal series to see who would join them in the championship battle. After three taut, back-and-forth races, it was the Massachusetts club that earned the spot in the finals.

While an express path to the finals is always nice, this is also a risk with sitting while other teams are racing.

“We were pretty worried,” says Levesque of the impact of a long break while everyone else raced. “We have memories of the 2014 Morgan Cup when Newport Harbor Yacht Club came out of silver, and immediately beat the team that was asleep from gold, and then beat the next team that was asleep from gold, and then they won.”

A delay due to light air only prolonged the break, but when the breeze returned it was from a slightly different direction and with a little more velocity.

“By the time we got in, the conditions had changed,” he says. “So it was kind of new for everybody. Had it been consistent and weird the whole time, we would have been at a bigger disadvantage.”

Like with the semifinal match, the racing in the championship tilt was very tight; both teams had multiple chances to lock down one of the strong combinations that so often lead to victory. When the outcome hung in the balance, however, New York was able to rise to the occasion, winning both races to claim the Hinman Masters trophy for the fourth consecutive time.

“We had a fast team,” says Levesque. “TK and BD are Sonar masters, and as long as we got off the starting line, we’re pretty much in every race, just from our boatspeed.”

And once the team got off the starting line in good shape, precision crew work enabled it to play the game at the highest level.

“I have a boring answer, and it’s always my same answer: boathandling,” said Levesque when asked what’s most essential to winning team races. “It’s the language of team racing, and if you can speak it better than other people, you have a different playbook. Rounding a mark better, tacking better, you have a different playbook if you can do all those things better.”

Details: https://nyyc.org/2025-hinman-masters-team-race

The New York Yacht Club’s team racing schedule will continue next weekend with New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race, August 15 to 17. The inaugural Great Grandmasters will take place August 22 and 23.

New York Yacht Club – Levesque, 2025 Hinman Masters Champions: (Left to right): Shane Wells, Whitney Peterson, Tom Kinney (skipper), Pete Levesque (skipper & team captain), Caroline Levesque, Steven Frazier, Amy Ironmonger, Alison Widmann Kinney, Ben Gent, Ernie Bourassa, Bill Lynn, Brian Doyle (skipper) and Whitney Rugg.

Source: NYYC