With the last drops of Mount Gay Rum poured on another gangbusters regatta in Annapolis, Maryland, in May, with more than 200 boats, the organizing squad of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series packed their belongings and headed straight to Detroit’s Bayview YC for a long overdue re-addition to the regatta series.

It had been a good 14 years since the series called on Detroit sailors, and for this edition, the sailors answered with the same high enthusiasm of 2010. With nearly 100 boats scattered across Lake St. Clair, there was no “Lake St. Stupid” this time around. The regatta opened with a spectacular day of sun and breeze and continued from there, delivering tight racing, especially among the regatta’s big three fleets: the J/120s, J/111s and J/35s.

The sailors of the regional J/35 class put on a great show with its growing fleet. Most of these now-decades-old 35-footers have been returned to racing form, and the top three were locked in ­boat-on-boat battles over three days. At the start of the final race, Mike Welch’s team on Falcon was sitting on a 1-point lead, but an OCS had them clawing their way back to win the race and the series by 2 points over their arch rivals on Bill Wildner’s Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride.

“That was quite a ­comeback, and there’s definitely luck involved,” Welch says. “When you’re over early, the wind literally goes out of your sails, but our crew kept it together and stayed positive.”

Falcon’s stellar perseverance earned them the regatta’s overall title and a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in October, a battle of regatta champions in the British Virgin Islands on Sunsail-provided 41-footers.

The Regatta Series continued its Great Lakes tour with a stop in Chicago once again, where the Windy City made good on its reputation. With 150 boats across 16 classes, including several fleets of distance racers, competitors enjoyed three days of racing, and here it was Brian Kaczor’s team on the Tartan 10 Erica that was plenty ready for the big breeze of the final day. After six challenging races in total, Erica’s winning margin was a single point, and it was this point that they had fought for in the final race. The class win also earned Kaczor’s team the regatta’s overall title and the BVI berth.

“We hung on to first place, barely,” Kaczor says. “We had a tough day with tactics and my driving, but we were able to make up a lot of it on the ­downwind stuff.”

Their downwind speed in top-end conditions, Kaczor says, was all down to the crew: Corey Fast, Christa Georgeson, Scott Melanson, Seth Morrell, Brian Nelson and Chuck O’Donnell. “They were the key in the last race. We had to catch one more boat, and there was no question that the chute had to go up to catch that one boat in front of us,” he says. “The crew was amazing, and was able to ­handle that and pull it off.”

Marblehead has long served as the final regatta of the US series, and this year’s edition was hosted by the Eastern YC with support from Boston and Corinthian. In the days prior, the groms of Junior Race Week had been skunked with only one race scored, but the wind gods favored the adults with a challenging day of breeze on the opening day for the bulk of the fleets. With 161 boats spread across three race circles, three classes competed for their New England Championship titles: Sailors on Viper 640s, J/70s and Town Class, and Lightnings vied for their Atlantic Coast Championship.

The regional J/105 fleet has always been strong, and it was a relatively new team in Matthew Herbster’s No Quarter who played the spoiler and left with the ultimate spoils: the BVI Berth. As a group of friends who have been racing with or against one another in different classes, together they’ve been quick to get up to speed, winning the regatta in what is now their ­second season with the boat.

They battled with perennial champ Merlin throughout the regatta, and Herbster says that the win was bittersweet when racing was abandoned on the final day. “Merlin beat us on the water, but one bad spinnaker set [on Saturday] set them in,” he says. “We wanted to go out and win today, but we were robbed of that [opportunity] because of the weather. But we are happy to go back out with them and settle the score.”

On No Quarter and headed to the BVI with Sunsail in October were Jonathan Dragonas, Julie Femino, Noah Flaherty, Ted Johnson and Chris Small. They’re confident that they’ll take their collective skills to the Caribbean and do just fine against the regatta series’ five other challengers and the defenders. According to the team, they’ll go down there and do what they do. They’ll figure out how to sail the boat, get it fast, and have fun.

