This year’s winner of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy was Corpus Christi Yacht Club (Corpus Christi, TX) for hosting the 2022 J/24 World Championship.
The trophy is awarded annually to a local sailing organization for exceptional race management at a single event. Comments and evaluation by participating skippers weigh heavily in the selection of a winner.
The Corpus Christi Yacht Club race committee, headed up by PRO Mark Foster, an International Race Officer, ran 10 races for 38 boats from eight countries over five days. This was the fourth event led by Foster to earn the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy. At the end of the event, the top four boats were separated by only four points. The Race Committee used a variety of sailor-friendly practices, including daily competitor briefings to describe the courses and the RC’s intentions and communicating regularly with sailors on the racecourse.
Competitors were highly complimentary of the Club’s and the Race Committee’s work. One commented, “These guys were easily and by far the best RC my team and I have ever experienced! The conditions were challenging and very windy, blowing up to 36 knots, with waves as big as our boat. Every race began on time and the courses were square and even!”
Another said, “Corpus Christi Yacht Club put on a rock-solid regatta on all levels. There was nothing that we could think of that could have been done to make it better. The Race Committee, on the water team, and judges were excellent.”
Another skipper noted, “Some extremely difficult wind and surf days, race committee did a great job adapting to rapidly changing conditions. Making the decision to have a black flag start after just one recall was an excellent decision that proved to be the right one as there were no recalls for the next 8 races and almost nobody over.”
The Chief Judge for the event, Willii Gohl (IJ, GER), rated the Race Committee’s performance “Excellent” in every category and observed, “A daily briefing taking the comments and suggestions from the sailors was held, and the open mind of the RC was highly appreciated by the sailors. RC observed all wind shifts and adjusted the course in time with clear communication. Safety was all the time in the mind of the RC and safety boats were available. All races were started on time – not a single postponement was necessary.”
PRO Foster commented, “A big thank you to the core planning committee, who had been working on this event for a few years and to the 20+ CCYC members, who spent 6 days on the water running races to make this event a huge success. Truly a get-it-done group no matter what the conditions. A true pleasure to work with.
“Thank you to the 90+ CCYC volunteers and CCYC staff who did an outstanding job helping boats arrive, managing the boat park, and running registration and measurement. The entire club was very supportive of this event.
“This award was earned by the entire CCYC team,” Foster said.
If your club or sailing center is interested in applying for the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy, please visit the SPYC Trophy page on our website and contact the Race Administration Department at raceadmin@ussailing.org or call (401) 342-7945.