Scimitar Racing is the continuation of a long and successful collaboration between Henry Brauer and Stewart Neff. We sailed together in high school and college and but for a period of time in the 80’s when we were busy starting our families, pursuing careers and some other sailing pursuits we have enjoyed racing with each other and numerous friends for over 38 years.
This edition of our effort together is in a J/105, Scimitar, USA 526, that we purchased in July 2009 after competing in the Sonar Class for 15 years. We decided it was time to get a boat with an engine, liked the fact that the local Marblehead fleet was growing and attracting some top notch sailors, and the class North American Championship is scheduled to be in Marblehead in 2011. Our first season was more successful than we could have imagined. We launched the boat 3 days before Marblehead Race Week and with help from our college friend, Stuart Johnstone, who came up to help us put the boat together, we finished a respectable 3rd place.
We then set our sights on the PHRF New England Championship at the end of August. We were fortunate to be able to put together a top notch crew and with some good luck we went out and won the J/105 division against 22 other competitors with a 1-4-1-1-1 record in a series that was shortened by an early season hurricane.
As the 2010 season beckons we are excited about spending more time in the boat, participating in the Wednesday night series (another reason we wanted to change classes), and competing in more of the local races including the MRA series, Hospice Regatta, Marblehead Race Week, and PHRF New England Championship. We are considering venturing to Newport to race in the East Coast Championships in Mid July.
We hope that our families, crew, and friends will enjoy following the exploits of Scimitar Racing on this web site that we have created with the able help of Leighton O’Connor. Also, you may be interested in following Henry’s J/80 World Tour Campaign in Rascal which is collaboration between Henry and Will Welles. These two teamed up to finish 3rd in the 2008 Atlantic Nationals in Blue Hill. They have their sights set on the World Championships in Newport this October. You can follow their progress in the World Tour which includes 10 distinct regattas at www.rascal1163.com.
