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St. Pete To Shine Again

• By Dave Reed
• February 14, 2024

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the western shore of Florida’s Tampa Bay will be the epicenter of sailboat racing this weekend when more than 240 teams across 13 one-design classes and five handicap-racing fleets get races started for the first event of the national Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg . Now well into its third decade, the regatta will also mark 10 years with its title sponsor.

The Sunshine City’s motto is that St. Pete is “Always in Season,” and that is certainly the enticement for many teams traveling in from colder climes with the promise of warm breezes, stiff competition and a nightlife that’s never been more vibrant.

One such northerner is David Mierzwa, of Lake Placid, New York, who on Tuesday was behind the wheel and racing to get south of a big storm burying the mid-Atlantic and Northeast in snow and ice. Behind him was bitter cold, but ahead of him was warmth and the anticipation of his first Melges 24 Midwinter Championship at the regatta.

As a newbie to the demanding Melges 24, Mierzwa says his primary goal is to “stay out of everybody’s way,” but ultimately, he and his teammates are on a mission to learn the nuances of this high-performance keelboat from his peers.

“We’re going so we can hunt for tips, tricks and whatever makes us better,” Mierzwa says. “It’s about having the opportunity to do an event of this caliber with likeminded people, because while sailing is the goal, being surrounded by others that do the same sport is sometimes better than the sport itself.”

As the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg will be his team’s first major event, he recognizes they don’t have a high enough racing pedigree to vie for the Midwinter Championship title—yet. “The only way we can get to that point is to go out there and race,” he says.

And race they will, from early Friday morning through late Sunday, alongside several other one-design classes that are the regulars of this February classic, including the S2 7.9s and the Hobie 33s , both of which will also be vying for their midwinter championship titles. 

The S2s have the returning champions of Tom and Mary Bryant’s “Team Matros” from Holland, Michigan, which won seven of eight races in 2023 to earn their berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship last October. At each of the series’ five events one team is selected to compete in the British Virgin Islands for the overall season title.

The Hobie 33s also have their champions returning to defend— Craig and Deborah Wilusz’s “Hoof Hearted”—but this year there’s a new and unknown challenger from Waxhaw, North Carolina, and it’s a boat with a nefarious name: “Bad Bunny.” Its new owner, Sean Rhone, says he’s looking forward to meeting and racing with other Hobie 33 owners for the first time and “taking a peek under their hoods.”

Rhone has been primarily racing his Hobie 33 in singlehanded events and low-key races on North Carolina’s Lake Norman, and like Mierzwa, he’s not sure how well he’ll fare, especially with a five-person team that’s been assembled by way of social media message boards, and whom he’s never met.

“It’s cold in Charlotte,” Rhone says, “and I’m getting tired of the cold weather, so when I saw that the fleet was having its midwinters in St. Petersburg, I thought it would be nice to go and race against some other Hobie 33s for once.”

Mierzwa and Rhone may pass each other on an interstate somewhere on the way to St. Pete, along with a sizable Canadian contingent of Contender dinghy sailors making their annual pilgrimage from across the northern border. The 16-foot Contender, which its loyalists claim to be “The Sexiest Singlehander in the World ” was introduced in 1969 and continues to be popular internationally, as well as in Tampa thanks to local sailmaker Ethan Bixby. Bixby, a champion of many classes, continues to rally the troops to the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta and the fleet has doubled for this year’s gathering. Bixby, who won all races last year, will of course be among the 11 trapezing sailors.

Sharing the same racecourse will be eight teams racing the doublehanded Windmill class, which is new to the regatta lineup, but another cult classic sparked in the 1950s. Class measurer Pat Huntley, of Erie, Pennsylvania, is now a decade into Windmill racing, and says he’s eager to enjoy some fast sailing in St. Pete and good times with his fellow Windmillers. “It’s such a fun and cool group,” Huntley says. “And the Windmill is such a bad-ass skinny and fast boat. It can handle the chop easily and is really fast.” 

