Racing

By David Dellenbaugh “Why didn’t you cover?” is often the first question you hear when you were doing well in a race but got passed by one or more boats from behind. This is a great question, but it doesn’t always have a straightforward answer. “Covering” usually means staying between the next mark and one or more boats that are behind you. The goal of this tactic is simply to reduce your risk if the wind shifts…

By Jon Bawabe The Mystic River Mudhead Sailing Association’s 12th annual Mudnite Madness Overnite race, on Friday August 9, featured a picturesque night of sailing – a beautiful sunset, moonlit skies, and meteor showers throughout the night. The race started with twelve boats competing in two classes. Prior to the race, Mudnite T-shirts were provided free to all participants. The race started at 6 PM with moderate winds around 10 knots. From Horseshoe Reef in Fishers Island…

By Guy Gurney The 91st Atlantic National Championship was held at Cedar Point Yacht Club in Westport, CT from August 15 to 17. Clear winners in the fleet of 27 boats were David Peck, Tom Peck, Diane Peck Rothman and Bill Healy from Niantic Bay Yacht Club, aboard Miss April. They won four of the six races, throwing out a fifth! Second was Steve Benjamin in Cassidy, a constant threat as always, and in third was Rodrigo Meireles…

By Diane Kropfl & Eileen Campbell, Ms. Race Co-Chairs The Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club on the beautiful Sandy Hook Bay in Atlantic Highlands, NJ hosted their 15th annual Ms. Race on Saturday, August 17. This race is hosted by and for women sailors, with the support of the entire club and local community. This all-women event supports the local charity, 180 Turning Lives Around, that is dedicated to protecting, advocating and supporting victims of domestic violence and…

After an estimated 76,000 combined hours of fabrication and finishing work by the production and shore teams of New York Yacht Club American Magic, the U.S. Challenger’s first AC75 racing boat was officially named and launched at the team’s base in Portsmouth, Rhode Island on Saturday morning, September 14.   Named Defiant, the cutting-edge foiling monohull is the first America’s Cup class boat built to represent the New York Yacht Club in more than 16 years. The boat underwent initial testing on Narragansett Bay earlier in the week. Defiant was constructed at a dedicated…

By Kate Wilson, risingT Media It was a real test of patience for the 99 boats that attempted the 92nd Annual Conanicut Yacht Club Around The Island race on Sunday, Septemebr 1. Under a light northerly breeze, the Race Committee, led by Principal Race Officer Mark Grosby, started the first of ten fleets at 1100, but soon after the third fleet started, the wind completely shut off. The plan was to send the sailors counter-clockwise around Jamestown,…

By Barby MacGowan, Media Pro International For a 15th year, the Ida Lewis Distance Race indulged competitive racing sailors in an overnight sprint that proved both challenging and extraordinary. Thirty-one teams, in five classes for boats of 28 feet and longer, set out after noontime on Friday, August 16 to engage in a 110-mile course that took them from the start off Fort Adams in Newport, RI, past Castle Hill to Buzzards Bay Tower, then to a mark southwest of Block…

By Meg Reilly, Co-skipper Ocean Racers On Wednesday, August 28, a group of curious offshore sailors gathered at the Essex Yacht Club in Essex, CT for the second installment of the Essex Ocean Racing Forum. The quarterly meeting fell on a stormy summer night, providing the perfect complement to the event’s subject matter. The crowd was filled with commodores, various club members, Newport Bermuda racers, and seasoned blue-water cruisers. Hundreds of thousands of ocean mile experiences were…

By Rob Penner, 11th Hour Racing Team Communications Director Two-time Volvo Ocean Race participants Charlie Enright (Bristol, RI) and Mark Towill (Honolulu, HI), Co-Founders of 1 Degree, recently announced that they have formally renewed their team’s sponsorship with 11th Hour Racing for a long-term and visionary campaign, with their eyes set on the 2021-22 edition of “The Ocean Race” (formerly the Volvo Ocean Race). The team will be named “11th Hour Racing” after its title sponsor – Rhode…

By David Seabrook   I’ve served on race committee for the Indian Harbor Yacht Club Classic Yacht Regatta on and off since 2012, but this year’s edition, on Saturday, September 14, was the first time I’ve noticed a hipster millennial among the competitors. With a long, square-cut beard and a rail-thin physique, he looked right out of Brooklyn central casting. What was he doing at a classic yacht regatta in Greenwich, CT? Maybe he’d come to celebrate…