Designer Daysailer

Bill springer meets former whitbread round the world race team owner george collins on his new custom daysailer, chessie racing.

- Bill Springer

At first glance, race day aboard George Collins’s sleek new 62ft Chessie Racing is pretty much what you would expect to find aboard any high octane racing boat. His crew is peppered with pedigree pro sailors like North Sails’s Mike Toppa, who has numerous America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Races, and world championship titles to his name, high profile yacht designers like Bill Tripp, whose distinctive, modern designs – including this one – are raising the bar on super yacht and sailing performance across the board; and a whole team of strong and experienced guys that know how to push a fast boat.

On deck, twin carbon wheels and powerful winches punctuate the cockpit. Carbon sails and a tall carbon mast provide serious sail power, while the aggressive, all carbon hull is covered with distinctive metallic blue paint and an updated team logo that wouldn’t look out of place on an ultra-lightweight record breaking race boat.

But you won’t find many stripped out race boats sporting teak decks, in-boom roller furling, and stylish square portlights. And as I found out during the New York Yacht Club Queen’s Cup regatta in Newport, Rhode Island last summer, you won’t find many boat owners quite like George Collins either.

The competitive Corinthian

During his long, successful sailing career, 76-year-old George Collins has owned many different types of boat. But he has always been a Corinthian sailor who simply loved to cruise with his family and race with his buddies (and a few pros, he says).

Yet when he started to contemplate retirement from investment firm T. Rowe Price, where he was CEO, far from slowing down and taking up more genteel pastimes, he became even more competitive at the highest level of offshore racing.