Governor's Cup 2010

St. Mary's College of Maryland Presents: The 2010 Governor's Cup Yacht Race August 6th & August 7th, 2010

The Governor's Cup Yacht Race is the oldest and longest overnight race on the Chesapeake Bay. This year marks the 37th running of the race from Maryland's current capital city to its first capital in St. Mary's City.

The Governor's Cup began as a students' dream in 1973. That year, St. Mary's College sophomores Pete Sarelas and Russell Baker '75 joined recent graduate Dale Rausch '71 to present their idea to College President Renwick Jackson, who soon shared their enthusiasm. The race became a reality in 1974 with 47 boats running the 70-mile course from Annapolis, Maryland's modern capital, to St. Mary's City, the state's founding capital. It was sanctioned by the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association (CBYRA) and is so to this day.

In June 1986, Yacht Racing and Cruising magazine (now Sailing World) ranked the Governor's Cup's day of celebration as one of the top ten post-race parties in the sailing world. In 1985, it called the Governor's Cup "the race that goes somewhere," and declared, "The race down the Bay, with its variable weather and currents, is an interesting one, and the enjoyable ambiance at the end of it provides a happy finale. The combination has made this increasingly popular event . . . a Bay Classic."

Since 1988, a "Best in Fleet" award has been presented to the winner of the most competitive class – that having the smallest corrected time interval between the first- and fifth-place finishers. In 1990, that award became the Joseph Waldschmitt Trophy in memory of a friend of St. Mary's College who was an avid southern Maryland sailor and one of the developers of LORAN.

A "Most Improved" award was established in 1995 in memory of Steven Bickell, a sailor lost in a tragic accident while crewing in the 1994 race. The Bickell Trophy goes to the PHRF skipper and boat whose finish position improved to the highest percent over that of the previous year. The captain must have skippered the same boat both years.

Follow the Race Online

For the first time in Governor's Cup history and the first distance race on the bay with live tracking, Kattack tracking units will be supplied for every boat registered to race. The race may be viewed here as it happens or on the full-screen web player.

The tracking will also be live on display monitors at the James P. Muldoon River Center. Individual boats' position markers will be labeled with the boat name.

Skippers, see the sailor information for details and instructions for picking up and returning the units. Thanks to Annapolis Inflatables for donating their time and effort to the Kattack distribution.