Racing around Martha’s Vineyard

Edgartown Race Weekend’s 88th ’Round-the-Island Race (’RTI) gets underway June 21 with 40 boats entrants for the 8:00 am start off Edgartown’s Outer Harbor. Revered as one of the nation’s oldest distance races, the 55nm course circumnavigates Martha’s Vineyard, passing in sight of seven historic lighthouses and the dramatic coasts of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

“It’s a relatively quiet year,” said Co-Chair Hal Findlay, noting that the 2025 race ends one day before Block Island Race Week starts, making it difficult schedule-wise for some to participate in both. Co-Chair Cindy Alten-DeLotto adds, “This year’s event looks to have good weather and decent breeze which everyone is happy about.”

The scratch sheet foreshadows healthy competition in all classes: thus far, five for PHRF Spinnaker and one each for PHRF Spinnaker Double-Handed, PHRF Non-Spinnaker, and Multi-hull. (A ninth class for the 157’ Schooner Arabella is for exhibition only.)

In PHRF Class 2, where Hal Findlay’s Oyster 66 Serendipity is registered, the 72’ foot Cutter Sloop Isabel, the largest boat in the racing fleet, is surely to serve up some stiff competition. It is owned by former U.S. Secretary of State and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (Boston, Mass.) who acquired the yacht last year.

“This is her first race,” said Kerry, who is better known for competing here in his smaller classic yacht Lark, with which he won the ’RTI’s coveted Venona Trophy in 2020. “The crew are a group of friends, most of whom raced on Lark and enjoyed the weekend. Three islanders – Nevin Sayre, Felix Colon, and Chace Lewis – are in the crew plus three friends.”

In Class 1, the Community Boating Center (CBC) of New Bedford’s Youth Offshore Team will compete aboard the Baltic 50 Crazy Horse. “There will be three coaches aboard, including CBC’s Assistant Director Andy Chin, with a balance of nine or so crew comprised of the youth that have come up through the organization’s offshore program.

“Most of them are in their early 20s and none have done the ‘RTI before,” said Chin. “We are using it as a training session for future offshore races such as the Halifax to Marblehead Race this year and the Newport to Bermuda Race next year.”

In Crazy Horse’s same class will be another team focused on youth sailors: the J/V 66 Temptation/Oakcliff, with Art Santry (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) at the helm and EYC member Bill Weeks crewing along with “first class sailors” developed by Oyster Bay’s Oakcliff Sailing Center.

“I have been a member of the EYC for 40 plus years and have raced one designs and crewed on big boats for most of the regattas during that time, including with Art’s father and more recently with Art on the previous Temptation/Oakcliff,” said Weeks.

“Art has now taken on the J/V 66 as the new Temptation. He is very excited about trying to break the ’RTI record. I recently lost my son to cancer, and this has given me something positive to focus on.”

An array of new and veteran teams populates the remaining classes, including first-timer Ryan Scudder (Centerville, MA), in Class 2, with his new (as of last December) Dehler 30 Styrka. Scudder’s focus is on “building skills with the new boat and refining crew dynamics.”

Among the returning teams are Rick Egan’s (Osterville, MA) Corbeau, in Class 1, and Mike Powers (Teaticket, MA) and his crew onboard Artful Dodger, a Tartan 3300 in Class 5. Egan, who will have his brother, two sons, and his nephew sailing with him, has competed with family in the ’RTI at least ten times, going “back into the 80s with various boats.”

Details: https://www.edgartownyc.org/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?NS=PR&GRP=40011&DN=RACE

Source: Media Pro Int’l