Royal Cork Leads the Irish Challenge at New York Invitational Regatta
The Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) put in a standout performance at the New York Invitational Regatta in Newport, Rhode Island one of the world’s premier amateur sailing events. The regatta, hosted by the New York Yacht Club and sailed in its fleet of IC37s, draws top teams from yacht clubs across the globe, each representing both their club and their country.
RCYC’s crew, skippered by Anthony O’Leary and Robert O’Leary, finished in an impressive 5th overall in the 20-boat fleet, the best of the three Irish teams competing. After finding their form on the second day of racing, with scores of 2nd and 6th, the Cork crew continued to deliver a very strong week of consistent results that kept them at the top of the leaderboard. With the Invitational being a no-discard series, every race counted, and teams could not afford mistakes adding greater pressure to maintain consistency.
San Diego Yacht Club proved difficult to catch, as they had a week of low scores that included an impressive four race wins, sealing their overall victory over Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in the final race.
RCYC are the only non-American crew to have competed in all nine editions of the Invitational as the relationship between themselves and New York Yacht Club continues on.
The other Irish clubs also put in solid performances: Howth Yacht Club built momentum through the week with a run of low-scoring races as the regatta went on to finish 12th overall, while the Royal Irish Yacht Club battled hard in the competitive fleet to place 16th.