The Atlantic Class History

The line at an
Atlantic Nationals' Race

Class History & Trophies

Joe Olson's "Three Belles"
'63,'64,'65,'69 & '76 Champion

In the summer of 1928, W. Starling Burgess, who would later design Ranger and two other J Boats that defended the America’s Cup, sailed from yacht club to yacht club on Long Island Sound in a 30-foot prototype he called the Atlantic Coast One Design. Burgess’ creation was intended to promote a class of fast boats that were identical for racing and could be daysailed as well. Eighty orders for the boat were taken that first summer, and the wooden hulls were built in production-line style at the German shipbuilding firm of Abeking and Rasmussen.

In March, 1929, the new owners gathered excitedly at New York’s Harvard Club to formalize a class association. They voted to change the name of the boat from "Atlantic Coast One Design" to, simply, "Atlantic". Pequot YC in Southport, CT, whose members had purchased the first 20 Atlantics, offered to hold the first national championship that summer, and there was even a report that Cuba was planning to order four boats and hold a midwinter championship the next year. The class was off!

The new boats, shipped to the states on the decks of freighters, had been very well built, and the first summer of racing was a success. Remarked Everett B. Morris, the noted columnist of the New York Herald Tribune, "Theoretically, the Atlantics are planked with mahogany on oak ribs, but the more active these boats become, the stronger grows the belief that they are constructed of rubber." Twenty more boats were ordered that fall, and the class’s first generation was built to its goal of 100 boats by the summer of 1930.

Atlantic racing flourished during the thirties and forties with the participation of such distinguished sailors as Bob Bavier, Clifford Mallory, Bus and Bob Mosbacher, Corny Shields, George Hinman and Briggs Cunningham. But by the early fifties, the boats were beginning to show their age. Fifteen of the original hundred had been lost in storms, and many of the rest required a good deal of bailing while racing. Something had to be done.

At the 25^th annual Atlantic meeting in the fall of 1953, 12-Meter skipper Cunningham offered to put up $5,000 to help the class build a mold and a demonstration fiberglass boat. The Cape Cod Shipbuilding Company used Rumour, No. 27, to make a plug and attached the original keel, rudder, spars and hardware to a new fiberglass hull. Author John Hersey bought the revamped Rumour and raced her during the 1954 season to see how she compared with the wooden boats. The class wanted to be sure that the older boats would remain competitive. Hersey later wrote, "With her hull so close to the original design, the glass boat sails well in all weather…she takes chop in a seaway particularly well, without pounding, seeming to put a shoulder in and push through." The second generation of Atlantics was born, and the class became one of the first to convert to glass.

During all this time, no new Atlantics were built. The rumor mill had it that the design plans were destroyed when Abeking and Rasmussen was bombed during World War II.

Tom Kantor's "Windsong", Class '66 & Class '67 Champion

It wasn’t until 1962 that a boat with a sail number greater than 100 finally appeared. No. 101 was the first of a third generation of Atlantics that came out of a new mold that included the keel. Forty-one new boats have been built in the years since then, and the class has adopted a number of modifications to keep the boat modern and competitive. A new spinnaker design, with higher shoulders and greater area, appeared in 1965; aluminum spars were permitted in 1969; the jib became a deck-sweeper in 1973; in 1984 adjustable backstays were allowed. Each change has been made with careful attention to the strict one-design principles that have characterized the class since its inception.

Atlantics in transition
circa 1970-71:

New mast & old jib

Today's Atlantic

The Atlantic Nationals' Championships determine not only the individual winner, but, in recent years, the outcome of the strong Cedar Point-Niantic rivalry. These two clubs, which have the most competitive fleets of Atlantics anywhere, battle every year for the title and the right to host the next summer’s series. Each would just as soon avoid having to sail or tow their boats, which are impractical to trail, the 65 miles between clubs. Cedar Point won the championship every year from 1963 through 1980, except for Peck the Elder’s win in 1973. From 1980, the Pecks combined to capture titles for Niantic and the 1984 series was held at Cedar Point only because class tradition prohibits holding it at one club any longer than two years in a row. Finally, in 1990, John Foster brought the cup back to Cedar Point with #140, Thistle.

#A-128, "Three Belles"
Skipper Joe Olson (l), Kim Stevens, Class Chairman John Foster & Wynne Vaast
at the 1999 Annual Dinner

In 1992, the Pecks won their 9^th National Championship. Then in 1993, Charlie Robertson, owner and skipper of the ocean racer, Cannonball, gave everyone the heat with his Nationals win at Niantic, where the title stayed. The next year, the series remained at Niantic with Tim and Bill Healy’s win. In 1995 the series was held at Cedar Point because of the two year rule and there, the Pecks were, once again, on top.

#A-130, "Miss April"
The Pecks
Tom, Diane, David & the Skipper, Norm 'the Elder'
at the 1999 Annual Dinner

This is not to say anyone’s ever a shoe-in. Beside current National Champions – George Reichhelm (CPYC), John Foster, and the Pecks - Champion Joe Olson must be outgunned.

#A-139, "Nevermore"
(l to r) George R. Clay III, Dr. Henry Bache, Eric &
Skipper Hank Mergenthaler, Class Champion '79 in #A-107

(l to r) Don Austin with
Dave Sinclair & Larry Liggett.
Liggett crewed for Mergenthaler in his '79 win
and for Sinclair in '98.

#A-9, "Helan Gar"
Skipper Arvid Brandstrom receives the coveted Harry Williams Award

1998 Atlantic Nationals' Champion - #142 Shucks
Shown here (l to r), Dave Christopher, Scott Reichhelm, and
George Reichhelm, Skipper, with Olin Stephens.

