Sailing American Eagle

Let’s imagine that you have a strong Boston accent, and that you are enjoying a beautiful day on a sailboat. You and your friends have just finished a cooler of cold beers when you realize you are lost in the Nantucket Sound. 

You might ask...where the Figawi? 

May 2011 marked the 40th anniversary of the Figawi Race Weekend, which began in 1972 as a friendly sailboat race among friends. 

The race has grown from a few boats into a Memorial weekend tradition with hundreds of boats sailing 27 miles from Hyannis, Massachusetts across the Nantucket Sound to finish in Nantucket Island’s harbor. 

I was invited to be a passenger in the race aboard American Eagle, a 12 meter sailboat that was built in 1964. 

 

American Eagle was designed and built by A.E. Luders for the 1964 America’s Cup race by his Stamford, Connecticut based company, and the boat was funded by a syndicate led by Reynolds duPont. 

American Eagle’s United States Sailing boat race number is 21, a designation that shows its status as a pioneer of U.S. racing. Sail numbers range into the thousands for new boats. 

CNN founder Ted Turner purchased the boat in 1969 and raced the yacht successfully around the world, winning the first World Ocean Racing Championship and setting records in several international races. 

Turner was named “Yachtsman of the Year” twice during the time that he owned American Eagle. He sold the boat in 1976 to purchase Courageous, the 12 meter that he skippered to win the America’s Cup in 1976.

Figawi Race day in 2011 started out with thick fog enveloping the Hyannisport Marina.  

After several delays, the fog began to lift around 1pm. 

As one of the Class A boats in the race, a designation based on size, American Eagle started about two hours after the first boats left the harbor. 

The sun came out, and we had a great sail. 

As we were closing in on Nantucket Harbor, the wind died, and we and our Class A competitors lolled in the afternoon sun. 

Only 18 boats finished the race and sadly, we were 

not one of them. We dropped sail and motored into Nantucket Harbor after five hours at sea. 

American Eagle went for a short sail the day after the Figawi, and the pictures show the beautiful lines of the boat that I couldn’t see when I was a passenger.