ISLANDS RACE NEWS

It’s official - San Diego Yacht Club is the winner of the 2022 Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup! The home team has done it again.

It all came down the battle of the coasts in the final day of the Lipton Cup. After 10 highly competitive and close races, San Diego Yacht Club and New York Yacht Club got off the starting line one more time with determination to prove which coast is in fact…the best.

In the spirit of Halloween weekend…San Diego Yacht Club cast their web across the Lipton Cup fleet. While some teams got tricks, others earned treats…and among them was Team SDYC.

After day one of the 2022 Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup, it’s clear this weekend is going to see three days of extremely tight racing. All eleven yacht club skippers and their crews sailed within moments of each other for all five of today’s races, however, there are a few key players in the fleet that earned themselves a spot on tomorrow’s hit list amongst the competitors. New York Yacht Club in particular seemed to have traveled the 2,500 miles just to show the Southern California teams who the competition is. Besides NYYC, SoCal teams are dominating the leaderboard going into day two.

There’s something special about San Diego Yacht Club’s Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup. Some may claim it’s the competition - the best sailing teams that yacht clubs all over the country put together. Others claim it’s the one-design format - each team rotates between the fleet of eleven equalized J/105s after each race, giving each team a fair chance in every boat. Competitors might anticipate thriving post-race socials after a tough day on the water, and locals might boast about their quality San Diego Bay venue and top-notch race management. The truth of the matter is that each one of these aspects makes the Sir Thomas Lipton Challenge Cup, better known as the Lipton Cup, a highly sought-after trophy around the country.