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Team SDYC at the 2025 Palmer Trophy Team 3v3 Team Race hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club

Friday, May 9, 2025

The 2025 running of the NHYC Palmer Cup (April 4-6) Grand Master Team Race is in the books. Palmer Cup is a long running 3 v. 3 Team Race for “Grand Masters;” with skippers being >60 years old and crew >50 years old hosted by NHYC. Palmer Cup is event #1 in NHYC’s Team Race Week. Palmer occurs just prior to NHYC’s signature regatta of the year, Baldwin Cup, a 2 v. 2 Team Racing (for the young guns) the following weekend after Palmer.

Team SDYC was represented by Staff Commodores Bill Campbell, Al Pleskus and Chuck Sinks with Chris Busch, Ben Mitchell and Brad Rodi rounding out the Team.

With 10 Teams in the mix from as far away as Sweden, the format called for a double round-robin elimination series with a quarter final, semi-final and final “knock out” rounds.

Right out of the box, Team SDYC showed amazing speed and patience in the light and shifty Newport conditions to go 16-2 and winning the round robins and securing the #1 seed going into the knockouts. Dock talk was the early over/under betting line would have the local, well practiced and Harbor 20 veteran NHYC Teams, Ice and Thunder, looking down the scorecard, not Team SDYC.

In the quarter-finals, Team SDYC raced a hard charging Balboa Yacht Club Team. SDYC bested BYC in the “first to 2 wins” knockout and advanced to the semis.

In the semi-finals, SDYC came up against a very tough Texas Corinthian YC Team whose round-robin score line was not representative of their overall team racing talent. A very good TCYC opponent, very light and shifty Newport breeze and not Team SDYC’s best starting performance of the weekend, sent Team SDYC to the petit final where SDYC bested NHYC Thunder earning a third overall finish in Palmer Cup ’25. This followed an SDYC/NHYC photo finish in the final race and the runner-up spot for Team SDYC in Palmer Cup ’24.

“We need to team race more at SDYC! It’s ridiculously fun and really builds boat on boat skills,” was the consensus of the Team during debrief.

Hats off to NHYC Ice for a hard fought well deserved win in the 2025 Palmer Cup.

Newport Harbor Yacht Club pulls out all the stops for Palmer Cup. The host supplies all the boats (equalized owner donated Harbor 20’s) for the racing, crisp regatta organization and race management, breakfast, lunches, snacks and a super fun sit down dinner / “crew roast” for all competitors. The camaraderie among the “seasoned” sailors is priceless with decades long friendships and friendly rivalries rekindled on and off the water. The regatta consistently brings with it a fun, friendly, competitive, Corinthian vibe.

The equalized NHYC supplied Harbor 20’s were all in amazing condition, thanks to a dedicated, talented all volunteer NHYC Pit Crew that kept the boats well maintained and sailing. Strict on-the-water judging, rules, protocols and competitor supplied security deposits did their part to keep the member owned boats out of competitor collisions and any damage. If this format sounds a lot like SDYC’s Master’s and Lipton Cup regattas also using member-supplied boats, it should. SDYC , and our amazing J-105 owners have set the bar very high for these types of regattas with high quality organizer supplied boats and equipment.

Team SDYC will be back at Palmer next year…hopefully with some more team racing reps under their belts!

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Announcement

Team SDYC at the 2025 Palmer Trophy Team 3v3 Team Race hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club

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Team SDYC at the 2025 Palmer Trophy Team 3v3 Team Race hosted by Newport Harbor Yacht Club