Annapolis Yacht Club set to Host 40th Edition of the Annapolis to Newport Race

by Bill Wagner with contributions from AYC Communications Committee and AYC Harborside Director Linda Ambrose

Annapolis, MD, April 2- This year marks a major milestone for the Annapolis to Newport Race, which holds a prominent place in the history of offshore sailboat competition.

The 40th edition of the biennial Annapolis to Newport Race will take place in early June 2025 on the Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic Ocean. The iconic point-to-point distance race connecting two colonial seaports began in 1947 and is approaching its 80th anniversary.

The Annapolis to Newport Race is one of the most historic and respected blue water races held on the East Coast and in the entire United States. Over the course of 39 previous editions, it has attracted some of the most famous sailing vessels ever produced.

“The boats we race today are vastly different from the wood-hulled, cotton-canvassed classics from that era,” said Jim Praley, who has been chairman of the Annapolis to Newport Race since 2017. “Yet sailors keep coming back for the challenge. Combining a 120-mile leg down the Chesapeake Bay, an offshore leg to Block Island and a coastal sprint to the finish off Castle Hill Lighthouse, the Annapolis to Newport Race offers a sailing experience that everyone who competes will never forget.”

Officially established in 1947 as the Newport to Annapolis Race and designated to be held in alternate years with the Newport Bermuda Race, the event was originally organized jointly by the Annapolis Yacht Club, New York Yacht Club and Naval Academy Sailing Squadron.

The Newport to Annapolis Race was held five times before the course was reversed, starting with the 1957 edition. This change was made after complaints by competitors about slow trips up the Chesapeake Bay following a long ocean passage.

Reversing the direction of the course proved a wise decision as many prominent owners were eager to get their boats north for the summer racing and cruising seasons. Two years after the change a new record of 71 boats competed in the 1959 edition and the number of entries continued to increase with A2N drawing at least 84 entries for every edition from 1975-1981.

Renowned sailing author, lecturer, historian and Vice Commodore of Annapolis YC Gary Jobson believes Annapolis to Newport ranks alongside Newport Bermuda Race (established in 1906), the Transpacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu (1906) and Chicago-Mackinac (1904) as among the greatest blue water races in the United States.

“Annapolis to Newport holds a very important place in the annals of offshore sailboat racing and has attracted a lot of famous boats and skippers,” Jobson said. “It’s a very unique race with an intriguing course featuring three distinct phases. For decades, the Annapolis to Newport Race has tested the skill and seamanship of the best sailors and crews.”

  Jobson raced his first Annapolis to Newport Race at the age of 18 in 1969 as crew aboard Resistance, a Comanche 42, an entry sailed by members of the New York Maritime sailing team, and will participate again this year as crew aboard Temptation, a Judel-Vrolijk 66 owned by Arthur Santry.  “I think it’s pretty cool that I first did this race when I was 18 and now, I’m doing it again at age 74,” Jobson said.

Two boats that connect the past to the present are entered in the 2025 Annapolis to Newport Race, which starts June 6 and 7 just south of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Nicole and Reindeer, two classic yachts home-ported at Tred Avon Yacht Club, are synonymous with A2N.

Newbold Smith first sailed a boat named Reindeer in the 1959 edition of A2N and became the Class D winner in 1961 and 1963. 

Tony Parker first crewed for Smith in the 1981 Annapolis to Newport when Reindeer was a Concordia-built Farr 44. “Newbold was a tough, tough skipper who loved going to sea,” Parker said. “He enjoyed every aspect of the Annapolis to Newport Race with the camaraderie of the crew being foremost.” Smith, a Naval Academy graduate and true legend in offshore racing circles, died in January 2019. Parker and Peter Driscoll purchased the Morris 47 from the estate in order to honor Smith and keep the Reindeer program going.

Parker and Driscoll, both of whom crewed aboard Reindeer for more than two decades co-skippered the Morris 47 in the 2019 Annapolis to Newport Race and returned for the 2023 edition. This year’s race will mark the 25th time a boat named Reindeer has competed in Annapolis-to-Newport.    

Similarly, St. Michael’s resident T. Coleman DuPont faithfully campaigned Nicole in the Annapolis to Newport Race for multiple decades. Tad DuPont skippered the Cal 40 to victory in PHRF 3 in the 1995 edition and did his last A2N in 2013.

Tom Campbell, a fellow Tred Avon Yacht Club member, bought Nicole from DuPont and skippered the Cal 40 to the overall victory in the Offshore Racing Rule Division in 2019. “We went 60 miles offshore then beat into a 35-knot headwind to get back to Block Island,” Campbell recalled. “We had wind the whole way while the rest of the fleet got pinned in light air off Long Island.”

Campbell’s crew included his brother Doug as navigator and son Alan as watch captain. Also aboard was Bob Matthews, who sailed with DuPont on Nicole for a long time.”Bob knows this boat better than anybody and it’s a real comfort to have him aboard whenever we go offshore,” Campbell said.

Nicole will continue its tradition of doing the Annapolis to Newport Race when the 40th edition commences this June. Campbell said DuPont comes down to the dock to see his old boat off whenever Nicole embarks on a point-to-point distance race.

The current course record was set during the 2017 Annapolis-to-Newport Race when Stephen Murray Jr. skippered the Volvo 70 Warrior to line honors as it finished in 40 hours, 14 minutes and 36 seconds.That shattered the previous mark of 42 hours, 58 minutes and 12 seconds set by the Farr 60 Carrera in the 2001 edition.

To date over 70 boats are entered ranging in size from 32’-69’ with close to a third of the entries sailing with first time skippers in the race. 

For more information on the race contact info@annapolisnewportrace.com or visit the event website https://www.annapolisnewportrace.com/.