Note from the Fleet Captain Earle “Stubby” Stubbs, past commodore of Ida Lewis Yacht Club and past national champion of the Shields class, left us yesterday morning after several months of staving off an aggressive cancer. For the last 42 years, Stubby owned and raced his gray-hulled Shields #59 Lisa each season at Ida Lewis. We could [...]
A new sail number rose to the top of the podium for the Weds. Night Spring Series ahead of 33 and 156—181! We asked Dirk Johnson Jr., skipper of Helen, to provide a view into how it all came together over the six-week series. Our biggest take away from races early in the season was to [...]
Happy to get the win this week, but in Shields racing in the Bay it’s never over till it’s over and we never felt comfortable until the S flag went up at Y. Conditions during the day had a moderate NW gradient dominating until the SW sea breeze took over in the harbor. On the [...]
We don't normally feature a blog from second place, but since it was from a very unexpected source (US!), I thought I would fill you in on what goes on in the head's of those typically in the back of the pack. "Well, nothing bad has happened yet...!" That became our quote of the night. We [...]
By Holley Toppa (156) There’s no doubt that Wednesday night is an anticipated night of Shields races for all who attend, but the one race that goes unspoken is the race back into the harbor. With the course now being set north of the bridge and the loose rule set by the race committee to have [...]
One of our newest owners, Kelsey Patnaude, contributed this blog. Thanks, Kelsey, and welcome to the fleet! Just as quarantine restrictions were beginning to ease up, Fredeau (Frederic de Mesel), who has been locked down in Europe, asked me to go check out a Shields for him in Mystic. We had looked at a few this [...]
This story by Holley Toppa (156) first appeared in Scuttlebutt Sailing News and the North Sails website. It's strange to think that the summer sailing of 2020 in Newport was kicked off with Wednesday night Shields racing. After the start on the first upwind leg, my dad, Mike Toppa is at the helm. Wednesday night Shields [...]
