{"id":16,"date":"2026-09-17T01:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/?p=16"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:14:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:14:37","slug":"wizard-wins-72nd-maine-retired-skippers-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/article-no-hero\/wizard-wins-72nd-maine-retired-skippers-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizard<\/i> Wins 72nd Maine Retired Skippers Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wizard<\/div>\n

Wizard<\/em> Wins 72nd Maine Retired Skippers Race<\/h1>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good sign,\u201d Captain Will McLean said as he surveyed the horizon, \u201cthe clouds are coming.\u201d As McLean set the buoy for the 72nd annual Maine Retired Skippers Race on Saturday, August 15, 2026, the water was a green, glassy calm.<\/p>\n

Above, the sky was bright blue, but small, puffy clouds were approaching from over land west of Penobscot Bay. Shortly before the scheduled 1:00 p.m. start time, McLean called for a 30-minute delay.<\/p>\n

Race participants scattered and maneuvered in search of weak puffs of wind. Among them was Wizard<\/em>, a 1930 Herreshoff Fisher Island 31.<\/p>\n

Last year, Wizard<\/em> won the prestigious Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, the largest wooden boat race in the world. Wizard<\/em>, under the direction of tactician Delaney Conlogue, took a unique route. The crew waited patiently as the rest of the field capitalized on the early wind in another direction, leaving Wizard<\/em> behind.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the wind Conlogue had predicted arrived, and \u201cWizard<\/em> had her own breeze all to herself,\u201d said sailing coach Pat DiLalla. Wizard<\/em> passed the entire field into first place, winning the plank on frame division.
\nAboard Wizard<\/em> for the Retired Skippers Race were President Craig Johnson and his wife Sharon Symour-Johnson, Linda and Andy Viens, Jason and Andrea Van Inwegin, and skipper, Jonathan Ogle.<\/p>\n

By 1:15, a small breeze had started that picked up steadily as the 1:30 start time approached. \u201cHere it is,\u201d McLean said, \u201cI hope it stays.\u201d Indeed, the wind would make for outstanding racing conditions over the 12-mile course.<\/p>\n

The smallest boat in the field and first to start, Eyes of Fire<\/em>, got off to an early lead over the first leg as the single-handed skipper. Unlike the path toward the first buoy, the field took disparate courses upwind toward the second. Eyes of Fire<\/em> took a course closer to Islesboro than the rest of the field while Wizard<\/em> was able to find more favorable conditions in deeper water.<\/p>\n

Eyes of Fire<\/em> maintained her lead going into the final leg of the 12-mile course. That lead would evaporate quickly as Wizard<\/em> found her ideal wind.<\/p>\n

Wizard<\/em> crossed the line well ahead of second place Eyes of Fire<\/em>, who raced superbly. It was the third win in four years for Wizard<\/em>. \u201cThanks to great driving by Jonathan Ogle, we were able to make the right moves on the racecourse and put Wizard<\/em> in the right position to win,\u201d said President Johnson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 73rd Maine Retired Skippers Race was a perfect day for sailing on Penobscot Bay,\u201d said Captain McLean. \u201cThe light wind conditions changed into our classic SSW afternoon sea breeze to make for an exciting race for the competitors. It was a close finish for 3rd with three boats finishing within several seconds of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Wizard
\nWizard<\/em> Wins 72nd Maine Retired Skippers Race<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a good sign,\u201d Captain Will McLean said as he surveyed the horizon, \u201cthe clouds are coming.\u201d As McLean set the buoy for the 72nd annual Maine Retired Skippers Race on Saturday, August 15, 2026, the water was a green, glassy calm.<\/p>\n

Above, the sky was bright blue, but small, puffy clouds were approaching from over land west of Penobscot Bay. Shortly before the scheduled 1:00 p.m. start time, McLean called for a 30-minute delay.<\/p>\n

Race participants scattered and maneuvered in search of weak puffs of wind. Among them was Wizard<\/em>, a 1930 Herreshoff Fisher Island 31.<\/p>\n

Last year, Wizard<\/em> won the prestigious Eggemoggin Reach Regatta, the largest wooden boat race in the world. Wizard<\/em>, under the direction of tactician Delaney Conlogue, took a unique route. The crew waited patiently as the rest of the field capitalized on the early wind in another direction, leaving Wizard<\/em> behind.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the wind Conlogue had predicted arrived, and \u201cWizard<\/em> had her own breeze all to herself,\u201d said sailing coach Pat DiLalla. Wizard<\/em> passed the entire field into first place, winning the plank on frame division.
\nAboard Wizard<\/em> for the Retired Skippers Race were President Craig Johnson and his wife Sharon Symour-Johnson, Linda and Andy Viens, Jason and Andrea Van Inwegin, and skipper, Jonathan Ogle.<\/p>\n

By 1:15, a small breeze had started that picked up steadily as the 1:30 start time approached. \u201cHere it is,\u201d McLean said, \u201cI hope it stays.\u201d Indeed,<\/p>\n

…Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-no-hero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainemaritime.edu\/mariner\/shipmate-september-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}