This summer has been full of challenges, but the joy of our weekend racing in the harbor highlights what is so wonderful about where we spend our summers. Also, we have enjoyed introducing our races to more people and this final race of the year was an example of what is possible. We had four boats enter this event from local boat builders and sail makers. We saw the incredible 1926 fully restored NY 40 sail around our harbor twice. This gave us an up-close view of what large scale racing is like.

The Boothbay Harbor Classic Race began about fifteen years ago when several sailors of classic boats wanted a relaxed race of boats around Squirrel Island or some similar destination on a summer Friday afternoon. As the event evolved over the years, the measured routes became fixed with long and short versions to sail, depending upon the wind. Some of these boats are smaller wooden classics and some represent the designs of years ago. It quickly grew to fill the two last Fridays of July and August and included a BHYC buffet lunch before and a happy hour after. This Year COVID-19 changed a lot of rules. This weekend turned out to be a great surprise.

Following several round robin communications, the race was moved to a Saturday to give more people a chance to join in. The enthusiasm spread to Bristol Marine and further into the boating community. The list of boats that signed up for part or all of the two-race event reached 29. Among them include some well-known names.

Ken Colburn brought back Marilee, his 1926 rebuilt NY 40 and once again she started last and passed us all. Andy Tyska brought out his classic Rhodes Treasure.

The Boothbay Harbor One Design fleet was in the race and a new group of four Typhoons, led by the Carlton family, joined in for the first time. The typhoons finished well with three being part of the top ten boats.

Nat Wilson and his son, Eben, sailed their restored Herreshoff Fish Class and Doug Goldhirsch held the honors by sailing the oldest boat, his 1898 restored Catboat, and Ross Branch returned with his 1912 Friendship Sloop.

The top place winners were:

Overall for race two:

1st Marilee

2nd C-Fever

3rd Step Lively

4th Typhoon 119 (red)

5th Typhoon 266

6th Typhoon 119 (blue)

7th Delilah

8th Mumtaz

9th Sapphire

10th Deuces Wild

11th Treasure

12th A Piacere

13th Typhoon green

14th Morning Star

15th Osprey

16th Grayling

Combined finish for the two races:

1st Marilee

2nd C-Fever

3rd Mumtaz

4th Step Lively

5th Typhoon 118 red

Last Saturday’s race was the final event of the 2020 Summer of Sail. We learned a lot opening these events up to all amid the COVID-19 crisis and hope, as we plan for next summer, even more boats will come and join us.

The Wednesday night races inner summer series ends next week and then after Labor Day we can enjoy our wonderful fall sailing. We want to thank Chris Liberti and his staff for taking on the roll of running these races. We hope next summer that the larger power boats will again be able to welcome volunteers to resume using flags, setting more marks, and getting more on shore events to tie into to this wonderful sport. Thank you to all the racers for coming out and sailing. We hope to see you again next year.