Great Pond Yacht Club

05/09/2026

Great Pond Yacht Club 2026 Sailing Season

11/09/2025

GPYC Season Championship 2025
This summer marked the 14th season for Great Pond Yacht Club. Our race program relies on, and is most grateful for, our members hosting our events and opening their houses to our sailors for the races and social functions. This season we enjoyed better than average breezes. As will happen in lake sailing there were some races postponed due to lack of wind. Yet each of our seven races was able sailed on its scheduled weekend if not the exact scheduled date.
This summer the GPYC fleet included boats as small as John P’s home built 10-foot mirror dinghy to a 23-foot Sakonnet one design. New to the fleet this year in addition to the Mirror dinghy Breeze, were Leap of Faith (Herreshoff 12 ½), Skye (Flying Scott), Patience, (Catalina 22), and Monarch (Sakonnet 23, continuing the legacy of Cricket whose career was cut short by a large pine tree last year.)
This season we had 14 different boats participate. Over the course of the 7-race series there were 5 different winners. To qualify for the club’s season championship a boat must compete in at least 4 races. The scores of each boat’s four best races are then totaled. The boat with fewest points wins. This year of the 14 boats that raced, 8 boats qualified.
Leap of Faith started her season hot. Monarch started with a few development challenges but showed continual improvement and capped her season with a win in the last race of the season. Patience was consistently near the top of the fleet. Cheep Shot and Nomad had flashes of speed and moments of glory.
GPYC 2025 season standings.
NAME Points
1 Leap of Faith-Nancy and Tom 6
2 Monarch- Barb and Ben 10
3 Patience-Jan and John 11
4 Cheap Shot-Kimberly and Andrew 14
5 Nomad-Lori and Blake 14
6 Let it Be-Paul and Monk 16
7 Rombout-Susan and Joris 23
8 Pastime-Ed and crew 24

09/16/2025

GPYC Commodore’s Cup 2025
The Commodore’s Cup was hosted by Paul and Lauren from their home on Horse Point, North Bay. The sailing conditions on Saturday, August 23 for about as close to perfect as we can expect. The wind was 8-12 knots and gradually built as the afternoon progressed. Nine boats started the race seven finished. The racecourse was a triangle followed by two windward-leeward legs.
After the start, one of the competitors was having significant difficulty managing their small light boat in the heavy breeze. Monarch was having a great race and was out in front. As they rounded the leeward mark, they doused their jib and sailed over to help. Once they were certain the sailor was safe, Monarch resumed the race.
On the second windward leg, Monarch and the bigger boats began to stretch their legs and pulled away from the smaller ones. The four smaller boats had their own race within the race. On the second downwind leg, the breeze had picked up, spinnakers were set: some of the boats had trouble with their spinnakers!. The fleet rounded the leeward mark and headed up wind again on a third windward leg, followed by a third and final run down to the finish.
One of the sailors, witnessed that Monarch had dropped out of the race to aid a sailor in distress. They asked the Committee Boat to grant redress for Monarch, to compensate for their sportsmanship and the time they were out of the race helping. The Committee Boat team had paid close attention to the incident and Monarch’s involvement. After the race, a Race Committee was convened and the race committee decided to grant the request for redress and to adjust Monarch’s time to compensate for the time they had spent helping the sailor in trouble.
Once again, Sara and Bert provided the committee boat for this race. We are indebted to these two who have served as our Committee Boat 5 of the seven races in this 2025 season. Their crew for this race included Rhonda and Kimberly.
The results of the day were:
1 Monarch
2 Leap of Faith
3 Patience
4 Cheap Shot
5 Nomad
6 Rombout
7 Pastime
8 Let it Be

08/05/2025

Sunshine, sails, and a little friendly competition!

With perfect weather on deck, the GPYC crew rallied for a spontaneous poker run—and it did not disappoint. Great vibes, great company, and plenty of laughs out on the water.

Here's to more days like this!

07/30/2025

Action Photos during the 2025 Hurricane cup race.

07/30/2025

GPYC Hurricane Cup — 7/27/2025

The 2025 Hurricane Cup was graciously hosted by Kitty and Monk at their beautiful and historic home off Horse Point Road. Saturday’s scheduled start was canceled due to a lack of wind, but Sunday delivered some of the finest sailing conditions of the summer.

