St. Augustine Sailing Sisters (SASS) will host its 4th Annual Spring Foward Sailboat Race on Sunday, March 8, starting at 1pm on the Intracoastal Waterway, north of the Vilano Bridge.  This race is open to any vessel that meets the criteria as outlined in the Notice of Race/Sail Instruction (NoR/SI), which can be found on the SASS website at sasailingsisters.com.

Registration is sponsored by St. Augustine Yacht Club and is available online at https://www.staugustineyachtclub.com/2020sassspringfoward.html.  A Skipper’s Meeting is scheduled for 9:30am, the morning of the race, at St. Augustine Yacht Club, located at 442 Ocean Vista Ave., on Anastasia Island, across from the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum.

Established in 2016, SASS strives to engage and empower women on the water through sailboat racing.  The first sailboat race organized by SASS, the Bikini Race, has become the organization’s signature event and serves as a major fundraiser to give back to local women’s organizations, such the Betty Griffin Center and Rethreaded, Inc.  The Spring Foward Race (yes, it’s intentionally misspelled for a reason) was named such because it started on Daylight Savings weekend in 2016 as a way to get boats on the water and ready for St. Augustine Race Week.

“The Spring Foward Race is the first of three sailing events that SASS hosts each year, in addition to our Wendy Thomson Memorial Race in May, and wrapping up with Bikini in August,” noted SASS President, Susan Lieberman.  “Our goal is to get women on the water while sharing our love of sailing and racing.  At the same time, we really want to raise money to make a difference in the lives of women locally who are looking to make a better life for themselves, to provide resources for them to excel and be empowered to do so.”

The fundraising efforts of the 2019 Bikini Race resulted in SASS donating $5000 each to the Betty Griffin Center and Rethreaded, Inc., local organizations that provide counseling, support, and mentoring for women rebuilding their lives who have survived domestic violence and human trafficking.

“The fun of SASS races comes from having women at the helm of every boat, and requiring more than 50% of women on those boats with mixed crew,” commented Barbara Sperbeck, a SASS founding member and owner of “Swim Up Tiki Bar,” an all-women crew participant.  “Last year we had 17 boats and over 60 women on the water for the Bikini Race, and Spring Foward gets everybody back on the water and ready to race.”