2025 Safe Harbor Race Weekend - Surprise breeze elevates competition
by Barby MacGowan 12 Aug 13:21 UTC
August 8-10, 2025
ORC racing - 2025 Safe Harbor Race Weekend © Onne van der Wal
What began as a three-day weekend of tempered wind expectations evolved into a full-blown demonstration of skill, strategy, and spirited Newport sailing camaraderie during the fifth annual Safe Harbor Race Weekend held Friday, August 8 through Sunday, August 10.
Despite early forecasts calling for barely-there breezes, Newport's signature afternoon southwesterly arrived just in time each day to transform the racecourse into a dynamic proving ground for a record-breaking fleet of 72 teams in 10 classes.
"We were expecting much lighter air, and we ended up with fair wind (stronger on Sunday than on Friday and Saturday), cool dry weather and blue skies," said Brian Nelson (Shrewsbury, NJ), skipper of J/122 Honey Badger, which won the PHRF Nav B (Performance Cruising) class. "What more could you ask for."
Though it was Nelson and his New Jersey team's first season sailing Honey Badger, they turned in a consistent performance of 3-1-1-3 in a series that included a short-distance race around Prudence Island on Friday followed on Saturday and Sunday by three races around government marks, race buoys and islands in Narragansett Bay.
As an alternative to traditional windward/leeward buoy racing, navigation races are gaining momentum, and that trend was clearly reflected at this year's Safe Harbor Race Weekend. Honey Badger and 18 other teams sailed across three dedicated navigation classes, opting for the longer, more strategic format that emphasizes course management and seamanship.
"I would recommend it," said Chris Bjerregaard (Bristol, R.I.) who co-skippered his Alerion Express 38 Hope with fellow Bristol sailor Joe Whelan to win Nav C class. "Ours is a cruising boat, with a stable crew augmented by my wife, son and friends, so it better suits us, and we just find it more fun with a wider variety of things to do on the racecourse." This was Hope's first showing here, but it was clear its history of sailing distance races helped. After tussling with Jeffrey Wilson's (Fairfield, Conn.) Sabre 42 Tacktile on day one, it became a runaway winner when it won its next three races.
Competition in Nav A class, for the largest performance cruising boats, came down to a nail biter finish when Dudley Johnson's (Watch Hill, R.I.) Marten 49 Pugilist had to outsmart three boats that, going into Sunday, were tied with it or within one point either side of a second-place standing. Saturday's leader, Brian Cunha's Irie 2, looked to be the most capable of pulling off an overall victory, but in the end Richard Cohen's and Jay Cross's Frers 74 Foggy became the spoiler, winning the race to rise to second overall, while Pugilist finished second in the race to win, and Irie 2 finished fourth, dropping it to third overall.
But if it was edge-of-the seat sailing one was looking for, all three days served it up in the 19-boat IC37 class. Filled with circuit superstars, the class sailed multiple windward/leeward races on its own Narragansett Bay circle, even on Saturday when the other classes sailed the race around Prudence Island.
"It was interesting," said winning skipper Peter Wagner (Portola Valley, Calif.), who led after day one's three races with his Skeleton Key team but then saw current IC37 National Champion Steve Liebel (Tampa, Fla.) and his New Wave team top the scoreboard after Sunday's three races. "Going into Sunday, we knew that we would be allowed to throw out our worst finish after eight races, and we could stomach, if need be, one horrible finish." Two races were sailed, with Skeleton Key and New Wave literally match-racing each other in final race eight. Skeleton Key finished 11th in that race while New Wave finished 13th, and since Skeleton Key had nothing worse than a fifth in its previous scoreline it used the 11th as its throw out. New Wave was forced to keep its 13th after throwing out a 15th from race three and succumbed to a four-point deficit that put it in second overall behind Skeleton Key.
"New Wave did a great job," said Wagner. "They are the gold standard for the fleet, so we feel very fortunate that we were able to beat them."
Three ORC classes and two PHRF performance racing classes also sailed weekend windward/leeward courses on Narragansett Bay, fitting in two races on Sunday to each complete a five-race series.
Racing in ORC C, which was the largest fleet (10 boats) behind the IC37s, could go down in Safe Harbor Race Weekend history as one of the closest racing finales. In overall scoring, John Cooper's (Cane Hill, Mo.) Cape 31 Cool Breeze shared a three-way tie with David Rosow's (Fairfield, Conn.) J/122 Loki and Tom Sutton's (Houston, Texas) J/122 Leading Edge. "Unfortunately in our last race we had to accept a penalty for sailing through an exclusion zone," said Cool Breeze's tactician Billy Liberty, "but fortunately we had enough first-place finishes (3) in the bank for us to win the tiebreaker."
Victor Wild's (San Diego, Calif.) TP52 Fox turned in the only perfect scoreline of the regatta, winning all five races in ORC A against Art Santry's (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) J/V66 Temptation/Oakcliff, while the Botin 45 Azulito posted four bullets and one second-place finish to win ORC B.
"This was our only major regatta this year," said Azulito's tactician Rob MacMillan (Middletown, R.I.), "and it checked every box. We had good weather, nice wind, great racing inside the Bay, and it was a regatta where the best interest of the sailors came first. The atmosphere here - onshore and on the water - is exactly what makes you want to go sailboat racing."
Joe Brito's (Bristol, R.I.) J/121 Incognito and David Schwartz's (Bristol, R.I.) Lyman Morse 40 Mischief also turned in stellar performances in PHRF D and PHRF E, respectively. Incognito had three bullets in its five-race scoreline while Mischief had four.
After a year's hiatus, six massive superyachts, ranging in size from the 98' ketch Delta House to the 197' ketch Maximus, created their own spectacle on Rhode Island Sound, sailing a single ocean coastal course each day that put them in range of viewing from key vantage points along the Newport and Jamestown shores. Winner Delta House posted a 1-1-2 to fend off by one point in overall scoring the 116' sloop Whisper (2-2-1), sailed by Hap Fauth (Naples, Fla.) and his well-oiled Bella Mente Racing team.
"We do things a lot different than the impression of what a superyacht does," said Delta House's Captain Greg Evans (West Palm Beach, Fla). "We have a quiet boat with all but one amateur, and the crew takes turns driving. Our patron died last year, but the family - his children and grandchildren - are all sailing with us here. We may not have the fastest boat or the best crew, but we know we'll win, because we carry with us his ethos (and the team's battle cry) 'Superior Attitude!'"
Evans was one of hundreds who enjoyed the social events of the weekend, which included Friday night's Coastal New England Dinner Presented by Citizens on The Point at Safe Harbor New England Boatworks and Saturday night's "Talk of the Town" Crew Party, with delicious bites and live music, presented by Mount Gay Rum at Safe Harbor Newport Shipyard in the heart of downtown Newport.
"The effort that Safe Harbor puts into the social events is phenomenal," said Evans. "I've said it before: 'this is the event of the summer.' It's the crescendo of the racing season, and everyone wants to be here in Newport with their crews and families."
For more information on Safe Harbor Race Weekend and daily releases/full results (when available), visit bit.ly/SafeHarborRW.