Regatta series comes to Marblehead

Marblehead, Massachusetts, with its iconic deep harbor and jam-packed anchorage, is as picturesque as a New England seaside town gets—a Shangri La or Pleasantville in the shadow of crazy Boston. And here on the harbor are three equally iconic yacht clubs that have hosted the region’s largest summer sailing festival for 135 years: Marblehead Race Week.

Alternating hosting duties between the Boston, Corinthian and Eastern Yacht Clubs is a long-standing tradition that ensures the load is shared among them. This year, Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series competitors at Marblehead Race Week will be hosted by Eastern, the grandiose clubhouse on The Neck. With large numbers of sailors, friends and families expected, Eastern is sure to be a hive of activity each night, while out on the vast Gulf of Maine Thursday through Sunday, nearly 160 competitors will be doing their best to win Race Week’s historic trophies and class championships.

Vipers in the pit

Viper 640 class sailors are vying for their coveted New England Championship title and among them are diehard East Coast sailors of the class, including Henry Amthor, the Viper 640 New England Championship skipper from Norfolk, Virginia, whose team “Bob, Parker & Henry” won in 2023. As expected, a strong Canadian delegation is also returning, as well as Doug Jensen, coming from Marblehead for the first time, and his 20-year-old son Jay, traveling from Topeka, Kansas.

Jensen, who grew up in the Pacific Northwest and has raced extensively, is relatively new to the class, having purchased his first Viper 640 in 2020. He’s trying to grow the class in his region, and when the opportunity to compete in Marblehead arose, he happily accepted the last-minute offer to come here and race.

“The course is just so great,” says Jensen when we reach him and his son by phone at the start of their 24-hour journey. “They have a boat there that we can use. I’ve never been there or raced on the East Coast, so I’m looking forward to having fun and racing on an ocean with currents and tides.”

Lightning strikes twice

The Lightning Class, which returned to Race Week last year after nearly four decades, will back up its return with an Atlantic Coast Championship title and 27 teams entered. The class has been enjoying a resurgence in the U.S. thanks to long-term efforts and programs to recruit younger sailors that are now bearing fruit. Marblehead, which hosts the North American Championship at the Buffalo Canoe Club in Ontario in August, is the last stop before the big regatta. As this is a close-knit, down-to-earth one-design class that travels a lot, it’s worth noting that only one of the 27 teams entered is actually from Marblehead.

“There is no fleet in Marblehead,” says CH Ritt, who won the regatta last year with Charles Quigley’s Risky“It was a lot of fun last year, but this time the fleet has a few more all-stars, including Bill Healy of Niantic (Conn.), who has to be one of the favorites. Although we won last year, we’ll have our hands full this time.”

The third of the major championships to be contested over the weekend is the J/70 class. As the New England Championship, the regatta also serves as a qualifier for the World Championship. Fourteen teams are on the list, including several top teams, including Brian Keane’s Savasana, which won Race Week 2023 and then finished fourth overall at the J/70 World Championship in St. Petersburg, Florida last November, a regatta notable for the strength of the fleet.

The Regatta Classics

While the three major championship classes share the Tinkers Line, the Outside Line further offshore will feature Race Week regulars J/105, International One Design and Etchells. Defending IOD champions and overall winners of the 2023 Regatta – Carolyn Corbets Electra– return with the same crew, but this time vying for a new trophy created in honour of fleet legend Bill Widnall. Widnall joined the Marblehead IOD fleet in 1966 and has since won 27 Marblehead Season Championships, 28 Marblehead Race Weeks and 10 International Class World Championships.

The Halfway Rock Line, closer to the entrance to Marblehead Harbor, hosts the other long-standing classes of Marblehead Race Week: the Rhodes 19 and Town classes, the latter of which will be sailing for its New England Championship. The enduring popularity and simplicity of the Rhode 19 continues to attract new sailors, and 27 teams have signed up for this year’s edition, earning them the right to boast as the largest traditional class meet of today’s Race Week. Twenty ILCA sailors will compete on the Brimbles Line on Saturday and Sunday as the regatta’s only single-handed dinghy class.

All parties and awards ceremonies, including the Sailing World Speaker Series on Thursday night with Race to Alaska class winner Adam Cove, will be hosted at Eastern YC with evening food and entertainment. The overall race winner, who will secure a spot at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in October in the British Virgin Islands, will be crowned at the end of the final awards ceremony. All race details and event information can be found here.