Team Norwood (Fishers Island) Claims the Aas Trophy at the 2025 IOD World Championship

The 2025 IOD World Championship was hosted by the Northeast Harbor Fleet.  It was a wonderful, spectacular week, with great racing, terrific social events, and all the elegance that a racing fleet of twenty of the most beautiful IODs in the world create

At the end of the regatta, the team of John Burham, Beth Scholle, Jennifer Parsons, her son Oliver Parsons, and Thomas Walker – team Norwood, from Fishers Island — were the team left standing on the top of the podium.  This marks the fifth time Burnham will etch his name on the Aas Trophy, and he extends a remarkable string – teams from Fishers Island have won eight of the last nine IOD World Championships.

It was not easy. Team Norwood had to survive a spirited week-long challenge from NEH’s Gambler team John Henry, Jr, Chad Thieken, Scott Lawliss, and Carson Crain.  The scores favored Burnham in the final race, but he left nothing to chance, marking Henry closely from the warning signal.

Dragged back into the pack, and unfortunately into a hole in the wind that becalmed at least twelve boats, Henry was helpless as Chester’s team Storm – Peter Wickwire, Dan and Holly MacMillan, Savannah Taylor, and Jason Waldman sailed to the front of the final race, and sneaked into a building westerly to claim the final race win. By so doing, they edged their way onto the second step of the podium, relegating team Gambler to third position

The competition in 2025 was fantastic, Defending Champions from 2024 – Jonathan and Isabelle Farrar, Graham Siener, Mike McNamara, and Kevin Gillman could only manage fourth place overall.

Racing took place in just about every piece of water where IODs can sail; and in at least one piece of water where we were NOT supposed to sail — three unfortunate competitors cut inside a nun buoy that they were meant to observe.  North of Sutton, South of Sutton, the Western Way… the RC gave set up race courses everywhere they could except Somes Sound (the wind didn’t ever let us get up there….)

On Wednesday, the regatta was even brought all the way through the Eastern Way, to a start line set up outside off the Ledges – a place PREVIOUSLY UNEXPLORED by the NEH IOD Fleet.  No dragons were observed in these open waters (just dolphins.)  In these waters, the competitors were treated to long open water races. – some swell, and some light chop — but nice winds. (Perhaps this was a preview of next year’s Championship?)

The week of the Championship is not just about racing.  It is a time where old friends gather and renew conversations, and where new friendships are formed.  The NEH team arranged a wonderful week of social events around and about NEH and Bar Harbor. On Tuesday evening, IOD legend David Rockefeller, Jr, welcomed the fleet to the Rockefeller Boathouse for a night that attendees will not soon forget.

The Championship Dinner was held at the Fleet!  Following a destructive storm, the NEH fleet undertook an amazing project – the beautiful, historic NEH fleet clubhouse was moved about forty feet back from the waters edge. I mean moved! The beautiful main room with its grand fireplace is just the way you remember it – the ancient kitchen/galley has been extended and modernized, and the office spaces are also slightly expanded, but truly, these much-needed improvements were wonderfully accomplished.  The Fleet now sits on what was once a large front lawn, but now that green space is shifted to between the Fleet and the water. The new lawn was carefully designed to accommodate a function tent, and the entire regatta christened the new space on Friday night. Well done, Northeast Harbor!

At the closing dinner, regatta chairs Steve Madiera and Nicholas Schoeder received a lengthy much-deserved ovation. Every small detail of the event was impeccably planned and implemented.  Outgoing Commodore John Henry acknowledged the work of the team that managed to clubhouse move, and the team that managed the event – John humbly suggested that he mostly tried to keep out of the way, but we know that he worked very hard to bring both projects to completion in time for the arrival of the visiting sailors.

Over and over again, the competitors were congratulated, not for their great, competitive racing, but for the incredible attention and care they gave to the boats.  Richly deserved…     Over the course of at least fourteen hard-fought starts (there were several recalls and a late postponement) and many tight mark roundings, I do not know that there was even a single instance of contact between the boats during the week.  It has been suggested that the most important task of the OA is to deliver the boat back to their owners in perfect condition – every part of the event planning – from racing schedule to length/duration of races, decisions to race, and decisions about spinnakers – is tilted toward the goal of preserving the boats. But none of that matters in the end… it is the competitors whose hands are on the tillers and mainsheets, who are making the split-second decisions that keep the boats safe.  There were at least two moments this week that could have ended in disaster, but all the competitors in those scrums did the right things to honor the boats, even at the cost of their personal positions.  Bravo.

It was a great week. A really great week.

Marblehead hosts the World Championship next – mark your calendars for June 13-19, 2026. Following that event, we turn our attention to Sweden for the 2027 regatta.  Northeast Harbor, you have showed us how great a World Championship can be.  Bravo.