North American Championships

THE ROYAL CANADIAN YACHT CLUB TROPHY

Presented to the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association as a perpetual trophy to commemorate the centennial of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, Toronto, August 1952.  

The North American Silver Star Championship is relatively a latecomer to the Silver Star series held by the Star Class. Originally the North American's was sailed only when the World's was not sailed in the North American continent.

The oldest Silver Star event of the Star Class is the Championship of Europe, which began in 1932, followed by the Western Hemisphere Spring Championship, which began in 1934. The first N.A.'s was held in 1939 at Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in conjunction with the 1939 World Fair. That year the World's was sailed in Kiel, Germany. The first N.A.'s was won by Walter Sumner and Jack Watson of the San Diego Bay fleet. The series was not held again until 1948 in Puget Sound, and was won by the local fleet representatives Charles Ross and Robertson Ross. Then, starting in 1952 the World's was held in Europe for consecutive three years. Whether coincidentally or not, starting in 1952 the N.A.'s have been held annually ever since.

Originally the rules for who was allowed to sail in the N.A.'s was very strict. Only two boats per fleet, based on that fleet's qualification series, were allowed to participate in a Silver Star event. Exceptions to this were when low turn-out was expected, for example in 1964 at Galveston Bay and 1968 at San Francisco where 3 boats per fleet were allowed.

Starting in the 1970's the hosting fleet was allowed to have additional entries as a reward for holding the series. For example, in 1972 at Toronto the Lake Ontario Canadian fleet entered 4 boats, and in 1975 at Mobile the Mobile Bay fleet entered 6 boats.

The first "open" N.A.'s was in 1985 at San Diego, with 14 boats from the San Diego Bay fleet and 7 boats from the Newport Harbor fleet. The N.A.'s have been open ever since.