Racing

Photos by Manon le Geun Regular readers will know that Peter Gibbons-Neff recently arrived back in Annapolis after completing the 2023 Mini Transat. Finishing the race after losing a day to repair a broken rudder, his placing was not what we had all hoped for, but in such races merely finishing is a massive feat on its own. I spoke with Peter via Zoom in early January.   Coop: Peter, welcome back mate. Sorry about the placing….

By Tom McKeon October 7, 2023 was the 30th Anniversary of the Peconic Bay Sailing Association’s Whitebread Race. The race had all the hype and anticipation of a Super Bowl, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Taking place on Long Island’s Peconic Bays, the race’s name is a play on the significantly more arduous Whitbread Round the World Race. The wrath of Hurricane Ian played havoc with Whitebread 29 last October. Fog, Southeast winds from 18-30 knots, current…

Keelboat racing was the original form of intercollegiate sailing. From the McMillan Cup, first sailed in 1928 and formalized in 1930 as a quasi-national championship for college big boat crews, sprung a small number of spinoff events like the Kennedy Cup. Focused on the larger offshore keelboat fleets of the service academies, this form of intercollegiate big boat sailing was mega one-design competition. In the 1970s, that offshore schedule expanded with events like the Corinthians, rebranded in…

Submitted by Boris Badenov As a fly on the wall attending the recent 82nd annual Moosehead Awards Luncheon, it admittedly has been quite a while since my wife, Natasha and I laughed so much. As almost everyone in our region knows, the mission of the Mooseheads is to poke fun – in a good-natured way – at the foibles and fumbles of Race Committees. Poking fun is one way to put it … but “roasting” is probably more like it. To start, host…

By Michael Denicola The Mount Sinai Sailing Association in Mount Sinai, NY sponsored its 42nd Annual American Cancer Society Regatta on Saturday, September 16. We are very proud that our event is the second longest continuous running charity regatta in the United States. During that time, we have raised over half a million dollars for the American Cancer Society. We’d like to offer special thanks to two of our sister clubs for their support of this event. Thanks to…

By Buttons Padin The weather was the story over the first days of the four-day J/88 North American Championship, hosted by Larchmont Yacht Club in Larchmont, NY September 28 – October 1. With the opening day getting in four races in high teen/low 20s wind conditions, with the 4-6-foot sea state compounded by multiple days of easterly winds, Andy Graff (Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club) and his chilly, damp crew came ashore with a hold on the leaderboard…

By Stuart Steuli, New York Yacht Club Director of Communications Photos by Stuart Streuli and Julia Boron, NYYC   Successfully managing the extraordinarily shifty and variable winds that dominated the IC37 North American Championship required a crew that was both mentally and physically agile. This was particularly true for the final two races of the regatta, with thirteen Corinthian teams sailing inside Narragansett Bay in a very shifty and very puffy westerly. No lead was safe and…

New Double Handed Race Ends Long Island Sound Sailing Season By Buttons Padin Reflecting the increasing popularity of shorthanded sailboat racing, Larchmont Yacht Club and the Storm Trysail Club collaborated to create The Bitter Ender, a Long Island Sound season-closing doublehanded regatta to be sailed mid-October. The inaugural Bitter Ender was raced Friday night, October 13, starting and finishing off Larchmont Harbor. Unique to The Bitter Ender is its starting “window” from 1500 to 1800, whereby each…

The thrill of big boat racing for college sailors By Kate Somers Photos by Stephen R Cloutier The goal of the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta presented by ShopRite of Carteret is to give a unique keelboat experience to college sailors from around the world. From dinghy sailors – who may have never stepped on anything but a 420 – to experienced offshore teams with their own boats, the IOR is a rare opportunity to compete in a big…

Beginning with the next edition, April 18 -21, 2024, the regatta unlike any other has a new partnership and a new name. “Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point is the new event name, and it’s an exciting update as we advance the largest keelboat regatta in the Western Hemisphere,” said Regatta Chair Randy Draftz. “We will be on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Yorktown for the entirety of the event, with expanded use of the space only an…