Five teams racing in the 20-foot Flying Dutchman class (first built in 1951) will hail from California to Tennessee and hosted by local FD ace, Lin Robson, the 2023 class winner. The doublehanded bonanza, however, will be the Melges 15 class, which will feature an impressive 31 teams, nearly double from 2023. The new one-design class has exploded in popularity across the country since its introduction three years ago, and midwinter regattas elsewhere in Florida have maxed out at nearly 100 boats.

Among the Melges 15 ranks in St. Petersburg will be New York’s Iris Vogel, who has traditionally raced the regatta with her larger one-design keelboats over the years (a Soverel 33 and a J/88, both named “Deviation”). Vogel is now enjoying the challenge of big-fleet racing and exhilarating downwind sailing.

Racing with her partner, Tim Longo, Vogel helms and Longo handles the front of the boat, and over the past year they’ve been working their way up the scoreboard, but have a long way to go to the top. “This is a totally new thing to sail in such a big fleet,” Vogel says. “J/88 events typically get a dozen boats at best, and the racing is much slower paced. The tactics are completely different and boats are fast downwind so it’s a ton of fun, but we are still learning a different style of racing. Having the smaller fleet [at the Helly Hansen Regatta] will give us a chance to work on our boatspeed.”

While the out-of-town armada is significant, local sailors look forward to the regatta every year, especially Tampa Bay’s PHRF sailors who’ve made the event a key fixture in their Suncoast Boat of the Year Series. For these fleets, which now comprise the regatta’s largest group with 38 entries across four divisions (Spinnaker, Non-Spinnaker, Racer-Cruiser and Cruising) organizers have added two days of long-course racing over the weekend. Depending on the wind strength and direction of the day, the race committee will plot a daylong course to test each team’s navigational and sailing skills, as well as their perseverance and desire to be first to the dock and first to the yacht club bar.

Local sailor Tim Landt, who has been an active sailor on the Tampa Bay waterfront for decades, is a registered competitor in the Cruising division in his new-to-him Nightwind 35, “Charisma.” He’s excited to see the regatta’s blossoming distance-race fleet and says the local growth and interest in racing older-generation yachts is good for the sport and for the Tampa Bay racing scene.

But it’s not all classic plastics in the distance fleet. In the Racer-Cruiser division will be the sparkling new Neo 43, owned by Ken Mungan of nearby Isles Yacht Club in Punta Gorda, Florida. Mungan purchased his sleek Italian-built 43-footer in 2022 with big plans to take on a few of the sport’s marque distance races, and local events like the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta offer he and his team an opportunity to learn the boat in a racing environment.

“When I turned 40 I needed a hobby and took up sailing,” Munger says. “I’m always trying new things and got into racing 2019. I did the Melges 24 for a while, but the Neo, because it’s a shallow-draft boat, allows me to do more local long-distance racing and we’re learning a lot.”

For this weekend’s regatta, Munger has more crew lined up than there are roles on the boat, but that’s fine with him. “We’re going to be overloaded, and I am anticipating a level of skill and organization that we don’t quite have yet,” he admits. “We’ll have two coaches and a new set of racing jibs that will be used for the first time, so it will be fun, and I’m looking forward to it.”

While the long-course racers are making their way around the bay, closer to shore, will be the multihulls: the high-tech A Class Catamarans , which have two divisions (Classic and Foiling) totaling 33 competitors, and the Weta Trimarans , with a smaller contingent from years past, return with nine boats, and among them is two-time defending champion and local Pete Merrifield looking for a three-peat.

         The iconic Lightning Class is one of the regatta’s largest one-design fleets, with 25 boats, five of which will be raced by members of the Starck family with a few world champions among them. Hall of Famer, Augie Diaz, of Miami, and Ched Proctor, of Southport, Connecticut, both world champions as well, always add to the high level of racing and camaradarie Lightning sailors enjoy all winter. The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg is a key warm-up event for the Lightning class’s hotly-contested two-regatta Southern Circuit with March events in St. Pete and Miami.

Sharing one racing circle immediately off the city front will be the 29-boat J/70 fleet and a reemergent J/24 fleet, both of which will no doubt provide quality racing for both professional and amateur sailors. The same will be true for the ever-competitive ORC fleet, with 11 entries, which will be racing further south. Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111 “Fireball,” from Stamford, Connecticut, which has won all of its events this winter will return to defend its 2023 ORC title, which it earned with ease, winning seven of eight races.