The course—a 6-mile triangle with windward/leeward legs—began and ended at the south end of Chute Island. After the start, the fleet split on the windward leg. Boats heading left gambled on stronger breeze, but those who chose the right side were rewarded by a favorable westerly shift that lifted them to the mark ahead of the rest.

The first reach offered a fast and exciting leg for boats flying spinnakers. The second reach proved too tight for spinnakers, and the fleet stayed in formation down to the leeward mark. On the second windward leg, more boats favored the right, allowing several to regain lost ground.

At the finish, there was a 25-minute gap between the first and last boats. Once handicaps were applied, that spread narrowed to 14 minutes. The difference between 2nd and 5th place was just 1 minute and 47 seconds—a tight race!

Congratulations to Cheap Shot, Commodore Andrew, and crew Elliot on their victory!

Final Results
1. Cheap Shot
2. Nomad
3. Leap of Faith
4. Monarch
5. Let It Be
6. Skye
7. Rombout
8. Imp
9. Morning Dew
10. Pastime

⸻

07/27/2025

We couldn’t be happier with our new sailing program at Belgrade’s Center for All Seasons. This looks like a perfect compliment to the other educational programs and next we are piloting an adult program.

Thank you Belgrade Recreation and Kristin McDowell for being such a great partner!

Check out WABI TV5 coverage!

https://www.wabi.tv/2025/07/25/kids-learning-basics-sailing-with-belgrade-lessons/l

Kids of all ages are welcome to join the Belgrade Parks and Recreation Department this summer to pick up the skill of sailing.

07/21/2025

Witkin Cup. July 12, 2025
The Witkin Cup is always a favorite event in the GPYC sailing season. Hosted by the Witkin family at their spectacular home at the southern tip of Hoyt Island. This year‘s race was cohosted by Andrew and Kimberly from their home at the end of Long Point which made the logistics of transporting supplies and passengers to the beach at the Witkin’s camp convenient.
For the first time this season, the wind and weather cooperated, and we raced at the scheduled time on the scheduled day! The racecourse was set as a triangle followed by a windward leeward. This allowed the boats with reaching spinnakers to strut their stuff.
Race Committee was Sara and her deckhand Bert. They set a perfect starting line. 8 boats were on the line at the start. The wind was light but consistent throughout the race. It was shifty and paid dividends to those who tacked on the knocks but stayed out of the corners. The four bigger boats arrived at the windward mark first. Nomad lead the fleet with Cheap Shot close on her heels. Monarch and Patience followed. Shortly thereafter the 4 smaller boats, Leap of Faith, Rombout, Morning Dew, and Pastime rounded the mark, reaching off and chased the leaders. On the reaching legs Nomad and Monarch flew their spinnakers to advantage and stretched out their lead. Leap of Faith also flew a chute and moved up towards the lead boats.
At the finish, after handicaps were applied, Nomad took home the silver beating Leap of Faith by 4 seconds!

Witkin Cup 2025
1 Nomad
2 Leap of Faith
3 Monarch
4 Patience
5 Cheap Shot
6 Morning Dew
7 Pastime
8 Rombout

07/09/2025

Vintners Cup June 28/29, 2025
The Vintners Cup was, as always, hosted by Elaine, at her lovely home on Great Pond. This, was race 3 of the GPYC season. The event started off as the previous races, with a one-day postponement to Sunday, due to rain. Sunday morning the wind was blowing all over the place from north to south. Ultimately it settled into the southeast. A windward leeward course was set with a “gate” which gave the Race Committee multiple options to shorten the course, should the wind Peter out. At the start of the race the seven boats were seeing a consistent 5 knots, which dropped slowly. Eventually the wind petered out. Ultimately, 3 of the boats elected to compete for the first boat to reach the refreshments and turned on motors. The other 4 struggled to capture what little wind there was and were finally able to finish the shortened course.

Results
Leap of Faith 1
Let It Be 2
Patience 3
Pastime 4

06/21/2025

Amazing turnout for GPYC volunteers with over 20 of us getting boats rigged, Loon Camp cleaned and the grounds tidied for the Youth Sailing Program at the Belgrade Recreation Center for All Seasons. Reports are that we already have over 50 of 72 seats filled so it’s time to sign up! Thank you GPYC members!