MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, Maine – Michael Taylor, a junior at Newtown High School, placed second in the junior class at the 40th Annual Bullseye National Championship sailing regatta, held the weekend of September 7-9 in the waters of Mt. Desert Island, Maine.

Sailors came from as far away as San Francisco and Florida to compete in one of the most popular racing classes in the United States. Competitors come from many Bullseye fleets, but only select fleets host the National Championships. This year the Southwest Harbor Fleet hosted the regatta in the popular Acadia National Park area, among the most beautiful sailing destinations in the nation.

In most national championship regattas, six races are sailed, with each sailor’s worst performance dropped. Because of light winds the first morning, only five races were sailed, so each one counted. Additionally, the races were more grueling, including three Olympic-pattern races. The Junior race was extremely close, with Taylor finishing first in two races and losing first place overall by only two points.

The Bullseye is one of the great classic sailing sloops, originally designed by renowned boat designer Nat Herreshoff of Rhode Island in 1914 and now built after the original hull plans by Cape Cod Shipbuilding of Wareham, Mass.

Taylor’s boat is named “Aldebaran” after one of the 57 stars used in celestial navigation. It is the star which is the literal “eye of the bull” in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Taylor has been sailing for three years in Maine, where his boat is kept, and races regularly in the area. He has won the George Shirey Memorial Race twice, placed second in the Smith-Newlin Race, second in the Caspar Weinberger Hospice Regatta, as well as won or placed regularly in series races.