"Local Sailor Takes on the Waves: Competing in Norway"

Lisa Brown Ehrhart of the Luffing Lassies and Sarasota Sailing Squadron (front row left) has returned to her summer home in Maine from Norway where she represented the Northeast Harbor Fleet in the Hanko 2024 Worlds in June.

This International One Design Fleet is a unique boat conceptualized by Cornelius Shields who was in search of a beautiful, affordable, one design International class. The orginal boats were build by Bjarne Aas of Norway and then shipped overseas in the 1930s. This International One Design Boat is a 33 foot open cockpit day sailor

developed in 1936 for yacht racing.

There are thirteen fleets in the world and this year the Hanko Yacht Club of Hanko Norway hosted the 2024 Worlds. The Northeast Harbor Fleet of Maine, boasting the largest fleet of IODs, was able to send three crews to compete this year as Tom Freemont Smith of NEH Fleet won the last IOD Worlds. The regular sailors of Team Freyja, who race in the waters of Mount Desert in July and August, with skipper/owner Mia Thompson at the helm, and crew members Andrew Kennedy, Allison Schafer and Lisa Brown Ehrhart felt fortunate to be able to compete at the Worlds this year. Team Freya with a predominately female crew and a female owner/skipper is unique to this particular sailing class. They were also fortunate to have the addition of Skye Ehrhart (Lisa's son) join them as a fifth crew member for the competition.

Lisa Brown Ehrhart reported that the Hanko Yacht Club worked hard to create a spectacular week of racing and social events. They were excellent hosts going above and beyond to have 24 IODs in world racing shape for this epic event. Highly advanced captains and crews flew halfway around the world to compete and there were six prior world champions racing in this regatta. The weather blew very hard some days with huge seas keeping sailors on the docks. These rough weather conditions were often followed by lighter wind days making competition possible in the beautiful old borrowed boats. The sailing was spectacular, the courses were fair, the post-race switch to a different boat challenging and the competition fierce. Team Freyja, with the only female skipper and predominately female crew finished in 17th place out of the 20 boats on the line. The 2024 IOD words in Hanko Norway was an outstanding event that Lisa had the honor to compete in.

Lisa Brown Ehhart

Luffing Lassies and Sarasota Sailing Squadron

Marge Whiteman

FWSA Publicity Chair