Sea Sprite Annual Around Hog Island 2022 Race
Every year, the Sea Sprite Association and the Bristol Yacht Club host the Sea Sprite Race Around Hog Island. This year’s event was held on Saturday, September 10.
Eight Sea Sprites competed in this year’s event. Some fickle September winds swirled around the Middle Ground starting area for an hour and a half requiring the Race Committee to use an abbreviated shortened course. We could have called this year’s race, “The Race Around Poppy Bell!”
The good news was that we had a light but steady westerly wind which made for some great tacking duels heading up to Poppy and then some strategic downwind sailing angles for the run back to middle ground buoy.
Sea Sprite sailing wizard Bob Cantani outdueled the fleet and finished first. (FYI: Bob has been sailing Sea Sprites since he was a teenager. That’s more years than you can count on all your fingers and toes!)
The final finishing order was as follows:
- Bramasole – Bob Catani and Adam
- Oasis – Bob Rude and Ted Brandley
- New Hope – Dom Messerlli and Josh Rodriguez
- Lullabelle – David Borton (single handed!)
- Freya – Susannah Holloway and her all female crew of three
- Primrose – Thorne and Lane Sparkman (Herreshoff)
- Jotun – Craig Fonseca and Richard Dulac (Herreshoff)
- Artemis – Ruth Suoto and Pat Crawford
Following the racing, skippers and crew met at the BYC for pizza and beers. As always with racers, strategies were spelled out and tales of woe were shared. The infamous “Mr. Hog” trophy was awarded to the first-place finisher.
Sea Sprite sailors are now looking forward to next summer and the 2023 Millard Series. There’s nothing like one-design racing. Hook up with a Sea Sprite boat and come join the fun.
For more information, contact local fleet commodore, Dom Messerli at Dom.messerli@me.com or Bob Rude: rrude1@me.com.