New York Yacht Club triumphs out west

After watching San Diego Yacht Club win the ninth edition of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup in 2025, New York Yacht Club came west to claim the 2026 Lipton Cup held October 30-November 1 in San Diego, CA.

Hosted by SDYC, the 111th Challenge for the trophy attracted 12 teams for the 12-race series in J/105s, with NYYC breaking SDYC’s five-year winning streak, led by skipper Lance Fraser and crew Sarah Douglas, Dave Scott, Lara Dallman-Weiss, Julia Reynolds, John Mastrandrea, and Sarah Ragle.

When conditions permitted only six races after two days, the goal of a full rotation was in focus on the final day when the race committee took advantage of the fall time change and moved the first warning signal up by an hour to maximize the final day’s racing. The breeze was already filling in by mid-morning, and after a short postponement, Race 7 got underway at approximately 5-8 knots before building to 13 knots.

New York Yacht Club took the win, setting the tone for a busy afternoon. Race 8, the breeze had shifted west and strengthened to 10-15 knots, with gusts reaching 18 knots and whitecaps developing across the course. San Francisco Yacht Club, skippered by Shawn Bennett, capitalized on the stronger conditions to take the win.

Gusts reached 20 knots for Race 9, where Newport Harbor secured another race victory. San Diego followed with a win in Race 10, keeping its championship hopes firmly alive. The top of the leaderboard was narrowing to NHYC, NYYC, and SDYC.

Going into the final race, San Diego held the overall lead with 45 points, while Newport Harbor and New York were tied for second at 48 points. Both NHYC and SDYC were caught deep on the first leg, while NYYC rounded the first marks in 2nd. NYYC was able to hold off NHYC’s late surge and finished 2 points ahead to win the 2026 Lipton Cup.

New York’s victory was built on a strong and increasingly consistent performance throughout the series. “Four of us did this event last year, all in different positions, so we kind of knew what to expect with the boat changes and the general conditions,” noted Fraser. “We’re also fortunate to have an amazing team.

“We took all the institutional knowledge that we had from New York doing this event so many times plus the four of us doing the event last year and really just fought as hard as we could to kind of take those learnings, apply them and sail as best as we could. It’s all about avoiding big scores and staying consistent. And we did that for the vast majority of the regatta.”

Details: https://liptoncup.sdyc.org