Top Mobjack regatta honors stay in the family
For 65 years, Mobjack sailors have competed in a Lewes Yacht Club regatta. Winners in the T. Rowland Marshall Memorial Mobjack National Championship held Aug. 17-18 have strong family ties.
Skipper Sarah Lester and crew member Tony Ingram took top honors, winning six of the seven races.
Second place went to skipper Paynt Ingram and his daughter-in-law Margaret Ingram. Tony Ingram is the son of Paynt and husband of Margaret.
The team of Al Williamson and Roland Tink finished third, while the family team of Tom, Duncan and 10-year-old Claire Ward of the Potomac River Sailing Association finished fourth, and the LYC team of Joe Smith and Maria Elena Smith took fifth place.
The Mobjack fleet is dwindling, with only a handful of them remaining in the region. Fewer than 600 of the dinghy sailboats were produced, with their origins on the Delmarva Peninsula. Production was stopped in the mid-1970s.
The regatta is named in honor of T. Rowland Marshall, who, along with his daughter Connie Milller, sailed and raced Mobjacks for nearly 30 years. Marshall, a former LYC commodore and life member, and Delaware River & Bay pilot, passed away April 30, 2022 at the age of 100. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard with the Pilots Association of the Bay & River Delaware. He served as president of the organization from 1967-73 and retired in 1991. He was also a life member of the International Mobjack Association. He was inducted into the Delaware Maritime Hall of Fame in 2008.
