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Commodore Mike Bruno Passes The Robie Pierce regatta lost a great friend and supporter, with the sudden passing of Commodore Michael S. Bruno in August, 2019. Mike was Commodore of American Yacht Club when the club hosted the US Sailing Disabled Nationals in 2008. Shortly after the regatta, he was approached by members about establishing a permanent regatta for sailors with disabilities, to be hosted by American and Larchmont in alternate years. He embraced it immediately, and the Robie was born. Over the years, Mike was a great friend of the regatta. He is sorely missed.

2023 Robie Pierce Open Results

Congratulations to this year's winners of the Robie Pierce One-Design Regatta: Korey Breitel (Rye, NY), Julian Klus (NY, NY) and AB Adam Loory (Mamaroneck, NY). They took home top honors with a 3-1 scoreline. In second was the Essex,CT crew of Geoffrey Matesky, Lin Wei-Lee (Mt. Vernon, NY) and Carter Growrie (AB) who placed second for the second consecutive year having won two years earlier. Also on the podium in third were Jim Hahn (Norwalk, CT), Colin Smith (Middlebury, VT), and Will Florio (AB – Rye, NY).

2023 marked the 14th running of the Robie Pierce One-Design Regatta hosted jointly by Larchmont and American Yacht Clubs. This year’s Robie was at Larchmont starting on Thursday, June 1 with the Robie Women’s Invitational (the world’s only all-women’s adaptive regatta) followed by the Robie One-Design Friday, June 2 – Sunday, June 4. This was the year that everyone showed up except the wind!

Despite the best intentions of the Event and Race Committee, the six women’s boats set to race Thursday never got off the docks. When it was clear that no wind would materialize, an alternative plan was developed to award the prizes: each boat of three sailors would have one compete in a bocci tournament, another play corn hole (yes, blind sailors playing corn hole against each other), and the third would kibitz. Huge laughs were shared by all as Christine Diaz and Katherine Kern from Boston Blind Sailing took top honors with their able-bodied crewmate Caroline Romans.

The no-wind conditions would last through Friday afternoon canceling the first day of the One-Design. Then, Saturday the reverse happened, winds puffing into the mid-20s precluding racing again. It wasn’t until Sunday that PRO Cynthia Parthemos was able to run two races before the wind strength again exceed sailing limits.

We are already planning for next year's regattas which will be the 15th Annual Robie Pierce Regatta. The racing and events will be hosted by American Yacht Club from May 30th - June 2nd, 2024.

Thank you to all of our generous sponsors, our multitude of volunteers, our "Burkies", Larchmont Yacht Club, American Yacht Club and most importantly to our participants for making the Robie Pierce Regattas successful year after year.