Raffled Sunfish has a new home

This is the third year for Aidan sailing Sunfish and things are looking up. After lessons in the Edgewood Sailing School with ESS's Catherine White, herself a Sunfish racing skipper in the Edgewood Frozen Few, Aidan had become a regular sunfish afternoon recreational sailor at the Club, and a competitor in the summer Sunday afternoon Sunfish racing, sailing in a boat borrowed from his Mom and Dad, also long-time sailors. 

Now, with his prize from Edgewood Sailing School's fund-raiser raffle this weekend, Aidan skippers a brand-new 2015 LaserPerformance "Race" sunfish.   The announcement and presentation was "a little unexpected" Aidan said; "but very very nice."  Aidan, a swimmer on the La Salle Academy swim team, had been out of town attending a meet on Sunday which kept him away from the event at the Club, so Monday morning was the first he'd heard of his phenomenal good luck.  

The Raffle – the first that the School has run in recent years - has by all measures been a great success; we have one very happy young sailor, and the funds raised by the raffle will help Edgewood Sailing School continue to bring the sport of sailing to youth and adults alike.  

Jim Fraser, ESS board President, handing over the papers, with Catherine, the ESS Sunfish Instructor, said, "You know, landing  this raffle prize with one of our own Edgewood Sailing School sailors is wonderful because it advances the fun and skills of sailing with families right here at Edgewood.  The School's tradition, more than 50 years of teaching, is part of the story of the Edgewood Yacht Club and the neighborhood here along the top of Narragansett Bay.  We're happy to have Aidan starting out with the new boat; the first of many things Edgewood has planned for an exciting 2015 sailing season."  

The Raffle took place at the annual "Up From The Ashes" regatta.  This regatta is traditionally held on the first Sunday following January 12, the date that Edgewood Yacht Club’s century-old clubhouse burned to the water in 2011.

On that first following Sunday in 2011, Sunfish sailors from clubs around the Bay stepped in to loan the Edgewood sailors their rigs.  Then with equipment cobbled together to replace what was lost in the blaze, the “Frozen Few” frostbite sailors in the Edgewood Sunfish fleet gathered to sail in front of the charred remains of their former home.

Now, four years later, construction is set to begin on a new Edgewood Yacht Club clubhouse, and the Sunfish fleet once again gathered to commemorate their resilience following the storm-driven inferno and to celebrate the camaraderie and support that was shown to that fleet by generous sailors from around the bay.