New and familiar faces to converge in pursuit of 2024 Resolute Cup

Resolute Cup © Paul Todd / Outside Images

There's no set formula for evaluating the entry list for an invitational event. But among the critical criteria would be a healthy number of former champions, geographic diversity and a handful of new entries. Collectively, the 28 clubs that will contest the seventh edition of the Resolute Cup, a Corinthian Championship for U.S. Yacht Clubs, this coming September check all three boxes.

"When it comes to creating our invite list, we're at the mercy of the event's stature in many ways," says event chair A.J. Evans. "We know roughly what we're looking for but must hope that our request for invitation process pulls in the right quality and quantity. In looking at the roster of clubs slated to contest the 2024 Resolute Cup, I'm extremely excited: all six former champions will attend, as well as five clubs that have never previously raced. Plus, we have the geographic diversity that is so important for a national-championship-level event, with five teams from the Gulf Coast and four from the Midwest along with the typically solid representation from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts."

The Resolute Cup was first run in 2010 as the U.S. Qualifying Series for the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. The biennial regatta, which is sailed out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, has since developed an identity of its own as yacht clubs from around the United States send their best amateur sailors to Newport, R.I., to compete for national bragging rights in addition to a coveted berth in the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, sailing's premiere international Corinthian big-boat regatta. The 2024 Resolute Cup will feature 28 clubs from around the country. The regatta will run September 9 to 14 and will use the New York Yacht Club's fleet of 23-foot Sonars. The 2024 Resolute Cup is sponsored by Helly Hansen, Safe Harbor Marinas, Hammetts Hotel and Peters & May.

See the full list of invited clubs here.

Corinthian Yacht Club, the defending champ, is one of the six former winners that will return to the event this September. CYC's rapid rise through the ranks should give hope to any of the rookie teams, or even those with just one appearance. In its first Resolute Cup, in 2016, the venerable Marblehead, Mass., club finished 12th. An eighth followed in 2018 before an emphatic win in 2022. Last September, Corinthian Yacht Club finished second at the 2023 Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup, an impressive showing for a first-time competitor against an elite International field.

"There was no question the Corinthian Yacht Club would be back to compete and defend the Resolute Cup in 2024," says Wade Waddell, the team's skipper in 2022 and at the Invitational Cup last fall. "After winning the event in 2022 and finishing as the runner-up at the Invitational Cup, it was an easy decision."

The composition of Corinthian's team for this fall is still to be determined. But Waddell (top photo, at helm) expects there will be some familiar faces involved.

To find the origin of Edgewater Yacht Club's upcoming inaugural visit to the Resolute Cup, we need to look back four decades to when current EYC member Lance Pollen and Wes Whitmyer were classmates and sailing buddies at Brecksville High School outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

Whitmyer would later move east and join both the Stamford and New York yacht clubs. In 2021, he invited Pollen to sail aboard an IC37 he chartered that summer.

"It was my first time sailing in Newport, and I was smitten," says Pollen. "In 2022, Wes raced in the Resolute Cup representing Stanford Yacht Club and he invited me to come and stay with his team during the event. It was amazing."

It was during a third regatta, the 2022 Highlander National Championships hosted by Edgewater Yacht Club and won by Pollen and Whitmyer along with Whitmyer's son Declan (at left, with Pollen on the bow and Wes Whitmyer in the middle), that Whitmyer suggested EYC apply for a berth in the Resolute Cup in 2024.

Pollen scoured the Edgewater roster for talented sailor to lead the club's team and came up with J/70 Corinthian National Champion Lee Sackett. The remainder of the team will be selected shortly and then they will set about planning their training schedule for the coming summer.

Racing for the 2024 Resolute Cup will commence on Wednesday, September 11, and run through Saturday, September 14.

Invited Clubs: American Yacht Club (Rye, N.Y.), Austin (Texas) Yacht Club, Bay Waveland Yacht Club (Bay St. Louis, Miss.)*, Bayview Yacht Club (Detroit, Mich.), California Yacht Club (Marina del Rey, Calif.), Carolina Yacht Club (Charleston, S.C.), Charleston (S.C.) Yacht Club*, Chicago (Ill.) Yacht Club, Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.)#, Corinthian Yacht Club of San Francisco (Calif.)*, Eastern Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.)#, Edgewater Yacht Club (Cleveland, Ohio)*, Forth Worth (Texas) Yacht Club, Lakewood Yacht Club (Seabrook, Texas), Larchmont (N.Y.) Yacht Club#, Little Traverse Yacht Club (Harbor Springs, Mich.), Mystic River Mudheads Sailing Association (West Mystic, Conn.)*, New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club, Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Newport Beach, Calif.)#, Pensacola (Fla.) Yacht Club, San Diego (Calif.) Yacht Club#, Seattle (Wash.) Yacht Club, Shelter Island Yacht Club (Shelter Island Heights, N.Y.), Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans, La.)#, St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco, Calif.), Stamford (Conn.) Yacht Club, Storm Trysail Club (Larchmont, N.Y.), The San Francisco Yacht Club (Belvedere, Calif.).