“There are some heavy hitters right here,” stated Ed McCoy, my pal and frequent crusing associate.
“Agreed,” I replied. Since arriving about half-hour earlier on the yard barbecue in Falmouth, Maine, simply north of Portland, I had reconnected with an previous pal and two-time Vendée Globe veteran, mentioned emergency composite restore with a Class40 round-the-world racer, and listened in on a dialogue about rounding Cape Horn in heavy climate. “I believe solely in Portland, Maine, and someplace in France does a home celebration like this even exist,” I added.
My first arrival in Portland had been a yr in the past to choose up an previous Open 50 referred to as Sparrow and start getting ready for the International Solo Problem—a solo, nonstop, around-the-world race. I’d identified about Maine’s repute for unparalleled crusing and cruising; with greater than 4,000 islands and a shoreline longer than California’s, Maine is profoundly linked to the water. Whether or not heading offshore, hauling lobster traps, or commuting to a neighboring island, residing in Maine and spending time on a ship are likely to go hand in hand.
I additionally knew Maine’s boatbuilding repute. Legendary marques like Hinckley, Lyman-Morse, Morris Yachts, and the well-known Touchdown Faculty all name Maine residence. So does an adventurous, free-thinking, and entrepreneurial inhabitants with a can-do spirit. Unsurprisingly, Maine has develop into a state of knowledgeable boatbuilders and equally expert mariners—the New Zealand of America, if you’ll.
Photograph courtesy of Portland Yacht Companies
What I didn’t know however rapidly found is that Maine has additionally develop into the beating coronary heart of American shorthanded ocean racing. Because the end of the Class40 Atlantic Cup and residential base of each profitable American marketing campaign to complete the Vendée Globe, Maine—and particularly Portland—has develop into a significant hub on the small however devoted American shorthanded offshore crusing scene. A spot that tends to scoop up round-the-world racing sailors and declare them as its personal, it has a tradition and keenness for shorthanded ocean racing that’s actual and runs deep.
The way it acquired that method is a narrative not simply of place, however of crusing legends.
“Dodge Morgan set the tone right here and set out on his record-breaking around-the-world sail right here again within the ’80s,” says Maine Yacht Heart Basic Supervisor Brian Harris. Morgan in 1986 grew to become the primary American to sail solo nonstop around the globe, setting a brand new document of 150 days. Whereas Morgan formally began and completed in Bermuda and sailed through the three Nice Capes, he had initially departed from Portland. After ending, he lived in Maine till he died in 2010. His Ted Hood-designed 60-footer, American Promise, right now sails the Gulf of Maine because the flagship analysis vessel for the Rozalia Challenge.
“However there’s the historical past of Walter Greene too,” Harris provides. “He was a real pioneer of the multihull scene and have become very, very well-known each right here and in France.”
Within the Nineteen Seventies, solo ocean racing was in its infancy, and sailors had been nonetheless grappling with which was quicker throughout an ocean below sail: a multihull or a monohull. Maine-based multihull designer, builder, and sailor Walter Greene, who died final July at 80 years previous, was one of many stunning geniuses who helped collectively reply this defining query that might spark a revolution in yacht design.
Photograph: Jacques Vapillon, courtesy of Bruce Schwab
In the course of the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978—a singlehanded race from Saint Malo, France, to Guadeloupe, sailed with out class restrictions, dimension limits, nor division between monohulls and multihulls—36 intrepid sailors from around the globe introduced collectively essentially the most spectacular fleet of ocean racing {hardware} ever assembled on the time. Ultimately, nevertheless, it was a tiny plywood trimaran from Yarmouth, Maine, designed by Walter Greene, that stole the present.
After greater than three weeks at sea, Canadian Mike Birch and his 31-foot Greene-designed trimaran Olympus Photograph crossed the end line simply 98 seconds forward of Frenchman Michel Malinovsky and his large 70-foot monohull Kriter V. In a narrative that couldn’t have been higher scripted by one of the best minds in Hollywood, the beautiful pictures of a small trimaran narrowly beating an enormous monohull to win the inaugural Route du Rhum would successfully function the road of demarcation for the fashionable multihull motion.
Two years later, the 1980 OSTAR helped affirm that multihulls had been the ticket to rushing throughout an ocean and that Greene’s Maine builds had been depraved quick. American Phil Weld would win the race on Moxie, a Dick Newick-designed trimaran constructed by Greene in Maine. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishers sailed trimarans designed and constructed by Greene. When the fashionable singlehanded racing motion started, the quickest boats on this planet weren’t popping out of France or the UK; they had been popping out of a shed in Yarmouth, Maine.
