Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Day 3

Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Day 3 © ROLEX / Daniel Forster

Eastern Yacht Club calls it the Reverse Rabbit. When Plan A—usually starting close to the pin—doesn't go to, well, plan, the Reverse Rabbit is the exit strategy. It's far from easy and success has to be measured against the alternative.

But for Race 8 of the 2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, it was the only viable option for tactician Bill Lynn and his EYC teammates (below, labeled "15 / EYC"). They pulled it off, finished sixth in the race and won the day.

Eastern Plays the Rabbit on Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Day 3 - photo © ROLEX / Daniel Forster

"Clinton Hayes is our helmsman, and, he stays very calm and cool and collected throughout all of this stuff," said Lynn. "We had won the pin in the first race [finishing second], and we were setting up a pin end start the second race. It became clear at about 30 seconds that it was going to be tough to do, so we started setting up for the bail. We were on port pretty quickly with the sails trimmed well. There was one cross where we were with New York Yacht Club, and they didn't have it, and we did, and that sort of saved us. Sometimes the Reverse Rabbit is just awesome, because you're sailing behind everybody's main and as long as you don't have to dip too much, you can just slingshot out of that going seven and a half knots, which actually works pretty well for you."

The two finishes extended Eastern's streak of single-digit results to five. A tough first day put the Marblehead-based club into a deep hole, but Eastern has been steadily working up the rankings since. With four races remaining, Lynn, Hayes and company are 9th and only 14 points out of fourth.

Tied on points with Eastern today was the regatta's steadiest team, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. With the exception of a 20th in Race 5, the eight-time Invitational Cup competitor has finished all its races between third and fifth. RHKYC is currently second, one point ahead of Royal Canadian Yacht Club, but 17 points behind San Diego Yacht Club, which also had a strong day and extended its advantage over the rest of the fleet.

Twenty teams from 12 countries will compete in the ninth Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, a biennial regatta hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I. Since the event was first run in 2009, it has attracted top amateur sailors from 52 of the world's most prestigious yacht clubs from 23 countries.

After five editions in the Swan 42 class, the 2025 event will be the fourth sailed in the IC37, designed by Mark Mills. The strict one-design nature of this purpose-built class, combined with the fact that each boat is owned and maintained by the New York Yacht Club, ensures a level playing field not seen in any other amateur big-boat sailing competition. The regatta will run from Saturday, September 6, through Saturday, September 13, with racing starting on Tuesday, September 9. A live broadcast on Facebook and YouTube, starting on Wednesday, September 10, will allow fellow club members, friends, family and sailing fans from around the world to follow the action as it happens. The 2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is brought to you by title sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Helly Hansen, Safe Harbor Marinas and Peters & May.

Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Day 3 - photo © ROLEX / Daniel Forster

The heartfelt moment of the regatta so far came in the first race of Day 3 when Itchenor Sailing Club earned a wire-to-wire win. The invite for this year came late, giving team principal Barry Sampson less than two months to put together a team.

"My role is to, at the moment, be an enabler, to get the team together, help to produce the money and to get us here," says Sampson. "And I don't do anything on the boat, really. I let the runners off and then I tack my weight. This is my seventh time, and I drove up to two times ago. And the reason we wanted to come really badly is I love the New York Yacht Club. I'm getting a bit old, and I just thought, a bit selfishly, that it would really be nice to come one more time. But I also wanted Itchenor to be here, because I'm very fond of our little club."

The opening day was a rude awakening as the team was involved in a pre-start collision with Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, forcing the Canadian team to switch boats and resulting in a DSQ for Itchenor. Fortunately, Sampson is co-owner of an IC37 already in Newport that he made available as a replacement. A string of five finishes between 13th and 19th had the team starting Day 3 in last place.

The start to Race 7, sailed in the vicinity of Halfway Rock, was nothing to write home about, in the middle of the line and a little back from the boats to windward and leeward. After a minute, under pressure due to a leebow from New York Yacht Club, tactician Roger Yeoman called for a tack.

"We didn't quite win the start, but we did actually have a lane to pop out pretty quick," said Yeoman, who is also the club's commodore. "And we always felt that there was pretty good pressure on the right, and we thought it might be slightly right rotated, and the tide was splitting towards the top, partly going down the left channel, partly going down the right channel. So we set off on our merry way. And we had good pressure. The compass number is quite good. Slowly, but surely, we became the righthand boat. And then there was a bit of a toing and froing on board. 'Look, do we go back? Do we cash some of this in?' But, we decided that we'd stick out there; we felt confident we might be right. That's all you can do, isn't it. So we pushed on, and we got a really nice headed-pressure shift, tacked across and laid the mark. It was a great moment. I think it's fair to say we were all very happy."

Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup Day 3 - photo © ROLEX / Daniel Forster

Itchenor Sailing Club followed up with an 11th in Race 8 and jumped from 20th to 18th in the overall standings. The top 10 is out of reach, so there's no way the club can best its eighth place from 2015.

With eight races down and just four remaining, Itchenor isn't the only club facing the reality that its goals for the regatta are now out of reach. Eastern Yacht Club has finished third twice, fourth twice and eighth. They have some work to do to avoid recording the team's worst score and the podium is almost out of reach. But for Lynn, there's still a lot of joy to be found in this unique event.

"This is my fifth Invitational Cup, but the other four, I was steering," he says. "It's great to slide back into the tactician role. We have a very young team, and they're incredibly, incredibly good, and Clinton is excellent at getting the boat off the line. I'm really enjoying this event as not the driver."

Among his teammates are his daughter Hannah and her husband Alden Reid.

"[Alden] became my son-in-law this past March," says Lynn. "But he and I have been sailing together for 15 years. My daughter Hannah does the runners and he trims the main, and they're like this finely tuned machine. It's just like incredibly cool to watch the way they work together. I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to sail with family, and I just treasure every minute of it."

The 2025 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup will continue tomorrow through Saturday, September 13, first race starting at 11 am (EDT). Live coverage of each race, via YouTube and Facebook, will continue tomorrow with Race 9 of the regatta.

Results after Day 3:

• Follow the 2025 Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup
• Crew List