Experience shines alongside the brightwork at 2025 Tiedemann Regatta
by New York Yacht Club 30 Jun 13:44 NZST
June 27 - 28, 2025
2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta © Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht Club
A century ago, R Class yachts were the sports cars of the yachting world, sleek and low to the ground, nimble in the corners and quick around the course, and, above all, demanding to drive. A century later they still are, at least in the eyes of the skipper and crew that sailed Gamecock to victory in Class B at the 2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta. The biennial regatta, which honors the late Robert Tiedemann, was hosted over the weekend by the New York Yacht Club in Newport, R.I.
"It's actually a difficult boat to sail because the groove is so narrow," says Gamecock skipper Peter McClennen (above, far right), who has owned the 100-year-old sloop for 10 years. "Because we don't have an overlapping jib, the balance can become very tough with a huge main and the small jib. So it's just a matter of the trimmers and the driver managing that two- to three-degree groove and always staying in the groove. Anytime you fall out, it's a 30-second rebuild."
Over the course of three challenging navigator-style races on Narragansett Bay, McClennen and his team proved they were up to the challenge of wrangling Gamecock around the track ahead of the competition in Classics B. With a first and two seconds, Gamecock won the regatta by four points ahead of Will Hubbard's classic one-tonner Lively Lady, and six points ahead of the 8-Metre Angelita, owned by Henry Skelsey and Samuel Croll and famous for winning a gold medal in the 1932 Olympics.
"Both my trimers sailed with me on the IC37 Gamecock," says McClennen. "We've worked together for eight years now. We're pretty in tune with each other, and they love sailing the classics."
Crew chemistry is also the secret sauce for Jack Curtin, the owner of the two-time America's Cup winner Intrepid (at left). Curtin and his long-time crew had a strong start to the regatta with a first and a second on Saturday. However, in today's single race, Intrepid got caught in convergence zone—where two breezes from different directions battle for supremacy—and almost watched the regatta slip away. When the wind stablized, the Intrepid crew set about grinding back what they had lost and were able to recover and finish third in the race. In fourth place, just 35 seconds behind on corrected time, was the 57-foot S&S design Gesture, skippered by Alexander Mehran. Had those two places been reversed, Gesture would've won the 8-boat Classics A division.
"The power, the force of these things is something you really have to factor in all the time," says Curtin, noting that a typical 12-Metre weights in the neighborhood of 60,000 lbs. "You have to think about when you start a maneuver. It doesn't turn like a dinghy. And getting it up to speed, if you have a bad tack, takes a lot of time. So crewwork is incredibly important. We've had the same group for 20 years. We've changed our grinders, but our tactician, trimmers, navigator, me, it's basically the same core group."
Curtin bought Intrepid nearly 30 years ago. As the last America's Cup winner to be constructed of wood, restoring her and keeping her in fighting trim is no small task. But the boat looks as good as she did when she won the Cup in 1967 and 1970.
"Somebody said, 'How many children do you have?'" says Curtin. "I said, 'I have seven, but if you count Intrepid, I really have eight.'
"It's really fun. I get tired on the boat, but I never get tired of looking forward to sailing. We'll be back in two weeks to do the Sail Newport Regatta, and then we'll be back for the 12-Metre North Americans at Ida Lewis at the end of the summer. We do four or five big regattas a year like this. And then we let everybody relax."
In Classics C, it was former Intrepid America's Cup crew member George Hinman Jr. who steered the 29-foot Blackwing (at right) to victory, thought it took a tiebreaker to separate Blackwing and Paul Koch's Ponyo, which ended up second. Both Ponyo and Blackwing are "modern classics," boats constructed of traditional materials and to classic designs, but of recent vintage.
Hinman, a past commodore of the New York Yacht Club, said that the extensive sailing experience and local knowledge onboard his boat was crucial when it came to making the most out of a serpentine course that crossed many tide lines and was beset bt shifting winds.
"We have four people that have sailed a lot and each of them could drive the boat if they wanted to," says Hinman. "So they all add different things, and most of them—and I'm not that category—have lived here. The great thing that New York Yacht Club is doing now is having more of these navigator courses,. You go around the government marks, and the knowledge that they have on where you have to be in the tide and what you have to do is amazing. It's not just windward leeward courses, and it's really increased the interest to continue to sail."
The Robert H. Tiedemann Regatta is traditionally one of the first events of the New England classic yachting calendar. The event is as much a celebration of the sport's history as a competition, and the camaraderie, whether on the racecourse or in the tent for Saturday's regatta dinner and Sunday's award party, is always a highlight.
This year, as was the case in 2023, a number of skippers brought their boats to the docks at Harbour Court on Saturday night for an in-water boat show, with fellow competitors and Club members walking the docks and admiring the boats.
"It's a great weekend to kick off the summer classics series," says Jesse Terry, the event chair and skipper of Abigail, a 39-foot Alden. "We bringing the community together at Harbour Court, celebrate with the new docks and eight boats on the water. It's great to share some yachting history with the members."
The full scores for the 2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta can be found here.