All Karen Binder wanted for Christmas was to go faster in her ice boat, to sail over frozen lakes and ponds, “hard water” as she calls them, at speeds exceeding the 50-mph legal limit on I-95 through Providence.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But Binder, from Bristol and believed to be one of only three American women competing at the highest level of ice boat racing in North America, wants to get better. To do so, she knows she must improve her start. And to do that, she must run faster because a running 40-yard start is the norm in racing on hard water.
A chance encounter with a young woman on a track in Middletown turned into a holiday gift that is helping Binder achieve her goal. Since August, she and her training partner, James Thieler of Newport, an old friend from St. Mary’s College in Maryland, have run sprints on the track at Gaudet Middle School in the hope of reducing their start times on the ice.
One day in November they noticed a woman who was clearly many rungs higher on the workout ladder than the runners, joggers and walkers who exercise at Gaudet.
“Oh my gosh. She was really fast,” Binder told me. “She looked amazing. She was literally the fastest person I have seen run in real life. You could tell something was different.” Thieler urged her to “go talk to her. Maybe she’ll take us on.”
So Binder walked over and introduced herself to Regine Tugade-Watson, a 2020 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who was studying at the Naval War College in Newport. Binder explained she and Thieler race ice boats, and they want to get better. Would she help? Tugade-Watson had never heard of ice boats; she is from Guam, a tiny U.S. territory in the Western Pacific. Binder showed her videos on her cell phone, and the young officer was intrigued enough to exchange contact information. She ran track at Annapolis, was captain of the 2020 indoor team and broke the school record in the 60-meter dash at the Patriots League Championships. A bonus: she had just become certified to coach.
Three weeks passed before Tugade-Watson contacted Binder. The three of them met four times. Tugade-Watson talked about the start stance and gave them drills to get off the starting line. She explained the importance of keeping their feet low the first 10 meters and then standing tall while pushing their legs down hard to generate more power and speed.
“The 40-yard dash is perfect because by then the boat is up to speed,” Binder said.
Ah, speed, the difference between racing on the “soft water” of Narragansett Bay, and the “hard water” of frozen ponds in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Montana. Binder has sailed and raced for three decades. Her dad started her off when she was 7, taking her out on Chesapeake Bay, handing her the tiller, and saying, “Pick a point and get us there.”
“It was very empowering,” Binder said. She learned to race in college, starting as crew on the co-ed sailing team at St. Mary’s and then founding the women’s team, which became nationally ranked by the time she graduated in 1991.
Burned out, Binder quit sailing. For 15 years she worked and raised two boys with her husband. Then, 15 years ago, she returned, racing J-22s in Newport during the summer and Lasers in frost-bite regattas during the winter, alternating between Newport and Bristol. As skipper of her J-22, she commanded a crew of two, but she preferred the challenge of sailing the Laser by herself.
“I get the most satisfaction out of single-handed racing because it’s my decision, my skill. What I do with the boat is on me,” she said.
Thieler, an ice boater since the mid-1990s, tried several times to introduce Binder to hard water. Her work as executive director at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens and Arboretum in Bristol and her family obligations left her no time until three years ago. Her sons grown, she finally agreed.
“I had the time. I had the resources. I was ready for a challenge,” she said.
Her maiden voyage was on Watuppa Pond in Fall River. “It was so peaceful and exhilarating . . . being out in the open, no one around, sailing across this plate of ice at a speed I had never experienced before,” she said.
Binder was hooked.
Two years ago she bought a new boat and practiced to overcome a steep learning curve. She fell at the start. She was thrown from her boat, a 12-foot hull similar in shape to a rowing shell with one runner in front to steer and an eight-foot perpendicular plank with a runner on each end, a mast, sail and tiller. She bought another boat when a sailor crashed into hers, shattering the hull. Binder escaped injury.
Last January Binder and Thieler competed in the North American Championships in Montana. Binder finished second in the trials and qualified for the Gold Fleet, almost unheard of for a first-year competitor.
“I had no idea I would do that well,” she said.
She finished back in the pack in the final and left determined to improve.
“I knew then that my start could be better and I could improve my boat speed off the line.”
Coaching two adults was “completely different” for Tugade-Watson, who worked with kids whenever she returned home.
“They were very receptive, very open. They wanted to hear what I had to say. I changed their warmup and explained that everything has a purpose. The reason behind everything we do is very important to me. They were very coachable,” she said.
“They remembered everything I said, which shows how much they value what I say and how much they care about their sport. This was special for me,” she added.
There will be no fifth workout for the two 50-something ice boat racers and the 22-year-old Navy track alum. Tugade-Watson is spending the holidays in Michigan with her husband Aaron, a fellow 2020 Naval Academy graduate, track athlete and aviator in training at Pensacola, Fla., and his family. Then she is off to Norfolk, Va., for additional training as a surface warfare officer before she boards her ship, the USS Iwo Jima, an amphibious assault craft.
“We transport Marines,” she said.
There’s one final note to this holiday story. While Binder and Tugarde-Watson talked about speed during their first training session, Usain Bolt’s name came up. He is the Olympic gold medal sprinter from Jamaica.
“Let me show you something,” Tugade-Watson said, taking out her phone and finding a photo of her and Bolt at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“Oh, my gosh! Were you there in Rio?” Binder exclaimed.
“Yes. I was standing next to Usain Bolt. He is so tall!” Tugade-Watson replied.
“You were at the Olympics?”
“I was in the Olympics. I competed for Guam.”
Regine Tugade — she was single in 2016 — a sprint champion in Guam and a veteran of the World Championships in 2015 and 2017, finished third in a preliminary heat of the 100 at Rio in 12.34 seconds. That was her one and only race but hardly the end of her Olympic experience.
“To see all my role models up close . . . to be surrounded by all the people you see in the news and on TV . . . to run into Serena Williams and Michael Phelps . . . to run in front of all those people . . . It was really surreal,” she said.
Binder was stunned.
“Never in a million years did I think I would receive training from an Olympic athlete. And she is so nice and sweet and talented.”
She is also effective. Taking Tugade-Watson’s advice, Thieler shaved 1 second off his start time. Binder took 9/10ths off hers. Two weeks ago they competed in a practice regatta in Minnesota. Binder was among the top five at the first mark in every race. Now she is focused on the North American regatta in January
“Training with Regine was a huge gift,” she said.