Keeners head to Newport for IC37 practice
June 10, 2019
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club has designated the Melges IC37 as the boat for the next three Canada’s Cup contest. The New York Yacht Club has gone a step further putting their money where their mast step is purchasing the first 20 copies of the new boat for use in its annual Invitational Cup.
Some background
The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a biennial event hosted by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, R.I., each September. . The Invitational Cup is a regatta for teams of amateur sailors representing yacht clubs from around the world. The competition was first run in 2009 and through the 2017 edition, the regatta was sailed in a fleet of one-design Swan 42 yachts.
Toronto’s Team RCYC has done remarkably well finishing second to Phil Lotz of NYYC who won the inaugural competition. Then, led by Olympic silver medalist Terry McLaughlin, the Team RCYC Swan won in 2011 and 2013, followed by the Royal Thames Yacht Club (London, England) in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans in 2017.
This week
On June 1-2 the 20 boats were assembled in Newport and charterers including hopeful skippers from the US and a slate of Canadians who hope to crew at the Invitational and other regattas or eventually in the Canada’s Cup. That group included Terry McLaughlin and some other Canadians he hoped to be able to enlist as crew along the way. As it turns out, although he didn’t know it when he agreed to crew for a Texas boat, McLaughlin will be helming Team RCYC in the NYYC Invitational come September having won the sail-off in Sonars. From that point, attention will continue to Canada’s Cup trialing.
The practice is designed to familiarize participants with the brand new boat and North Sails was on hand to assist with training. Since the first practice weekend, McLaughlin and the others have been back to Newport for additional practice sessions and will be getting as much time on the boat as possible.
Melges appears to have baked a mouth-watering treat according to all reports including McLaughlin’s. “I like it a lot; it’s like a big dinghy, really wide at the stern. It points very well and flies downwind,” he tells us, confessing that very wide transom makes for a very long fall if you slip off the help position.
CYOB will be continuing to follow the IC37 as the Canadian owners unveil and compete in their boats and will return to Newport for Team RCYC’s 2019 assault on the Invitational.
-JM
Photos courtesy Melges Performance Sailboats / Hannah Lee Noll
