History

Rear Commodore James R. Hodder of the Boston Yacht Club in 1924 put a trophy in competition for a sailing contest involving crews of girls aged 12 and up. Ruth and Esther Sears of the Cohasset, Massachusetts, Yacht Club won the Hodder Cup.

The following year, Charles Francis Adams II kept the competition going by donating a trophy in honor of his wife. The Cohasset YC took permanent possession of that trophy by winning it for a third time in 1929.

Mrs. Adams herself then gave two trophies, the first to be awarded permanently to the club that won the race three times, the second to become a perpetual challenge trophy when the first was retired. The Indian Harbor YC of Long Island Sound won the first trophy for the third time in 1934 and the second trophy then came into play.

The Cohasset YC had hosted the races from 1925 through 1933, but in 1934 the North American Yacht Racing Union (now the U. S. Sailing Association) took over and has conducted it ever since.

A fire at the American Yacht Club in 1951 destroyed the trophy and a replacement, the current trophy, was donated by Henry S. Morgan, president of the NAYRU and the son-in-law of Mrs. Adams.

Top of page