The Shields National Championship Regatta returned to Edgartown last week, with 24 boats battling it out over three days of racing off Cow Bay in a series marked by strong southwest winds and two rescues at sea.

To race in the 61st annual championship regatta, which last took place here in 2018, skippers and crews came from as far away as Monterey Bay, Calif. They included several previous national champions, whose mainsails carried a gold Shields emblem instead of the usual red shield behind the S.

After results from the regatta’s seven races were tabulated and a handful of protests adjudicated Saturday afternoon, Newport dominated the cumulative standings — no surprise, given the heavy Shields presence in a community where it’s not unusual to see more than two dozen turn out for Wednesday afternoon races.

At the starting line on Friday.

Ray Ewing

At the starting line on Friday.

Ray Ewing

Ned Nielsen and his crew aboard Robin were named the 2025 national champions, with Andrew Sheerin in Hope taking second place and Andy Green third in Apollo 11. All three hail from Newport.

Four Edgartown Yacht Club skippers competed in the nationals, with Stephen Potter in Undertaker 3 finishing 16th overall, Ian Smith in Bolero II finishing 21st and Steve Mettler finishing 22nd in Deja Vu and Bruce Stewart from East Chop competing in his first ever Shields National Championship.

For many competitors, the toughest opposition came from the wind and sea as a variable breeze Thursday grew to gearbuster status over the next two days, blowing out chutes and snapping spinnaker poles on multiple boats.

By the time it was all over on Saturday afternoon, gusts were exceeding 25 knots and one sailor was on his way to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital with a head wound after he was hit by a boom. The crewmember was released in time for that evening’s awards ceremony at Edgartown Yacht Club, according to a regatta volunteer who took part in both rescues.

Spinnakers are out.

Ray Ewing

Spinnakers are out.

Ray Ewing

“They put some staples in his head, gave him an MRI, cleared him and he was at dinner that night,” said Ed Cassidy, who teamed up with Edgartown Yacht Club sailing instructor Anastasia Filanova to bring the injured man ashore in Oak Bluffs, where an ambulance met them.

Ms. Filanova and Mr. Cassidy had already helped another sailor Friday, plucking him from the water after he slipped overboard at the leeward gate, a pair of marks where the entire fleet was converging to begin the upwind leg.

By order of the race committee, everyone on the water was wearing a personal flotation device, which kept the man afloat in the heaving sea until the rescue team could pull him aboard their inflatable support boat Grey Rib and transfer him back to his vessel, The Grinch out of Marion.

From 1962, when the Shields class made its debut, until last year, accepting such assistance would have disqualified The Grinch from finishing the race. A recent update to the Racing Rules of Sailing has removed that penalty when safety is at risk, said Mr. Cassidy, a veteran Shields sailor, and past commodore of Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, Md.

“They added a provision that says if a sailor’s in danger, then it is permissible, as long as it doesn’t improve the boat’s position on the course,” he said.

With nearly two dozen of the 30-foot sloops rocketing through the gate, where the crewmember was a barely-visible head bobbing amid the waves, the Grey Rib crew motored in to prevent a more serious mishap.

“We got him back on his boat and told him to sail on,” Mr. Cassidy said.

Crew of The Grinch rescues a man overboard (left of boat).

Ray Ewing

Crew of The Grinch rescues a man overboard (left of boat).

Ray Ewing

In between rescue duties, the Grey Rib team placed racing marks on the course and provided support to the race committee, a job that included ferrying principal race officer Peter Gerard of Newport from EYC signal boat Splendid to the Oak Bluffs docks on Saturday afternoon, so he could attend a memorial service on the mainland.

While only marginally related to the racing, the boat-to-boat transfer and dockside delivery proved to be valuable practice for the Grey Rib crew.

“That’s how I knew precisely where to go, once we picked up the sailor who got hit in the head,” Mr. Cassidy said.

The emergency call came in from Bit-O-Honey, skippered by Ken Deyett, just after the Marion boat finished third in the regatta’s seventh and final race.

Streaming with blood from where the heavy boom cracked across his forehead, the injured crewman remained conscious and alert as the Grey Rib crew moved him from the sailboat to the inflatable amid surging seas, speeding him to shore just in time to meet the arriving ambulance at the dock.

Robin out of Newport was the overall winner.

Robin out of Newport was the overall winner.

“Everything went precisely the way should have,” Mr. Cassidy said, praising Ms. Filanova’s teamwork in communicating with the hospital and club officials over the handheld radio as he drove the boat and kept an eye on the victim.

“She was a terrific asset, [and] this weekend was a solid endorsement for the work that EYC does, ensuring that in the event of a medical emergency everybody knows what to do,” he said.

Mr. Gerard also praised the Edgartown club’s preparedness and hospitality.

“It’s a hard place to get to for most people, and yet when you get here... you know things are going to be done right,” he said.

Complete results from the 61st Shields National Championship Regatta are posted on yachtscoring.com and linked from the Edgartown Yacht Club website: edgartownyc.org.