West Coast Clubs Travel East to the New York Yacht Club Resolute Cup
A recent press release from the New York Yacht Club highlighted Bay Area racer Daniel Thielman and his crew from the Corinthian Yacht Club as a new invitee to compete in the annual New York Yacht Club Resolute Cup. This year, 28 teams have been invited to this all-amateur sailing event, including seven from the West Coast: California Yacht Club, Corinthian YC of San Francisco, Newport Harbor Yacht Club, San Diego Yacht Club, Seattle Yacht Club, St. Francis Yacht Club, and San Francisco Yacht Club.
Beyond Thielman’s active campaigning of his Melges 32 Kuai on the Bay, he’s also been active nationally, winning multiple championships in the Melges 20 class, where he’s also the defending world champion. He recently returned to the Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco with the IC37 National Championship title won during New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport, RI, sailed July 17–20. This September, however, will mark the first time that his club has fielded a team in the Resolute Cup, motivated by Thielman’s desire to qualify for the prestigious Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, which will next take place in September 2025.
“Members of our Corinthian Yacht Club purchased an IC37 back in 2023 to prepare for the Invitational Cup,” said Thielman. “After a year of preparation, we’ve assembled a team that is ready to make a qualifying bid.”
Thielman will be sailing with trimmers Jen Canestra and Auric Horneman, who have been his constant and trusted teammates for over 10 years of racing Melges boats together, and Nick Voss.
“We currently race in the Melges 20, Melges 14, and IC37 one-design fleets around the country, and PHRF race our Melges 32 on San Francisco Bay,” Thielman says. “We hope that adding Nick as a tactician for the Resolute Cup, with his many years of junior, college and adult team racing experience, will give us the edge we need to be competitive.”
Since 2010, the Resolute Cup has served as a Corinthian championship for US yacht clubs and the only guaranteed pathway for an American club to earn a berth in the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, Corinthian (amateur) sailing’s most prestigious international competition. The seventh edition of the biennial competition — the event was not sailed in 2020 — is scheduled for September 9 to 14 at the New York Yacht Club, Harbour Court, in Newport, RI. The 2024 Resolute Cup will utilize the Club’s fleet of Sonars, with provided sails, equalized rig tune and on-the-water umpiring ensuring sailing’s ultimate level playing field. The 2024 New York Yacht Club Regatta Association regatta calendar is supported by Helly Hansen, Hammetts Hotel, Safe Harbor Marinas and Peters & May.
While Thielman has shown remarkable ability across multiple one-design classes, the Sonar, a displacement boat with a symmetric spinnaker, is a bit of a departure from what he and his team normally sail.
“Every boat we own, and every fleet we compete in, has asymmetric kites,” he says. “We have gotten in limited practices on J/22s to prepare, but with our aggressive championship race schedule in other fleets, we are mostly going to be winging it with a symmetric kite. I would not be surprised if we have a slow start, with results that steadily improve throughout the week.”
The complete list of competing teams is here: American Yacht Club, Rye, NY; Austin (Texas) Yacht Club; Bay Waveland Yacht Club, Bay St. Louis, MS; Bayview Yacht Club, Detroit, MI.; California Yacht Club, Marina del Rey, CA; Carolina Yacht Club, Charleston, SC; Charleston Yacht Club, Charleston, SC; Chicago (IL) Yacht Club; Corinthian Yacht Club, Marblehead, MA; Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco, Tiburon, CA; Eastern Yacht Club, Marblehead, MA; Edgewater Yacht Club, Cleveland, Ohio; Fort Worth (Texas) Yacht Club; Lakewood Yacht Club, Seabrook, Texas; Larchmont (NY.) Yacht Club; Little Traverse Yacht Club, Harbor Springs, MI; Mystic River Mudheads Sailing Association, West Mystic, CT; New York (NY) Yacht Club; Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Newport Beach, CA.; Pensacola (FL) Yacht Club; San Diego (CA) Yacht Club; Seattle (WA) Yacht Club; Shelter Island Yacht Club, Shelter Island Heights, NY; Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans, LA; St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco, CA; Stamford (CT) Yacht Club; Storm Trysail Club (Larchmont, NY); San Francisco Yacht Club, Belvedere, CA.
You can learn more about the Resolute Cup here.