With No Quarter finalizing the BVI lineup, they’ll also be facing Steve and Catherine Boho’s Melges 24 team on The 300 (St. Petersburg winners), Cate Terhune’s team on the J/70 Casting Couch (Annapolis), and the defending champions of Cedric Lewis and Fredrik Salvesen’s Team Mirage.

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On June 8, 2024, ahead of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week, the Widnall Prize was offered by the International Class (IOD) Fleet of Marblehead. The magnificent silver tray will be the perpetual trophy for the winner of the International Class at the annual regatta.  

The prize is dedicated to Bill Widnall, a legendary sailor in Marblehead, nationally, and internationally.  Widnall joined the Marblehead IOD fleet in 1966, and since that time has set a standard of excellence that is unlikely to be challenged by any future sailor.  To date, he has won twenty-seven Marblehead season championships, twenty-eight Marblehead Race Weeks, and ten International Class World Championships.

In addition, Widnall deserves much of the credit for bringing a new generation of sailors to Marblehead, top-flight competitors, including many who also won IOD World Championships – John Wales, Steve Wales, Charlie Hamlin, Ted Cook, Jud Smith, Bobby McCann, Peter Warren, and Bruce Dyson. Bill is a fierce competitor on the water, but always a generous, supportive, and gentle mentor ashore. He is a true sportsman who has been a quiet leader of the World Class for over fifty years (and counting.)

The prize is a beautiful sterling silver tray with a roped edge. It is hand-engraved in classic style. Across the upper part of the trophy are highlights of Bill’s achievements in the Class, the places where the number Bill’s accomplishments would be engraved in the trophy are intentionally blank – they will be engraved later—for Widnall is still sailing, and hopes to increment his accomplishments in each of those categories in the future.

The Marblehead Race Association and IOD Class will award this prize for the first time on July 28, 2024 at the conclusion of this year’s Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta at Marblehead Race Week. 

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FINAL RESULTS

REGATTA PHOTO GALLERY

Brian Kaczor’s Team on Erica was ready for the big breeze coming their way on the third and final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, but they were unprepared for how difficult it would be to defend their lead and pull off a win in the ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet. After six challenging races in all ranges of wind, Team Erika’s winning margin was a single point, and it was this point they had fight for in the final race.

“We hung on to first place, barely,” Kaczor said. “We had a tough day with tactics and my driving, but we were able to make up a lot of it on the downwind stuff.”

Their downwind speed in top-end conditions, Kaczor says, was all down to the crew (Corey Fast, Christa Georgeson, Scott Melanson, Seth Morrell, Brian Nelson, and Chuck O’Donnell). “They were the key in the last race. We had to catch one more boat and there was no question that the chute had to go up to catch that one boat in front of us,” he said. “The crew was amazing, and was able to handle that and pull it off.”

The class win also earned Kaczor’s team the regatta’s overall title and a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Caribbean Championship in October, hosted by Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands. The team will face winners from the regatta series’ other stops, as well as the 2023 defending champion.

For many sailors in the fleet, Sunday’s strong winds were reminiscent of Friday’s. A fast-building northwest wind pushed boats, gear, and crew to their limits, with more than one team reporting breakages and blown sails. Still, the Chicago and Corinthian YCs gave the sailors a full slate of races and enough stories to share all summer. This edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta will certainly be remembered for its testing but tasty champagne conditions. Beneteau 36.7 skipper Robert Nelson’s lasting memory was challenges his team on Free Radical faced in the final race while persevering to win the class.

“It was incredibly close racing,” Nelson said. “The biggest key for us on Friday was keeping the boat under control and under the chute. We made out that day and were 1-2-1. Keeping your air clean and the boat under control. When it’s as windy as it was, with the Beneteau 36.7, the winning technique is the helm and main trimmer being in sync. This was some of the most competitive racing I’ve experienced in this fleet and I’ve been in the fleet since 1996.”

On the One-Design White Circle, Andy Graff’s Team Exile experienced its share of broaches, as they had on Friday, and had a tough day today but pulled off a 4-point win. “We entered the day with a 1-point lead and in the first race we just covered the boats near us in the standings. In the last race I didn’t know the scores of the boats behind us, but we didn’t want to put a kite up—knew we just had to finish. The last race was a hard race…we were just trying to get around without hurting anything or breaking anything.”

