Young sailors from around the globe are battling it out in Newport Beach this week for the prestigious Governor’s Cup, the oldest international youth match race regatta in the world.
The 12 teams from five different countries kicked off the competition, hosted by Balboa Yacht Club, on July 23, with races set through Saturday, July 27.
Winds for the start of the race, now in its 57th year, were light, but manageable at 5-to-7 knots.
Tuesday’s racing was round-robin format. The top four yacht races out of Wednesday and Thursday’s competition advance to the best of five semi-final series on Friday and Saturday, with the finals set for Saturday afternoon.
“When they leave here, they say it’s the best regatta they’ve ever been to,” said chair Christine Gribben. “A lot of them come back as coaches when they age out.”
Many of the teams have competed against each other for years. Three are from Australia, two from New Zealand, one from Brazil, one from Ireland, and five from the United States, including four local teams and one from Florida.
“They say, ‘We love each other on land, but the gloves come off when we hit the water,’” Gribben said.
The sailors can compete until they turn 23 years old.
The boats are towed from the harbor to the ocean and event organizers set out robots to mark the race course. The robots have engines and are connected to satellites; they can be controlled remotely by phone, Gribben said.
The group started the event with a ceremony for Florida sailor Liam O’Keefe, a 21-year-old competitor from the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club who died recently. The boats formed a circle on the race course for the ceremony, the sailors dropping flower leis into the ocean with eight bells ringing, a traditional tribute that marks the passing of the sailor.
Many of the racers who participated in the Governor’s Cup over the years have gone on to bigger stages, some taking titles at the Congressional Cup in nearby Long Beach or even winning the prestigious America’s Cup.
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The invitation-only regatta, often called the Gov Cup, was established in 1967 by the late Chet and Glee Purcell, who felt a competition should be created for younger sailors, similar in format to the internationally-recognized Congressional Cup Regatta. The first international team participated in 1989.
The boats are provided for the regatta. Several different models have been used through the decades. In 2003, the Balboa Yacht Club debuted the “Governor’s Cup 21s,” which were built specifically for Newport Beach’s weather. In 2016, for the 50th anniversary, 12 new “GovCup 22s” were built by the famed yacht designer and BYC staff commodore Alan Andrews.
Spectators can watch the race each afternoon from the beach at 15th Street or the Newport Pier. The races Saturday and Sunday will be streamed live, go to govcupracing.com for more information.