The 172nd New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta became a homecoming for one of classic yachting’s grand dames, as the 113-year-old NY50 Spartan returned to American waters and dominated her division during the three-day event on Narragansett Bay.
Built at the legendary Herreshoff Manufacturing Company in Bristol in 1913, the 70-foot Spartan is the only survivor of nine sisterships designed by Captain Nathanael Herreshoff for club members. After spending most of the past decade racing the Mediterranean classics circuit, owner Charlie Ryan brought her back to the United States for the summer, drawn in part by the country’s 250th-anniversary celebrations.
“Because of the America 250th celebration, a couple of the European boats wanted to come over here,” Ryan said, noting that he joined the club, brought the boat home and moved from London back to Philadelphia. With two of those European yachts not entered in the regatta, Spartan instead battled Annual Regatta stalwarts Dorade, a Sparkman & Stephens 52-footer built in 1930, and the 1928 12-Metre Onawa for the Classics B title. Spartan took three firsts in four races to claim the win.
Ryan credited favorable conditions and roughly 15 years of restoration and refinement. “Captain Nat designed her for Long Island Sound, so she’s a weapon on flat water,” he said, calling the weekend’s conditions nearly perfect. He recalled that when the crew first raced the boat in 2010, they couldn’t get her to point and were tacking through about 120 degrees, having restored her original gaff rig after studying historical photographs and reworking the sails for more power. He said it was three or four years ago that the team figured it out and began winning regattas in the Mediterranean.
First sailed on the Hudson River in 1846, the Annual Regatta is North America’s oldest recurring sailing competition and has been held nearly every year since, with exceptions for world wars and other crises. Since 1988 it has sailed out of the club’s Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, settling in 2004 into its current three-day format, which includes a race around Conanicut Island, two days of buoy or navigator-course racing and nightly social activities. This year’s fleet numbered 150 boats. The event is sponsored by Helly Hansen.
In the 16-boat PHRF C class, the second largest at the regatta, Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111 Fireball took first in the team’s first appearance at the event. “We loved it,” said Bill Baxter, of Stamford, Connecticut. “I love sailing up in Narragansett Bay. I really enjoyed the event.” The regatta’s PHRF division spanned 53 boats across four classes, with racers, cruisers and racer-cruisers sailing navigator-style courses around government marks. Baxter praised the tight racing and noted that a Navy 44 won one of the day’s races.
Newcomers also made their mark elsewhere on the water. Mitchell Callahan, a recent Harvard University graduate and multiple All-American, served as a fill-in helmsman aboard Ryan McKillen’s M32 catamaran Surge and came away victorious in the nine-boat class with the support of the reigning world champion crew. “It was my first time really touching the boat or seeing it up close,” Callahan said. “Being on a boat that fast is incredible. You have to be really precise and accurate, and keep both ears open for communication.”
The regatta marked the Northeast debut of the ClubSwan 28 one-design, with seven boats competing. Veteran skipper George Gamble came from behind, a pair of second-place finishes lifting him to the overall win. “I bought the very first one” in the United States, he said, adding that time on the water and careful attention to setup gave his crew an edge in a class where three different boats won races.
In the 22-boat IC37 fleet, Steve Liebel and his crew on New Wave overcame a 15th-place finish in the opening race, posting two firsts, two seconds and a fourth the rest of the way to win by a single point over Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick and John Hele’s Vigilant. “It’s a very competitive fleet, we had 22 boats out there, great crews,” Liebel said. “We had a tough first race and we had to claw back.”
Spartan and other classic yachts will return for the Tiedemann Classics Regatta on June 27 and 28. The IC37, PHRF and ORC fleets will be back for Race Week at Newport from July 16 to 19.