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St. Petersburg Yacht Club

Rich in history and tradition, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club is one of the oldest yacht clubs in the United States. Established in 1909 and having been completely renovated in the early 1990s, the Club is located on the beautiful waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. A gathering place for avid boaters, it is also one of Tampa Bay’s most prestigious social venues. The yacht club is famous for its standard of race management and events are run almost all year round. Juniors learn to sail. Sailors have represented the club all over the world.

Stories from St. Petersburg Yacht Club

St Petersburg’s city fathers had ambitious plans for their commercial docks: create waterfront parks and a yacht club. The St Petersburg Yacht Club was founded in 1909. Following the reclamation and completion of the waterfront, the clubhouse was inaugurated on its current site in 1917. Two years later, 6 Fish Class sailboats were acquired and one design racing began. Several classes have returned annually for over 60 years. Offshore racing started with the Havana Race in 1930. As forerunner of SORC, both brought sailors from all over the world to Tampa Bay.

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 St. Petersburg Sailing Association

Welcome to SPSA!

The St. Petersburg Sailing Association is a dedicated group of sailors who race and cruise throughout the year on Tampa Bay. We are a relaxed, sailing-focused, volunteer-run club with one core mission: to encourage participation in the noble art of sailing . Let’s go sailing!

We always love to welcome new members. Whether or not you own a sailboat, joining SPSA is a fun, easy way to get involved in the sailing community and get on the water.

New to racing? No problem! Not only do we host cruising events and casual sailing opportunities, we also host regular racing seminars and would love to show you the ropes.

All of our 36 scheduled regattas, cruises, and educational seminars are included in the annual membership fee of just $55. That’s only $1.50 per event!

Still have questions? Send us an email to learn more: [email protected]

The St. Petersburg Sailing Center is one of the most active sailing facilities in the United States. Operated by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, the Center is host to numerous regional and national regattas, sailing classes, adaptive sailing, summer camps, youth racing teams, and community sailing memberships open to residents of the Tampa Bay area.

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy is awarded to a local sailing organization for exceptional race management at a specific event. Among other factors, the comments of participating sailors weigh heavily in the selection of a winner.

Emblematic of excellence in race management, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Trophy was originally awarded by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in the late 1960s to recognize the club that ran the best regatta. The trophy was retired for a number of years, then was donated to US Sailing in 1977. The winner is selected on the basis of race management excellence, including evaluation by participating skippers.

Please Note: Qualifying an event for consideration requires advance planning. Information about the application requirements is provided below. Please contact the Race Administration office for more information.

Additional Information

Regatta requirements.

• The regatta may have any number of yachts entered
• The regatta must consist of at least three closed-course races
• The regatta must have nonprofessional race management
• The Principal Race Officer and Chief Judge must be certified at any level as race officer and judge respectively by US Sailing, another MNA or World Sailing
• The host club must be a member of US Sailing
• The award is presented for events conducted between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024
• Events held after September 30, 2024 are eligible for consideration in the following year
• Completed applications must be received via email or postmarked no later than October 15, 2024
• No more than two entries per yacht club per year will be considered
• The award will be presented at the US Sailing National Conference in February

REQUIRED ITEMS FOR ALL APPLICATIONS

(Please contact the Race Administration office for more information and the required forms. NOTE:  Please DO NOT use old forms or alter forms .)

• Club Entry form
• Notice of Race, including amendments
• Sailing Instructions, including amendments
• Principal Race Officer’s report, including RC log, wind log and other required documents
• Protest Committee chair’s report (online form)
• Redress request documents (if applicable)
• Final regatta results
• Skipper Ballots (please see below)

SKIPPER BALLOTS

Ballots are anonymous. US Sailing now uses an online skipper ballot. Please contact the Race Administration Office to set up a customized ballot that the organizer can send out to skippers. The office will track responses and work with the host club to encourage skippers to reply. A minimum of 60% of the boats participating or 40 completed ballots, whichever is fewer, must be returned. Comments on the form will be reviewed to help interpret skippers’ responses but will not be counted in the final tally.

