Racing

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…

52nd Newport Bermuda Race starts June 17 By Barry Pickthall for WindCheck It is one of the great classic races. The biennial Newport Bermuda Race, now in its 116th year, was first conceived back in 1906, the same year as the Transpac from San Francisco to Honolulu. Between these two pioneering events, they seeded the other great races around the globe including the biennial Fastnet Race in the UK and the annual Sydney/Hobart classic in Australia, now…

By John Burnham, Newport Bermuda Race Media Team Co-chair At press time in mid-February, with entries open until April 3, 202 boats had entered the 635nm Newport Bermuda Race, which starts Friday, June 17. Organized by the Cruising Club of America and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, the race has a limit of 220 entrants, but anyone who ends up on the waiting list will likely make the start, as some attrition is normal between April and…

Story & photos by Tom Darling   In this second pandemic winter, we rediscover the ultimate socially distanced outdoor recreation for sailors. That would be Frostbiting, or as they say on the Larchmont Yacht Club website, Winter Sailing. Emerging in the depths of the Great Depression, winter dinghy sailing consumed some of the greats of that time, including the inestimable Arthur Knapp, Jr., considered the godfather of winter sailing with his pipe and professorial approach to yachting….

The 2022 RORC Transatlantic Race By Chad Corning, Argo Racing Program Manager   The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Transatlantic Race was first run in 2014 and has increased in popularity over the years. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a beautiful racecourse starting from the stark, volcanic Canary Islands and ending 3,000 miles across the Atlantic at the island of Grenada. A record fleet of thirty yachts (that’s a lot for a race this long) took part in 2022….

  Editor’s note: For this final installment in our Herreshoff Jubilee Celebration series, we’re visiting a very enthusiastic Herreshoff one-design fleet in the Florida Keys. Our friends at the Herreshoff Marine Museum & America’s Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, Rhode Island are celebrating their Golden Jubilee year – the 50th anniversary of the museum’s founding, and WindCheck is honored to be the official Jubilee Media Partner. The Herreshoff Marine Museum is located on the grounds of the former…

Mark Zagol is the 2021 Viper 640 North American Champion, with Grace Howie and Meredith Killion victorious in the inaugural Viper 640 Women’s North American Championship Our friends at Noroton Yacht Club in Darien, CT hosted the first ever Viper 640 Women’s North American Championship and the 2021 Viper 640 North American Championships on October 2 & 3 and 7 -10, respectively. Boat speed was the name of the game in the first event of “Viper Week”…