Lake Champlain Yacht Club

The Ladies Cup History

1888-1938 — First LCYC Boat to Finish on Corrected Time
1955-1961 — 'Waterama' Criteria Unknown; Presumed First Boat to Finish
1963-1991— First LCYC Boat to Finish
1992-After — First LCYC Boat to Finish on Corrected Time

Run 21 times in 51 years 1888-1938
Not run 17 years 1939-1954
Run 7 years as part of Chamber of Commerce 'Waterama' 1955-1961
2012 — 58th consecutive running since 1955
2012 — 79th running in 125 years

The Ladies Cup is a richly ornamental sterling silver punch-bowl, with fine engraving of the harbor of Burlington on the outside, the bottom rim consisting of a sculpted depiction of the rugged stone breakwater. It was made by ???? in 1887 or 1888 at a cost of $500, and was presented to the club by the Ladies of Burlington. We do not know for sure who the 'Ladies' were, but it is presumed that they were the wives of the founding members of the club. The cup was first raced for in 1888.

The following text is excerpted from an article by Frederic W. Mather, "Lake Champlain Yacht Club," published in Yachting Magazine in 1888:

"According to the rules of the club, 'the Ladies Cup" shall be a perpetual challenge, and shall be sailed for each year by the yachts belonging to the members of the club at their annual regatta. The course shall be about ten miles, and the sailing allowances, etc., shall be governed by such rules of the club, as from time to time may obtain. The course, etc., may be changed from time to time by the regatta committee as the exigencies of the club may require.

"They or their successors in office, are made custodians of the cup for the club, and shall award the same each year to the successful yacht; which yacht shall have its name and the date of the regatta engraved on the cup by the committee, and shall hold it until the next annual regatta, giving bonds to the committee in the sum of $600 for the safe keeping of the same.

"Any damage or loss to the cup while in the possession of a yacht shall be appraised and deduced by the committee from the bond on the return of the cup, which shall be one week before the next annual meeting. Owners of yachts failing to return the cup at the time specified, shall sacrifice their bonds and cease to be members of the club.

"A yacht holding the cup and not competing for its possession is considered as having competed and lost. In all races, at least three yachts must start or no race, unless a race has been postponed; but should the yacht which is in possession of the cup be a competitor, she may sail the course, without this limit as to the number starting."

In 1934 the last of the club's three Burlington waterfront clubhouses had to be abandoned, and the membership tried to keep active at several temporary locations in Shelburne Bay and Mallets Bay. But the last of the depression and the coming war caused the club to become inactive. The last Ladies Cup event of that era, a power boat race, was in 1938, won by the Eva May, owned by a man named Appleyard, the beloved step-son of Bob Thompson, Commodore 1948-54.

In 1955, in an effort to help revive the waterfront, the Burlington Chamber of Commerce sponsored a 'Northeastern Waterama.' John Dinse remembers it as a broad-based city event, of which boat races were a minor part featuring mostly powerboats. Although inactive, LCYC still existed as a corporation, with a printed log listing 87 members. The Board agreed to let the Chamber include a Ladies Cup race as one of the Waterama events, the first race for the cup since 1938. The winner was Royal Savage, owned by member Paul D. Raine. The Chamber allowed Raine to take the cup home. The next year the LCYC Board determined that the cup was too unique and valuable and voted that the club would henceforth retain the Ladies Cup in its possession, ending forever allowing the winner to 'hold' the cup for any period of time.

Ladies Cup races were a feature of the Waterama from 1955 through 1961, and club records show that all of those were won by members of record: Ted Brooks won four in Kid, a 6 Meter; Raine won one; and Bill Freeman in Corlear won one; another was won by 'Camp Red Cloud' of Deep Bay in Eleanor, a wooden schooner.

In the first race in 1888, and presumably in subsequent years until the club's demise in 1938, the winner was decided on the basis of corrected time. Nothing is presently known about the scoring criteria used during the Wateramas of 1955-61. However, beginning in 1962, when the club was reactivated, the winner was the first boat to finish without regard to corrected time. Later, in 1992, the Board of Governors voted to return to the original and traditional criteria that the winner of the Ladies Cup shall be decided on the basis of first-to-finish on corrected time, thus re-openibng to all LCYC competitors the possibility of winning the cup.

Beginning with the first race in 1888, also since 1963, and perhaps in all races since the inception of the race, there is only one start for all boats contending for the Ladies Cup. For the three years 1994-96, a period of active recruitment of new LCYC racers, there was a separate start for the non-spinnaker boats to reduce the intimidation of a single mass start, the presumption being that they would not be contenders in any case. In 1997 the now seasoned non-spinnaker racers asked that the separate start be eliminated so that they could fully contend for the cup on an equal basis with spinnaker boats.

In 1994 the Regatta Committee decided that any special individual-boat non-spinnaker handicap rating adjustment factors would not be included in the rating used to handicap boats contending for the Ladies Cup. However, to compensate for their lack of a spinnaker the Committee initiated a 12 second/mile rating adjustment for all competing non-spinnaker boats.

Before the 2010 season, the membership considered the question of opening competition for the cup to non-member racers, but while all agreed that non-members were most welcome to race for all other trophies awarded in the regatta, the members voted to retain the original restriction limiting competition for the Ladies Cup to LCYC members.