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LYC keeps tradition alive with breakwater races

Delilah, with Heath Gehrke at the helm, and Legacy, skippered by Nick Carter, get off to a close start in the annual LYC Breakwater Sailing Race, which has been held nearly every Labor Day for 90 years. RON MACARTHUR PHOTOS
Ron MacArthur
September 9, 2022

The busy Lewes Yacht Club one-design sailboat racing season came to an end Sept. 5 with the annual Breakwater Sailing Race featuring one-design and the LYC Beer Can Keelboat Fleet. The roots of the race, and the yacht club itself, date back to the first breakwater race 90 years ago in 1932.

With a start in Delaware Bay in front of the yacht club, boats sailed around the south end of the inner Delaware Breakwater and back to where they started.

The top-finishing keelboats were: 1. Iris with captain Hattie Warwick-Smith; 2. Legacy with captain Nick Carter; 3. Mystery with captain Dick Tormet.

Finishers in the Sunfish division were: 1. David Miller; 2. Connie Miller; 3. Scott and Sav Gaston; 4. Jay Wagamon; 5. Bert Keller; 6. Achareeya Gaston; 7. Tina Sampson.

Mobjacks: 1. Sarah Lester and Tony Ingram; 2. Paynt Ingram and Jeremy Niedererr.

Hobie Cat: Andy McDonald.

Hobie Wave: Kelly and Grant Cummins.

The larger keel sailboats will continue competing through December with racing on Wednesdays and Sundays in September and October, and Sundays in November and December.

Iris, skippered by Hattie Warwick-Smith, prepares to start the annual race around the Delaware Breakwater. She and her crew took top honors in this year’s race.
Iris leans into the wind as it nears the Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse, the turnaround point in the keel boat race.
Nick Carter, skipper of Legacy, is a veteran sailor and past commodore of the Lewes Yacht Club.
Legacy prepares to round the inner breakwater and the Delaware Breakwater East End Lighthouse.
The crew of Mystery works to get into position to balance their boat as it uses a strong breeze to pick up speed. Mystery finished in second place in the keel boat division of the LYC breakwater race.
Delilah, which later ran aground and withdrew from the race, prepares to round the Delaware Breakwater.
Ships passing in the day. Sunfish sailor Connie Miller, who finished in second place, heads east toward the breakwater while Legacy in the keel boat race flies its spinnaker heading west to the finish line.
Andy McDonald’s Hobie Cat is dwarfed by the Cape May-Lewes Ferry in the distance. McDonald was the first overall finisher in the LYC Labor Day race one-design boat competition.
David Miller sails his Sunfish to a first-place finish in the annual LYC Breakwater Sailing Race.
The Mobjack team of skipper Sarah Lester and crew Tony Ingram add another win to their record, taking first in the LYC Breakwater Sailing Race.
The team of Paynt Ingram, skipper, and Jeremy Niedererr, crew, work the wind to a second-place finish in the Mobjack division.
Scott Gaston and his 4-year-old son Sav raced to a third-place finish in the Sunfish breakwater race.
Veteran sailor Bert Keller races to the finish line in the LYC breakwater race.
It doesn’t always go as planned. Less than 100 yards from the finish line, Sunfish sailor Achareeya Gaston goes turtle.

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