Photograph: SAIL journal
Across the identical time that Greene was pioneering the fashionable multihull motion and cleansing up within the solo races, Portland native Phineas Sprague Jr. and his spouse, Joanna, had been wrapping up a four-year circumnavigation on a basic John Alden-designed schooner. Returning residence and starting the subsequent chapter of their lives, the Spragues would go on to enter the marine trade with the founding of the Portland Ship Yard and Portland Yacht Companies. A full-service boatyard that might ultimately tackle main tasks as much as and together with new constructions and full restorations, PYS established itself as a significant participant on Portland’s comparatively small however bustling working waterfront.
As solo ocean racing continued its maturation and the newly created Vendée Globe grew to become essentially the most prestigious solo ocean race on earth, Portland would once more discover itself enjoying a key function.
“After ending the 2002-03 Round Alone, I used to be making an attempt to determine the place to go and do the preparation for the Vendée Globe,” says Bruce Schwab. “I wound up in one of many Portland Yacht Companies sheds for over a yr…The assist that Ocean Planet and I discovered was superb, and I don’t understand how I’d have made it to the beginning of the (2004) Vendée Globe with out it. Within the means of getting ready Ocean Planet in Maine, I acquired to be taught concerning the maritime and yachting historical past right here. I had been unaware beforehand of how deep it was and of the ties to shorthanded ocean racing.”
The next yr, Schwab would go on to develop into the primary American to complete the long-lasting Vendée Globe, the world’s hardest and most prestigious solo offshore crusing race. Ending in ninth place with a time of just below 110 days, Schwab grew to become a nationwide crusing hero and solely added to Maine’s wealthy shorthanded ocean racing legacy.
“After finishing the Vendée, returning again to Maine grew to become a homecoming for me,” Schwab says. “The maritime and yachting financial system in Maine was a a lot greater factor comparatively than it’s in California, and so it appeared that it could be simpler to get again on my monetary toes right here. Additionally, there was the logistics of what to do with the boat since crusing it out to California was not financially potential at that time…I suppose it took me some time to get my bearings after the Vendée, however in hindsight I used to be prepared for a brand new starting, and Maine was the place to do it.”
He would fall again on his rigging skillsets to start out a enterprise in Maine earlier than happening to discovered Ocean Planet Vitality in Woolwich, simply up the coast from Portland, which has established itself as an trade chief in marine batteries, electrical programs, charging programs, and renewable vitality programs.
On the identical time Schwab was returning to Maine to start his subsequent chapter, Brian Harris was additionally getting resettled in Portland after a decade of engaged on racing yachts in France and overseas.
“Once I moved again to Maine, I used to be on the lookout for a job and the Maine Yacht Heart was in its remaining levels of being constructed, so I interviewed and acquired the job as common supervisor,” he says. “Once I began right here, there was nothing. There have been no pencils or chairs, nor prospects, and so we needed to kick-start the factor from scratch.
Photograph: Jean-Marie Liot, courtesy of Globe 40
“I had labored for Emma Richards on her Pindar program through the Round Alone 2002/03, and as we had been wrapping up that venture, I met James Burwick. James had simply bought an Open 40 that had sailed within the race, and he wanted a spot to refit it. I instructed him, ‘Hey, I simply began this new job at this boatyard in Maine.’ And so James was buyer No. 1 at Maine Yacht Heart. It wasn’t a Pearson 26 as our first buyer; it was a Finot-designed Open 40 getting ready for an additional world tour! And that’s when Will Rooks got here to work for us. Will is an exceptionally proficient composite boatbuilder, and we would have liked somebody to hitch the staff for the refit.”
Rooks was additionally a member of the Ocean Planet venture with Schwab and introduced a excessive stage of experience to the fledgling operation. Whereas Burwick and his rising household went on to finish a properly documented lap of the planet on their Open 40 Anasazi Woman, their refit at Maine Yacht Heart additionally marked the start of what would develop into a protracted and wealthy legacy of getting ready racing yachts to sail solo around the globe. Because the enterprise grew, the distinctive stage of experience housed inside MYC grew as properly. One after the other, knowledgeable boatbuilders, electricians, technicians, and programs specialists joined the staff. When American Wealthy Wilson got down to develop into simply the second American to finish the Vendée Globe, he selected Maine Yacht Heart to organize his boat.