CLOSING DATE

All required items must be returned by the regatta organizer to US Sailing postmarked or time stamped no later than October 15, 2024. Please contact the  Race Administration Director before the regatta to request the standard forms and discuss any questions or special conditions or arrangements. Send the above items,  in the form of PDFs via email to [email protected] , or by USPS in an envelope or box marked “St. Petersburg Trophy,” to US Sailing, 1 Roger Williams University Way, Bristol, RI 02809. All items except the skipper ballots may be submitted as PDFs via email. Entries will be judged by a selection committee of the US Sailing Race Management Committee. The trophy will be presented at the US Sailing National Conference in February. Winners will be notified in advance of the event.

Previous Award Recipients

• 2023 – Newport Harbor Yacht Club
• 2022 – Corpus Christi Yacht Club
• 2021 – Cleveland Yachting Club
• 2020 – Not Awarded
• 2019 – Ida Lewis Yacht Club
• 2018 – Mentor Harbor Yacht Club (OH)
• 2017 – Carolina Yacht Club (NC)
• 2016 – Alamitos Bay Yacht Club
• 2015 – Bayview Yacht Club
• 2014 – Severn Sailing Association
• 2013 – Sandusky Sailing Club
• 2012 – Corinthian Sailing Club (Dallas)
• 2011 – Annapolis Yacht Club
• 2010 – Rochester Yacht Club
• 2009 – Carolina Yacht Club (North Carolina)
• 2008 – Southwestern Yacht Club
• 2007 – St. Petersburg Yacht Club
• 2006 – Corpus Christi Yacht Club
• 2005 – California Yacht Club
• 2004 – Indian Harbor Yacht Club and Riverside Yacht Club
• 2003 – Not Awarded
• 2002 – California Yacht Club
• 2001 – Richmond (California) Yacht Club
• 2000 – Beverly Yacht Club
• 1999 – Lake Norman Yacht Club
• 1998 – Cedar Point Yacht Club
• 1997 – Fort Worth Boat Club
• 1996 – California Yacht Club
• 1995 – Cleveland Yachting Club
• 1994 – Eastern Yacht Club
• 1993 – Windycrest Sailing Club
• 1992 – Beverly Yacht Club
• 1991 – Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club
• 1990 – Houston Yacht Club
• 1989 – Rochester Yacht Club
• 1988 – San Diego Yacht Club
• 1987 – Bayview Yacht Club
• 1986 – Corinthian Sailing Club
• 1985 – Long Beach Yacht Club
• 1984 – Houston Yacht Club
• 1983 – Waikiki Yacht Club
• 1982 – Beverly Yacht Club
• 1981 – Alamitos Bay Yacht Club
• 1980 – Long Beach Yacht Club
• 1979 – Island Bay Yacht Club
• 1978 – Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club
• 1969 – Long Beach Yacht Club
• 1968 – Alamitos Bay Yacht Club
• 1967 – Royal Canadian Yacht Club

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New York Yacht Club wins third consecutive Hinman Masters Trophy

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By New York Yacht Club

Twenty-five short-course races in three days in winds that rarely topped 10 knots are more than enough to fray the nerves of the most experienced and tranquil sailor. But when it came down to brass tacks on the final day of the  Hinman Masters Team Race , held this past weekend at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, R.I., the key was to forget what was on the line and all the hard work required to get to that point and stay calm. “When you’re thinking about that kind of a situation, where everybody’s finishing at the same time in an important race, you’re really trying to relax and just make your boat stay in the right spot, be legal, not foul, and get across the line in front of the competition,” says Brian Doyle (above, center), who led the host New York Yacht Club to its third consecutive win. “When it’s that close, and everyone’s shooting the line, you never know how the results are going to come out. But we came out on top by inches.”

The race Doyle references was sailed earlier today between Southern Yacht Club and New York Yacht Club. After three grueling round robins among all eight teams and going into a mini round robin among the top four teams, Southern and New York were tied at the sharp end of the leaderboard with 17 points apiece. In this race, the advantage repeatedly shifted between the two teams. As all six boats approached the finish line, it was impossible to tell which team had the edge. The race turned on the battle for fifth place, which was ultimately decided within feet of the finish line. While each team still had two races remaining, the odds for the overall win had tipped decidedly in favor of the New York Yacht Club, which secured the victory by splitting its final two races. Southern Yacht Club finished second—on the podium for the fifth straight year. Eastport Yacht Club took third and Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club finished fourth.