In the J/105 class, John Kalanik’s Pura Vida pulled off an impressive win in the big breeze, earning the team’s first win in the boat. “We went in leading and had two good races and were still leading,” says Jim Elvart, Kalanik’s helmsman for the weekend—they trade off between helm and mainsail trim. “But in the last race we hit the weather mark. We were last for a bit and had to come back to save enough points. Over the weekend we had a few great experiences, but this is a great first regatta win for this new team.”

The regatta’s distance racers were again treated to 20 miles of fast sailing that had the first boats across the line after less than four hours. Thomas Papoutsis J/133 Renegade won its second race of two to win its ORC 1 division; Ben Wilson’s Rambler won its ORC 2 division and Tomasz Kokocinski’s Koko Loco 2 survived the day to enjoy a 1-point win in PHRF 1. Ben White’s Farr 38 Radiance was the top boat in PHRF 2 with a second in the day’s race, which was won by Branwell Lepp’s J/105, It Wasn’t Me.

Action on the Green Circle continued into the final race with Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s team on Mojo strolling away with the class win with a 10-point margin over Tom Weber’s La Tempete.

Michael Hendries’s J/109 Bull was a standout performer this weekend with four wins in six races. Hendrie has been racing the boat for 14 seasons as its helmsman under the ownership of local sailor Jim Murray [Calisto], but this was his first win as the new owner and driver of the boat, renamed Bull.

“It was a relief to win,” Hendrie said. “I didn’t sail much last year and to come to this regatta and pull it all together was a relief because we started with a few mishaps on Friday—our jib halyard shackle broke twice and that set us back initially.”

Bull was down by 3 points going into the day, but they made their move to the top of the scoreboard with a win in the first race. “We had a great start, tacked, crossed the fleet and knocked it out from there. It was shifty, though, and we played the shifts really well in that race.

“But the next two races we did not have great starts—were over early on the third one, came back and were able to claw our way back in that big breeze. We are good and set up well for the heavy breeze, we’re comfortable in it. When the big breeze comes on, we were able to minimize the errors and sail fast.”

Shawn and Jerry O’Neill’s Sydney 38 Eagle won its ORC division; Tod and Heidi Patton’s J/122e Blondie was the top PHRF Spinnaker winner and Jim Murray’s Calisto Racing [Hestia] was the top J/70, winning four of six races to beat out Laura Sigmond’s Norboy by 5 points. Norboy was the top Mixed-Plus J/70 team and Bob Willis’ Rip Rullah was top Corinthian.

Roman Plutenko and Csilla Gal were the regatta’s top ILCA sailors (6 and 4, respectively) with three races counted.

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With the 2023 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series bidding farewell, and thanks to the sun-soaked action in St. Petersburg, Florida, in February, the series swapped coasts in March for the second stop in San Diego, birthplace of West Coast civilization and the California burrito, and a mecca of year-round sailing that churns out champions. Ninety-six boats across 13 fleets set out from the San Diego and Coronado yacht clubs each morning to the dual racecourses of San Diego Bay and the vast Pacific. On the ocean course, local Beneteau 36.7 sailors witnessed one of the greatest upsets in modern class history when Peter Cochran’s Rode Rage crew halted the 11-year regatta winning streak of Chick Pyle and his team on Kea. It was indeed a battle of the Bennies that came down to the final races. In the first, Rode Rage escaped from a crowded start and put up its first win of the day while Kea had to battle back from a botched start to finish third. It was enough for Cochran and company to simply cover Kea in the final race, and it was all said and done—until next time, Pyle says.

The San Diego regatta also featured Para Sailing for the first time, with Martin 16s and Hansa 303s trading tacks in the protection of Coronado’s Glorietta Bay. It was a sight to behold, with Hansa skipper Jim Thweatt using his Hansa series win to boost awareness of Para Sailing locally and abroad.

