Racing

By Phillip Dickey, EYC Regatta Committee In order to promote ocean racing in the Essex Yacht Club (EYC) and in the eastern Long Island Sound region, a group of sailors from the regatta committee of the EYC created the EYC Ocean Racing Forum in 2019. We decided to build on the strength of EYC in ocean racing—five boats skippered by EYC sailors competed in the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race—to create a forum which would bring together experienced…

By Tom Darling In 1869, Princeton University’s football team travelled to New Brunswick, New Jersey to play the first intercollegiate football contest. One hundred and fifty years and eleven days later, the Princeton Club Sailing Team led a hardy group of post-season intercollegiate sailors in the debut of their own peculiar sporting event. Sailing 30-foot Shields keelboats in 30-degree temperatures and 25-knot winds on Oyster Bay’s West Harbor on November 16, the kids now called it “extreme…

By Dan Dickison Nothing can undermine credibility faster than an unsubstantiated claim. So, it’s good to know that the people behind the largest multiclass gathering in North America – Sperry Charleston Race Week – always make good on the tagline they’ve adopted for their event: “A regatta unlike any other.” In recent years, Race Week’s organizers have worked hard to cement their springtime event as a bucket-list fixture on the U.S. sailing scene. They’ve done this primarily…

With the start of the 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada just over a year away, New York Yacht Club American Magic is currently testing, tuning and training at their winter base in Pensacola, FL. We caught up with Rob Ouellette, the American challenger’s COO.   WindCheck: Where did you grow up, and how old were you when you started sailing? Rob Ouellette: I grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts and really started sailing at summer camp when…

Mother Nature may have kept the breeze light for this year’s Storm Trysail Foundation Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta but that gave ace shooter Steve Cloutier a chance to meet the teams. © Stephen R Cloutier

  Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY hosted the Storm Trysail Foundation’s 2019 Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta (IOR) Presented by ShopRite of Carteret on October 12 & 13. More than 350 collegiate sailors raced 48 one-design and PHRF boats (plus one safety officer/owner’s representative per boat), one of the largest turnouts in the IOR’s almost 50-year history. Forty-two colleges were represented, with six schools racing two boats. With “drifty-shifty” conditions, the LYC race committee could only run three…

By Donovan McSorley The Gearbuster, hosted by Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT and first sailed in October of 1956, has become one of the premier fall sailing events on Long Island Sound, and this year featured 57 entries from over 20 clubs. Gearbuster sailors normally compete on one of two courses, the 46.5-nautical mile Stratford Shoal Course, which includes five spinnaker divisions, and the 19nm Eatons Neck Course, which includes two non-spinnaker divisions. Originally sailed as…

  “Long Island Sound sailing conditions were spectacular!” said AYC Sailing Director Kevin Broome. “Everyone, including sailors, Race Committee, and support boats worked hard. Our wind ended up being a little stronger than the forecast each day. Warm weather, wind, and some waves were enjoyed by everyone, and it was a great weekend all the way around!” John Sommi’s Cloud9 (Darien, CT) highlighted the 11-boat J/88 class with a sensational two weekends of racing, posting seven bullets in a row…

By Stuart Streuli They won the first race and the last race, and the inaugural Melges IC37 National Championship, which was hosted by the New York Yacht Club at their Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, RI September 27 – 29. But it was far from a routine regatta victory for the crew of the Members Only syndicate, which is led by NYYC members Jay Cross, Ben Kinney and Hannah Swett. Of course, nothing good ever comes easy…

Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT hosted the 2019 Kirby Cup Team Race on the weekend of October 5 & 6. With champagne conditions and many of the top team racers in the country doing battle in Sonars, the regatta was an amazing boat handing skills, attacks, defenses and general mayhem, with hardly a clatter of fiberglass and nothing busted in two days of playing chicken on Long Island Sound. After a perfect southerly that built to…