To create the next great one-design class, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) has partnered with Melges Performance Sailboats along with other industry leaders, including Mills Design, North Sails, Westerly Marine and AB Marine/GORI propeller.
IC37 – The Mark Mills-designed 37-footer, built by Westerly Marine, will serve as the New York YC’s Invitational Cup boat in 2019.
By the spring of 2019, the club will own and manage a 20-boat charter fleet of these stripped-down 37-footers, a program that Zabetakis likens to Long Beach YC in California, which owns and uses Catalina 37s for its Congressional Cup, as well as Balboa YC (Calif.), which commissioned a fleet of 21-footers for its Governor’s Cup youth match-race regatta.
The parameters were for a cost-conscious and low-maintenance boat sailed by seven or eight crew. It had to be fast, but stable enough to be sailed by a wide spectrum of individuals. One thing they were clear on from the outset was they didn’t want any semblance of an interior. Unlike the Swan 42, this is a race boat, meant to be raced hard and put away wet. It’s bare below and flush decked, which allows a more efficient deck and sail-control layout for buoy racing.