SIGNATURE RACES
In keeping with the Club’s strong racing tradition, each year we host two signature events. With a focus on fun, the Rum Challenge is both a race and the social event of the season, with a renowned after-party. The 140-mile Wetherill, on the other hand, is designed to draw serious sailors interested in tuning up for the iconic Bermuda and Halifax races.
THE RUM CHALLENGE
A Premiere Racing AND Social Event!
Sponsored by Goslings, this race is run in two parts - a preliminary one-design race run in the river on the Saturday preceding the Rum Challenge and then the big boat race run in open water on Long Island Sound. The Awards Ceremony is the capstone of the after-party, with drinks, dinner and dancing on the Club’s riverside grounds.
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2025 marked the 30th running of the Rum Challenge, with 32 boats participating. The next Rum Challenge will be run on July 11 (preliminary one-design river race) and July 18 (big boat race and party), reverting back to the Club’s original practice of holding the event in July.
The capstone of every Rum Challenge is the Awards Ceremony, featuring drinks, dinner and dancing on the Club’s picturesque grounds. Considered by many the best yacht club party on the Long Island Sound, this is definitely an event you don’t want to miss!
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The 2025 Race was run in late June. Details of that race can be found here.
Interested in participating in 2026? Check back here in early spring!
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The highlight of the evening ceremony is the awarding of the ten-liter Goslings Rum cask, awarded every year to the yacht club with at least three boats participating and the best overall performance.
Many other trophies are also awarded. These include:
First, second and third place trophies for each class, including multiple spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes;
First, second and third place trophies for the preliminary one-design race;
The Hot Flash Trophy for the fastest elapsed time in the fastest class;
The Tom Lentini Memorial Trophy for the first-place finish in the non-spinnaker class.
THE WETHERILL
EYC’s Annual Blue Water Race
An excellent tune-up for the iconic Halifax or Bermuda races, the 140-mile Wetherill is run in May of each year from Old Saybrook to Martha’s Vineyard and back.
The Wetherill is a qualifier for the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy (ORC), the Double Handed Ocean Racing Trophy (ORC), the New England Lighthouse Series (PHRF), and the East End ORC series.
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This annual event honors Sam Wetherill, past Commodore of the Essex Yacht Club (1942-1942), founding member of the Cruising Club of America (CCA), a founder of the Bermuda Race and former editor at Yachting magazine. The Wetherill Race was first run in 1952 and is the longest-running yacht race named after a CCA member.
Sam Wetherill was a significant figure in early American ocean racing. As a veteran of World War I he earned the Navy Cross as commander of a subchaser. These boats, approximately 110 feet long with a beam of only 15 feet, were notoriously difficult to control in heavy seas, sparking Sam’s lifelong interest in the problems of stability of small racing yachts at sea. As editor at Yachting magazine, he worked to encourage designs that improved stability and safety and was a key advocate for the development of smaller, more stable yachts for offshore racing. His work is credited with influencing prominent 20th Century yacht designers like Olin Stephens II, whose work is associated with many successful America’s Cup entries, among others.
An avid and successful racer himself, notably on his 32-foot ketch Tidal Wave, Sam was known for his lively personality, often playing the ukulele and singing sea shanties. The Wetherill Race was established in Sam’s memory after his tragic drowning death at age 66. The inaugural race in 1952 drew many notable sailors, including G W Blunt White, who won the race aboard his yacht, White Mist.
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Over the years, this race has featured a variety of ocean courses. Since 2021, the course has run approximately 140 nautical miles, starting from south of the Saybrook Point Lighthouse, proceeding to the G31 mark, 1.6 nautical miles northwest of the Gay Head Light on Martha’s Vineyard, and returning to Saybrook, leaving Block Island to starboard.
The course is contested almost completely in ocean waters, with only a few miles of the start and finish sailed in the Sound.
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Results from our May 2025 race can be found here.
Interested in participating in 2026? Check back here for all the details in early spring.
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A celebratory brunch is held each year on the Sunday following the Wetherill race. Trophies are awarded for first, second and third place finishes in multiple spinnaker and non-spinnaker classes. Names of the top two finishers are added to the large Wetherill Trophy plaque that hangs in the Boyd Room.
