FAIR HAVEN, N.J. — The Mayor’s Cup has returned to the banks of the Navesink and was an all Fair Haven awards affair this year, with a boat from as far as Forked River NJ participating. The winners of the three award categories were all captained by Fair Haven residents from Fair Haven clubs. The sail boats launched from the docks of the Shrewsbury River Yacht Club (SRYC) in the afternoon of July 3 for the annual regatta.

The Keelboat Class and Mayor’s Cup went to Lou Moore and Michael Wiehl on the “Lynn” sailed out of Fair Haven Yacht Works. The One Design Fleet award went to “Designer’s Choice” sailed by Dominic Gasperinni and Danny Raffellie out of River Rats. The NJYRA Irwin Bowl went to “Confiscated” sailed by Sam Oncea, Dick Muise, Stuart VanWinkle and Ryan Barnett out of SRYC in Fair Haven.

Interestingly, Gasperini and Raffellie were late additions to the annual regatta. They had originally volunteered to manage the juniors race which was scrubbed due to weather. They quickly rigged a boat that they had never sailed before and navigated the course for the win.

The Mayor’s Cup Regatta is held annually and brings together many from the peninsula and surrounding communities to enjoy the time-honored tradition on the Navesink River. This was the ninth race for the Mayor’s Cup, which was started concurrent with the centennial celebration on Fair Haven in 2012; the race was canceled in 2020 out of caution relating to pandemic conditions.

The “bridge” race was open to all sailboats and used the Portsmouth Handicap system (a universally accepted way to normalize times/scores of widely differing types of sailing vessels). The bridge race was comprised of various fleets including Cruising, One Design, Optimist and 420 classes. The race was held between the Oceanic Bridge and Lewis Point under ideal racing conditions with winds from 10 to 12 MPH and cloudy skies. By the end of the regatta, the sun made a brief appearance for the finishers.

Special thanks to: SRYC Commodore Dennis Stiles and Sailing Chair and Race Committee Chair Brian Carr, to SRYC BBQ Lead – Brian Carr & Family, to FHSC Committee boat Joe Malik, MBC Mark Boats Les Hathaway, SSYC Registration Table Gail Van Winkle and Kelly Zwieg and SRYC Rear Commodore Jon Friedman and Past Commodore for shooting photos of the regatta.

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