Long Island Sound Fleet
There are now approximately 30 Vipers actively racing on Western Long Island Sound (Larchmont, western Connecticut) and 6 Vipers in Eastern Long Island Sound (Mystic area). There is local fleet racing in the Larchmont, Stamford, and Fishers Island Sound areas, and several regattas each year, including the Larchmont Memorial Day Regatta, Nyack Viper Open, Larchmont Race Week, YRALIS Champs, Fishers Island Sound Champs, Larchmont Fall Finale, and the Noroton Viper Open.
In 2009, Stamford YC and Indian Harbor YC co-hosted the Viper North American Championship, with 37 boats in attendance – the largest in class history at the time. In 2015, Larchmont YC hosted the North American Championship with 53 boats in attendance – also the Class’s largest regatta until that point. Larchmont YC will host the 2020 Viper Atlantic Coast Championship.
- Around Fishers Island September 8, 2015A Supposedly Fun Thing That I’ll Probably Do Again Next Year By Peter Beardsley We try to mix up our Viper travel schedule – it’s a good excuse to see new places and if we happen to sail, all the better. Despite growing up in the northeast, I had never step foot on Fishers Island, a tony enclave that through a quirk of cartography and colonial era politicking, is in New York State waters despite being much closer to Connecticut and Rhode Island. In fact, for geography fans, there is a part of the island where at low tide, you can stand at the only “border” of New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Fishers is known for its natural beauty and its exclusivity, which many others have written about previously. In the sailing community, it is known for its many navigational hazards ......read more
- Ghost Panda Wins Inaugural MidAtlantic Championship December 4, 2014
Until 2014, there weren’t many good options for Viper racing in the northeast after HPDO Columbus Day weekend. And that’s ok – the weather gets colder, the days get shorter, and people start itching to sail even smaller boats for frostbiting, go skiing, or just hibernate. However at least for me, when given the option between putting the Viper away for the winter in the northeast versus traveling south to get in one last regatta, the choice seems easy. Make it so that the drive is less than seven hours away, throw in an oyster roast, and I’ll almost forget that half the drive is in a state where radar detectors are prohibited. Hampton YC is home to one of the fastest growing Viper fleets on the East Coast. The fleet doubled in size in early 2014 with the addition of ......read more - GREAT RACING, GREAT FRIENDS, GREAT BEER, 30 VIPERS October 14, 2014
The High Performance Dinghy Open, better known as the “HPDO” has a slogan: “Great racing, great friends, great beer.” Usually all of these things are present for the Viper 640 Class, and the 2014 edition was no exception: 30 boats competing in 8 races over two days, with the leaderboard constantly shuffling and 15 teams posting at least one race result in the top 5, a post-dinner fleet debrief that took over the bar at American YC, much to the surprise of AYC’s members, and plenty of mini kegs of Heineken. Normally saying that the beer was warmer than the air temperature would be a major insult to the beer, but Saturday started with driving rain and unseasonably cool temperatures to cause some to reconsider their apparel choices a year in advance of the North Americans, to be sailed in ......read more
