© Max Muller
A lifelong sailor and surfer, and more recently an avid kiteboarder, Alie Toppa is a four-time Collegiate All-American, the first winning skipper of the New York Yacht Club Women’s Championship and, along with her twin sister Liza, one of vineyard vines’ Real Good People.
“I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and learning to sail there was pretty epic,” says Alie, who now calls Newport, Rhode Island home. “Alongside my twin sister Liza, we had a super-tight group of friends we grew up with and all did it together. We sailed out of Lauderdale Yacht Club, and from a super young age we quickly got used to towing out to the ocean every weekend and being thrown into big wind and big waves in our Optis and absolutely loving it.”
“Some core memories of these days are coming in from a long day of racing as a bunch of competitive 12-year-olds and having the best time at the LYC pool together, while probably tormenting the lifeguards and ordering too many chicken fingers off our parents’ tab. I’ve been surfing since I was about 7 or 8. I was skateboarding before that, and then used Mom’s surfboard one day and was hooked.”
Alie’s father is longtime North Sails Expert Mike Toppa. “I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have the Dad that I do. He’s the reason I get to do what I love, and he taught me how to go about it. Having won two America’s Cups, he knows a thing or two! Looking back on how Dad got us into sailing, I’ve learned that it’s how you approach it and enjoy it along the way that will bring you joy and success in the sport.”
“Growing up, sailing was the center of everything we did. We were traveling to regattas all over the world and having the absolute best time. Homeschooling became inevitable due to our busy schedule and all the school days we were missing, but we made it work. Traveling and competing one weekend after another became second nature to us. This carried into the way we live life now, from a lifestyle of our own and making the most of opportunities. Having my mom Libby as my teacher and Dad as my mentor…my parents are superheroes!”
“Other than Dad, my other significant sailing mentors have been my coaches, one of the most influential being Sarah Newberry, an Olympian in the Nacra 17. Sarah first coached me in the 29er when Liza and I were sailing in a clinic out of Long Beach, California. She taught me a lot about self-discipline and recognizing all of my strengths and how to use them. She kept things fun but was super hardball when she needed to be, and that always went a long way with me. She was real with us. I really like that about her. I’ve held onto this.”
“Liza and I got into 29ers after a quick stint of 420 sailing, to get a doublehanded rhythm together. It was a very natural transition, and being twin sisters helped. Liza was the super crew and I skippered. We started sailing 29ers out of Miami Yacht Club. Leandro Spina was the facilitator of it all. He was the brains and motivation behind getting us to our goal of representing the USA at the ISAF Youth Worlds. Between the first time stepping into the 29er and when we reached that goal, there were a lot of tears, fights, capsizes, and ripped sails, but we kept going despite our smaller size.”
“Our first ever 29er regatta was the 2014 World Championship, hosted out of CORK in Kingston, Ontario. Dad drove us up from Newport with the 29er on the roof of the car. I’ll never forget that regatta. It was classic CORK conditions, with 20- to 25-knot days. We were still very small and to sum the event up for us, it was a good race if we made it across the start line in time without being capsized and unable to right the boat. But from that experience we learned the boat and kept pushing to get bigger and better. This led us to a lot of success in the class together, with our ISAF Worlds berth being a highlight.”
“The 2015 ISAF Youth Worlds were in Langkawi, Malaysia. We ended up 17th overall. It was not our best showing as we were still a much lighter duo amongst our competitors and it blew hard. But on top of the experience we gained, it was a great event to be a part of and added it to our repertoire of knowledge and exposure. Towards the latter half of my 29er career, I started sailing with Jacob Rosenberg, a very talented Southern California sailor who trained a lot with me and Liza. He crewed for me in the 2017 29er World Championship where we placed 7th overall, and we won the U.S. National Championship together.”
“I studied Public Health and Environmental Sustainability at the College of Charleston. Highlights from my time on the Sailing team include being a four-time All-American and helping the team secure a National Championship. I sailed with Annabel Carrington, who was an All-American crew and one of the best I’ve ever sailed with, no doubt. I attribute a lot of my collegiate sailing success to Annabel, along with my coach Conner Blouin, who just recently won the Sunfish World Championship. Conner and I had a great relationship while I was on the team and he invested a lot of his coaching into my sailing style, which I appreciated.”
