Racing

Photos by Daniel Forster/PPL Media The 52nd running of the Newport Bermuda Race is in the record books. Our friend Daniel Forster took to the air to capture the spectacular photographs presented on these pages.           Daniel Litchfield’s Hound, a vintage K. Aage Nielsen sloop, on her way to victory in Class 15.   © Daniel Forster/PPL    

Olympic hopefuls training at Sail Newport this summer One of the many aspects, of a depth unfathomable, of living in Newport, Rhode Island is the breadth and depth of the sailing that happens here. At the end of the high school sailing season last May, I noticed an assembly of Nacra 17 catamarans, one of the recent additions to the Olympic sailing roster, in the dinghy lot at Sail Newport. The fact there was a RIB whizzing…

By Nick Bowen   The Twenty Hundred Club opened their season on Saturday, May 22 with the third annual “Bridge Fiasco” Race. The rules are simple: Start the race just south of Prudence Island and sail under each of the three Narragansett Bay bridges – the Newport Bridge, the Jamestown Bridge and the Mt. Hope Bridge – in any order The course is 27.8nm long and the format of the race is pursuit style, which means your…

By Phil Dickey, MD, Skipper, Flying Lady Sam Wetherill, a founding member of the Cruising Club of America and early advocate of ocean racing, would have been pleased with the wind and sea conditions that prevailed during Essex Yacht Club’s 70th running of the race created to honor him. Two years ago, the race received a reconfiguration, which provides a longer (140nm) and more challenging open ocean race, which is especially suitable as a warmup to the Newport Bermuda…

By Chuck Gilchrest   The 2022 New England distance racing season kicked off in earnest as the New Bedford Yacht Club’s annual 109nm Whalers’ Race ran in ideal late spring conditions. After an hour-long delay to allow the breeze to build, the fleet left Padanaram Harbor in Dartmouth, MA in a light southerly as the start gun sounded at noon Saturday, June 4. Seventeen boats in five classes headed towards the Elizabeth Islands and a rounding mark…

Our friends at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, NY have taken another large step in “Building American Leaders Through Sailing.” On Friday, May 27 at 1400h, 70 sailors from Oakcliff were aboard five of the 86 boats competing in the Storm Trysail Club’s 75th Block Island Race. Amongst the race’s largest fleet in over a decade were eleven young women of Team Bitter End, sailing Oakcliff Farr 40 Blue. For Team Bitter End, the Block Island Race…

After being thwarted in 2020 and 2021, our friends at the Storm Trysail Club were finally able to run their May distance race in classic spring conditions. During the virtual weather briefing the night before the start, STC Commodore Ed Cesare said, “Welcome to the third annual 75th Block Island Race. Here’s hoping third time’s a charm.” Seventy-seven boats started the race on Friday, May 27 off Stamford, CT, with most of the fleet opting for the 186nm Block Island…

By Bill Wagner     Consistent breeze that ranged from light to medium to heavy? Check. Close competition and exciting racing across the broad spectrum of classes? Check. High-quality race committee work? Check. Factor in three days of beautiful, warm, sunny weather and the 2022 Charleston Race Week demonstrated why sailors come back year after year. Kevin McNeil, Farr 30 Seabiscuit skipper, was a newcomer to this iconic event and came away impressed. “I thought it was…

By Peter Becker Photos by Bill Shea Photography Last spring, I sailed an amazing race called the Bermuda 1-2. The first leg to Bermuda is sailed single-handed followed by a double-handed return to Newport. The solo offshore part was particularly rewarding and a great awakening to the joys of solo sailing. Short-handed sailing is so much fun that with the help of the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and the Cruising Club of…

Our friends at the Storm Trysail Club are pleased to be hosting (at last!) the 75th running of the Block Island Race. The 186nm spring classic starts Friday, May 27 off Stamford, Connecticut. “In 2020, the race was canceled due to the pandemic and in 2021, ‘N over A’ was hoisted to abandon racing the morning of the start due to a combination of extreme weather conditions that would have made racing unsafe for competitors,” said John…