The City Island Yacht Club (CIYC) Cruising committee hosted a joint CIYC/Harlem Yacht Club (HYC) social cruise to Rye Playland the weekend of July 23-24, 2022, officially setting off mid-morning on July 23rd with a couple of boats sailing ahead doing “reconnaissance” in the morning and several others leaving in the light southerly winds of the afternoon.  

“The winds were light on Saturday, but it was a pleasure being on the water with a destination to sail to and friends to enjoy the sail with,” said Roger Landau, a member of CIYC who also organized the cruise.

Most boats did a combination of sailing and motoring to the mooring fields at Rye where they picked up free moorings and utilized the launch service, courtesy of Charley’s Pier Restaurant & Tiki Bar available to restaurant patrons.  There were nine boats in all, six from CIYC, two from HYC, and one from Morris Yacht Club.  Some members spent the day at Rye Playland amusement park enjoying the rides with their families while others chose to spend the time beating the heat in the waters off of Playland Beach. 

Cruisers spent time at Rye Playland amusement park, shown above, after the X hour cruise from City Island. Photo courtesy of Lee Beckerman

One of the highlights of the weekend cruise was at cocktail hour where cruisers were able to mingle and get to know each other better aboard “Ilene,” a gorgeous Saga 43, owned by HYC member Roger Karlebach. All 23 attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and cocktails before sitting for dinner at Charley’s Pier Restaurant & Tiki Bar. Needless to say, after so much fun the entire crew struggled a bit to apply their higher math skills for figuring out how to evenly split the bill.

Participants of the Rye Playland cruise gathered for dinner together at Charley’s Pier Restaurant & Tiki bar and enjoyed the live music through the evening. Photo courtesy of Roger Landau

Cruise participants gathered aboard “Ilene,” a Saga 43 owned by HYC member Roger Karlebach, for a memorable cocktail hour. Photo courtesy of Roger Landau

Several cruising participants took the opportunity of a calm evening on Long Island Sound to practice their night sailing and navigation skills back to City Island that evening and for those who stayed overnight, live music kept the party going until around midnight. Everyone made it back to City Island safely the next morning, tacking through 8-15 kts on the nose, but a very pleasant sail nonetheless. 

The dinghy season in the northeast is underway and our team is well prepared.

Leopold Brandl – Olympic Team Practice

Our Olympic team sailor Leopold Brandl has returned to the club to work on his boat handling and trim before returning to the international stage. Leopold will start his season locally at Atlantic Coast Championships before going overseas for the bigger competitions throughout the year. Seasons in the Olympic classes are running from summer to spring as global travel does not allow for a universal “summer season”. He will therefore move his practice south for the winter and end the season with the first round of Olympic trials in the spring of 2023.

Our racing team also started practicing in May to prepare for the big regattas coming up this year – starting off with  Larchmont Raceweek. Additionally, our Junior sailing summer camp is underway. The goal of the program is to teach children the fundamentals of dinghy sailing and the science behind sailing as well as to prepare them for a career in racing on a collegiate or possibly international level.

CIYC Olympic Team sailor and Racing Coach Leopold Brandl has discovered a new type of racing for himself – college sailing. We all know Leo cannot pass on an opportunity to race! Whether it’s Olympic sailing, high-performance off-shore racing, or just the occasional Wednesday night regatta – he is always on the line. So, he decided this spring to start competing on the Columbia University Sailing Team and apply his years of dinghy experience in a new discipline! Finishing his first three events all in podium positions and leading the team to qualify for the America Trophy, Leo had a good start into the scene and plans to continue competing in the fall. To stay tuned on any developments regarding Leo, click here.

The CIYC Junior Sailing program hopes to build the next generation of racers who will eventually also compete on the intercollegiate level. To learn more about our program click here.

Captain Patrick Gallagher, City Island Yacht Club’s new American Sailing Association (ASA) instructor, started sailing with his dad when he was just five years old. By the time he was a teenager, he was working at a marina and giving sailing tips to friends and customers. He became a certified ASA instructor in 1986.

Since then Patrick has sailed scores of boats for thousands of miles. Most recently, he delivered a 114-foot luxury sailboat from Antigua to Valencia, Spain, a distance of 3,902 nautical miles. The nonstop voyage took 20 days. He campaigned his 23-foot Star sailboat in one-design races all along the East Coast, and he was a key crewmember on larger boats in major regattas in Florida and the Great Lakes.

As the primary instructor for ASA 101, the basic keelboat sailing class, he will introduce new sailors to the joys of taking the helm and trimming sails, learning to read the water and understand Rules of the Road.

SUMMER 2022:

ASA 101, Basic Keelboat Sailing course available on weekends. To schedule your three-day class, contact:

June 24 – 26

July 8 – 10

July 22 – 24

August 5 – 7

August 12 – 14

Other courses offered on a periodic basis based on interest. Contact: