Sports
The three-day 85th annual Edgartown Yacht Club regatta got off to a sailor’s start yesterday with a fresh breeze. Under clear blue skies and perfect sailing conditions, more than 150 sailboats competed for prizes in the Edgartown outer harbor.
Today and tomorrow is a continuation of the one-design sailing off the Edgartown lighthouse with boats from as small as the Optimist, an 8-foot sailing dinghy, to as large as the 30-foot Shields sailboat.
Vineyard Horse Council
Announces Summer Shows
The Martha’s Vineyard Horse Council has announced its summer schedule of hunter and dressage shows on the grounds of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society.
The shows will begin about 8 a.m.
Scheduled shows include July 6 and August 3 for dressage; July 20 and August 10 for hunter; Sept. 14 for the Fall Pace Ride from Misty Meadow; and Sept. 27 for the Fall Fuzzy.
By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL
The ninth annual fluke derby run by the Veterans of Foreign War Post in Oak Bluffs 9261 may be Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13, just over a week away, but anglers are already out there harvesting the fish. July is fluke season for most anglers.
While there has been plenty of attention in the last month on striped bass and bluefish swimming around the Island, the fluke (summer flounder) fishery is alive and well in Menemsha and in parts east and west.
Frost Biters Conclude
Spring Sailing Season
The Frost Biters and Winter Guys concluded their successful spring sailing season June 19. Six boats turned out on a beautiful night.
With winds from the southwest at six to eight knots, the sailors raced from Nun 6 in the Harbor, around Can 23A off East Chop, then across the Harbor to Nun 4 off West Chop, and finished back at Nun 6.
Tom and Laura Welch finished first in Eastaway and Dan Culkin placed second in Magic Time. A guest boat, Aired, finished third.
The Holmes Hole Sailing Association has launched its series of handicap sailboat races from Vineyard Haven harbor.
On Sunday, the association held its Robinson’s Hole Rendezvous Race. Robinson’s Hole is a passage from Vineyard Sound to Buzzards Bay at the west end of Naushon Island.
It was a mostly sunny morning with a brisk southwest wind filling in for the 10 a.m. start outside of the Vineyard Harbor breakwater. Six boats posted for the start.
They’re back! The humongous Aqua Velva pond lilies, indigenous only to Menemsha Pond, have arrived on schedule bringing joy to the intrepid racing sailors of the pond.
These giant flowers have always appeared on July 1, except for last year. Their annual bloom is known locally as the Miracle of the Marks. For many years Art Railton has documented this momentous annual event and the involvement of the great Aqua Velva scientific expert, the infamous Danish Professor Nortu B. Lief.