The Vineyard Haven Yacht Club will host two of the famous 12 Meter America’s Cup boats on Tuesday, August 19, in a contest the club has dubbed “The VHYC Match Race of the Century.” The historic wooden sloops Columbia and Heritage will pair off in a series of windward/leeward races all Tuesday afternoon largely crewed by 28 of the adult sailors from the yacht club under the watchful eye of each boat’s professional captains.
Christine Dahl, Commodore of VHYC, said, “The member-crewed match race is the capstone to a summer-long program to bring the joy and thrill of sailing to adult members who don’t usually show up at high performance starting lines.”
Yacht club members Steve Besse and Stuart Halpert will skipper Columbia, and Mary Worrell and Polly Brown will skipper Heritage. Columbia and Heritage will be moored in Vineyard Haven outer harbor Monday evening. Racing will commence at 12:45 pm and will run until 4 pm. Columbia, which was the first US 12 Meter Boat to win the Cup in 1958 can be identified by sail number “US 16”, and Heritage, a 1970 12 Meter, will carry on her sail “US 23”.
For more information, call Stuart Halpert, Chairman of the Adult Sailing Committee at 240-876-5829.