Next up came Annapolis, a hive of one-design racing that makes this Chesapeake Bay capital the sailing-crazed town it is. With 154 entries across 13 fleets, the regatta encompassed the most popular one-designs of the area: J/105s, J/22s and Viper 640s. It also featured the inclusion of two new-to-the-regatta doublehanded dinghy fleets: the modern Melges 15 and the classic Wayfarer Dinghy class, which has been active for decades in the US but assembled in Annapolis to join the fun and a challenging weekend of races.  

Chicago is never one to be outsized. True to form, the only freshwater regatta of the series welcomed 162 teams and 15 fleets, as well as the DragonForce 65 remote-­control racers, who traditionally provide the Saturday-night party entertainment. The addition of ILCAs and a special appearance by six-time Formula Kite world champion Daniela Moroz at the regatta’s Speaker Series were highlights for the area’s junior sailors. In the Windy City, the breeze cooperated for the most part and allowed the J/70s—the regatta’s biggest fleet—to put six quality races on the scoreboard over three days. Richard Wizel’s Rowdy won by an astonishing 15 points in a fleet stacked deep with talent; many teams were using multiple stops of the series as stepping stones to the J/70 World Championship in St. Petersburg in late October.

Straight from the bustle of Chicago’s vibrant lakefront, the series transitioned to the sleepy seaside town of Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston. With a harbor jam-packed with boats and locals soaking in the finest and waning days of their New England summer, the place was abuzz with 142 entries across 10 classes. On the waters of Massachusetts Bay, the Viper 640, J/70 and Town class fleets gathered to contest their New England Championship titles, with the big-fleet Vipers pulling in a top-shelf Canadian contingent. The return of the Lightning class to this edition of Marblehead Race Week—after a nearly 40-year absence—was celebrated by all, including National Sailing Hall of Fame inductee and local legend Dave Curtis, who made a rare appearance for the awards to present his trophy to Etchells fleet winner Thomas Hornos and his crew on Bob, which pulled a double by also winning the fleet’s Mixed-Plus Trophy.

The Mixed-Plus initiative is aimed at getting more women onto keelboats and into key roles. The effort began in St. Petersburg in 2022 and has been embraced across the sport and at each of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series stops. Inclusion and diversity among the regatta’s sailors and fleets is the goal of sailing events director Sarah Renz. As the colors cannon boomed from Corinthian YC’s yardarm on a beautiful Sunday summer evening, the series drew to a fitting end, sun-kissed from start to finish and celebrated coast to coast, a national regatta series more diverse and exciting than ever.

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The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Caribbean Championship kicked off with the traditional opening Islands Race, a challenging loop around Cooper and Salt islands in the stunning BVI.

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Final Results

The 2023 edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week will be remembered for its challenging light wind but more so for the time local skipper Carolyn Corbet and her teammates outsmarted and outsailed the venerable champions of Bill Widnall’s International One Design Javelin. On the fourth and final day of Marblehead Race Week, Corbet’s team on Elektra won two come-from-behind races to win the regatta and then its Overall Championship title.

“We started the day only 1 point out of first and we’d been going back and forth with Bill—who’s won this regatta for who knows how long,” Corbet says.

In Sunday’s first of two races, Elektra rounded the first mark third, and with the quick sail-handling skills and sharp execution of this team of twenty-somethings, Corbet quickly  jibed, “jumped the fleet,” and at the next mark Elektra took control of the race.

“Ten boat lengths out from the leeward mark we were able to jibe on to starboard, and then we were able to get them [Widnall’s Javelin] on starboard,” Corbet says. “So, we were able to send them off the layline. I have an amazing crew that can pull off that kind of jibing, get the spinnaker down, and then jibe around the mark. We barely missed a beat and that right there probably won us the regatta.”

Corbet, of Marblehead, has been sailing the loaner International One Design for three summers and her team has proven to be a quick study of a boat that can take a lifetime to master, but Corbet says she’s had plenty of help from Widnall and others, and their success this weekend truly comedowns to the collective talent of her teammates.

As winners of their class, but Corbet, Rob Brower, Becker Ewing, Elizabeth Lonergan and Sandra Nygren were selected to represent Marblehead at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October, where they will race against other overall winners from previous stops of the Regatta Series, as well as the 2022 regatta’s champion.

