Category: Latest Classic Yacht News

12 Metre World Championship: Serious Tight Racing, CHALLENGE XII and COLUMBIA Become Two-Time World Champions

Newport Rhode Island USA (August 6, 2023) – After participating in a morning parade around Newport Harbor that was punctuated by cannon salutes from yacht clubs and other prime waterfront viewing spots, ten historic 12 Metres moved on to Rhode Island Sound for Saturday’s final race of the 12 Metre World Championship. To be named the World Champions at the end of the day, Jack LeFort’s (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.) Challenge XII (KA-10) had merely to finish better than fifth among Modern Division’s five entries if Takashi Okura’s Japanese entry Freedom (US-30), close behind in the standings, were to win. The day prior, Kevin Hegarty/Anthony Chiurco’s (Newport, R.I./Princeton, N.J.) Columbia (US-16) already had mathematically sewn up the nine-race series in the five-boat Traditional/Vintage Division.

Read more of this post

Newport, Rhode Island, USA (August 3, 2023) – With six races under their sailing belts, the 12 Metre sailors here for the 12 Metre World Championship are more than halfway through their scheduled nine-race series. The ten-boat fleet of historic 12 Metre sloops – measuring 68-72 feet long and split evenly into Modern and Traditional/Vintage Divisions – started racing Tuesday (August 1), and though excruciatingly light winds on that day only allowed for a single race, Wednesday’s 5-8 knot breezes yielded two races, and today’s 10-12 knot breezes generously fueled three races… see more

The Eggemoggin Reach Regatta (website) began humbly in 1985 with thirteen wooden boats and a dream. Organizer Steve White along with Frank Hull of Brooklin Boatyard first envisioned the race as an opportunity for wooden boat owners to get to together and enjoy each others company as well as to compete. The race quickly grew to 125 boats and is now co-hosted by Brooklin Boatyard (website) and Rockport Marine (website)..

The Regatta’s 15-mile course has remained somewhat the same over the years and only once was the race cancelled due to fog. (The Feeder Race to the event was concluded, and the party still happened though!)

The fleet of classic wood racing and cruising boats is impressive. The ERR fleet often includes over 90 boats varying in size from 25′ to 90′ with no two designs being the same.

Chicago Yacht Club Chicago and Mackinac Island Michigan., July 23, 2023 – Racing into the Mackinac Straits, the majestic 104-foot ketch Whitehawk had every sail raised and every trick out of the bag to overtake Eagle One, the sleek 65-foot cruising boat that had led the entire fleet since the start. Trailing Eagle One for 288 nautical miles, it took until the final mile for Peter Thornton’s Whitehawk to overtake and clinch line honors of the 114th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac presented by Wintrust.

Eagle One, owned by Tim Lariviere of Grosse Pointe, Mich. and his crew of predominantly Bayview Yacht Club past commodores, credited Thornton for a well-sailed race and earned victory. This is Thornton’s second consecutive line honors with Whitehawk.

The Race to Mackinac began Friday afternoon for the Cruising Division, and Saturday for the Racing Division. Saturday’s boats began in beautiful downwind conditions for the first half of the fleet, but as a rain squall approached, snowflake-sized raindrops pelted the faster race boats as they began the 289-nautical miles (333 statute miles) up to Mackinac.

Sunday afternoon and evening, the two fleets continue to make their way up Lake Michigan, sailing in moderate conditions along the Michigan shoreline. The faster boats competing in the Racing Division are expected to finish overnight, with the remaining teams crossing the finish line throughout the day Monday.

Historical:

Commissioned by the newspaper baron Sir Max Aitken, CRUSADE was designed by Alan Gurney and built in cold-moulded wood, in 1969, at Souters’ yard in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. She was immediately shipped out to Australia where she won line honours in the 1969 Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race. On returning to the UK, she was a re-knowned Admiral’s Cup racer.

The Wall of Remembrance – The Owners, Crew & Notable Guest:

Owner/Guardian: Sir Max Aitken
Owner/Guardian: Nicholas Roach
 

Known Racing History:

1969 (Second place) Fastnet Race
1969 (Line Honours) Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.