By 1980 the Lido Fleet at Morro Bay Yacht Club had become well established. A Fleet Championship Race regatta was held to see who could earn the coveted red "L" for their sail. After a few years, Don Lockwood decided it was time to have a trophy for the Fleet Championships. While on the search for a trophy, Chuck Wilson (an active member of the fleet), mentioned that his son Ken was doing some nice inlay woodwork and could make us a nice trophy for a reasonable cost. Knowing what excellent work Chuck and Jean Wilson always do on a project, Don requested one immediately... no one was disappointed. Ken Wilson did a superb job on the trophy. The first winner was awarded the trophy in 1982.

The Fleet requested that the trophy be added into the roster with the rest of the Yacht Club trophies. It was a number of years before a Board would allow this. The reasoning was that "fleets never last", and that Fleet 59 was not part of the Yacht Club. Boards and time move on, and after it became pretty obvious that we were going to be around to stay for a while, and indeed we were part of the Yacht Club, the trophy was added to the roster.

The first deed of gift was very specific and required quite a few races to be won at different times of the year. Then it was changed to a two day regatta. Now, it is left up to the active group involved at the time, to decide how and where they would like to compete for the Lido Fleet 59 Championship.