On the Waterways
Sailing has been a long and active tradition for decades at local clubs on the Delaware and Rehoboth Bays. Though the recreational and competitive sailing season lasts only a few months on coastal Delaware, on a perfectly warm summer day—complete with an easy breeze and plenty of blue skies—sailing can be a very rewarding and fulfilling sport.
I was introduced to sailing as a young girl at a yacht club and in a family of small boat sailors on the Delaware Bay. I was captivated by my first impressions of sailboats—not only their color and form, but also their energy and movement.
I was blessed with access and supportive parents; summers meant hours on the waterways in sailing lessons, sailboat races, and lessons on water safety and weather. Those early sailing lessons and hours of sailing with family, friends, and neighbors—always under the watchful eyes of my parents and other adults—opened my life to a worldwide network of friends and plenty of camaraderie.
I made my first spinnaker set and trim (at the age of 12) at races with the Lewes Yacht Club on a dinghy called the Mobjack. (The spinnaker is a large sail—many are made in brilliant colors—designed for maximum wind pressure; it’s similar to a parachute in material and form.) I hold those times dear; those pristine sailing days—some, stretching back 50 years—made me the sailor that I am today.
Sailing involves basic principles of engineering, aerodynamics, and hydrodynamics. Factors such as the strength of the wind and the flow of currents are not only lessons imparted, but also ones experienced with keen sensitivity—especially in a small craft known as the dinghy.
To be able to sail on the Delaware Bay is to be able to sail most any body of water. With the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and coastal plain topography framed by Cape Henlopen and Cape May, the tidal currents are significant while the summer breeze is a delightful force of energy harnessed by sail and sheet line.
In my years of youthful sailboat races and open sailing, I developed a set of skills that I apply in competition sailing, known as regattas. At regattas, I may sail on anything from a small freshwater lake, tacking on frequent wind shifts that spin and drop, to a busy inland bay in a thermal sea breeze. Widely ranging conditions test any sailor’s endurance, control, and response.
Rehoboth Bay serves up some of the finest summer sailing on the Delaware coast and several regattas fill the bay every summer. The Rehoboth Bay Sailing Association, a sailing club nestled next to Seashore State Park, is home to the Sunfish and Flying Scot dinghy classes. The power of control and exhilaration I learned years ago on the Sunfish dinghy, I still apply to any sailboat race. I can find complete satisfaction in the experience, despite sometimes crossing the finish line far behind the fleet!
A highlight for many women sailors is an annual competition in the Sunfish. The event, known as the Sunfish Women’s North American Championship Regatta, is hosted at a different host club each year, in states as far north as Connecticut and south as Alabama. A signature regatta, some of the very best women sailors make this regatta an annual competition. The races are many and the competition is plentiful.
To be ready and competitive for this world class regatta, I often take my trusty sailboat for open sails on the Delaware. During these open sails at the convergence of the Atlantic and Delaware, I spend hours in a complete physical and visual experience, navigating the current and harnessing the wind.
Over the course of many years, I came to race in a performance Olympic class known as the Laser/International Laser Class Association dinghy. Year-round winter sailing in this class is supported at Severn Sailing Association, where I am an active sailor. We call this program “Frostbiting,” where many intrepid sailors dare to sail in sub-freezing weather. Snug in our dry suits, we are not deterred even by snowfall. An essential component of our races is the operation of safety boats, enabling year-round sailing on the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay.
While I sail year-round, I especially cherish those moments when the bay empties after a summer of regattas, and I may be the only small sailboat on the bay. Sailing in the ocean swells as they press between the breakwaters or awash in the colors of the sunset bring me fullfillment and achievement at every tack and pull on the sheet line. ▼
JuneRose (aka JR) Futcher is a native of Delaware, a lifelong sailor and certified private sailing instructor, an award-winning photographer, and a community and arts activist
Photo: JR Futcher