As its competitive season continues, the Oakcliff Sailing Center team has been cruising through regattas around the world. The sailors are currently back at home, preparing for the Oakcliff International, an elite event in which teams from a number of countries will converge on Oyster Bay to compete in Grade 1, top-level match races Aug. 27 to 30.
Oakcliff Sailing is a renowned training facility led by Dawn Riley, originally of, a member of the National Sailing, America’s Cup and State of Michigan halls of fame who is now in her 29th year of coaching competitive sailing and her 16th year at Oakcliff. The center is known for its training programs, which extend beyond traditional coaching methods, and its graduates have taken part in a number of around-the-world races, the Americas Cup and Olympic competition. One former Oakcliff trainee, Chris Poole, is now the world’s highest ranked match-racing skipper — the helmsman who steers the boat.
While the Oakcliff International event is one of the highlights of the summer, the sailors have been busy since the season began in April. At the Race around Block Island, on Memorial Day weekend, the rain was relentless and temperatures dropped as the event went on, but the Oakcliff team took home wins in several divisions, including Performance Handicap Racing Fleet and Offshore Racing Congress, and won the Governor’s East Race Trophy. Riley described the racing off Rhode Island as “physically unpleasant, but that’s a part of sailboat racing.”
The 636-nautical-mile Newport to Bermuda Race, in June, was the most demanding event of the season. Just four boats, with a total of 67 crewmembers, from various teams. Overcoming logistical challenges that included near-40-knot winds, the Oakcliff team finished third.
On July 14, Oakcliff team member Siri Schantz sailed Prince Albert II of Monaco’s private boat from Oyster Bay to Port Jefferson. The following day, in the race off Newport, R.I., Oakcliff had two teams racing, one on the legendary 12-meter Courageous, which belonged to the late renowned yachtsman Ted Turner, and a second on a JV 66, a high-performance 66-foot boat helmed by Riley. The team took fifth place in the race.
Oakcliff Sailing recently hosted a global World Match Racing Tour Academy, two weeks of training in advanced match racing, and its academies regularly welcome local sailors as well as those from as far afield as China. Sophie Adwar, of Northport, who has been learning the finer points of match racing since joining the team earlier this year, described how much she has enjoyed the experience.
“I’ve never been anywhere like this before,” Adwar said. “It’s like a family — we all come from different parts of the world and just bond so well together.”
In Adwar’s first two days on the water, winds tore her boat’s genoa, a large, overlapping headsail. “It was really thrilling,” she said of what for many would be a frighteningly stressful situation. “The adrenaline was up and it was very exciting.”
One of the most highly anticipated events of the season was last week’s July Grade 4 Race off Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. The scenic views belied a challenging course, but the Oakcliff team took second place in the race. “It’s fun, not too long and pretty intense,” Riley said.
The Oyster Bay center welcomes anyone with basic sailing skills to become a supporter, with a donation of $750 for an individual and $1,000 for a family, and joining others to sail on Wednesdays. As supporters sharpen their skills, they have the chance to take part in match races on Thursdays, and can move on to graded events. The facility will also offer Saturday clinics for learning and training and Sunday racing throughout August.
More extensive training is available for advanced sailors, as well as teaching skills that translate into future careers, such as sailmaking and boatbuilding. “We are unique in that we are the only place in the world that combines sailing and training, athleticism and the apprenticeship both in mechanical skills and in business and leadership skills,” Riley said.
Oakcliff also works with the Oyster Bay High School sailing team, which uses the center and its facilities during the summer. And center team members are coaching the Learn to Love Sailing program at the Creek Club in Locust Valley this summer. “We are part of the community,” Riley emphasized, “which is a great group of people.”
At roughly the halfway mark of the sailing season, team members are looking forward to upcoming regattas and programs involving the community as they sail through the rest of the summer. For more information, visit OakcliffSailing.org.
