Celebrating SpinSheet Century Club 2025!
By the time the ball dropped on Times Square to herald the New Year, we expected to have just over 100 official SpinSheet Century Club 2025 members. At print time for the January issue, those who were getting close to reaching their 100-day goals still had time to get out on the water… Congratulations to all Centurions for your massive effort to log 100 days on the water within the calendar year. Among our inclusive club, we have day sailors, cruising sailors, racers, paddlers, powerboaters, anglers, and various combinations of all of those types of boater. We’re a multi-nautical club with one shared goal: to spend more time on the water on the boats we love with the boaters we love.
(Editor’s Note: Brendan—we think you are awesome. Please convince some other young sailors to join our club.)
I would like to start by saying that those days really paid off this year! This summer, I sailed in seven regattas in the Mid Atlantic Yacht Racing Association South Jersey Summer Series (MAYRA SJSS): My placings are as follows: Wildwood: 1st, Avalon: 1st, Ocean City: 1st, Cape May: 2nd, Stone Harbor: 2nd, Brigantine: 3rd, and Cooper River: 3rd. I had the lowest overall score of 7 (each sailor gets two drops and mine were the two third-place finishes) and got first place overall for the fleet!
Some season highlights: At Avalon, there were five heats and I won first place in all five of them, which is very hard-to-get and rare accomplishment. I raced in (my club) Wildwood’s Sunday Adult series, and despite not being an adult, I won first place overall for that series as well!
I am also the Sunfish Club Champion for Greater Wildwood Yacht Club (GWYC) for the third year in a row, the Most Dedicated Youth Racer Award Recipient for the third year in a row, and the Commodore’s Regatta Champion for the second year in a row.
Thank you for all your work on SpinSheet Magazine! I always enjoy picking up a new copy every month and reading about other sailors and their accomplishments!
Sailing a chartered catamaran in the Abacos, Bahamas were some of her favorite days on the water.
Name three of your favorite days on the water in 2025.
No question—sailing a chartered catamaran in the Abacos, Bahamas, in May. We’ve been choosing to sail in the Abacos since Hurricane Dorian in 2019 to contribute to recovery. The weather was glorious, and no matter how many times we’ve been there, we always find something new (to us) to delight us. Hanging out at the floating bar, the Thirsty Cuda, on the Tahiti Beach sand bar, or floating on the currents on between Scotland Cay and Great Guana Cay. It’s heaven.
Tell me about one scary or somehow challenging day on the water.
No matter how reliable the charts and marks, and no matter how many times we do it, entering and leaving Fairlee Creek always freaks me out. It’s just counterintuitive.
Did you learn anything new or gain any new seamanship skills?
Practice will someday make it perfect. The more we do it, the more confident I am about docking our boats. The slip for our sailboat is one of the most difficult in our marina, and we always have an audience. We are getting so that the majority of the time we dock without stress or mishap.
How did you manage to carve out so much time to get on the water?
We all need to take time to exercise. Most of my Century Club days have been spent kayaking, which is a good workout.
What do you get out of the Century Club?
I’ve always wondered about those people who live in Florida and never go to the beach, or the New Yorkers who never take advantage of all that their city has to offer. The Century Club ensures that I will never be a Bay denizen who doesn’t take advantage of my proximity to the water.
What would you say to someone who’d like to try it in 2026?
Just do it. Keep track of your days in real time. And don’t feel bad if you don’t succeed. The only person you have to answer to is yourself.
Ashley (helm) and fellow Century Club member Lorie Stout (trimming jib), and Alli Gutenkunst (tailing) at the J/105 Women's Regatta. Photo by Will Keyworth
Tell us about your top sailing days.
My best sailing days were sailing two Melges 15 weekends with Alli Gutenkunst. We’d been Sonar team racing and J/105 fleet racing together for a while, so our first time hopping in a dinghy (arguably a completely different sailing discipline) together was magic!
Our first event was the Summer Series out of the Severn Sailing Association. Small fleet and moderate air. I had been struggling to find the wheels in this class for a few years, but of course, sailing with Alli, something just clicked. She’d never sailed this boat, but seamlessly, we were like one sailing entity that had four arms and two brains. She naturally called tactics upwind while I kept the boat moving fast, and I looked for breeze downwind and decided when to gybe while she worked the boat with weight placement and spinnaker trim.
That, plus sailing underweight and overpowered on the rig tune, we were so fast! We know each other’s sailing personalities, we know when to push, when to soothe, and when to just be straight and ask for something. That weekend we finished second overall and returned for the fall series on my birthday weekend a few months later. This time, I was returning on a red eye flight from California the morning of day one. It was blowing 15-20 all weekend, and there were way more boats with steeper competition! Turns out great comms, a willingness to hike out even when muscles are aching, gybing away from the packs to sail alone downwind, and a few match racing moves helps win regattas. Throwing up some sails, working the boat, fighting back from mistakes, and coming away with first place made it a weekend a typical sailor dreams of and one that I’ll remember for a long time.
What do you get out of the Century Club?
Doing the Century Club is one thing. Talking about it and recruiting more people to give it a go is another! All year long, it helps me feel connected to other like-minded people. Encouraging each other and announcing, “Today is my 16th day on the water,” and taking pictures are invigorating… I’ve said yes to lots of opportunities, which has helped me cross wakes with more people, which leads to more opportunities. In turn, I try to be the thread that connects others to the water and to the other people out there loving being out there.
Will this be your 12th Century Club burgee?
Yes! Because being on the water is my passion and sometimes my work, I’ve never worked a day in my life. It means I get lots of opportunities to leave land behind. I was probably on the water at least 100 days before the club was invented, too, but counting and logging them, celebrating with other Century Club members, and hearing their stories has been a blast. I advocate others to join and see if they can do it and make sure to celebrate hard when anyone makes it.
What’s your advice to a boater who’d like to join the Century Club in 2026?
You’d be surprised how starting to keep track of your days adds up quickly. You start making friendships and finding other people who like to be on the water and making more plans with them. You have more reasons and opportunities to go out, and before you know it, you’re climbing the leaderboard. Even if your goal is 50 days, go for that. Operating any craft requires foresight, knowledge of the conditions and weather, and learning what your boat needs to run smoothly; repairs and maintenance get easier, and your boat is happier to not live tied up to a dock too!
What were your three best days on the water in 2025?
The first best day was leaving Hampton, VA, heading South to Florida. Second was crossing from West Palm Beach to West End, and third, but really the best, was making Canaveral Inlet with a beautiful sunrise on my return from the Bahamas. It was my birthday!
Did you experience any scary days on the water?
My scary days was being anchored at Great Sail Cay in 40-plus knots of wind overnight. There was not a lot of sleep going on.
How do you manage to find so many days to get on the water?
I’m retired... every day is Saturday!
Virtually all my time on Escape (and our past boats, all named Escape) has been with my wife Maura, my sailing partner for more than 40 years. It’s noteworthy since 2026 will mark our 40th wedding anniversary… Thanks for all you do to promote boating on the Chesapeake Bay.
We will announce our full list of 2025 Century Club members in our February issue and include photos from our February 21 celebration in our March issue. In the meantime, we hope you glean some inspiration from the Centurions on these pages. To join the club in 2026, click to spinsheet.com/100-days. Our club is free and open to all!
