Yachting History

By Brian M. Stinson Editor’s note: With the Ida Lewis Distance Race presented by Bluenose Yacht Sales starting August 16, we wonder how many participating sailors – particularly those in the Youth Challenge division – are familiar with the namesake of both the race and its host yacht club. Much has been written about “the Heroine of Lime Rock,” though not always unembellished. Newport historian Brian Stinson sets the record straight.   In the fall of 1858,…

Reliving the Past in Intercollegiate Sailing We learned in the recent streaming series on the New England Patriots, “The Dynasty,” that a true dynasty team needed to have at least three successive championships in four attempts to be described with the D-word. The 1960s Boston Celtics, the ‘80s LA Lakers, and ‘90s Chicago Bulls come to mind. In the mid-1970s, in the very early days of Women’s intercollegiate sailing, one team made that grade and went one…

Planes, trains, and pilot cutters Dateline: October 2023, The Royal Ocean Racing Club, London The pilot cutter in question, Jolie Brise, won the first Fastnet Race in 1925. Originally a French Pilot Boat out of Le Harve, in the 1920s, she was subsequently sold to the British yachtsman Bobby Somerset. The first edition of what became the Rolex Fastnet Race was at that time called, no kidding, The Ocean Race. At the post-race gathering of competitors in…

In the Gilded Age, gentlemen sailors looked to designers like Herreshoff, Crane and Burgess for their custom sailing yachts. As the 20th century unfolded, however, a new age design emerged, that of the semi-custom keelboat, purchased by like-minded sailors interested in competing in fleets as one-designs. We call it the “Club Classic Keelboat.” The idea of designing a boat to a single design or class was a 20th century phenomenon. When young Clinton Crane was commissioned in…

By Brian Stinson This September 26 marks the 40th anniversary of Newport losing the cup – the America’s Cup. I was born in Providence but raised in Newport, Rhode Island – the sailing capital of the world and beyond – and feel extremely privileged to have witnessed many incredible, outrageous, comical, over-the-top moments and spontaneous events.     The summer of 1983 was not my favorite, but events of that momentous day produced the most incredible spectacle…

By Tom Darling, Conversations with Classic Boats I have been accumulating my travel notes over the past six months of crisscrossing New England and present this Baedeker of my favorite nautical museum venues present and future. These collections are as classic as their contents. From the 2022 opening of The Sailing Museum in Newport, RI to the exciting prospect of a dramatic new home for the watercraft collection of the Mystic Seaport Museum, there has never been…

1922–1932: Star Racing Expands Around the World By Carol Newman Cronin Published by the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association, all rights reserved     The first decade of international Star Class competition saw exponential growth on almost every continent. In 1922, six boats sailed a championship out of Manhasset Bay in Western Long Island Sound; it was the first time that any sailors from the East and West Coasts and Great Lakes had all started together…

Not many clubs can boast of having supported junior sailing for 100 years. Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT is proud to be among the few. Started in 1923, the Club’s junior sailing program has given thousands of children, those of members and non-members alike, an appreciation for the “sport of yachting.” To celebrate this momentous occasion, alumni of the junior sailing program and former instructors are invited to return to the Club on Saturday, June…

By Tom Darling, Conversations with Classic Boats This boating history is one of connecting the dots of boat design over almost a century, with names that are larger than life: Uffa Fox, Bruce Kirby, Dr. Stuart Walker. Their common heritage is small boat performance sailing. As a sailor in Long Island Sound who escaped the slow and steady Blue Jay and Lightning for the speed and trills of the Thistle and the Laser, I can identify. I…

Great boats make great stories. Iconic small boats and the stories that launched them – that is the subject of the new exhibit, Story Boats, at Mystic Seaport Museum (MSM) opening May 28 in the Collins Gallery at the Thompson Exhibition building on the Museum campus in Mystic, CT. Just a few of more than 400 small boats at Mystic Seaport Museum   Story Boats: The Tales They Tell is the brainchild of MSM’s Senior Director of…