New York Yacht Club: Lena Weißkichel with Team Aurora to the Women's Summit

This autumn, the New York Yacht Club is serving up a new regatta: the NYYC Women's International Championship - a championship for women only. The invitational regatta will be sailed on the boats of the IC37-Club fleet. Only female sailors are admitted to the championship from 12 to 19 September 2026 in the picture-book area of Newport. 20 female skippers from 14 nations are on the list of participants.

New York Yacht Club: Premiere for a women's summit

Among them are successful female sailors such as Laser Radial Olympic and World Champion Lijia Xu (Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club), match race expert Katie Spithill (Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club) and also Ocean Race World Circumnavigator and Women's America's Cup runner-up Hannah Diamond (Royal Thames Yacht Club), who will be competing with SailGP experience.

Lena Weißkichel is heading for the New York Yacht Club invitational race under a German flag but with an international crew. Her Aurora Sailing Team has drawn on the network of the Magenta project which supports women in sailing on many levels and with mentoring programmes. The aim of the ambitious amateur team of female sailors is to compete "with excellence and professionalism" in the fleet of 20 teams.

Lena Weißkichel was active in Olympic classes such as Laser Radial, 49erFX and Nacra 17 before moving on to shorthanded offshore racing. She has been training and racing with "boat whisperer" Max Gurgel for the possible Olympic premiere of the newly planned mixed offshore discipline in double-handed mode, until the IOC rejected this proposal from the World Sailing Federation.

Skipper Lena Weißkichel: with keelboat and catamaran experience

Lena Weißkichel served as navigator on Sönke Meyer-Sawatzki's ClubSwan 50 "Niramo" from 2021 to 2023. "That also contributed to the fact that I now feel confident in this skipper role," says Lena Weißkichel, looking ahead to the autumn challenge at the New York Yacht Club, where she is supported by founding partner Rolex.

Lena Weißkichel has been sailing intensively in the non-Olympic Nacra 17 sister class F18 since 2024. In the future, she would like to become the first woman to win a world championship title on this catamaran in a mixed team with her helmsman and world champion Ravi Parent. "That's one of my goals," says the 26-year-old, who likes to aim high. She is also sailing her own A-Class catamaran. The other XL challenge this year will be taking part in the Women's International Regatta at the New York Yacht Club.

Ideally, the female sailors would like to Aurora Sailing Team 80,000 to 100,000 US dollars in sponsorship and support to finance the registration fees, training and participation. 25,000 US dollars have already been raised. The Hanover native, who works on land as an executive coach and as head of the mentoring programme for The Magenta Project, wants to combine her passion for promoting female sailors with her professional experience in team development at the Women's Summit.

The Aurora Sailing Team: a multinational women's team

Lena Weißkichel says of the Aurora Sailing Team, which is initially planned as a one-year campaign: "We are a team of strong female sailors from very different backgrounds from the large network of the Magenta Project. We want to learn a lot, grow together and have extraordinary experiences." The crew members represent seven nations: Germany, the USA, India, Sweden, Turkey, Great Britain and New Zealand.

In addition to Lena Weißkichel, at least one other German sailor will be taking part: Alexandra Lauber, a Bundesliga and Champions League sailor from Überlingen who lives in Kiel. She competes in the league for the Bodensee-Yacht-Club Überlingen. The medical professional also has experience from Club Swan 36 and Cape 31 racing.

"It was very important to me to have a good tactician and a good forewoman on board," says Lena Weißkichel. "Our tactician Beka Schiff comes from the USA, has a lot of match race experience and is also active as a mentor in this area. With Alex, I can always rely on the spinnaker coming down cleanly. She has an overview and her eyes everywhere, recognising problems before they occur."

With high expectations for the championship in the USA

With ten professional women and sailors from five countries, the Aurora Sailing Team aims to "improve the positions of women in sailing and the wider maritime industry" through its involvement in the International Women's Championship organised by the New York Yacht Club.

Our team is for all women who are involved in sailing and are asking themselves: How can I sail at a high level without having to quit my job and become a professional?" Lena Weißkichel

Lena Weißkichel says: "We all have a normal job that we don't want to quit, but we still sail at a very high level. According to the World Sailing Federation's definition, we are all in the amateur category, but we are professional and perform at a high level, and have very high expectations of ourselves." If the first attempt is successful, the campaign will continue, starting in Newport for the Long Beach Yacht Club. Other clubs may also join.

Not everyone can go out and set up their own sailing team. That's why we have our sailing team, which people can apply for, join and hopefully take part in other projects in the future." Lena Weißkichel

Team Aurora Sailing in search of a partner

Participation in the championship is by invitation only, but still involves costs: The registration fee is 5000, the deposit ("damage deposit") 10,000 US dollars. "This also has to be replenished if damage occurs during the regatta," explains Lena Weißkichel. There are also travel and accommodation costs. However, the hosts have already signalled their support and want to help with accommodation with club members if possible.

On course New York Yacht Club, the team is looking for long-term and sustainable sponsors to provide the women with the opportunity to run "elite female sailing projects" beyond the 2026 season. They describe the NYYC Women's International Championship as "a rare all-female event in the boat class where men still predominate".

The women see the regatta itself and their participation as both an "important milestone for the team and a significant step forward for women in this sport". The women have not yet set themselves a result target in this campaign phase of team building. "Of course we always want to win, but above all we want to learn a lot," says Lena Weißkichel, who briefly introduces herself and the project here. She also emphasises: "This project is not about me, it's about the team!"

New York Yacht Club: its own regatta fleet with a sporting and fun character

The first edition of the Women's Championship at New York Yacht Club will take place from 12-19 September 2026 at New York Yacht Club in Newport, Rhode Island. The regatta will be held with the 20 IC37 boats owned by the hosts. The 37-foot keelboat with tiller and asymmetric spinnaker was designed by Mark Mills to the club's specifications. The One-Design IC37 is a powerful and sporty 11.30 metre monohull that rewards good teamwork and athleticism.

The report from the New York Yacht Club Invitation Cup 2025, which has been held since 2009, shows the IC37 boats in racing action. In the autumn, only female sailors will be racing in the women's championship for the first time: