New York Yacht Club 166th Annual Regatta & One Design Regatta 2020

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Due to the continuing COVID-19 related challenges and required quarantine restrictions, the 166th Annual Regatta has been rescheduled for October 2-4, 2020. 

North America's oldest annual regatta will feature three great days of racing including the separately scored Around-the-Island Race on Friday, October 2. Competition will take place in ORC, PHRF, and one-design classes and during the Two-Day Series we intend sail in the format that the fleets are accustomed to - ie drop mark buoy racing for most and navigator racing for some. The focus of this year's event is getting back on the water and sailing. At this time, there are no planned shoreside or social activities. 

The New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta was first run on July 16 and 18, 1846, on the Hudson River. Only one boat, Louis Depau's Mist, finished the first race. Commodore John Cox Stevens' Gimcrack took line honors in the second race, which was won on corrected time by A. Barker's Hornet. The race was run in or near New York City until 1988 when the purchase of Harbour Court in Newport, R.I., gave the Club a waterfront clubhouse from which to run all its regattas. The current format, featuring a round-the-island race on Friday and two days of buoy or navigator-course racing has been in place for more than a decade.

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The 166th edition was originally scheduled for June 12 to 14, with a distance race around Conanicut Island followed by two days of buoy or navigator racing on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound. Earlier this year, the Club postponed the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but remains determined to keep the tradition alive. The 166th Annual Regatta is now set for August 28 to 30.

The One-Design Regatta, originally scheduled for August 22 and 23, will be merged with the Annual Regatta, allowing smaller keelboat classes to take part in North America's oldest annual sailing competition. As the Herreshoff Museum has scheduled its Classic Yacht Regatta for the final weekend in August, the Annual Regatta will not include any divisions for classic yachts.