Labor Day Regatta Success!

Hampton Sailors:

The 2026 Labor Day Regatta this past Saturday featured 3-11 knots of northeast breeze on the Elizabeth River. Race Committee Chairman Eddie Wolcott and PRO Duffy Dannish pulled oK two windward leeward races, twice around, before the afternoon storms crashed the party and ended the season’s racing. Lauren Wolcott who last sailed with Teddy Wilcox in the Admiral Byrd Cup at Cambridge Yacht Club in 1988 while pregnant, came out of retirement this weekend. A major item on Lauren’s “bucket list”, to sail a regatta with her son, Gordon, is now checked oK. On top of that, Lauren and Gordon won the Governor’s Cup! I recognize the extra special meaning of this as Lauren has been the silent team player who has year in and year out gotten the Governor’s Cup plaques engraved for decades. Lauren said, “it was a true highlight sailing with my son”. She also said, “Gordon was as patient and respectful to me as Eddie always was”.

Commodore (for the rest of the month) Ian Twinn with Nico crewing made the trek from Northern Virginia and took second in the Governor’s cup and third in the Wolcott.

Tyler Brown, the 2026 Hampton One Design National Champion, raced in the remarkably beautiful and newly painted 706 (see attached picture) with Mallory Soter. Tyler said the races were a good end to the racing season and that he was glad to see Charlie at the award ceremony. Charlie was not racing because Calamity Jane #514 is getting repaired from her most recent Calamity at Fishing Bay that damaged her transom.

Kerri and I had a great weekend taking two firsts, but unfortunately, I had not read the Sailing Instructions carefully before the races. Six of the ten regattas including our National Regatta this year used the RRS Appendix V1 that allows a boat to take a one-turn penalty for fouling except in the zone of a mark. I fouled Gordon in the first race in a starboard port incident. I had it in my head that one tack and one jibe was enough to exonerate my foul, so that is what I did. After the race I read the SI and realized appendix V1 was not in there, I therefore retired from race one. My silver lining, even though we lost the Governor’s Cup, we won the Wolcott Memorial!

Sam Riley raced with Beck Ibraim on Saturday. Sam reflecting on the Hampton One Design summer racing said, “it was a very competitive season which was a lot of fun to compete in”.

Ann Stokes sailing Aphrodite #708 with Emily Priest said, “well run races in good if sometimes challenging conditions” and said, “it was fun sailing with the Bottlenose Dolphins”.

Noah Stevens sailing with Jordan Minot continues to improve and is a great addition to the fleet!

Your NEC is hard at work behind the scenes. We will send an update after our meeting next week.

Best to all our Hampon Sailors that made 2026 a great season! gks

Labor Day Hampton One Design Regatta Results 2026:

Race 2 determined the 2026 Wolcott Memorial Regatta

Skipper	Crew	Race 1	Race 2	Total
Gordon Wolcott	Lauren Wolcott	1	2	3
Ian Twinn	Nico Twinn	2	3	5
Tyler Brown	Mallory Soter	3	4	7
Gordy Stokes	Kerri Stokes	RET 8	1	9
Sam Riley	Beck	4	5	9
Ann Stokes	Emily Priest	5	6	11
Noah Stevens	Jordan Minot	6	7	13