“When Wealthy confirmed up with Nice American III, we did fairly an in depth refit for the 2008 Vendée Globe, a race that was efficiently accomplished,” Harris says. Eradicating the keel, mast, rudders, and most onboard programs, the boat was meticulously ready from stem to stern by what was now a formidable staff of technical consultants that referred to as Portland and Maine Yacht Heart residence.
When the refit venture was accomplished greater than a yr later, the boat had been modified and altered sufficient that it needed to be recertified as a class-compliant IMOCA 60. Conducting stability and inversion exams usually accomplished at a small group of services in France or the UK, the staff strengthened Portland’s repute because the place to refit a round-the-world racing yacht on American shores. When Wilson got down to sail the Vendée Globe a second time within the 2016 race, he once more selected to refit his subsequent IMOCA at Maine Yacht Heart. And he once more completed.
Photograph courtesy of Maine Yacht Heart
“By no means in my wildest goals did I believe that any of this shorthanded racing stuff would observe me right here; it by no means even occurred to me,” Harris says. “However Portland is a welcoming place. It’s acquired an excellent harbor and an enthusiastic crusing scene. There’s an adventuresome spirit right here in Maine, and the sailors discover a area people exterior of the boatyard that endears them to Maine.
“There’s so few locations to go actually. In Europe, there’s a whole lot of locations, however right here in the usA., there’s only some locations you’ll be able to go which have the information of engaged on these distinctive boats,” he says.
In the course of the mid to late 2000s, the introduction of the Class40 modified the shorthanded ocean racing world, and Portland would additional cement its place because the capital of American shorthanded ocean racing. Harris and staff knew that this new design can be extra reasonably priced than an IMOCA 60 however nonetheless possess the velocity and talents of a planing monohull, in order that they sought out Akilaria in France—a Class40 designed by the late, legendary French designer Marc Lombard.
Photograph: Wendy Mitman Clarke
“We began bringing over incomplete boats and ending them up for remaining meeting in addition to commissioning. Because of that, it additionally attracted different folks with Class40 curiosity. That’s how we met Mike Hennessy and labored on each of his Dragon Racing Class 40s,” Harris says. “We labored on different Akilarias and non-Akilaria boats as properly. Over time, Portland and Maine Yacht Heart grew to become the default place to work on these boats in the usA.”
To today, the Atlantic Cup—America’s largest Class40 regatta—ends in Portland after racing from Charleston after which Newport. Bringing world class skilled sailors from Europe and attracting a few of the most leading edge ocean racing {hardware} on earth, the Atlantic Cup is a vital a part of Portland’s fashionable maritime heritage. In the course of the current Globe 40 doublehanded around the globe race in Class40s, seven boats entered and 5 completed. Of these 5 finishers, three had been ready at Maine Yacht Heart, together with each American entries and the lone Canadian entry.
I arrived in Portland in August of 2022 to choose up Sparrow at Maine Yacht Heart. A 1994 Open 50 designed by David Lyons, it had already raced in two BOC Challenges, and I needed to put together it to race within the International Solo Problem.
Photograph: Ronnie Simpson
Having by no means been to Portland, the small seaside neighborhood rapidly gained private relevance the second I made a decision to race solo around the globe. A yr after first choosing up the boat and crusing down the East Coast and again, I returned to Maine Yacht Heart to conduct my prerace refit. Within the course of, I fell in love with a neighborhood lady, and he or she even helped me discover a native firm, Shipyard Brewing, to develop into my title sponsor for the race.
My very own race got here to an unlucky conclusion after I dismasted after finishing 80% of the course and crusing in third place. However it was virtually inevitable that I’d find yourself again in Portland. Simply one other solo ocean racer and Cape Horn veteran who now calls Portland, Maine, residence, I hope in the future quickly to work in the direction of basing one other marketing campaign right here.
Whereas sailors and boats could come and go, their tales stay on as a part of the game’s traditions, vernacular, and historical past. This lengthy and storied legacy of shorthanded around-the-world crusing primarily based in Maine has resulted in a vibrant tradition and keenness for the game that’s really distinctive within the nation. Because the mystique and attract of shorthanded ocean racing and voyaging continues to develop, it’s inevitable that many aspiring sailors will sooner or later guide a one-way ticket to Maine. What occurs after that’s anybody’s guess, nevertheless it appears secure to say this this story has many chapters left to be written.
March 2025
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