Sun Smiles on Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club's 75th Anniversary Regatta

If you happened to drive over the bridge from Little Silver to Oceanport Sunday afternoon, you may have caught a glimpse of the boats out on the Shrewsbury River, competing in celebration of the 75th anniversary of .

The format for the regatta was a Portsmouth Yardstick, which rates boats of different classes sailing the same course. This uses a time-on-time handicapping system, with each class of boat given a documented rating. There were cruising boats, 420’s, Lasers, Comets, Sanderlings, WoodPussys, and Flying Scots. (I hope I didn’t miss anyone, apologies if I did! ) Portsmouth Numbers are defined as the length of time boats would take to sail a common, but unspecified distance.

Each skipper who participated was awarded a 75th Anniversary commemorative burgee, which was designed after the one awarded to Mr. Walsh who was probably 15 or 16 in 1937 when the club was founded and he won one of the first regattas out of the club.

Ainsley Van Winkle Hilfiker and Peter Schell walked away with the coveted trophy.  Ainsley is a second generation sailor out of the club.