Howth Joins Royal Cork to Provide Two Irish Crews in New York Yacht Club Invitational Next Week

1st September 2021

WM Nixon

Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team slicing it between the Brits and the Yanks in the NYYC Invitationals 2021. Royal Cork took the Bronze, and O’Leary was the Afloat.ie “Sailor of the Month” for September Credit: NYYC

Although it has only been running for seven years, the New York Yacht Club’s annual inter-club Invitational Event at Newport, Rhode Island has become one of the hottest tickets in international sailing. And since they moved the boat type up to the Mark Mills-designed Melges ILC37 (she’s like a big sister of the new Mills-designed Cape 31 that we’ll see in Ireland next year), the level of Corinthian competition has become stratospheric, and invitations to clubs are like gold dust.

For this year’s staging from September 11th to 18th, ten nations and 19 clubs are involved, and the Irish challenge has been boosted with a Howth Yacht Club team now in the mix, along with the highly-fancied Royal Cork squad in which the name of O’Leary figures significantly. There’s a family element with the Howth team too, as Michael and Darren Wright are at the core of it, but with talents such as Laura Dillon on the strength and dinghy ace Rocco Wright in back-up, it is a squad of all the talents, the full line-up being Darren Wright, Rick deNeve, Sam O'Byrne, Michael Wright, Laura Dillon, Brian Turvey, Luke Malcolm, Karena Knaggs and Rocco Wright.

As for the teams, they speak for themselves:

New York Yacht Club (USA)
Eastern Yacht Club (USA)
Howth Yacht Club (Ireland)
Itchenor Sailing Club (UK)
San Francisco Yacht Club (USA)
Noroton Yacht Club (USA)
Nyländska Jaktklubben (Finland)
Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (Bermuda)
Yacht Club Argentino (Argentina)
American Yacht Club (USA)
Royal Canadian Yacht Club (Canada)
Royal Cork Yacht Club (Ireland)
Royal Swedish Yacht Club (Sweden)
Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (Italy)
Royal Thames Yacht Club (UK)
Royal Vancouver Yacht Club (Canada)
San Diego Yacht Club (USA)
Southern Yacht Club (USA)
Yacht Club Italiano (Italy)

Laura Dillon - the only female helm ever to have won the all-Ireland - was the overall winning helm at the Sovereigns 2021 in Kinsale, and is one of the star talents in next week’s Howth team departing on September 7th for the New York Yacht Club Invitationals.

Published in New York Invitational Cup, Royal Cork YC, Howth YC

Published in New York Invitational Cup

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About The Author

WM Nixon

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William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland for many years in print and online, and his work has appeared internationally in magazines and books. His own experience ranges from club sailing to international offshore events, and he has cruised extensively under sail, often in his own boats which have ranged in size from an 11ft dinghy to a 35ft cruiser-racer. He has also been involved in the administration of several sailing organisations.

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New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs, Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.