On the same circle as the IODs, a similar battle was playing out in the J/105 class where Charlie Garrard’s Merlin and Rick Dexter’s Brouhaha set off from their respective moorings in Marblehead Harbor with only 1 point between them. The goal of the day was a simple one for Garrard and his experienced crew: keep Brouhaha close and use their boatspeed to finish the job.

When the seabreeze finally filled after a long morning postponement, the two teams got right to work, tailing each other in the prestart and striking the starting line overlapped. Merlin had the advantage and Brouhaha tacked away. The race from there was all Merlin’s to lose.

“We just had to keep them close and we had to finish ahead of them,” Garrard says. “Even though they tacked away, we felt comfortable going left where there was more wind.”

The pair finished 2-4 and Merlin’s lead grew to 3 points, but in the final race, after leading off the start again, Garrard says they were on the downwind leg and crash jibed to avoid another boat, which lost them one place in the race, but fortunately nothing more—the final winning margin was 2 point and Merlin’s winning streak remains intact.

“I think we got off the line clean every day and the boat is going great upwind,” Garrard says. “As always, it helps to have a great crew.”

The return of the Lightning fleet was marked as another notable moment in Race Week history. According to class leader Bob Shapiro, it has been nearly 40 years since the International Lightning Class has competed at Race Week, and fittingly it was the two “old-timers” of the fleet that took second and first places after five races. At the top of the standings with two race wins was local legend Charles “CH” Ritt with Shapiro as runner up and winner of the weekend’s final race.

The Rhodes 19 Class sailed another competitive regatta with 22 boats providing plenty of action-packed mark roundings, and always ahead of the melee were Matt Hooks and teammate Rob Pascal, who won four of eight races to close with an impressive 25-point winning margin, earning Hooks the coveted Norm Cressy Trophy, which has been awarded to the regatta’s best-performing skipper since 1998.

On the same race circle, the Town Class sailed its New England Championship and after five races, Nick Cann and Andrea Dodgeon on Tonic emerged as the winners, scoring two race wins to finish 10 points ahead of Bill Heffernan and Larry Brown on Sweep.

ILCA sailors were particularly challenged with their first races canceled on Saturday due to weather. The race committee started them early on Sunday and completed one shortened race before the wind died. Once they got going again, it was strong current that caused numerous general recall starts, but at the end of the day, three races were sailed with Bill Rothwell winning the ILCA 7 division and Jeremiah McCarthy winning the ILCA 6 fleet.

Marblehead’s re-emerging Etchells class featured the area’s top sailors as well as experienced teams from outside the region, but none were as fast as Tomas Hornos and his teammates on Bob, which won two of six races and ended the series with a comfortable 10-point win. As the top fleet champion, Hornos also earned the Dave Curtis Perpetual Trophy, awarded by the Sailing Hall of Famer himself.

Henry and Barb Amthor, along with teammate Parker Moore, were the top Viper 640 team after winning the regatta’s final race for a 2-point New England Championship win over Marek Zaleski’s Team Z. Brian Keane and his teammates on the J/70 Savasana eked out a hard-fought win to secure the class’s New England Championship, another title for the team as they head toward the World Championship later this year.

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Hoping to complete additional races before the forecasted arrival of afternoon thunderstorms, the race committees of Marblehead’s Corinthian, Eastern and Boston yacht clubs set out this morning onto a placid Massachusetts Bay with the best intentions. Mother Nature, however, had other plans and kept sailors of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in perpetual postponement until racing was ultimately abandoned in the early afternoon.

With no additional races to count, the Marblehead regatta’s results remain unchanged with one day remaining, and with the two ILCA fleets yet to complete any races, organizers announced plans for an early Sunday morning start, to take advantage of a short window of a promising wind forecast.

With three important New England Championship titles to be decided for the Viper 640, J/70 and Town classes, each currently close in points, sailors were eager to have their respective series play out. Nick Cann and his partner Andrea Dodge, on Tonic, leaders of the competitive local Town class, said on this way to the racecourse this morning that they were looking forward to more racing and a bit of the same luck they enjoyed the previous day in a pair of races noted for the tricky conditions.

