By Rich Loesel
In 1907 the first official race was organized by the Erie Yacht Club from Erie to Port Dover. The cup would be named after the first yacht to win the race, ANNETTE was the winner. (I supposed that they got the idea from the America Cup.} This race was only for EYC boats and was to be raced from Erie to a port in Canada. The race became very popular and many boats from other clubs wanted to sail in it.
In 1947 after many inquires had come from the Cleveland area, it was decided to create another trophy which would be sailed in conjunction with the Annette Race, the trophy was the Invitational and the race became know as the Erie Invitational and was for all entries. This was easy to do since the Annette had a special rating system and the new cup would be sailed under the USRA rating system. The first boat to win the Invitational was “White Cap” the owner is unknown, but I believe it was a Cleveland boat.
After the Interclub race was started and when the first race was sailed from Erie it became the Inter-Cup Trophy for the Erie to Dover leg. The Erie to Dover race also had a cup known as the Bruce Dell. The Bruce Dell was established in 1938 by the Canadians and was restricted to Erie and Port Dover boats. The Bruce Dell rating system is based on past performances, so designed so that eventually every boat would be a winner.