Our annual gathering for good cheer, refreshing our friendships, toasting the coming sailing season, and a brief (I promise) business meeting will be held this year on Friday, April 12th, from 6 pm to around 8:30 pm. It will be held at the Herreshoff Marine Museum at 1 Burnside St in Bristol, RI. Owners, skippers, family, friends…in fact, anyone who loves these boats…are all invited to attend.

It will be a terrific venue. HMM has given us the time and the space. Pretty neat! I loved the evenings we had at Bristol YC, but unfortunately they experienced a fire last year, and their Friday night dinners have gotten off to a late start this year. Wandering about the Hall Of Boats will be pretty awesome, and dinner inside with the wall of America’s Cup skippers peering at us might be inspiring.

Leo’s Italian Restaurante( Leo’s website) will cater our event serving chicken picatta, eggplant parmesan, sausage and peppers, pasta with a red sauce, grilled mixed vegetables, and a caesar salad, all served buffet style. We will have beer and wine and water for drinks. Cost per person will be $27, drinks included.

Please sign up by Tuesday, April 9th. Send me $27 for each attendee using your credit card through PayPal. If you and a friend/spouse are attending, you will need to buy a ticket twice. Here is the BUY button:

Reserve the date!!!

2019 dues will be $25, same as always. No hats, pins, flags, or other goodies this year. The treasury needs a boost. Your joining/rejoining keeps the sea sprite spirit alive and the boats afloat. For a short pep talk about why join, click here:   Membership pep talk

Please use PayPal to pay your dues. It saves your  SSA Coordinator much time. You can use your credit card without a separate PayPal account. Here is the link:           SSA PayPal dues

If you prefer to pay by check, here are instructions on how to do so:  Pay by check

Have a wonderful 2019 sailing season!!

The 2018 ‘Round The Hog annual race was held on Saturday, August 25, under gorgeous blue skies and a perfect 10-knot breeze. Sailing days get no better.

The race is a self start, no protest, no fee race around Hog Island located just outside of Bristol Harbor. For this year we had 7 boats. The wind was directly from Hog Island, and we chose to go clockwise around with the upwind leg up Hog Island channel. Lulabelle (Carter Hall) got off to a good start, and headed up the channel leading the pack. We all squeezed upwind, and got a lift to get past land into the Mount Hope Bay channel. Everyone tacked to get around the lighthouse, and sailed another  long close-hauled leg to the upwind bouy. Remarkably (no, it really was remarkably!) Lulabelle was still in first. She managed to stave off a furious challenge from Bob Catani in Bramasole on the dead downwind leg. It was close racing, with the fleet continuing to race closer together. Rounding off the fleet finishing were Bob Rude in Apsaras, Lou Marino in Hope, Adrew MacKeith in Vexatious, Franco Rigatoni in Pau Hana, and Dom Meserli in New Hope.

And then to the barbecue at the Merino’s. Lou again produced his famous barbecued pulled pork, everyone brought dishes to share, stories were told, and the season remembered.

Gathering at Lou’s patio

The spread

Mr. Hog disapproves of pulled pork for lunch

Bob Rude telling a tale

We all had smiles

A wonderful setting

Mr Hog dines the next day still disapprovingly

The end of season ‘Round The Hog races and the cookout at Lou and Karen and Emilia’s home in Bristol are just plain wonderful. I know it signals the end of the racing season, but when my boat splashes down in May, I am already looking forward to the warmth and good feelings of the day. Our continued thanks to the Marino’s for hosting.

Oink-oink until next year!