A Glorious Gearbuster

On Saturday, October 10, Indian Harbor Yacht Club ran its Annual Stratford Shoals Race for racing sailboats.  The race was first held in 1956 making it one of the oldest races on Long Island Sound. Included among its notable multi-year winners are Greenwich residents and Indian Harbor members Jakob Isbrandtsen (four times) and Richard S. and Richard B. Nye (five times).

The race originally began as an overnight race with a late afternoon start to Stratford Shoal lighthouse and back (46 miles). More recently the race was turned into a mostly daytime contest starting late morning with classes added for boats racing with just two aboard and those racing without spinnakers. The doublehanded fleet sails the traditional Stratford Shoal course while the non-spinnaker fleet sails a shorter 20-mile course to Eaton’s Neck and back. And while the Stratford Shoal Race is its formal name, racing sailors know this race as the “Gearbuster” for its typically windy early October conditions.

This year’s race was the capstone on a most unusual season of yacht racing on Long Island Sound.  COVID-19 forced the cancellations of all regattas on Long Island Sound through early June, including Indian Harbor’s early season tune-up race (the “Geartester”).  However, after thoughtful consideration, and in line with a gradual statewide reopening, Indian Harbor rescheduled and ran the Geartester in late June.  Employing a modified rule capping the number of crew on each yacht to minimize social contact, the race was this year’s first major big boat regatta in western Long Island Sound. The pent-up demand by yacht racers from around the area was evident as over 60 yachts registered.

Fast forward to October 10th and the Gearbuster.  84 yachts registered – 21 yachts more than the recent best. Boats traveled from eastern Long Island Sound to as far west as New Jersey and as far north as the upper Hudson river. The club was fortunate to also have 4 yachts participate from the United States Merchant Marine Academy. And since boats of different sizes have different theoretical speed potential, the 84-boat fleet was divided into classes based on each boat’s handicap.

The weather was perfect with temperatures in the high 60s and more importantly, winds around 17 to 20 mph gusting to 25. With the breeze out of the southwest and boats needing to sail east at the start, this made for some early race excitement for all 10 classes!

The winners included Michael Greene of New York sailing his Sunfast 3600 Loblolly in the doublehanded fleet, Leonard Sitar of Holmdel NJ aboard Cougar a J/160 (fully crewed with spinnakers) and James Reichel of West Islip sailing Scapegoat, a J/105 in the non-spinnaker fleet. Other notable results by Greenwich residents include Fireball, Riverside Yacht Club’s, Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111, winner of Class 4 (and last year’s race winner), Randy Bourne and Strange Brew (also from Riverside Yacht Club and winner of Class 6) and John Cutting and Easy Red from Indian Harbor Yacht Club (winners of Class 7).

Indian Harbor race committee, led by Commodore Ray Griffin, oversaw the racing which included starting the 10 classes over a 45-minute stretch and finishing the fleet with the fist boat arriving home around 2:30 in the afternoon and the last in the early evening around 7:30pm. Many of the competitors complemented the race committee and Indian Harbor on the race. Sitar commented that “the race committee did an outstanding job and clearly takes great pride in their work”.

Long Island Sound is known for predominantly light winds so competitors enjoyed the challenge of sailing in breeze and waves leaving everyone looking forward to what will hopefully be a more normal year next year. Said Reichel, “we love conditions like that and are still talking about what a great sail it was.”