The 2019 Sea Sprite Regatta was held Saturday, July 27, in Bristol Harbor at Bristol, RI. Blessed by perfect weather, blue skies, friendly sailing teams, the return of SS23 racing icon Herb Brown, superb course sets by the Bristol YC Race Committee, and Bristol YC for the post race gathering, it truly was “What a day”.

Jon Goff with his children Liam and Nora

Jon Goff set the tone for the day sailing Grayling, a Herreshoff Sailing School SS23 he rented for the event. His crew was his 10 year-old son Liam and 9 year-old daughter Nora, both crewing for him for the first time!! They were in the mix from the start for both races. We also had 2 other SS23’s from the Herreshoff Marine Museum Sailing School manned by sailing school instructors. Their boats were not race-ready, but the instructors raced valiantly and had a ball.

As a matter of fact, everyone had a ball. The Bristol YC Race Committee enjoyed themselves, and ran a perfect Regatta for 9 boats. Joe Jablonowski was PRO and ably supported by Roger Carney with Bob Yaylian on mark boat.

Lou Marino on Hope lassoed Herb Brown to race with him. The imperturbable master calmly skippered Hope to two close second place finishes. The starts were close, and the crossings numerous. Lulabelle managed to win both races, eeking out a win in the second race by seconds, sneaking by Bob Catani in Bramisole and Lou and Herb in Hope on the very last leg back to the finish line.

And, of course, the post race party back at Bristol YC was filled with race discussions, questions about sail sets and tactics, along with food and drinks.

Many thanks to all who put on the show and to everyone who raced. What a day!!!!!!

Herb Brown with his crew Lou and Emilia Marino

Dom and Andrew discussing ????

Here are the final standings:

Boat                      skipper        first race           second race           total points          place

Lulabelle               Hall              1                         1                              2                            1

Hope                      Brown         2                         2                              4                            2

Bramisole             Catani          3                         3                              6                            3

Grayling                 Goff             4                          4                             8                            4

Vexatious               MacKeith    5                          6                             11                          5

New Hope              Messerli      7                          5                             12                          6

Destiny                    Picard         6                           7                             13                          7

Herreshoff One      Instructors 8                           8                             16                          8

Herreshoff Two      Instructors 9                            9                             18                          9