The latest edition of the Lipton Cup looks like it will be the start of the revival of the prestigious Lipton Cup Regatta, Southern California's Yacht Club Challenge. Cancelled last year due to deteriorating participation, a new format was imposed that evened the playing field for all competitors. In the past the regatta was an arms race. The club that spent the most money on sails, boat prep and equipment, and hired the best professional sailor to steer, seemed to have a significant edge. The costs were in the tens of thousands of dollars. San Diego Yacht Club gathered together clubs from all over Southern California to hear ideas on how to improve the regatta, and let us know why they would or would not participate. The key words that came from those meetings were "perception of fairness". Everyone wanted to have an equal chance to win without spending ridiculous amounts of club monies to be competitive.
So this year we had seven entries from Marina del Rey to San Diego. We had eight generous owners donate their boats for the regatta. The format was a full round robin where every team sailed every boat, switching boats between every race. The skippers were required to be amateurs by ISAF definition, and there could only be three professionals on the crew. The course was moved from the ocean to the bay off Harbor Island. The entry fees were reasonable and included breakfast, lunch and post race food for all the crews for all three days of the regatta. The teams merely had to show up and provide themselves with a place to stay. Simple, yet successful in the end.
This year's regatta was held in moderate westerly winds each of three days on August 12-14. Chuck Driscoll did a masterful job skippering the San Diego Yacht Club entry to a narrow one point victory over a field of seven from Cal YC, Cortez Racing Assn, Coronado YC, Balboa YC, Long Beach YC, Southwestern YC, and SDYC. The racing was very close and San Diego YC led at the end of each day by a single point. The racing was always close and positions seemed to change at every mark of the course. The spectators on boats and along Harbor Island were treated to a very fun event. Any of you who have had the pleasure of watching high school or college regatta would have been impressed. It is hoped that San Diego YC can build on the success of this year, garner more entries for the years to come, and come out on top again.
Thanks go to the crew of Chuck Driscoll, Bill Campbell, Vince Brun, John Driscoll, Kelly McKeown, Sam Peterson, and junior sailor Johannes McElvain for giving their time and efforts on behalf of the Club.
Many thanks also go to the many members who supported the efforts by helping in the organizing of the event, serving on the race committee, helping with apparel sales,and organizing and following through with the social events. A dedicated group led by Jon Dekker, gathered the boats together, cleaned them top and bottom each day, and made sure they were ready for racing. James Sakasegawa was the regatta chairperson and has established a very nice precedent for next year's chairperson and future Lipton Cup events. Congratulations to all for this year's very successful defense.