“Race for every point,” is a phrase heard often at regattas and that was certainly the takeaway for many teams at the 2025 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Annapolis. Three days packed with races for 240 teams in 18 classes gave every sailor an opportunity to make good on that cliché, especially the team on Andy Graff’s J/88 Exile, which won in its fleet after a stressful two-race final day. Their class win, on a tiebreaker, earned them the regatta’s overall title and a berth at the Regatta Series championship in the BVI in October.
With a strong southerly on the final day, Exile was sitting on a marginally comfortable lead over John Bell’s Hiwassee and Graff’s intent was to sail a clean race and stick to what had been working for them over the previous two days.
That plan quickly unraveled in the first race.
“It wasn’t how I planned on things going when I woke up this morning,” Graff says, “but we got out to the course and the breeze was like 17 knots. We expected more wind and made the poor decision to go to the small jib, and also got caught with the rig too tight and with chop the way it was today. That was really a tough spot to be in when it dropped down to 8 knots. We just couldn’t get wheels going through the chop.”
Exile finished sixth in the 8-boat fleet and Hiwassee won the race, putting them on top.
Then came Hiwassee’s own drama. In the final start, Bell says, there was a miscommunication on the timing and they found themselves OCS, clearing out to restart, and chasing down the rest of the fleet.
Battling back to earn point by point, at the beginning of the second beat Bell realized their headstay had come off. They quickly attached a spare halyard to secure the rig and continued to sail the race. “We didn’t do so hot on that last race, but we needed to beat one boat in order to keep first place. When we got the one point we needed we we’re pretty pumped.”
Pumped until they later learned that another boat had been OCS as well but wasn’t scored as such. When that boat was later given an OCS, the scores shuffled once more, this time in favor of Exile—which finished fourth in the final race and was ultimately declared the winner on the tiebreaker.
“It was hard,” says Exile’s tactician Kris Werner. “I was admittedly pretty dark after the first race, because it felt like we just made a really poor decision with the jib. We finished that race and regrouped. The last one was a tough one, too. It really was. We had a pretty good start, we were kind of right in that top three for most of the race. We fought till the very end, we had almost a photo finish with [Iris Vogel’s] Deviation. That point was critical.”
A similar fate awaited Mike Beasley’s team on the J/80 Black Sheep, which went into the day with a comfortable lead in the 21-boat fleet. In the first race they posted a 13th and then a ninth in the second race.
“In the first race we got trapped off the start line and made it hard for ourselves,” Beasley says. “The right came in…we were protecting the left.”
And that was that.
Into the final race they were 1 point out of first behind Warren Flannery’s Canadian team on Feisty. Feisty won the final race and Black Sheep stumbled again with an OCS that had them last and fought their way back through the fleet to salvage every point they could.
Jimmy Praley’s Robot Flamingo looked to have the Viper 640 title all but locked up this morning too, but on the way to the racecourse, the boat’s gooseneck fitting broke. Using a Dyneema lashing, the fitting was secured enough for them to start the first race and hope for the best. Praley’s teammates, Austin Powers and Max Vinocur, had some simple advice. “They said, ‘we have to win this one or we are toast,” Praley says.
Robot Flamingo got the clean start it needed and won the race easily, which was enough to allow them to sit out the final race and get the win by a single point over Cole Constantineau’s team on Meow.
With storms and the potential for high winds approaching Annapolis in the morning, the Lightning Class opted to not sail, which left Saturday’s standings final and David Starck’s Team Pat Strong atop the standings.
“This was my first time doing the Helly Hansen Regatta in Annapolis and it was first class,” Starck says. Starck, the Lightning Class president, noted the energy of the Annapolis Lightning fleet as the main reason for the great first-time turnout for the fleet at the regatta. “The camaraderie amongst all the clubs—Annapolis, Eastport and Severn Sailing—was incredible,” he says. “The race committee on our course was excellent.”
The Albacore Class contested its US National Championship with an impressive fleet of 20 boats, with teams traveling in from several states. But here once again, perennial champ and Albacore class builder Barney Harris and his teammate almost went undefeated over 10 races. Runner-up Paul Clifford was a good 25 point back, even with a scoreline of all top-10 finishes.
In the regatta’s other dinghy classes, Annie Sitzmann and crew Molly Bonhams continued their winning streak in the 29er class to win series with only 12 points in 10 races and Sarah Morgan Watters and Katherine Shermock held off a final day surge by Britton Steele to win the Melges 15 title by only 3 points.
For the Alberg 30s, racing for their 60-year old Maple Leaf Trophy, the final day almost had the makings of an upset when Barbara Vosbury’s Carnival Lady won the first race. But Lenny Helms’ Windswept, the class leader over the first two days, was right behind her. Windswept won the final race to win the fleet by only 2 points after 8 races.
Jeff Hayden and his teammates on the J/22 Polar Express battled with their regular rivals on Brad Julien’s Yard Sail with Hayden posting a 2-3 to Julien’s 4-1 in the final two races. The delta was only 4 points.
Dan Watson’s Avita was the top J/30 by 11 points with Watson’s team winning both races on Sunday. Michael Baugh’s J/29 Persephone, which sailed to Annapolis from New Jersey to compete with the rejuvenated Chesapeake J/29 fleet, won seven of 10 races to easily win the class.
Cate Muller-Terhune’s Casting Couch topped the J/70s and Ray Wulf’s Patriot came on strong on the final day to defend its title in the J/105 division.
The ORC and Cal 25s sailed their second distance race of the weekend, and while Bruce Irvin’s team on the Corby 40 Time Machine won the first race, the breezier conditions today favored James Sagerholm’s J/35 Aunt Jean, which ultimately won the race and the ORC title. Pat Siedel’s Chicken Little won both races for the Cal25 fleet.
On the Division 4 race circle featuring J/24s and Harbor 20s, Pat Fitzgerald’s Rush Hour went 1-2 to upset the overnight leaders on Pete Kassel’s Spaceman Spiff in the J/24 fleet and Garth Hitchens and Kate Dawson on Sugar did the same to best the Harbor 20 fleet and claim the Spring Championship title.
Gavin Ball, the “Flying Hawaiian” and now US National Championship was untouchable in the flying foilers. After 12 races, Ball had netted only 18 points while his fellow islander Pearl Lattanzi finished the regatta with 29. Third-placed Zachary Severson completed the Hawaiian sweep of the championship.
