Narragansett Bay does not reward excuses. Every team races the same IC37, a fleet owned by the New York Yacht Club to ensure absolute parity. No secret sails, no custom rigs, only human decisions. That is what makes this regatta more revealing than most, because heritage and reputation cannot mask hesitation at a start line. Few know that the NYYC commissioned the first twenty hulls itself to eliminate equipment advantage, turning the Invitational Cup into a rare laboratory where tactics are laid bare.
How Seconds Become Miles
The difference between gaining and losing was often invisible to the casual spectator. A mistimed turn through the leeward gate could erase half a leg, while patience in dirty air sometimes mattered more than raw boat speed. San Diego Yacht Club showed it best on day one, recovering from a false start not by desperation but by waiting for a right side shift and pouncing when it arrived. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda team, with Antonio Sodo Migliori at the helm, Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti on tactics, and crew, brought the same Mediterranean precision that usually defines their Porto Cervo races, adapting it to Newport’s shifting light and tide.
More than one sailor said the hardest part of September racing here is not the chop but the light. Sun fractures across the bay, and what looks like empty water can hide a pocket of breeze that will decide the mark rounding. To see clearly is to move early, and in this fleet seconds are currency. For YCCS the ability to translate vision into timing became its own form of strategy. Sunglasses at the Invitational are not ornament, they are tools, filtering glare without dulling the contrasts that tell you where to go. The sailors who saw best often acted best, proof that clarity is not cosmetic but strategic.
“In Narragansett Bay you win by reading the water and light a second earlier than the others, the boat only responds to what the eye sees.”
– FILIPPO MARIA MOLINARI, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda Team
