Zing

Bob Hesse is no stranger to competitive one-design fleets. Having pursued a successful racing career in the 1D35, Melges 32, and J/111 classes, the Youngstown, New York native considered himself retired from competition. That was until the Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) announced a new vision for the Canada’s Cup, a Great Lakes match race challenge series between one American and one Canadian Yacht Club, would be held bi-annually in the new IC37 starting in 2020. Hesse then jumped on the opportunity to represent his home club, Youngstown Yacht Club, to vie for the prestigious silver trophy.

First raced in 1896, the Canada’s Cup is the second oldest Match Race Trophy in the world and the oldest in North America. Now 126 years later, the beautiful trophy has been raised 13 times by Americans but taken home for a 12th time last summer by the Canadians after a successful defense against Hesse. The 25th challenge was held in September 2021 after a one year delay for the pandemic and Hesse is planning to challenge again this year Labor Day Weekend.

The journey to the historic match race for Hesse started when he got ZING, Hull #25, in September of 2019. After a brief sea trial, he brought the boat back to upstate New York and assembled his crew. When the pandemic hit and travel was limited, the crew on ZING were relegated to practicing once a week for two summers never lining up against any other IC37s while the RCYC had a two-boat training program during the same period.

While the loss might have seemed inevitable for ZING (they went 0-6), the regatta was not considered a failure by any means by the sailors.

“We made gains every day,” says Hesse. “We lost the last race by just a boat length and the camaraderie with our Canadian competitors made for great friendly racing. We are even more motivated to come back and try again this year. But we knew we were never going to beat those sailors if we didn’t do more racing, so that led us to go to Florida.”

In order to sail against more IC37s and with a winter home in Key West, it was an easy decision for Hesse to bring his crew down south to participate in this year’s Winter Series in Fort Lauderdale.

“Fort Lauderdale was awesome. We had the full Canada’s Cup crew – which includes no pros – just a great group of amateur sailors with quite a few national titles to their names. I also get to sail with my daughter, Bridget Dedario, and we took advantage of the youth rule with an additional set of hands in 16-year-old Charlie Kegler.”

Unique to ZING, the helmsman is Adam Burns while Hesse controls the Mainsail. A non-owner-driver is not allowed as part of the IC37 Class Rules, but it is allowed in the Canada’s Cup so it was important to Hesse that they sail in the same crew combination to make Florida an effective practice and the class made an exception this year for his participation in the Winter Series.

“This group of seven owners agreed to let Adam drive because our goal is still focused on the Canada’s Cup,” said Hesse. “This class has the best group of one-design owners I have been a part of. Everyone is so friendly and willing to work together for the betterment of the sailors.”

Hesse added that the shared coaching of Moose McClintock was another useful resource provided by the class.

“He gave us some invaluable advice and tips about committing to either plane mode or soak mode when it comes to downwind sailing. You just can’t play the middle. That was something new for us and made a huge difference.”

After finishing third overall in the Winter Series, Hesse and crew have their goals set on one thing only: Labor Day Weekend and bringing the Canada’s Cup home to America.

Good Luck ZING!