Tom Whidden, well known as the tactician in Dennis Connors' America’s Cup campaigns, and now President of North Sails, raced Atlantics. World class champions Tim and Bill Healy, Mark Foster, Nina and David Peck all race family Atlantics, as did match racers Dave Perry, Dave and Brad Dellenbaugh.

When the Atlantic competed against other classes in the Keelboat One-of-a-Kind Regatta, National Champion Dick Eadie, with George Reichhelm, Jim Bradley and Jus Fischer, lost only to a 5.5-Meter and a Tempest, and they beat the rest, including the Soling skippered by George O'Day, the Star, 210, IOD and Shields.

1999 Atlantic Nationals' Champion #142 Shucks
Shown here (l to r), Dave Christopher, Kim, George and Todd Reichhelm.

John Foster and #140 Thistle won the last National Regatta race in 1999.
Reichhelm presents the Atlantic Milennium Clock to Foster for his historic achievement.

The Atlantic Class Annual Dinner is usually held in late January and brings together the fleets' skippers, their families, friends and crew. One of the highlights of the evening is the Annual Awards Presentation. Shown, in the middle, below, is Niantic Fleet Captain, Norm Peck III, presenting the Year 2000 Harry Williams Award to Dickie Morris, Skipper, #A-109 "Fireboss III", and Crew,
Russ Sheets, David Houseman, and Tom McDonald.

Norm III presents award to Dick Morris & Crew

Dick Eadie and Loralyn, Janet & Hank Mergenthaler

At the 2000 Nationals', held in Niantic, the Pecks won their 11th Championship. The Regatta was beautifully run with extremely close racing and great shore events to start the new millenium.

The Year 2000 Atlantic Nationals' Champion: #A-130 "Miss April"
The Winning Team (l to r) Tom, David, Diane & Norm

The Winning Team - 2001
2001 Atlantic Nationals' Champion #130 Miss April
Shown here (l to r), Norm Jr., Diane, David and Tom Peck

In 2001, at Niantic, the Pecks did it again, winning their 12th Championship in a 19 boat regatta that included several newcomers and 1st time National Competitors. Absent CPYC rivals George Reichhelm, whose A142 Shucks was skippered by son, Scott, and John Foster and A140, Thistle, as well as the Cold Spring Harbor competition, the Pecks still had their work cut out for them, particularly after a general recall in a start they jumped out cleanly to lead like skippers dream about.

Norm Peck tells about the importance of winning at the 2002 Annual Dinner

Charlotte talks about the honor of being part of the Atlantic Class at the 2002 Dinner

Over the previous winter George Reichhelm put an order in to Cape Cod Shipbuilding for two new Atlantics and he issued a challenge to the Class to ensure ongoing production. Norm Peck, Jr., joined the challenge and the Class Officers, working with Cape Cod Shipbuilding, came up with interim plans to continue production with Class support for new boat purchases. At the 2002 Annual Awards Dinner purchases and plans were announced. Reichhelm's Atlantics became #A-144, Ron Marsilio's "Patriot", at CPYC, and #A-145, Dick Morris' "Liberty", at Niantic.

Debbie & Dickie Morris are presented with 'Annie' for '01 Nationals. Dick was also awarded the coveted
Harry Williams Trophy..

Georgie Silk was honored and awarded for the 1st Time Skippers' best score at the '01 Nationals, in her Atlantic
A-110, Bucephalus.

David Noyes is presented with the Ted Janeway for his '01 October Regatta Win

The 2002 Annual Awards Dinner was well attended by past National Champions. Among them was Skipper David C.Noyes, Jr., who won the National Championship in 1950 at Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club with 38 boats on the line. This night Noyes picked up the Ted Janeway Memorial Trophy for his historic 2001 win with A-56, Tara..

(l-r Back Row) Most Senior Atlantic Skipper Hazard Gillespie with National Champions Lou Micheels, Hop Perry, Tom Kantor,
Ted Reyling, Dick Eadie, Hank Mergenthaler, David Noyes, David Peck,
(l-r Front Row) Charlotte Perry Barringer, Norm Peck, Jr., George Reichhelm, Norm Peck III and Joe Olson

The Atlantic Nationals brought 27 boats to the line in 2002 at Cedar Point where George Reichhelm stole the show, winning his 10th National Championship. He came into the last race as the underdog and won it straightaway with Peck tailing him to the finish. Reichhelm tied Foster for the Regatta and won the Championship based on his last race win.

Skippers John Foster and George Reichhelm on the upper deck at CPYC
where Reichhelm is accorded his 10th National Championship in 2002

Chris Judson was awarded the prestigious Harry Williams Trophy in 2002 for his season of 57 races. David Noyes took the Janeway Trophy again in 2002.
CPYC's Ron Marsilio was awarded Best First Time Skipper for his 1st Atlantic Nationals competition with his #A-144, Patriot. Chris Wittstock won the Nationals' Crew Award for #A-25, Carin III. George Reichhelm received the Annie Award for extroardinary service to the Class after a second year of ordering two new boats.

The Atlantic, like most other classes, is certainly a better-performing boat today than it was 70 - or even 10 years ago. The class’s veteran sailors have embraced new ideas while simultaneously maintaining a strong one-design identity. This, combined with the boat’s timeless, classic design, will most likely keep the class strong for years to come.

Nationals' Records to
Year 2000

Sources: (1)Yacht Racing & Cruising, May, 1985 (2) The Great Atlantic, The Atlantic Association Newsletter, 1985 to Present
Historic Atlantic Photos by Peter Barlow; February, 1999 Annual Awards Photos courtesy of Georgiana Silk;
1999 Nationals snapshots by Ray Wolf. 2000 Annual Dinner photos courtesy of Ann Peck.

Class Trophies & Awards History