“One race, the left side was favored, and the other race, it was the right side,” Cann said, “and there was plenty of luck involved, especially in the last race when Chris Howes [on Believe It Or Not] forced me to tack away. We got second in that one and he ended up seventh, so that worked out for us.”

The Townies will have to wait another day to settle that score, as will the other 10 fleets, from which one individual winner will be selected as the overall winner and earn a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in late October where they will compete against other individual Regatta Series winners as well as the 2022 Championship’s defending team.

Provisional Results

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Provisional Results

Musical artist Samual Jack’s Instagram-viral song “Feels Like Summer” would be the ideal track to set the tone for Friday’s racing at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Marblehead. It was the second day of this New England summer tradition, and indeed, the sun was blazing, the sea breeze light and Massachusetts Bay as tame as can be. It all added up to one fine and smooth day of racing for sailors and race committees across three race circles and nine classes.

Picking up the series where the Rhodes 19 class left off yesterday—as one of only two classes that traditionally race on Thursday—Matt Hooks and teammate Rob Pascal on The Mighty Rhodes got right back to business after winning two of three races on the opening day and then and padding their lead today in the 22-boat class to an impressive 19 points.

Jeff Shoreman and Dave Reynolds’ McLovin were hot on their transom all day, looking to recover one race at a time from the pile of points they earned with a 12 in the series’ third race, but with an 11 in the day’s final race, team McLovin gave Peter Frisch’s Hall Pass the No. 2 spot on the scoresheet. With two days of races to come, there’s plenty of opportunity for fortunes to change, but Hooks and Pascal are local champions for good reason: they know these waters well and they just keep getting faster every year.

The same is true for Bill Widnall and his teammates on Javelin, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Marblehead overall winner in 2022. Widnall, master of the classic International One-Design, has a 1-point lead over Carolyn Corbet and her teammates on Elektra, which got ahead of Widnall more than once, but was simply unable to outsmart or out-sail the wise man and his experienced crew.

It is no surprise to locals either that top sailmaker and keelboat-racing specialist Tomas Hornos, helming Ed Moray’s Bob, sits atop the Etchells fleet, which began its regatta series today with three races. Hornos and his teammates went 2-3-1 on the day to put them 1 point ahead of Chris Lanza’s Vertigo 2, from Miami. A pair of race wins and a fourth for Hornos should be considered hard-fought finishes on a challenging day marked by wind shifts and meandering wind veins. Current, as always, was a factor across all three race circles, but the winning approach to the racing, several sailors noted, was finding and capitalizing on the slightly stronger wind bands.

With the International Lightning Class making its return to this regatta after nearly 40 years, it’s fitting to have Charles Ritt, one of the fleet’s original sailors from back in the day, out front in the standings after three light-air races on the regatta’s busy “Tinkers Line” racecourse. Ritt, with crew Shyah Miller and Charles Quigly, sailed a 1-2-1 to put themselves a mere point ahead of youngsters Owen Moore, Emma Hawko and Ed Coleman, beneficiaries of the Lightning Class’s loaner-boat program and a well-practiced team.

Three classes at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series are sailing for their New England Championship titles: The Town class, the Viper 640s and the J/70s, and for the later, Brian Keane’s Savasana continued to demonstrate why they’re the top US team this year as they head into the upcoming J/70 World Championship. Savasana put up a 2-3-1 keeper of a day to past world champion Jud Smith’s 1-5-4. There’s only 4 points between these two top-ranked teams, and both know the battle is early yet.

For the Viper 640s, it’s Mike and Kai Deyett, and Jeffrey Hankins, of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, tied on points with Henry Amthor’s Bob, Parker and Henry. But only one point in arrears is past regatta champion Mark Zaleski’s Team Z, winners of two races after finishing eighth in the tightly-bunched 22-boat fleet in the opening race.

The Town class series has Nick Cann’s Tonic out front. With crewmate Andrea Dodge, Cann won the first two races, handily, and then finished the day with a second to put 8 points between themselves and Bill Heffernan’s Sweep.

