Classic Yacht Regatta
The 29th Annual Classic Yacht Regatta, sponsored by Panerai and presented by Best Life
August 29 – 31, 2008
On a beautiful Sunday over Labor Day Weekend, Ted Hood, 81, and his 1958-launched Robin—a 50-year-old boat he designed himself that many credit as the launching pad of his illustrious yacht-design career—topped the 63-boat fleet at the 29th Annual Classic Yacht Regatta, sponsored by Panerai and presented by Best Life.
Racing on Saturday, August 30, the opening day of the regatta, was cancelled after a long postponement on windless waters shrouded in fog and a drizzle of rain. Conditions on Sunday were a complete turnaround: the fleet of classics, which mixed restored boats dating to the early 1900s with modern "spirit of tradition" yachts of contemporary build and classic styling, was treated to a teen-strength northerly breeze and clear blue skies. "We had ideal conditions, and a little bit of everything," said Hood (Portsmouth, R.I.), commenting on the breeze and the 18-mile, round-the-island course with a good balance of upwind and downwind sailing. Among Robin's crew were Hood's sons Rick and Bob, along with several grandchildren.
On Sunday evening, Alexandra Zoller, president of Panerai North America, presented the Hood family with a 
Panerai watch for winning the 11-boat class deemed the most competitive in the regatta. Award ceremonies were held on the grounds of the Museum of Yachting. Race management was handled by Sail Newport with race committee assistance from the New York and Conanicut yacht clubs.
Hood's Robin was a fitting boat to capture overall honors, for the boat defines classic in the truest sense of the word—a boat with enduring qualities that have withstood the test of time. When Hood launched Robin, the first of his big-boat designs, she was considered radical with a centerboard and a tall rig. Her first season, Robin won 7 of the 12 races she entered. Hood then turned his talents toward creating a string of fast boats and sails and winning the America's Cup in 1974, while Robin was sold to a series of different owners. Finding the boat later in disrepair and in need of a refit, Hood purchased Robin back and restored her—a process he estimates as costing five times what her original build cost. But the boat that once turned heads in the 1950s was able to do so again this past weekend.
Additional trophy winners included defending champion Black Watch, a 68-foot Sparkman & Stephens yawl skippered by Richard Breeden of Newport that topped the Best Life Class and was awarded for its class win by Michael Wolfe, vice president and publisher of Best Life magazine. Sponsor Panerai presented wall clocks to top performers that championed the competition in their classic category, including: Chips, a 1913 50-foot Burgess-designed sloop skippered by Jed Pearsall of Newport; Zbynek Zak's Eleonora (Zug, Switzerland), a Herreshoff-designed gaff schooner that measures 135 feet on deck; Equus, a spirit-of-tradition W-46 owned by Jeremy Pochman (Nantucket, Mass.); Sonny, a 1935 Sparkman & Stephens sloop owned by Joe Dockery (Newport, R.I./Greenwich, Conn.) and helmed by IYRS Chairman George Isdale (Greenwich, Conn.); and White Wings, a 76-foot W-Class sloop entered by Donald Tofias of Newport. Boats were grouped together in spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes, but trophies were awarded to top boats in vintage and modern categories.
For Hood, racing in the Classic Yacht Regatta was like sailing in a time capsule of classic yacht design. As he watched the classes before him start Sunday's race, he spied many boats he remembered from his youth, such as 
the stunning Q-boats he first saw as a six-year-old racing with his father. The fleet also included Herreshoff designs such as NY 30s and a Buzzards Bay 30 that date from the early 1900s; a fleet of seven 12-Meters, including America's Cup winners Weatherly, skippered at the Classic Yacht Regatta by Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.), and Columbia, sailed by Alain Hanover (Newport); fleets of Shields, S-boats, and 6-Meters; and classics with design pedigrees from S&S, Concordia, Herreshoff, Phil Rhodes, and modern interpreters of the form such as the late Joel White and builder Brooklin Boat Yard (Brooklin, Maine). Click here for the results and awards for the Classic Yacht Regatta.
The Classic Yacht Regatta is the final stop in U.S. waters on the 2008 Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge, a series of ten events held in U.S., Caribbean, and Mediterranean waters grouped into an annual circuit by Panerai.
Title sponsors Panerai and Best Life were joined at the event by sponsors Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, Clarins, Land Rover, MetLife, and Smartwater. In addition to sponsor support, a team of hard-working volunteers from the Museum of Yachting, Sail Newport, and the New York and Conanicut yacht clubs helped to make the regatta a success.
All photos graciously provided by Billy Black.
Click here for the finish times for the Classic Yacht Regatta.