Expressly For Fun - And Fun Was Had By All
By Adam Loory, UK Sailmakers

With participation in weekend regattas declining around Long Island Sound, a new event is gaining in popularity. Nineteen boats sailing in two divisions had a great weekend of sailing and socializing in the second annual Expressly For Fun regatta. The purpose of Expressly For Fun is to focus on the social and family aspects of sailing.

The Huguenot Yacht Club race organizers believe the 37% growth over last year's fleet is because they have tapped into the huge pool of cruising sailors who usually don't race. To keep the racing easy for families with young kids and shorthanded crews, the courses were from harbor to harbor minimize sailhandling tasks. A pursuit start kept the starting line uncrowded for less experienced racers sailing production cruisers like O'Days, Cape Dorys, Catalinas, Tartans, Pearsons and C&Cs.

Saturday's 14.75-mile course went from Execution Rock in extreme western Long Island Sound to Huntington Harbor on the north shore of Long Island. Both the spinnaker and non-spinnaker boats reveled while running in 14-18 knots breeze. Bill and Patrice Scherer's 1968 Swan 36 PETRA finished first in the non-spin division and Iris Vogel's Soverel 33 DEVIATION took the spinnaker division. The lightweight Soverel, sailed by a crew of five, including Iris's nine-year-old daughter Ray, was uncatchable on the breezy run as she was chased by two Express 37s and a just out of the box Swan 45.

As good as the sun-splashed racing was, Saturday night's dinner and party was the highlight of the event. Northport Yacht Club, where the fleet gathered for the night, is a wonderful destination. It would be difficult to beat the hospitality extended by NYC anywhere else on the Sound and beyond! The club put on a wonderful dinner, kids swam in the pool and everyone enjoyed the bar, showers and attentive launch personnel. The quaint town of Northport is an easy walk from the yacht club, which meant that the younger kids got ice cream and the ‘big kids’ found a cigar bar.

On Sunday the course was slightly shorter but took a lot longer thanks to less breeze, an upwind course and a monster adverse ebb tide. In the light air at the start, many of the heavier cruising boats had a hard time starting and only three non-spinnaker boats actually finished Sunday's race. First across the starting line and first non-spin boat was the Dawn 41 NEPENTHE sailed by Lynn and Larry Rouen along with their daughter Lindsey and her friend Lindsay who had never sailed before. Adam and Jenni Loory's Express 37 SOULMATES won the spinnaker division with just one other person aboard. Second went to Iris Vogel's DEVIATION after fighting off Steve DeVoe's Swan 45 DEVOCEAN right at the finish line.

More than half the fleet was made up of husband and wife or family crews and all the boats were sailed shorthanded since one of the rules of the event was that the whole crew had to sleep on their boat. The intent of this rule is to keep the shorthanded crews competitive. Besides, we think that a lot of racers have forgotten how nice it is to sleep aboard.

The regatta initially got the name “Expressly For Fun” when Express 37 sailors Adam Loory and Mort Weintraub came up with the idea for an event to draw on a new pool of sailors. The intention is to increase participation and introduce new contestants to big boat racing, Huguenot Yacht Club of New Rochelle, N.Y., where Loory is a member, got behind the event because it fit in with the sailing style of many of the club's members. In fact, 11 of the 19 boats entered were HYC members -- more than half of which never race in any other YRA event. The event is so popular at HYC that seven powerboats joined the regatta to be part of the party.