AFTER 135 YEARS, RED BANK ICE BOATERS RELINQUISH CUP

The checkered flag waves to signal the end of the first heat in the Van Nostrand Cup ice boat race on the Navesink River. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)

By BRIAN DONOHUE

For the first time since 1891, Red Bank’s home team ice boaters, the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat and Yacht Club, will have to hand back one of the oldest trophies in sports to the New York club that created it. 

A team from the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club rode their 130-year-old wooden boat, the Arial, to two straight victories in the best-of-three contest for the Van Nostrand Cup on the frozen Navesink River Monday morning.

Sailor Luke Lawrence kneels in the basket of the Arial after he and Max Lopez (behind him) won the Van Nostrand Cup ice yacht race in Red Bank, New Jersey. (Photo by Brian Donohue)

As the boat built by 19th-century architect Archibald Rogers came to a stop after their second straight win in the best of three, skipper Luke Lawrence and sheet tender Max Lopez exchanged hugs and gloved high fives with friends and family. One of several drones filming the action crashed into the sail and fell to the ice. 

Then, Lawrence paused for a quiet emotional moment, kneeling silently in the basket amid the hoots and hubbub. 

“I did this one for pop pop,” he said a few moments later, referring to his grandfather, Bob Lawrence, a boat builder and sailor. “He won a lot of stuff, but never this one. So this one is for him.”

The Hudson River Ice Yacht Clup’s boat Arial races just ahead of the North Shrewsbury Ice Boat & Yacht Club’s boat Ruth in a race for the Van Nostrand Cup on the frozen Navesink River in Red Bank. Six boats competed in a best-of-three contest. Each race was three laps around a one-mile loop. (Photo by Brian Donohue)

Lawrence is a fourth-generation member of the Hudson River Club who now races sailboats professionally.

When it comes to Lopez, well, the New Yorkers had a bit of a local ringer on their team. 

Lopez is an avid sailor who grew up in Monmouth County, graduated from Middletown South High School and knows the wind patterns over the Navesink better than the Route 35 jughandles. He’s such an avid soft water sailor he and his wife Abbie named their first child Windy.

The two are close friends from sailing circles, and Lawrence tapped Lopez to join him after his brother was unable to make it. 

Still, Lopez gave all credit for the win to Lawrence. 

“This guy, he sees the wind,” Lopez said. “The seagulls tell him which way the wind is blowing.”

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The Van Nostrand Cup was created by Gardiner Van Nostrand, a wealthy Hudson River ice boat owner who, in 1891, had crafted a Tiffany silver cup to be kept by the winning team. The NSIBYC won the cup in each of the four previous contests, including the most recent in 2003 and 1978.

 

A NY Times story on the 1978 race said the cup had been appraised at $20,000 – the equivalent of $100,000 in today’s dollars. Given its value, it is stored in a bank vault.

 

Even as a freeze for the ages settled over the region, creating ice thicker than it has been in years, the past few days have been illustrative of how hard it is to pull off a race of this sort.

 

The Hudson River sailors arrived in the middle of last week, only to have three days of wind so light it couldn’t push the boats. Saturday and Sunday saw the opposite, as gusts up to 50 miles per hour caused repeated scratches. 

 

When conditions were right Monday morning, the clubs wasted no time in getting their carefully restored antique boats to the starting line. 

 

When the six-boat race was over, members of both clubs said they hoped the contest can be held more regularly.  At least one prerequisite has already been met.

 

By tradition, the contest is held when the side holding the cup accepts a challenge from the other. 

 

As the two sides gathered for a round of “hip hip hoorays”, members of the Red Bank club said they’d already typed up the email challenging the Hudson River club to take the cup back to Jersey. 

 

For now, though, the Hudson River club will be looking for a “top secret” vault or other location to store it. 

 

“We’re bringing it back home,” said Dan Lawrence, Luke Lawrence’s father. “And hopefully we’ll race for it again real soon.”

 

redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331.

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