Home team finally nabs Morgan Cup

There’s no more volunteer intensive event than team racing. Lots of people running lots of races, with lots of umpires managing the madness, plus a pit crew keeping the hosted boats afloat. Big village, and the New York Yacht Club has three consecutive events this month in Newport, RI:

August 7-9 – Morgan Cup Team Race (no minimum age)
August 14-16 – Hinman Masters Team Race (skipper, 45 years; crew, 40 years)
August 21-23 – Grandmasters Team Race (skipper, 60 years; crew, 50 years)

Using the club’s fleet of Sonars, and for the first time in more than a decade, the New York Yacht Club emerged victorious at the Morgan Cup Team Race. For team captain Pete Levesque, who was part of the last New York Yacht Club team to win this prestigious team race, in 2015, and has sailed every edition since, the win was equal parts relief and elation.

“Oh, it’s fantastic,” said Levesque. “It’s been a long time since New York has won, so it feels really good to have this group of sailors experience that.”

After two complete rounds robin and a third round robin with the fleet broken into the gold and silver divisions, two teams were deadlocked at the top of the standings with 16 wins—New York Yacht Club and Larchmont Yacht Club from Western Long Island Sound.

Leading two races to one in the best-of-five final series, New York Yacht Club took control of the fourth race when a Larchmont boats was whistled for a foul in the pre-start and had to complete a 720-degree penalty turn while the other five boats sailed up the course. It wasn’t a complete death sentence, and Larchmont went down swinging, but coming back from that against a polished team is a tall ask.

While the final contained the two best teams in the regatta, the competition was much closer than it has been in recent years. Both Larchmont and New York Levesque lost seven races in the round-robin portion of the regatta, a marked increase from the previous three years when the winning team lost between three and five races.

In third place, defending champion Corinthian Yacht Club from Marblehead, Mass., scored 15 wins against eight losses. Newport Harbor Yacht Club, from Newport Beach, Calif., finished fourth with a record of 13 and 10.

When the best team loses nearly a third of the races it starts, the ability to learn from your mistakes without dwelling on them becomes an essential skill. Trust in your teammates is another crucial component of a winning team race squad. While no one can match Levesque’s longevity, there is a lot of collective experience tied up in his team.

“Everybody has sailed together for a while,” he said. “And then on the other boats, I know those guys have all been sailing together since college, and in some cases, junior sailing.”

The team also put in its share of practice. August in Newport is known for its reliable sea breeze. Slightly less famous—or maybe more notorious—is the discordant sea created by the constant powerboat traffic in and out of Newport Harbor. When the breeze is light, as it was for most of Sunday, hitting a wave at the wrong time or wrong angle can stop a boat in its tracks.

“We joked that we had a lot of practices in really terrible conditions,” said Levesque, “so we were ready for the waves and the chop and the light air.”

The end result was a very satisfying win for the New York Yacht Club. While only 13 sailors came up to accept the trophy, Levesque was quick to credit the more than 300 Club members who are actively involved in team racing.

“There’s so many people that put so much effort and time and resources into team racing here,” he said. “It’s nice to validate the efforts and come home with the win, defend the home turf. Of the other clubs that were participating this year, many of them have won it twice since we last won it, so it’s nice to be back on top.”

Winning Team: Pete Levesque (skipper & team captain), Ben Kinney, Grace Kinney, Josh Dochoda, Jack Parkin (skipper), James Westerberg, Taylor Kirkpatrick, George Sidamon-Eristoff, Patrick Shanahan (skipper), John Mastrandrea, Julia Reynolds, Caroline Levesque and Ann Sheridan.

Details: https://nyyc.org/2026-morgan-cup-team-race

Source: NYYC