With the 2026 Northeast season complete, our Salem loft sat down with the Classic Yacht Owners Association (CYOA), where Doyle Sails is a Diamond Partner, to look back on a strong summer for our classic clients and ahead to the winter.
CYOA: Did any Doyle clients have major wins this summer?
Doyle Sails: It was a great summer for our classic customers, with Doyle-powered boats winning on both Nantucket Sound and Penobscot Bay. Ron Zarrella and the Sea Horse crew won the Opera House Cup overall, their third win in the last four years. The same day, Carolyn Grant Zarrella sailed Blackfish, their Taylor 49, to the Spirit of Tradition division win, and Blackfish went on to take the Spirit of Tradition title in the CYCS Massachusetts District. She races with a full inventory we built in 2025, reworked by Will Hundahl from Doyle’s original 2017 designs, and in its first season that inventory won her class at the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.
In Maine, Chris Bouzaid‘s Bijou II, won the Camden Classics Cup overall along with the Vintage class division of the CYCS Maine District with a perfect score. Drew and Mackenzie Lyman‘s Hopgrasser, one of the two LM46s, for which we designed the original STRATIS sails, won the district’s Contemporary division.
Stephen Ross‘ 49-foot Philip Rhodes design Thunderhead added a new genoa designed by Robbie Doyle and went from fifth in Classic C at the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta in each of the last two years to winning the class by more than six minutes on corrected time. She finished the season on top of the Classic division in the CYCS Maine District. Todd Lalumiere‘s Stephens Waring sloop Isobel, with a new jib from us this season, took third in a ten-boat Spirit of Tradition B class, her first ERR podium since 2018.
CYOA: Do you have any new clients who are involved in the CYOA?
DS: Some are new and some go back years. On Nantucket we have been working with the Alerion 26 fleet for several years now, and we built the fleet sails for the Nantucket IODs, which continue to race successfully on them. Both fleets had a good Opera House Cup: Alerions took the next four places behind Sea Horse, herself an Alerion, and the IODs swept the top three spots in the Lighthouse Invitational division.
CYOA: What does this winter look like at the Doyle loft?
DS: Busy. Winter is when we do most of our service work, so the loft floor fills up with sails in for inspection, washing and repair while the boats are under cover. It is also when we design and build new sails for spring delivery, and the classic owners who order now are the ones sailing with new sails on the first day of the season.
Before the snow arrives we also head south. Doyle is a sponsor of the Star World Championship at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, November 5 to 14.
CYOA: Any exciting projects coming up that you would like to promote?
DS: Among the newer projects, we are working on a new main and mizzen for the Center Harbor 31 GRACE, a boat whose sails our loft has built for a couple of decades, and on a full new inventory for the Spirit of Tradition Brooklin Boat Yard daysailer ACOR. ACOR is a 50-foot cold-molded Stephens Waring daysailer built by Brooklin Boat Yard. She will receive a full new set of sails for the upcoming season, and we are carrying what we learned on those boats straight into her design. Look for her in the Spirit of Tradition fleet next summer.
Republished with permission from the CYOA
About the Classic Yacht Owners Association // The membership-driven, nonprofit Classic Yacht Owners Association was established in 2015 to encourage fellowship amongst owners within the classic yacht community. One of the organization’s goals is to help shape the future of the sport by influencing and cultivating long-term regional cooperation amongst those who are dedicated to owning, maintaining, and racing sailing vessels. CYOA also works to promote classic yacht ownership with the objective of attracting new members and creating new funding opportunities to support future classic yacht events.
ABOUT DOYLE SAILS // Doyle Sails strives to deliver success through high-performance, high-quality, custom sails that continue to redefine the boundaries of sailmaking technology and innovation; whilst connecting sailors to inspire, support and encourage sailing.
Our obsession with sailing takes us to every corner of the world and onboard every yacht. We become part of teams, share in the adventures of friends and families, sharing our knowledge and experience with those with the same passion. Sailing is in our DNA, and we are the custodians of a legacy that has been supporting sailors for four decades and counting.