Racing

Story and photos by Rick Bannerot The biennial running of Noroton Yacht Club’s Susan Widmann Sinclair Women’s Championship, presented by Fairfield County Bank the weekend of June 13-15, was a second wild and wooly event, thanks again to Mother Nature. Over the three days, the eight women’s teams, sailing eight identically-prepared Sonars, came from as far away as Halifax, NS; San Francisco, CA; and Hamilton, BER. The competitors experienced everything from blue skies and a modest breeze…

The First Season: 1922 By Gail M. Martin The first full season of racing for Candy boats was in the summer of 1922. Called the “skiff class” by The Providence Journal on April 17, 1922, “the fleet of 13 ½-foot wooden sailboats would compete on Saturday afternoons at the Tiverton Station of the Fall River Yacht Club. A series would run for eight races for trophies donated by Commodore. The first three boats in each event will…

By Kate Somers, risingT     The 78th edition of the Block Island Race, hosted by the Storm Trysail Club, delivered classic Northeast spring conditions and a course that tested every sailor’s resilience, tactics, and teamwork. Sixty-two boats departed Stamford on Friday afternoon for the 186-nautical-mile lap around Block Island, facing a mix of light air starts and heavy upwind slogs in the race’s signature “around-the-island-and-back” format. On the heels of a powerful nor’easter, the weather left its mark….

By Buttons Padin Photos by Eric Kruse   Spring was unusually cold, windy, and often rainy spring in the northeast, and that cold, dampness and chill helped shape this year’s Robie Pierce Regattas for sailors with disabilities, sailed in western Long Island Sound the weekend of May 29 – June 1. The Robie Pierce Regattas are run jointly by Larchmont and American Yacht Clubs, alternating venues every year. Honoring Robie Pierce (1941-2017), a beloved man of many…

By Phil Dickey, Essex Yacht Club   Essex Yacht Club’s seventy-third Wetherill Race, sailed May 16-17, was again a challenging and enjoyable ocean racing event. Reconfigured in 2021 to a 140-mile course from Old Saybrook, CT to Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard and back, leaving Block Island to starboard on the return leg, 80% of the race takes place in ocean waters. The Wetherill is an excellent spring tune-up for the Newport Bermuda Race, the Marion to…

The third annual Rhody Regatta will go down in the event’s short history as one of the toughest due to demanding winds and formidable waves encountered on an 18-mile course around Conanicut Island. The event, held May 31, was hosted by the International Yacht and Athletic Club (IYAC) and benefitted the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. “Of the eighteen race boats that entered, three did not start and six did not finish,” said Event Co-Chair Mick Harvey. “The remaining nine teams…

The 16th annual Village Cup Regatta, a friendly competition between Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson, NY, will set sail on Saturday, September 6. Presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club in partnership with the Village of Port Jefferson, the Regatta raises funds for Mather Hospital’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, the largest private funder of pancreatic cancer research in the world. Last year’s Regatta raised $80,000, which was divided between Mather Hospital…

By Buttons Padin This year’s Platinum Anniversary edition of Larchmont Yacht Club’s venerable Edlu Race, held Saturday, May 10, was a quick one. A predominantly northerly breeze let the fleet of fifty-one boats sail largely rhumbline courses to and from the single turning mark off Long Island’s Eaton’s Neck, 16 miles to the east. As they say, it was a “sporty” start to the race with winds in the high teens. Many boats started with reefed mainsails…

Our friends at Sound Sailing Center won their class at the 51st St. Thomas International Regatta in their Caribbean racer/cruiser Tatihou, a 2012 Jeanneau 409. Club members had sailed Tatihou from Connecticut to Bermuda and on to St. Thomas in December, as they have done for many years, and have now notched their second win in the Jewel of Caribbean Racing, hosted by the St. Thomas Yacht Club March 28-30.   “I had Tatihou remeasured this year…

By Aurora “Rory” Meunier Mott Photos by the author and Erica Lush     Who knew that a meeting over coffee would lead to a plane ticket to France? At the end of December 2024, I was invited to a breakfast meet and greet with my friend Ellie Menezes (with whom I’ve been sailing for about five years), Joe Cooper (my Prout Sailing coach) and shorthanded offshore racer Erica Lush. I’d heard of Erica and wanted to…