Verve Cup this weekend

Chicago YC's top regatta gets underway

During its rich history the Chicago Yacht Club’s Verve Cup has grown into the US’s largest August regatta, drawing over 200 boats this year. Competitors from around the US will race boats ranging from 25 to 70 feet on three separate courses off Monroe Harbor in hopes of winning the coveted Verve Cup. The racing starts today and runs until Sunday.

The Verve Cup regatta is named after a Scottish Cutter, Verve, which made her way to Chicago in 1884 to sail in the Club’s annual regatta. A typical British plank-on edge cutter Verve had won 16 races in the old country the previous year. In Chicago, she won the second (or smaller class) and beat all the boats in the first (or larger class) on corrected time. Her prize was a silver cup valued at $125 that was returned to the Club in 1964 and has since been the time prize for what has evolved into the modern day Verve Cup.