Seamen’s Church Institute Centennial Speaker Series: Phil Lotz, New York Yacht Club American Magic

The Seamen’s Church Institute in Newport, Rhode Island presents its next Centennial Speaker Series event on Wednesday, June 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Celebrating 100 years of Seamen’s, this event is free and open to the public…and you are cordially invited!

Philip J. Lotz (Fort Lauderdale, FL/Newport, RI), Board Member of New York Yacht Club American Magic, a U.S. Challenger for the 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada (March 2021 in Auckland, New Zealand), will provide an update on the Newport-based team’s progress in their campaign to win sailing’s highest prize. Phil was part of the leadership group that founded American Magic in 2017 with the aim of reclaiming the oldest trophy in international sports for New York Yacht Club, the organization that started the event in 1851.

Phil was elected as the 65th Commodore of the New York Yacht Club in December 2016. A native of New York, he learned to sail in a Dyer Dhow on New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay and Cazenovia Lake, in upstate New York, and then spent five summers teaching sailing in Newport, RI. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was captain of the sailing team and the winning tactician in the 1978 Kennedy Cup, the collegiate big-boat championship. Recently retired from a successful career in finance and re-insurance, Phil was the managing director of the London Office of Greenwich Nat’West and, later, the executive chairman of Pillar Capital Management.

Phil is an avid sailor, having competed successfully in classes such as the J/105, Swan 42, Melges 32, Etchells and Viper 640. He won two national championships onboard his Swan 42, Arethusa, and skippered the New York Yacht Club entry to a win in the inaugural Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup in 2009. He currently owns a Gunboat 60, also called Arethusa, and has sailed and raced it extensively in New England and the Caribbean. He is also an accomplished team racer.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. There will be a reception from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m, followed by Phil’s presentation.

These lectures, on the second Wednesday of every other month from February to December, take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Mariners’ Lounge of the Seamen’s Church Institute, located on 18 Market Square in Newport. It will be open to the public without charge, though a suggested donation of $10 will help defray costs and fund the Institute’s outreach programs.

To register, visit https://seamensnewport.org/events/event-registration/?action=evrplusegister&event_id=72