While further to the North the Newport Bermuda race fleet was crossing the Gulf Stream in this year's light wind 600 mile race to Bermuda local sailors were reveling in a day of racing the local dinghy design. Lynn Fitzpatrick brings us the story:
With trophies dating back to 1883, Bermuda’s Fitted Dinghy racing is steeped in tradition. During Sailstice weekend two Fitted Dinghy regattas were held in Somerset Long Bay. One of them was a match race regatta. The zephyrs were fickle, but that did not stop the Sandys, Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club six-member teams from rigging up their Number 2 rigs on the 14’1” hulls and facing off in a match race competition that dates back nearly 130 years.
Fitted Dinghy racing is a spectator sport in which club members follow their teams up and down the race course, retrieve wooden spinnaker poles that are dropped overboard, pick up team members who dive off the boat to propel it forward and to help right dinghies when the “sink”, which is all too common with their overpowered rigs in which the mast can be two to three times the length of the soft chined boat with almost no freeboard. Starting times are set throughout the afternoon, so that fans and sailors can eat, drink, socialize and swim in between races.
Bermuda’s waters are warm, and Martin Siese and his Challenger II crew from Sandys Boat Club sailed their antique by fans that were rafted up on modern fiberglass boats and enjoying the holiday weekend.