Winning the 13-boat PHRF Aloha Class and the Arthur Curtiss James Trophy for best corrected time was the 45’ wooden yawl ZINGARA, owned by Mike McAllister (Providence, R.I.) and skippered by Bill Haynie (Newport, R.I.), who is her listing agent. “She’s my favorite all-time boat: beautiful and surprisingly fast. We managed to get around efficiently and not break anything. We beat all the modern boats, and we did it with style.” Haynie said he wasn’t considering the event until he heard about the inshore option. “It was a home run for health and safety rules and so much fun, especially because of the wind.”
“The crew was quite a last minute band of ragamuffin sailors, from lifelong professionals, to experienced Corinthians, to total novices – and everything in between. Only two of them had ever sailed the ZINGARA before, and nobody onboard was being paid to race. All were there to enjoy a rare (for Summer 2020) day on the water on a very special boat.”
“The weather did not disappoint and neither did ZINGARA. We sailed in a steady 24+ knot breeze with gusts into the low 30’s, and the sea state that accompanied as was as you might imagine. Despite the best efforts of mother nature and crew to stress and damage the deck hardware and rigging, ZINGARA proved herself worthy of the challenge and seemed to almost enjoy the romp through the heavy stuff – often crossing tacks with carbon sport boats that owed her many seconds per mile (and who would have otherwise eaten her for lunch in calmer seas). “
“After about 5 hours, 4 different helmsmen, and more tacks than any of the crew had completed all summer, ZINGARA finally approached the finish line off Ida Lewis like a freight train with a plane to catch. We were flying four sails (including our new favorite ‘Mizzen staysail’) and looking at the Newport Harbor basin with more than a little anticipation thinking “How are we going to stop this thing…?” After all was said and done, we found out we’d won our Class, and missed the overall podium by one place (out of 40+ boats). About a week later we were informed that the PHRF-NB committee had miscalculated our headsail handicap and that they would be retroactively applying the new rating to the race, which bumped us down to 2nd in Class. All in all, it was a fun, memorable day on the water with great crew on a fantastic boat.”
