Annapolis Yacht Club hosted the 40th Annapolis to Newport Race, starting in Annapolis on June 6, 2025. Among the 71 entries to the biennial event, several first-timers to the race faired very well in their respective classes.

William Gunther is a veteran offshore sailor but had never done the Annapolis to Newport Race. The Essex, Connecticut resident decided to check that iconic event off the bucket list and did so in serious style. Gunther skippered Blue Skies to a convincing victory in ORC Performance Cruiser 1 class for the 40th biennial Annapolis to Newport Race. John Brooks served as the other watch captain aboard the Alden Skye 50-footer, which posted a corrected time of 4 days, 5 hours, 54 minutes and 59 seconds.

That was more than four hours better than class runner-up Legacy, a Beneteau First 40 skippered by Nick Carter of Lewes, Delaware.

“We’re absolutely thrilled with the result. To win our class in our first time doing this great race is very exciting,” said Gunther, who was encouraged to enter Annapolis to Newport by legendary sailmaker Butch Ulmer. “I was talking to Butch, and he suggested it would be a good race for this boat and boy was he right.”

Benedict Capuco and his veteran crew aboard ZUUL have competed in the last four editions of the Annapolis to Newport Race and have now posted three straight podium finishes. After finishing second in class in 2021 and third in 2023, Capuco and company took the final step.

ZUUL captured ORC Open 3 class in a close battle with Zig Zag. The Annapolis-based Aerodyne 38 finished 37 minutes ahead of the J/122 on elapsed time and stretched that advantage to just over an hour on corrected time.

“It was a somewhat trying race. We were out there a long time,” Capuco said. “We didn’t have much wind in the Bay and didn’t get out until late Sunday afternoon. Things got better out in the ocean, but we still had some light periods here and there.”

Of particular note, ZUUL not only won ORC 3 but also had the lowest corrected time among all 56 boats competing under the ORC rule.

Paul Parks was pleased to come out on top in the ORC Doublehanded division but felt bad about how it happened. Parks and George Saunders sailed Sundog to victory after Jane Says was forced to drop out of the race.

Jane Says, an XP44 skippered by Robert Dunigan, held a huge lead on the rest of the class until ensnaring a fish net on approach to Block Island. Dunigan and crew Read Beigel were forced to start the engine in order to back off and clear the netting from the keel. Sundog finished more than eight hours ahead of Abientot, but wound up beating the J/35 by about a half hour on corrected time. Skipper Roger Lant and crew Michael Welin sailed brilliantly aboard Abientot, which led all the doublehanded boats around the Chesapeake Light Tower.

Parks was presented with the prestigious C. Gaither Scott Trophy for Corinthian Spirit. That award, which is presented at the discretion of the Race and Event Committee, goes to a team or individual skipper that has demonstrated the spirit of Corinthian competition as promoted by Commodore C. Gaither Scott. The award is not always handed out and is named in memory of Past Commodore Scott who also served a term as the Race Committee Chairman.

Midshipman Sammy Mentel and his fellow members of the Naval Academy Varsity Offshore Sailing team made a bold decision upon approach to Block Island and it paid dividends as Defiance took first place in PHRF class.

Defiance was one of four Navy 44-footers in the 11-boat class and was in close contact with sister ship Tenacious while sailing fairly close to shore off Long Island. Mentel the tactician huddled with navigator Samantha Farley and executive officer Maddy Nienow to discuss the make-or-break decision about whether to go inside or outside of Block Island.

That critical decision resulted in Defiance crushing the other three Navy 44s with an elapsed time of 4 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 32 seconds and a corrected time of 4 days, 8 hours, 53 minutes and 26 seconds. Tenacious, which at one point was in visual contact with Defiance, wound up crossing the finish line more than five hours later with Integrity and Gallant close behind.

Eliot Merrill was another skipper who came away a winner in his Annapolis to Newport debut, leading Arcadia to class honors in ORC Open 2. Merrill, like Gunther, is a veteran of the Newport-Bermuda and Marion-Bermuda races who was finally able to work A2N into the season schedule.

Primarily beating in light wind on the Chesapeake was not a strength for the Lyman-Morse 46-footer and Merrill admitted “we did not distinguish ourselves.” The Stonington, Connecticut resident said the crew worked hard to stay in touch with the other boats in ORC 2 then try to make up ground in more favorable conditions out in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We rounded the Chesapeake Tower last in our class and had a lot of work to do,” Merrill said. “Fortunately, we were mostly reaching in the ocean and it’s a great boat for those conditions. We were able to steadily grind back the competition out in the ocean.”

Merrill, who has owned Arcadia for three years, earned his first class victory in an offshore race as skipper of his own boat.

That was also the case for David Esseks, the ORC Performance Cruiser 2 winner. Esseks and his close-knit crew of family and friends sailed Twiga, a J/109 to a very convincing victory in the class — beating runner-up Bay Retriever by more than seven hours on corrected time.

Twiga led the class out of the Chesapeake, but skipper Kevin Sherwood and his crew aboard Bay Retriever were close behind. However, the J/109 left the J/99 far behind in the Atlantic Ocean and crossed the finish line almost seven hours earlier.

“We worked very, very hard to keep the boat moving whenever it got really light. We were becalmed with no steerage at least four times, including three in the last 12 hours,” Esseks said.

This was the fourth time the New York City resident has competed in A2N aboard his own boat and by far the best result. Twiga in PHRF 2 in the 2019 edition then fourth out of nine entries in PHRF in 2021.

As expected, Temptation/Oakcliff captured ORC 1 class on corrected time. The Judel/Vrolijk 66-footer skippered by Arthur Santry beat the Class 40 Velocity (Martin Roesch) by just over two hours after handicaps were factored.

Zig Zag skipper Andrew Clark earned the James Allsopp Memorial Seafarer Trophy for best combined performance in the 2025 Annapolis-to-Newport Race and the 2024 Newport-to- Bermuda Race.

It was somewhat fitting that host Annapolis Yacht Club came away with the award presented for the best performance of a three-boat team. Dark Storm, Velocity and Windborn secured the Yacht Club Challenge Trophy based on their combined results.

More Information >>