“Some of my best Charleston memories revolve around the team culture we had, and getting to go to school and sail with all my best friends every day. The talent on the team ran super-deep. Every practice day was top-level and everyone fought hard and earned their position on the team. That definitely showed. But when we weren’t duking it out on the racecourse, we all made the most of living in Charleston and would surf and kite together when conditions permitted, which luckily was a lot of the time. I’m confident this type of bonding and extracurriculars benefited us greatly as a team.”
Alie skippered the winning boat in the inaugural New York Yacht Club Women’s Championship, sailed out of Harbour Court in Newport in 2022. “I sailed with Kate Nota, Emmy Horowitz, Jo Ann Fisher, and Maisie MacGillivray. We had never sailed together as a team, but we all just came together super-well and found our groove. Our keys to success were keeping things simple and consistent, just like a college regatta with about eighteen to twenty boats on the line, and keeping finishes to single digits. I think we only won one of the races, and we just tried to pick off as many boats as we could each race and minimize mistakes. That ended up doing the trick, and we took the win right at the very end when it mattered most.”
“I didn’t start kiting until my freshman year of college. I learned off the beach in Fort Lauderdale in the pounding shore break which made it super challenging at first, but the sport is a healthy combination of surfing and sailing, my two favorite things, so I picked it up pretty quickly. I’ve kited in a lot of different places, with some of my favorite spots being Mokuleia on the North Shore of Oahu, getting to play in the big waves out there. Pompano Beach, Florida can provide some pretty epic conditions. I’ve had very memorable sessions there, right up there with Hawaii, but one of the best sessions I’ve ever had was in Rhode Island. I did a downwinder from Second Beach to Horseneck Beach, which was around 13 miles. It was a super-windy day and I was on a 6-meter kite and surfboard out in big waves and chilly October air. I loved it!”
“Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten involved in different types of sailing that have broadened my skill set outside of one-design racing. I’ve grown to love bigger boats across the board, including superyachts and classics. Recent opportunities I’ve had racing these sorts of boats have opened my eyes to how dynamic a sport sailing is, and the beauty in the different disciplines. Whether you’re rounding the top mark in a high-performance skiff and hoisting the asymmetrical kite on a hot downwind angle at top speed, or trimming the mizzen on a 1940s mahogany yawl on a fixed downwind course, it’s all the same concept just different style. To experience that in different ways is so valuable, and has helped me become such a more well-rounded sailor to take expertise to any sort of boat or racing.”
“This past spring I had the opportunity of sailing from Antigua to Tahiti on a 110-footer. This was unlike any offshore sailing I had done before and definitely the longest distance I’ve covered to date. The feeling of making landfall in French Polynesia is something I’ll never forget. My surfboard and I finally got a good workout in Tahiti. Those waves were well worth the patience of the crossing.”
“Separately, Shields Fleet 9 right here in Newport has some of the most competitive racing you can ask for. On any given Wednesday night, you’re lining up with World Champions, Olympians, America’s Cup sailors, etc., all on one line across the average 25-boat fleet. We all sail together as a family on our Shields Bomba Charger. It’s a really good time, and I love sailing with Dad and getting to share the experience with him. We like to hold our own in the fleet.”
“In my opinion, Newport checks all the boxes,” Alie enthuses. “In the summertime, the town is flooded and with good reason. Everyone flocks here for the high-caliber sailing scene that it is, and the opportunities and conditions definitely present themselves. Living equidistant from one of the most well-respected yacht clubs and also one of the best waves on the East Coast, I consider myself pretty lucky. This goes for the winter as well. The town is much quieter but the waves are better…less crowded, too. My favorite places to be around town have to be either surfing at Ruggles or hanging out on the rocks somewhere by the water. We have a rocky coastline so it’s more than just beaches, which is cool.”
“The best thing about sailing is the life it allows for you. No matter how involved you are, recognizing the complexity and challenges that come with any type of sailing are super-transferable into day-to-day life. The feeling of winning a regatta or the sense of accomplishment after making a safe passage both come with a lot of hard work, overcoming obstacles, and sometimes even sacrifice. Emphasized on the water, these skills start to seem much easier to exercise in everyday life. Additionally, being a sailor means being in tune with the natural world: winds, tides, waves, shifts, storms, etc. Being attached to things out of our control as human beings is so good for us. I wouldn’t give that up, and am so fortunate to have sailing to keep me so connected to nature.” ■
