St. Francis Yacht Club Wins San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Trophy
On July 11, the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) successfully defended its possession of the San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Trophy in a best-of-five match-race series against the challenger, San Francisco Yacht Club (SFYC). This was the historic challenge cup competition’s 131st year, and it was sailed in SFYC’s fleet of one-design RS21 sportboats, with asymmetrical spinnakers. StFYC’s three-nil win left no uncertainty.
The winning StFYC team comprised Tor Svendsen (helm), Mike Martin (main), two-time MIT college sailing All-American Ty Ingram (jib) and Will Paulsen (bow). The SFYC boat was helmed by Molly Carapiet (the #35-ranked match racer in world sailing, and recent winner of a US Match Racing Championship Qualifier in San Diego), and crewed by her team of Halley Thompson, Rhett Krawitt and Vikki Fennell. All of the races were sailed on the Berkeley Circle, in typical blustery summer winds. Svendsen and Carapiet are members of both yacht clubs, which tested their allegiances.
“For us, the key to success was focusing on upwind speed and downwind boat handling,” Svendsen tells Latitude of the racing. “We felt we had an advantage in both in the RS21s, so just sailing free enabled us to extend our lead. We’re very proud to keep the trophy at St Francis! It has such a storied 130-plus-year history, and we know what it means to the club, so we’re stoked we were able to defend the title.”
“StFYC was proud to have our team successfully defend the San Francisco Perpetual Challenge Cup,” StFYC commodore Susan Ruhne says of the win. “As the oldest continuously contested American challenge trophy, we have books that record in calligraphy the history of boats, crews and outcomes over the years that are treasures in our club’s archives. They are a testament to the value inherent to maintaining these sailing traditions. The event was possible this year due to San Francisco Yacht Club’s enthusiasm for the event and willingness to utilize their assets for the regatta. It was great to see a younger, up-and-coming skipper, Tor Svendsen, succeed in defending the trophy and join the ranks of its long history.”
Negotiations for the challenge event were managed by a joint committee from both clubs: staff commodores Sean Svendsen and Kimball Livingston and rear commodore Larry Swift from StFYC, and staff commodore Madeline Morey, Board member Cam Tuttle and past Olympian Liz Baylis from SFYC. Kim Desenberg of Richmond Yacht Club served as the seventh (tiebreaker) member, and sited the starting line of each race. A team of US-certified umpires followed the boats, ensuring full adherence to the international match-racing rules. Sailing was clean, with no penalties assessed against either boat.
When asked about his StFYC team selection, Tor’s father Sean Svendsen said, “We chose a team with lots of young talent and added one elder statesman (5O5 multi-world champion Mike Martin) to show them how to close out a big win.”
When asked about choosing his son as the skipper, the elder Svendsen laughed, “One could conjecture that it was nepotism, but he sails almost every day on the Boston College sailing team and practically sleeps with a tiller in his hand. So we had full confidence he’d deliver for us on game day.”