(Newport, RI)- Twenty four of the leading American yacht clubs have accepted the invitation of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) to compete in the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series (USQS) to be sailed in Newport, RI from September 4-8, 2012.Returning to the event are American in Rye, N.Y.; Carolina in Charleston, S.C.; Eastern in Marblehead, Mass.; Fishing Bay in Deltaville, Va.; Forth Worth Boat Club in Fort Worth, Texas; Indian Harbor in Greenwich, Conn.; Larchmont in Larchmont, N.Y.; Little Traverse in Harbor Springs, Mich.; Newport Harbor in Newport Beach, Calif.; Pequot in Southport, Conn.; San Francisco in Belvedere, Calif.; Seattle in Seattle, Wash.; Southern in New Orleans, La. and St. Francis in San Francisco, Calif.
The event has generated considerable interest, and 10 yacht clubs new to the event have accepted invitations: Bay Head in Bay Head, N.J.; California in Marina Del Ray, Calif.; Edgartown in Edgartown, Mass.; Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.; Grand Maumelle Sailing Club in Roland, Ark.; Grand Traverse in Traverse City, Mich.; Nantucket in Nantucket, Mass.; Storm Trysail Club; Texas Corinthian in Kemah, Texas and Youngstown, in Youngstown, N.Y.
The complement of clubs represents a cross section of the country with three clubs from the Northeast, four from Long Island Sound, two from the Mid Atlantic, four from the Southeast, three from the Great Lakes, four from California, one from the Pacific Northwest and two from Texas. Storm Trysail comes to the event with a nationwide membership.
The top three U.S. yacht-club teams will join host New York Yacht Club, Royal Canadian Yacht Club, of Toronto, Canada, the winner of the 2011 Invitational Cup, and some of the most prestigious yacht clubs in the world to compete for the 2013 NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex September 7-14.The USQS will continue the successful format from 2010 in which teams will compete in two fleets of one-design keelboats. An initial qualifying round will advance the top-12 teams into a gold fleet competing for the top-three spots, while the bottom-12 teams will be competing for an invitation to the 2014 USQS. The NYYC will be utilizing the J/70, a modern high-performance planing keelboat 22.7' in length with an asymmetrical spinnaker along with the 23' Sonar with its symmetrical spinnaker. For more NYYC USQS sailing information, please contact the NYYC Sailing Office- saillingoffice@nyyc.org- or NYYC website
The passion and enthusiasm at recent sailboat shows has been nothing short of fantastic. J/70 fleet discussions are underway in nearly every major sailing region in America and Europe. Reports from the Strictly Sail Chicago show indicate there's interest from dozens of sailors from the local Etchells, Star, PHRF/offshore, Soling, Sonar, J/24 fleets and others looking to jump onto this little speedster! We've had similar responses so far from San Diego, Annapolis, Boston, London, Dusseldorf and Gothenburg shows, and if all goes well, at Strictly Sail Pacific, too.