Four race wins for Charlie Garrard’s team on the J/105 Merlin—perennial winners of this regatta—finds them in familiar territory and fighting a familiar battle with Ric Dexter’s Brouhaha, which followed them across the line in three races, but claimed the series’ first-race win. Here, too, only a single point is the difference as the regatta picks again on Saturday with the addition of ILCA and ILCA 6 fleets rounding out the regatta’s 11 classes.

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Any summer sailing in New England is hard to beat, so Quantum expert Carter White breaks down how you can make the most of your time in Marblehead.

I have raced in and around Marblehead since the late 1980s and witnessed almost every condition, from a drifter to a hurricane. I’ve probably sailed in every location the clubs use for their various racing circles, and I’ve also helped organize the ONE Regatta (previous PHRF-NE and current Ted Hood Regattas) and the 2014 J/105 North Americans. Through it all, I’ve seen that each circle brings its challenges, trends, and conditions, which I will try to break down here.

Outside Course (aka Outside Line)

The outside course is the area furthest offshore and most to the right of the harbor when looking away from land. The course is normally centered 3.25 NM at 175° (magnetic) from Marblehead Bell RG “FR” but can often be closer to shore. Typical conditions for this course would be no wind in the morning and a sea breeze filling in during the afternoon, around 1pm or so. If this is the case and there haven’t been any significant storms immediately ahead of the sailing day, you should have relatively flat water with possible one-foot easy rollers. 

The key to success is to figure out the current/tide. The current/tide does not go out from land and into land during the ebb and flood, but the current goes left to right or right to left (looking out from shore toward the southeast), moving slightly northeast/southwest.

The wind will fill from the southeast, probably around 130 to 150 degrees, and it will be stronger away from land as it fills. The current is usually uniform across the course, and, with a predicted direction of 170 to 180 degrees, the race committee will often skew the course to the right. The RC knows people want to go left, so the skew keeps things even. But even with the skew to the right, the pressure is more to the left, so starting at the pin and going left is key upwind. Downwind you almost always stay straight at the windward mark and work the edge of the course down to the corner and gybing on layline or close to it. This keeps you in the bigger pressure downwind on the course’s left side (looking upwind). All of this is happening early in the day of racing, around 1pm to 3pm.

After 3pm, you need to start looking at the right side of the course. Typically, the lower left will still be favored, but watch out for the top right as the wind moves from 130 to 170 degrees or more as the day progresses. Often the shift doesn’t outweigh the pressure, but if you see large, puffy clouds over Boston (to your right looking upwind), you can predict the right shift will happen. Finally, remember the current as it will be critical for starting and laylines, not necessarily for course-side advantages. History has rewarded the folks who won the corners on this course and timed the shift and pressure perfectly.

As you are waiting for the typical conditions I’ve described or are in a different northerly breeze with predictions to shift, watch the clouds onshore over Salem. If the big, puffy clouds start forming, the sea breeze is coming. The land breeze will continue if wispy high clouds remain and there are no puffy clouds.

Finally, like anywhere, the typical conditions occur 50 percent of the time, while anything else happens the other 50 percent. In this case, be prepared for chop and rollers. The current is strong, and when going against the breeze, it will create a decent 1- to 2-foot chop on top of one- to three-foot rollers that may or may not line up with the chop. If this is the case, make sure to have plenty of twist and power; you will need the twist to drive around the waves and keep the helm light while still having enough power to go through the occasional wave you can’t miss. In most boats, this means playing the backstay almost constantly.

The Halfway Rock Line

Much of the outside line details and tips and tricks can also apply to the halfway rock line. However, the current can be trickier on this course. This circle is typically centered 2 NM at 135°   (magnetic) from Marblehead Bell RG “FR” and is more exposed to Salem Bay and the Danvers River. Here you will have potentially two different currents: one coming from and going to land (in and out of Salem west/east) and another northeast/southwest like the outside course. This creates more disturbed water and chop than the outside course.

With the typical conditions I’ve described, the starting line will be set closer to shore and in one current, while the weather mark will be in a completely different current. This is key for starting and approaching the marks, and can make or break the downwind leg, possibly because you may want to use the current to your advantage when picking a side. 

