Author: Chris Szepessy

The Director of the Centre Island Bird Sanctuary in Oyster Bay, New York, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and engaging individuals through immersive experiences, Emmi Triplett is pairing passions for sailing and birding in one of the best jobs on the water. “I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey before moving to Houston, Texas,” says Emmi, “but I’d spend every summer with my grandmother in Rockport, Massachusetts where I went to learn-to-sail camp at…

By anyone’s standards, 2025’s 127th edition of Larchmont Race Week (July 11 – 20) was an overwhelming success. Nine days of sailing, over 450 boats and thousands of sailors involved, with nine nights of shoreside parties and events. Add to that how there was something for everyone on the schedule, ranging from fleet, team, and match racing to family fun races, swim relays, a pro/am tennis tournament, and a scheduled fishing derby and SUP relay races.  …

By Dave Hemenway Editor’s note: You’ll find previous installments on Dave’s restoration of a forlorn but solid Cape Dory 30 here. Once I got Moonshadow cleaned up, I realized that she is clearly my cruising boat for the future. She’s the perfect size for me as she’s long enough and spacious enough for serious cruising, yet small enough to easily handle single-handed with her cutter rig, and relatively light gear. She is also a relatively heavy boat…

By Michael Rice Introduction & conclusion by Judith Rice Meyer When my five sisters and I were teens and tweens, our father Michael Rice worked in Manhattan and enjoyed a 40-minute commute on the Long Island Railroad to our home in Port Washington. When our parents moved to Old Saybrook, CT in the 1990s, his commute expanded to a brutal two and a half hours each way on Amtrak. Every once in a while, Dad stayed overnight…

The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald By John U. Bacon Liveright, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company. 432 pages, $35 In the summer of 1976, this reviewer was a 15-year-old avid radio listener when “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a ballad by Canadian singer-songwriter by Gordon Lightfoot, hit the airwaves. With a melody described by the composer as “an old Irish folk song” and a sound utterly unlike anything I’d heard. I bought…

On one side of a wooden picnic table, Adi Kolff leaned over a colorful poster depicting a busy harbor, with cartoon kayaks, sailboats, and powerboats sharing the water. More than a dozen campers hovered around the sides of the table, looking out from under the brims of their visors, baseball caps, and bucket hats. At their backs was another busy waterbody—a real one, where dozens of sailboats bobbed on their moorings on a hazy July morning.  …

Report & photos by Stuart Streuli, NYYC Communications Director   A century ago, R Class yachts were the sports cars of the yachting world, sleek and low to the ground, nimble in the corners and quick around the course, and, above all, demanding to drive. A century later they still are, at least in the eyes of the skipper and crew that sailed Gamecock to victory in Class B at the 2025 Robert H. Tiedemann Classics Regatta. The biennial…

By Cary Wang From being the youngest sailor in the 2023 Newport Bermuda Race to being the lightest in the ILCA 6 class in the ILCA U.S. Championship, I had the incredible opportunity to race alongside 146 of the best Laser sailors and world champions from the US and other countries at the regatta, hosted by Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, NY June 27-29. It’s like if you’re a quarterback and you’re in the same…

By Sam Crichton The 23rd C. Thomas Clagett, Jr. Memorial Clinic and Regatta wrapped up in Newport, Rhode Island on June 22 for the 30 sailors with disabilities, after three days of competitive racing and camaraderie along with a two-day coaching clinic in the single handed 2.4mR class and the doublehanded Martin 16 class.     The three days of racing provided challenges for the Race Management team and sailors with a 30+knot breeze greeting the fleet on the…

By Kate Somers, rising Photos by Stephen R Cloutier Block Island Race Week’s final tent party was abuzz with anticipation and excitement the evening of Friday, June 27 as sailors and spectators awaited the announcement of cumulative awards for the regatta’s 60th anniversary. For the first time in recent memory, BIRW featured racing on all five days of the week, with fierce competition, extraordinary sailing and shoreside revelry.     “The Race Week and Storm Trysail team…