Youth Sailing Steps Up at FIS Secor Volvo 420 Race.

A great day from everyone.  Check out this great video, and a great update from our youth sailors! These sailors are winners on the water and winners in the editing room. Well done!

On August 17th, Secor Volvo sponsored the 2nd annual Secor Volvo Fishers Island Sound Race. The race is meant to be a miniature version of the Volvo Ocean Race and is completed in one day by 420 sailors in the Fishers Island Sound. Thames Yacht Club sent four boats in total to the regatta.

The sailors in the other three boats were Mary M. and Caroline C., Will R. and Allison C., Patrick M. and Caridad M., and of course we, skipper Colin M. and crew Samson Race D., were in our boat (known as “The Hell Hull”).

The race was very exciting, as it was blowing upwards of 20 knots the whole day, and swells pushed 3 foot waves during the race. The National Weather Service even issued a small craft advisory.

The race started in Stonington Harbor and had four legs. The first leg went from the start, in Stonington, to Mason’s Island. The following leg then went from Mason’s Island to Ram Island Yacht Club, where we breaked for lunch. The third leg took us from Ram Island Yacht Club, out into the sound towards Watch Hill out around the lighthouse, and the final leg brought us back to Stonington Harbor from Watch Hill.

Being in the boat was either very fun or very stressful.

It was super fun hiking out, getting on the trapeze, and cruising at up to 10.5 knots with the spinnaker up, but there were many times when came very close to capsizing or had equipment failures which were a bit scarier.

In addition to the race, there was also a contest to see which boat could make the best in-boat documentary of the race. We brought our GoPros and recorded the race, racking up hours of footage. We then had until the following Sunday to compile our footage into the movie you can see above. The videos entered in the contest will be reviewed by local sailor and Dongfeng on-board reporter Sam Greenfield.

We haven’t heard back about the winner, but we’re eagerly awaiting any news.