From 30 knots to zero knots and everything in between, winds at the 4th Annual Safe Harbor Race Weekend kept hundreds of sailors constantly on their toes as they worked through a four-race series that yielded nine champions in as many classes.

Hosting 63 teams in two divisions (one for ORC, PHRF and IC37 and another for PHRF Performance Cruising), the three-day regatta began Friday, August 9 and concluded Sunday, August 11, perfectly blending some of New England’s best racing with an unrivaled social schedule, which many competitors agree sets the regatta apart from its peers.

“The Race Committee always kept it about the sailing, with good communication and course selection,” said Darris Witham, captain of Dudley Johnson’s Marten 49 Pugilist (Westerly, R.I.), which led its three-boat class each day to win Division 2’s PHRF Performance Cruising 1. “The shoreside events, including the traditional New England Clambake (presented by BMW) and a giant Crew Party (presented by Mount Gay Rum), were nothing short of phenomenal. The event is only four years old, so I predict it’ll keep growing in all classes as it continues to establish itself.”

Pugilist’s team handled the first day’s wildly windy conditions with grace, opting not to set the spinnaker in 27-29 knot breezes that piped up unexpectedly and caused hardships for others on the water. Pugilist won the race while eventual second-place overall finisher Irie decided not to sail at all that day. “If Irie hadn’t decided to withdraw and Laura (third overall) hadn’t broached and ripped her spinnaker, the outcome might have been very different,” said Witham.

While Pugilist won all but one of its races, Victor Wild’s TP52 Fox (San Diego, Calif.) won every one of its four races in Division 1’s five-boat ORC A, quite the accomplishment seeing that the class included three other high performance TP52 with sights set on the ORC Worlds to be held here in September. The racing got closer every day, as evidenced by Fox and second-place finisher Vesper 52 posting the exact same corrected time in the very last race.

In Division 1’s PHRF 1, one of the most competitive classes with 11 boats, Joe Brito’s J/121 Incognito (Bristol, R.I.) didn’t win a race all weekend, but with finishes of 3-2-3-2 it was consistent enough to get the job done. On stage, after accepting his first-place class prize, Brito instigated a standing ovation for the Race Committee. “They knew when to send us off and when to get us back,” said Brito, alluding to an abandonment of Race 2 in his Division on Saturday due to a dying breeze (the race was resailed later that afternoon) and the rally on Sunday to squeeze in two races to make up for lost time.

A consistent scoreline (1-2-2-3) also contributed to a handy win for James Phyfe’s J/44 Digger (Cranston, R.I.) in Division 2’s six-boat PHRF Performance Cruising 2. Second-place finisher Onawa made a good run at the team, winning the last two races; however, the 12 Metre’s retirement in Race 1 (burdening it with seven points) proved too much of a scoring deficit to overcome.

Tellingly, all class winners completed Race 1, except Curt Spalding’s (Cranston, R.I.) Dufour 36 Serenity in Division 2’s four-boat PHRF Performance Cruising 3. By winning its last two races, Serenity posted a scoreline of 5(DNS)-2-1-1, giving it nine points to tie with the prior leader, Christian Pizarro’s Oyster 575 Spirit (Wilmington, Delaware), which posted a 1-3-2-3. Scoring rules broke the tie in Serenity’s favor.

“We’re a slower, smaller boat, and we’re an older group onboard, so we like the longer navigation courses for the Performance Cruising classes,” said Spalding, adding with a grin that if his team had hung in on Friday, it “would have expended everything we had in us.” Spalding has sailed every Safe Harbor Race Weekend held thus far: “I enjoy the way Safe Harbor entertains us; it’s very pleasurable for my crew, and my wife loves it!”

In Division 1’s nine-boat PHRF 2 class, David Schwartz’s Lyman-Morse 40 Mischief (Bristol, R.I.) swooped in on the last day with a 1-2 to overtake the J/105 Dark ‘n Stormy on the leaderboard. “We handled Friday well and thought our nine-and-a-half-knot boat speed was incredible, until we found out Dark ‘n Stormy was going over 16! We’re two very different boats. Then on Saturday we were rough around the edges, but Sunday we did a great job, sailing our own races.”

Division 1’s 10-boat IC37 class was deep with talent, but the top two boats soon were in a dual for first and second, swapping wins over the last three races. In the end, New Wave (Tampa, Fla.), skippered by Steve Liebel, prevailed over Skeleton Key by two points in final scoring. “The racing was very tight all weekend; even the new teams were very competitive,” said Liebel, adding that the IC37 North Americans will precede the ORC Worlds here by one week and that many sailors in his class will compete in both events.

After finishing a modest third in the first race, Gwen and Austin Fragomen’s Botin 44 Interlodge IV (Newport, R.I.) seemed to own Division 1’s ORC B. Their scoreline included two bullets on the way to posting seven points to second-place Azulito’s 12 points. Notably, Azulito was within 30 seconds of the first-place finisher on corrected time in each of the last two races.

Finally in Division 1’s nine-boat ORC C class, Drew Freides’ Cape 31 Pacific Yankee (Los Angeles, Calif.) posted three consecutive bullets on Saturday and Sunday to win by six and a half points over Warrior Won. “We just sailed really fast,” said Freides. “We’ve been working at it all year.” Freides, a defending champion here, gave props to the organizers, adding that he would surely return to defend again in 2025.

Dates for the 5th Annual 2025 Safe Harbor Race Weekend are August 8-10, 2025.

For more information on Safe Harbor Race Weekend and daily releases/full results, visit bit.ly/SafeHarborRW.

Safe Harbor Race Weekend – Shoreside scenes – photo © Reese Reissig

by Barby MacGowan