Fifty-two teams are preparing for the Edgartown Yacht Club’s Edgartown Race Weekend in Edgartown, MA, which starts June 20 with two days of ‘Round-the-Sound (’RTS) Races and finishes on June 22 with the ever-popular Round-the-Island (’RTI) Race.

Sailing both the ’RTS and ’RTI for the first time will be Tom Rich (Portsmouth, RI) and his team aboard the GP 42 Settler, which was new to Rich in 2023.

“I used to do this race back in the 1980s,” said Rich, explaining that he sailed aboard his father’s Peterson 42, also named Settler. “This year, it was a good weekend for us, and we found reasonable housing, so we booked and are excited to get going!”

Rich’s toughest competition in the ’RTI just might be Ira Perry’s (South Dartmouth, MA) J/29 Seefest. “We’ve been racing this regatta since 2015 with five class wins, including several Venona wins,” said Perry, adding that sailing with his teenage son Cameron “makes sailing around beautiful Martha’s Vineyard even sweeter!”

The prestigious Venona Trophy is awarded in the ’RTI to the overall winner of the fully crewed PHRF classes, which typically comprise the bulk of the fleet. There are also classes for PHRF Non-Spinnaker, PHRF Double Handed Spinnaker, and Multihull with their own special trophies along with awards to the top-three in each class. The Edgartown Race Weekend Award will be given to the boat with the best combined performance in the ’RTS and ’RTI Races.

“It’s always a fun weekend,” said Dave Caso (Duxbury, MA), who will sail his Cherubini 44 Silhouette in the ’RTI. “Silhouette does not sail to windward as well as most modern sailboats, so we make up time on the downwind legs to be competitive. It’s challenging to sail around the island at all points of sail in varying wind conditions with a tidal current.”

A total of 14 teams will compete in the ‘RTS coastal sprints (of between 11 and 19 nautical miles) around government buoys within Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. Of those, 12 will move on to join 38 others (for a total of 50 boats) in the 55 nautical mile ‘RTI course around Martha’s Vineyard, one of America’s oldest distance races that is in its 87th year.

Teams competing hail from across Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Maine, and from as far away as Washington and Texas.

Event information – Race details – Facebook