The New York Yacht Club's inaugural Women's International Championship will take place September 12 to 19 at Harbour Court in Newport, Rhode Island. Twenty international women skippers and their crews will contest the event using the club's fleet of twenty identical IC37 keelboats. Nearly two hundred women will take part in five days of racing, reviving a tradition that once defined women's keelboat sailing.
The championship is, in many ways, a reinvention. Its spiritual ancestor was the International Women's Keelboat Championship, a historic event that helped launch many careers but eventually faded away. The new event, chaired by Cory Sertl, aims to bring that tradition back with the resources of the New York Yacht Club, including owned boats, provided sails, on-the-water umpiring, and a formal prize-giving. More than forty teams reportedly sought one of the twenty invitations, a sign of the sport's hunger for such an event. Rolex is the founding partner.
At the center of the field is Lijia Xu of China, a two-time Olympic medalist who has spent her career in singlehanded boats. Now she will skipper a crewed IC37, leading a team representing the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club into a new kind of racing. 'Taking charge of the communication with a group of people, making plans and making things happen, just the beginning stage of being a skipper is already quite demanding for me,' Xu said. 'The biggest challenge is the transition from just doing my own things well to now needing to look after a group of people. I am certainly not very used to it.' She hopes her Olympic experience will help. 'The Olympic campaign experience equipped me with all the discipline needed to do things in the best way I can,' she said. 'It is something I find as my strength everywhere I go and everything I do nowadays after retirement.'
The IC37, designed by Mark Mills to a brief developed by the club, is a 37-foot keelboat typically sailed by nine to eleven people. It was designed to reward cohesive crew work and athleticism. The New York Yacht Club owns a fleet of twenty, providing identical boats and sails, ensuring a level playing field.
The invitation list includes Katie Spithill of Australia, Sarah Douglas of Canada, Ida Svensson of Sweden, Hannah Swett of the United States, Christina Wolfe, Nicole Breault, and Michelle Lahrkamp of the United States, Ragna Agerup of Norway, Laura van Veen of the Netherlands, Katrina Williams of Bermuda, and others from five continents. Some teams are building from near-scratch. Team Aurora, helmed by Germany's Lena Weißkichel and supported by The Magenta Project, brings together ten sailors from seven countries, plus women handling media, weather and data analysis. The crew has rehearsed online. 'We've had several virtual/dry trainings to coordinate maneuvers and communication ahead of any on-water training, as well as monthly virtual team building sessions with The Magenta Project mentor Marjoleine Hulshof,' said onshore support Megan Bowling. 'An aurora is a rare phenomenon created when powerful energies meet across hemispheres. Like the lights that unite the world's skies, our team brings together elite women sailors from across the world to shine as one.'
The event will be held at Harbour Court, the club's Newport headquarters. The championship runs from Saturday, September 12 through Saturday, September 19, with practice days from September 9 to 11, two days of mandatory practice and five days of racing in an umpired fleet-race format, punctuated by an opening reception on September 14 and evening socials through the week, and a formal dinner on the final evening. For the women who line up on the harbor, the event offers the chance to compete in identical boats on a world-class stage, with more than forty teams having sought one of the twenty invitations. The response suggests this is not merely a revival but a beginning.