The Tinkers Line

In my experience, this course can be the trickiest. This circle is just outside Marblehead Harbor and closest to Marblehead Neck, the largest land mass. On this circle, you can see up to three different current directions on one leg, and the land can become a factor creating a constant geographical advantage. On this line, it is imperative to have a training partner to sail upwind on opposite tacks for five minutes or more and then come back together to see who is ahead or behind. There will often be a significant difference, and it will only be clear sometimes which side will win. In my experience, heading towards land has paid off in most conditions on this course; however, there are times you must go offshore to get more breeze.  

The Brimbles Line

This is typically where the lasers or smaller boats sail as it is protected by islands on almost all sides of the course. It is closest to Salem Harbor and is the most inner course. Its challenge is boat traffic on the weekends. Many sailboats and powerboats are leaving and returning to Salem and Marblehead Harbors, and this course is at the crossroad of those trips. This often causes square chop even when the wind and current are lined up for a smooth day. On this line, you are closest to Salem Harbor and Danvers River, which will be the predominant currents (generally west/east). Due to the proximity of the islands, the winds are much less stable, so this circle typically has much shiftier winds. Here, the shifts become more important than the pressure, so staying on the lifted tack is critical.

If you have any questions, get in touch with a Quantum representative to discuss your racing further. Good luck, and welcome to Marblehead!

The post Summer Sailing in Marblehead appeared first on Sailing World.

Spring brings excellent weather conditions that arguably make it the best time to sail in Annapolis. Make sure your boat is tuned and trimmed properly so you can quickly get where you want to go on the course. Then it’s heads-up sailing to navigate the strong tidal currents and potentially shifty breeze.

Early May might be the ideal time to sail in Annapolis: the average temperature is a pleasant 69 degrees, the average wind direction is west, and the average speed is 7 knots. When you sail in Annapolis, you can almost always count on strong currents and choppy conditions due to motorboat traffic. The current flow in the Chesapeake Bay is tidal − flood tides run south to north and ebb the opposite. Many flowing rivers and large tributaries affect the current in the bay, meaning published tide tables are not 100-percent accurate and highly dependent on location and recent rainfall. It is paramount to keep an eye on the many signs in the bay that can give you hints to the fluctuations in strength and direction of currents, such as the tankers anchored in the shipping channel, the buoys, and the many area crab pots.

These factors make determining when the current will switch in the lighter breezes critical to top finishes. In the spring, the ebb tide is usually much stronger than the flood tide, due to the amount of rainfall and spring tides. Keep an eye on all available signs and remember the current rips in the channel’s deeper water. Also remember to set up your boat for the chop on the weekends. Between swirling currents and boat traffic, smooth water is hard to find in the Chesapeake Bay this time of year.

One of the many challenges Annapolis presents in the spring is the changing wind conditions caused by the approaching frontal systems or the lack of approaching systems. Determining the weather system you are racing in will help you plan which wind direction will prevail in the day’s races.

Here are some tips to understand the local conditions a bit better:

• Clear skies and air temperatures that are warmer than the water temp is a typical spring day, and it’s not a good combination for breeze this time of year. The sea breeze has a hard time developing due to the cooler temperatures, so expect light air overall.

• Southwest is the prevailing wind direction during the year, but southerlies are generally weak in the spring unless accompanied by a frontal system.

• As a front goes through Annapolis, the wind will clock to the west until it reaches the northwest, which is the prevailing cold front direction. Winds will blow from the northwest at 20-knots for a few days and then clock to the northeast and die, depending on the strength of the front.
  
• Westerlies are unstable with 25-degree shifts (or more….) and heavy puffs. Watch for more wind from the Severn River and off the closest weather shoreline.

• Northerlies are somewhat stable in pressure, but with the breeze coming across the land the shifts are fast and typically very large.

• Easterlies are dying breezes and especially weak when following a dying northerly. Often the far right pays because of the new direction and the far left pays because of old pressure. The middle normally suffers.

If you have any questions, reach out to the Quantum Annapolis team or come chat with us during the regatta.

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