Sailing
Learning how to tie a knot is part of learning the ABCs of seamanship, and at Sail Martha’s Vineyard you are never too old to learn.
What began as one volunteer and a handful of boats has grown into a thriving organization of 14 experienced instructors and 72 boats, year-round programs for children and adults and a summer camp dedicated to teaching Island children to sail at affordable rates.
The 20-year old organization has taken its mission far beyond what the founders could have imagined.
Hundreds of boats ranging in size from eight-foot long Optimist sailing dinghies to 30-foot Shields will fill the Edgartown harbor this weekend as the 88th annual Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta gets under way.
Racing begins Thursday; boats begin arriving in Edgartown harbor on Wednesday afternoon.
More than a dozen Wianno Senior 25-foot gaff-rigged sailboats will arrive Thursday afternoon from the Cape. They race from Osterville to here.
Unlike other spring sports at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, sailing can’t move indoors in inclement weather.
The team is on the water most afternoons, after catching the bus from school to Sailing Camp Park (parent organization Sail MV provides the facilities and equipment for the team). When it rains, they rig up the boats. When there’s no wind, they go out and practice nonetheless. And if there’s a late-season snow shower, well, the team’s still on the water. About the only thing that can keep them inside is lightning.
The sailing season is still months away and plans are now under way for the Vineyard Cup, a three-day regatta. Organizers plan a larger and more high profile event, one that is easier to view. Last year the weekend racing attracted more than 80 sailboats and this year the numbers could exceed 100.
Racing takes place Friday, July 16 and runs through Sunday, July 17. Sailboats of all sizes will be competing for prizes and at least one is coming from as far away as Florida.
Eighteen-year-old Nicole Level, one of Mexico’s top junior windsurfers from Cancun, is alive today because of the quick thinking of 13-year-old Rasmus Sayre from Vineyard Haven.
The rescue took place last Saturday during a world-class windsurfing championship in Cozumel. The young teenage female sailor was found adrift amid four and five-foot seas, far offshore, without her board and not wearing a life jacket. Mr. Sayre happened to notice her while racing in a tight competition, and without hesitating he left the highly competitive race to make the rescue.
A historic catboat named Edwina B. is the most recent acquisition of the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust. The 22-foot wooden boat, built by Manuel Swartz Roberts in Edgartown in 1931, is possibly the last of three catboats he built still in the water.
The nearly 80-year-old boat has had a circuitous life with different names and different ports of call. She has been part of the Edgartown waterfront for at least the past 20 years. The former owners see the boat’s journey bringing her to Edgartown to stay.