Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup Contenders Hope to Turn Practice into a Podium
One of the best ways to track the intensifying competitiveness of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is the number of teams taking time to train in Newport in advance of this year’s edition, which is scheduled for September 6 to 13 at the New York YachtClub Harbour Court in Newport, R.I.
Greater than half of the 20 teams entered in the Invitational Cup have traveled to Newport this summer to sail in at least one IC37 class regatta. Each of the four U.S. teams has made the journey, as have three from Ireland and one each from Australia, Canada, Great Britain and Sweden. In sum, Invitational Cup teams have committed 64 race days to the pursuit of one of sailing’s most prized trophies, and that doesn’t include travel and practice.
“Everyone’s getting better; every iteration of the Invitational Cup, the level keeps going up,” says Wade Waddell, the skipper for Corinthian Yacht Club(above), which finished second in 2023 and has put in an all-out effort into moving one step up the podium this year. “If we rolled back to Newport in September at the same level that we were at in 2023, that might not even get us into the top five.”
Twenty teams from 13 countries will compete in the ninth Rolex New York Yacht ClubInvitational Cup, a biennial regatta hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I. Since the event was first run in 2009, it has attracted top amateur sailors from 51 of the world’s most prestigious yachtclubs from 23 countries.
After five editions in the Swan 42 class, the 2025 event will be the fourth sailed in the IC37, designed by Mark Mills. The strict one-design nature of this purpose-built class, combined with the fact that each boat is owned and maintained by the New York Yacht Club, ensures a level playing field not seen in any other amateur big-boat sailing competition. The regatta will run from Saturday, September 6, through Saturday, September 13, with racing starting on Tuesday, September 9. A live broadcast on Facebook and YouTube, starting on Wednesday, September 10, will allow fellow club members, friends, family and sailing fans from around the world to follow the action as it happens. The 2025 Rolex New York Yacht ClubInvitational Cup is brought to you by title sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Helly Hansen, Safe Harbor Marinas and Peters & May.
For the first edition of the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, a few of the 19 teams came to Newport to enjoy a combination vacation and regatta, a celebration of sailing, if you will. That notion was quickly dispelled once the first gun sounded and the teams found themselves battling a stiff northerly breeze, aggressive competitors and six-foot swell on Rhode Island Sound. While some struggled to adjust to the level of competition, the action in the top half of the fleet was very tight. The winning team averaged a fourth. In the years since, that average has steadily crept upward. En route to the 2023 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, San Diego YachtClub‘s average finish was 5.4.
