Mary Savage’s sailing career started out on a dubious note when she launched a Blue Jay for the first time and was towed back to the dock by her instructor Arthur Wullschleger.  From that moment in 1958 at the age of 22, Mary decided to learn all she could about sailing.  She remembers the moment, “I got out of the boat that day vowing I would never be so humiliated again.  I started reading everything I could on sailing and asked lots of questions. I was hooked on this new sport.”  She continued, “It absolutely blew my mind how thrilling this sport was. I just couldn’t get enough of it. I inhaled it.”

Early in her life, Savage was a classical piano player and modern dancer.  She graduated from Connecticut College in 1958 and married James Savage one month later. They bought an International 210 and raced it at many East coast events. The couple had three children, John, Karen and Andrea.  During the summers, Mary raced frequently and taught other women how to not only sail, but race. Along the way, she won the Syce Cup, the women’s championship of Long Island Sound and was on the crew with Skip McGuire and Pat O’Neal winning the Hipkins Trophy in 1967.

In the 1970s, Savage started serving on the Larchmont Yacht Club’s protest committee and became an expert on the Racing Rules of Sailing. In 1979, she was one of the first women to become a certified US Sailing Judge. She served as President of the YRA of Long Island Sound from 1988 to 1990 and in 1990 was certified as an International Judge by the International Sailing Federation. That year, on-the-water umpiring was being established, and Savage was one of the first two women to become a US Sailing certified umpire. She particularly enjoyed umpiring match racing and team racing regattas. Savage served as Chair of the US Sailing Race Administration Committee, was a member of US Sailing’s Racing Rules Committee and a member of the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound Appeals Committee.  During the 1990s and 2000s, Mary Savage served as a judge at 35 or more regattas per year.  She said her favorite regatta was Key West Race Week.

In 2007, she was presented with the Harman Hawkins Trophy for her contributions to the sport. In 2015, she was awarded the Nathanael Greene Herreshoff Trophy, US Sailing’s highest honor for her many years of dedicated service.

Dick Rose, one of the authorities on the Racing Rules of Sailing, praised Savage as she received the Herreshoff Award on May 7, 2016, during Larchmont Yacht Club’s Commissioning Day Ceremony: “One of the biggest and most unique contributions that Mary made was serving with the Competitor Classification Committee.  It took over her life for several years.  She made countless and difficult decisions under intense time pressure.”

Savage had a reputation of being fair but firm in a protest hearing.  Com Crocker nicely summed up her prowess serving on a jury, “Mary doesn’t suffer fools – ever, but particularly in the protest room.  That includes her fellow panelists. Everyone is a little sharper with Mary in the room.”

~ Gary Jobson