Shoreline Sailing Club announces winners of Bud Cook Memorial Race

Shoreline Sailing Club’s Roger Potkin of Uncasville and his sailboat Camelot, a Catalina 34 anchored in Groton, along with a three-member crew of Sandy Walsh, Mark Greenfield and Karen Mooney, was the winner of the annual Sag Harbor Labor Day Weekend Race, known as the Bud Cook Memorial Race.

Cook and his wife Vilma were very active members of the Shoreline Sailing Club and he served as commodore for three years in the 1980s. He passionately competed in the Sag Harbor race each year, winning many trophies.

After his death from cancer in 2008, Mrs. Cook asked for the race to carry her husband’s name since it always meant so much to him to win it. He and fellow club member Jack Lombard were fierce competitors in the races.

An expert sailor for 55 years in competition and cruising, Cook sailed the Bahamas as far south as the Tropic of Cancer as well as every state from Maine to Florida. He and Vilma met as part of a sailing group that was later transformed into a formal club with bylaws, the Shoreline Sailing Club, for singles age 35 and over.

The couple got engaged and after they married, thought they would have to leave the singles sailing club. However, he came up with an idea that was put into the bylaws: couples who meet as club members and later marry can be auxiliary members of the club.

A Clinton resident, Mrs. Cook remains a club member and personally presents trophies to the race winners each year.

Second place winner was Ted Geiger of Old Saybrook with an all-female crew and his 40-foot sailboat Que Sera Sera, stationed at Harry’s Marina in Westbrook. Geiger has been sailing and racing since he was 12. He bought his boat just three weeks prior to the race and now lives on the boat.

Third place winner was Bob Lattanzio of Lisbon, last year’s first place winner. His sailboat, named “Got Wind?” is moored in New London.

During September, members of the Shoreline Sailing Club also participated in the 44th Annual Newport International Boat Show, the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival, and the Greenport (N.Y.) Maritime Festival. They wrapped up the active sailing season on Columbus Day weekend with a day sail at Hamburg Cove in Old Lyme.

Shoreline Sailing Club’s activities don’t end there. Meetings are held year-round the first and third Thursdays of each month starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Westbrook Elks Lodge, 142 Seaside Ave., Westbrook. In addition, a variety of social and recreational activities take place such as trips, dances, hiking, theater events, dinners, brunches and an annual outing for newcomers.

Members pay annual dues plus event fees, and the guest fee for attending a meeting is $10. For more information, visit www.shorelinesailing.com.

In the photo: Shoreline Sailing Club’s Roger Potkin of Uncasville holds the trophy he won in the annual Sag Harbor Labor Day Weekend Race, known as the Bud Cook Memorial Race. To his right is Vilma Cook of Clinton, who presented him with the trophy. From left are members of Potkin’s crew, who all helped with the win on his sailboat Camelot, a Catalina 34: Karen Mooney, Mark Greenfield and Sandy Walsh. At far right is Bob Lattanzio of Lisbon, last year’s top winner and this year’s third place winner.