The New York Yacht Club helped usher in a new era of adult team racing with the creation of the  New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy  in 2000. That race, which requires skippers to be at least 45 years of age and crew to be over 40, was soon followed by the  New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta for the Morgan Cup , an all-ages event, in 2003 and, in 2010, the  New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race Regatta , which mandates skippers be at least 60 years of age and crew at least 50. The three team races are traditionally held over consecutive weekends in August at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, using the Club’s fleet of 22 Sonar keelboats, and annually attract some of the best adult team racers in the United States and Europe. New York Yacht Club Regatta Association sponsors for 2024 include  Helly Hansen ,  Peters & May ,  Hammetts Hotel  and  Safe Harbor Marinas .

To a spectator, team racing can seem loud and contentious, which is at least partially due to the quantity of starts, mark roundings and finishes that go into an average day. There’s simply a lot more racing, in tight quarters, on short courses, than in a typical fleet-race regatta. For the victorious New York Yacht Club team, however, the key to success lay in familiarity and quiet.

“Our team’s been sailing together for several years, and we work really well together,” says Doyle. “We know what each other’s going to do. There’s not a lot of conversation between boats or even on the boats. We’re just boathandling well and consistently making moves to move up our teammates. And with that kind of teamwork, it works out well in the end.”

Of the 13 sailors who raced on Doyle’s squad this year, six raced together in the previous three editions of the Hinman Masters while another three sailed two of the previous three years. That experience and trust was essential for a regatta with predominantly light and variable winds.

“No win was ever secure, because as soon as you turned downwind, anything could happen,” says Doyle. “[On the final day] we had the wind coming over Goat Island, which made it even more tenuous, puffy and shifty all the way down the run. It didn’t matter if you were 1-2-3 [at the top mark], you could get overtaken.”

With the win, its ninth in the 25-year-history of the regatta, the New York Yacht Club widened its commanding lead in the overall win column. Southern stands second, with four. But the competition this year was as close as ever, a testament to the continued interest in this discipline and the growing collective skill level of the competitors.

“Adult team racing, though 25 years of the Hinman Masters, has grown substantially,” says Doyle. “It’s really exciting. There’s more and more clubs now with fleets of boats, particularly Sonars, which is great, because they maneuver well and they’re great for team racing. We just heard that some more yacht clubs are purchasing fleets this year, so adult team racing is going to continue to grow.”

The New York Yacht Club’s 2024 team racing schedule will conclude with the  New York Yacht Club Grandmasters Team Race , which starts on Friday, August 23, and runs through Sunday. Ten teams are scheduled to participate in this event, which mandates that skippers be at least 60 years of age and crew 50 or older.

Winning New York Yacht Club team, above with former Commodore George R. Hinman Jr. (left) and Vice Commodore Clare G. Harrington (right): Brian Doyle (skipper & team captain), Whitney Rugg, Hannah Swett, Shane Wells, Steve Kirkpatrick (skipper), Alice Leonard, Zachary Leonard, Whitney Peterson, Jane Kirkpatrick, Chris McDowell (skipper), Libby Toppa, Brett Davis and Sam Septembre.

New York Yacht Club Invitational Team Race Regatta  for the Commodore George R. Hinman Masters Trophy August 16 to 18 New York Yacht Club Harbour Court Newport, R.I. Final Results Click  here  for scoring matrix and race-by-race results

1. New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club – Doyle, 19 wins; 3. Southern Yacht Club, New Orleans, La., 18 win; 3. Eastport (Md.) Yacht Club, 16 wins; 4. Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Centre Island, N.Y., 16 wins; 5. New York (N.Y.) Yacht Club – Singsen, 9 wins; 6. Annapolis (Md.) Yacht Club, 7 wins; 7. Riverside Yacht Club, Greenwich, Conn., 7 wins; 8. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Yacht Club, 4 wins. Photos: Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht Club

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