On Watch

A Past Commodore of Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, Elaine Haher is a longtime member of the organizing committee for the Ms. Race, an amazing charity race for all-women crews that AHYC has proudly hosted since 2005. An accomplished J/24 skipper and three-time Ms. Race winner, she serves as the event’s Principal Race Officer and shares her expertise in pre-race Skippers’ Talks. “I was born in Staten Island and first started sailing at…

A third generation boatbuilder and the newly appointed Curator at the Herreshoff Marine Museum & America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, Rhode Island, Evelyn Ansel is preserving maritime history and loving her work. Evelyn is the granddaughter of Willits Dyer Ansel (1929-2019) and daughter of Walter Ansel, both shipwrights at Mystic Seaport Museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. “Growing up in a family of boatbuilders had a very direct impact on my interest in boats,” says…

Pro sailor, race boat preparateur and one of America’s finest doublehanded racers, Rob Windsor has competed in every edition of The Atlantic Cup. “I was born in Maine but grew up in Centerport, New York,” says Rob, who resides in Portland, Maine. “I’m adopted and my parents had a Columbia 22 when they got me, so I’ve been sailing since before I can remember. Their next boat was a Pearson 26, and I remember cruising Long Island…

The co-founders of the Foundation for Underway Experiential Learning (FUEL), a non-profit organization in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, Captain Casey Blum, LCSW and Captain Ian Ridgeway offer young people high-adventure voyages of discovery, reflection and growth aboard a sailing ship. “I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia,” says Casey. “My family vacationed on Cape Cod, and my mom was looking for summer camps that I would enjoy. She heard about weeklong voyages aboard Alabama and Shenandoah on Martha’s Vineyard…

An enthusiastic sailor from a very young age, Beth Fleisher leads the race committee at one of the friendliest clubs in the Northeast and co-chairs a uniquely challenging – and very fun! – distance race. “I grew up on the South Shore of Long Island, on the Great South Bay,” says Beth. “My parents took me sailing when I was five weeks old. I was born in September so this was fall sailing, which I still love….

If someone told you they were born in the shadow of the Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, and in the next breath said they were in Newport, Rhode Island the following year watching the America’s Cup, you might scratch your head a bit. Stephanie McLennan was not properly “watching” the regatta, but she was there with her grandparents. There is a picture taken by her grandfather of Stephanie in a state of infant repose on the…

The first female Commodore of the Cruising Club of America (and recipient of the club’s prestigious Richard S. Nye Trophy), a New York Yacht Club Race Committee member, a member of the Fales Committee of the U.S. Naval Academy Sailing Program, a Maritime Studies Advisor to SUNY Maritime College, a past Director and Interim Executive Director of the Museum of Yachting, an executive committee member at Mystic Seaport Museum, longtime mainstay of US Sailing, an authorized Safety…

Most of us had childhood goals (visions really, at that young age), often ignited by something we experienced as kids. Griff Spinney’s first vision was from the lower spreaders on the R/P 66 Aurora, the fire-breathing race boat on which his dad, Latimer Spinney, was captain. T’was Block Island Race Week in 2007 and said yacht was competing so the Spinney family were on Block Island. When Aurora arrived back at the dock after racing one day,…

A graduate of the Shorthanded Offshore Acorn program at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, New York, Catherine “Cat” Chimney is back at the high performance training center on Long Island Sound with one of the coolest jobs in the sport…and she may be a future Olympic medalist. “I’ve been a wharf rat since I was born,” says Cat, whose very first sailboat race was frostbiting at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club with her father Ed Chimney, a longtime…

As President and CEO of the New England Science & Sailing Foundation (NESS) in Stonington, Connecticut, Michael “Spike” Lobdell has the helm of a remarkable non-profit ocean adventure organization founded with the goal of building brighter futures. He’s also one of the nicest guys in sailing. “I grew up in Rumson, New Jersey and started sailing when I was seven years old,” says Spike, who lives on Mason’s Island in Mystic. The boat of choice for learning back then…