Category Archives: ANNOUNCEMENTS/WHAT IS NEW

2023 Annual Sea Sprite Regatta Won By Dom

SEA SPRITE ANNUAL REGATTA

Our own Sea Sprite Association Commodore Dom Messerli ran the tables and finished first at the Annual Sea Sprite Regatta on July 22, with finishes of 2/2 in two races.  Bristol Yacht Club, in Bristol RI, graciously hosted the event, supplying the race committee pro and staff as well as the RC boat.

Dom With His Auld Mug

Bob Rude finished second with Max and Mary Sherman finishing third.  The Shermans also won the trophy for the best new skipper(s) finish.

Bob, Dom, Max, and Mary

Dave Guinther , Race Committee PRO, had his hands full laying out courses for the fleet of eight boats.  Light air and shifty winds swinging from northwest to southwest meant that his able RC crew of Dave Legrand, Bob Yayalian, Roger Carney, and Flip  Meyerson were kept on their toes moving marks  and start lines.  Two races were finally able to be run with great windward-leeward-windward courses.  Thanks, gents.

Off The Start In Light Air

Great courses provided for close racing throughout the day.  Lots of tacking on the upwind legs and jibing on the downwind legs kept skippers and crew on their toes.  It meant you had to be tactically savvy to prevent getting pushed to the back of the fleet.

Close Racing All Day

Exhausted skippers and crews convened at the Bristol Yacht Club for a festive pizza and beer party, courtesy of the national Sea Sprite Association, after a long day of racing.

The next big event for the Sea Sprite fleet will be the annual Race Around Hog Island, scheduled for Saturday, September 9.  The Association invites all Sea Sprite Owners to attend this highly anticipated yearly event.   Or, come out in your own boat and watch the action.

Our fleet and the Sea Sprite Association continues to grow.  We now have the largest class for the Wednesday night Millard Series.  Grab a boat and become part of this growing one-design class.  Contact Dom Messerli (Dom.Messerli@me.com) or Bob Rude (Rrude1@me.com) for more information.  Or, go online to SeaSpriteAssociation.com.

Story And Pictures courtesy of Bob Rude

Overview

Racing the SS23 is a joy. Over the years, one design SS23 class racing has centered on Narragansett Bay. Across the country, the bigger sea sprites have found racing in PHRF to be a challenge. Skippers of SS23’s in clubs without a fleet have found PHRF racing a good alternative.

In this section under Racing, you will find years of announcements and forms for racing events on Narragansett Bay stretching back from 2022. For 2023 and beyond, registration forms and announcements will be coordinated by Dom Messerli, Narragansett Bay Racing Fleet Chair. Please contact Dom at dom.messerli@me.com for announcements, S/I’s, NOR’s, and registration process for Narragansett Bay racing events.

Annual Sea Sprite Regatta To Be Held July 22nd

The Announcement from Commodore Dom Messerli:

Hello Sea Sprite Sailors 🙂

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer sailing our beautiful Sea Sprites in Narragansett Bay! This year has been very active with lots of Sea Sprites sailing in the harbor enjoying the historic boat and the views! Wednesday nights have also been a lot of fun with ten boats signed up and consistently five boats on the starting line and racing on the course. It is awesome that we have two women skippered boats, Scott Free from Herreshoff with Amie and Freya with Susie and one more coming very soon, Hope skippered by Emilia!

Registration for the annual Sea Sprite Regatta is now open so please follow the link below and sign up for this fun and gently competitive race held the afternoon of Saturday July 22nd with the first start planned at 1pm. Notice of Race (NOR) and Sailing Instructions (SI’s) can be found through the sign up link. As every year, we will have a standard upwind, downwind course planned. We already have two boats registered!

We will have a post race gathering with pizza, drinks and awards. This year we are introducing a new award, which will be the 2023 Sea Sprite regatta rookie award!

Sea Sprite One-Design Regattatheclubspot.com

Please let either Bob Rude or myself know if you have any questions or need any help.

We look forward seeing you on the water!

Happy Sailing,

Dom

P.S.: Huge thank you to the Bristol Yacht Club for hosting the event and to Bob Rude, Bob McLaughlin, Roger Carney and Dave Guinther for all the support and running of the regatta! THAN YOU!