'Round the Island Race Ed Willman Best Performance by KBYC Yacht - Bombing Banshees Medallion Trophy

The next 'round the Island Race will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2025

Bombing Banshees

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This plaque was established in 2012 and recognizes the overall Best Performance by a Key Biscayne Yacht Club yacht in the 'round the Island Race.

The Bombing Banshees Medallion - a long lost treasure from Past Comodore Ed Willman's boat. This article was originally published in the Islander News, written by Bill Durham and Catherine Malinin Dunn on January 25, 2025.

It sounds like something out of a spy novel. In 2014, a snorkeler off the Key Biscayne Yacht Club saw something nestled in the seagrass that caught his attention. He dove down and pulled up a heavy disk, about six inches in diameter. Not sure what to make of the object, he swam to the dock and asked the dockmaster to take a closer look. After flicking off some barnacles, the two men were able to read the inscription: “Bombing Banshees.” In the center was a menacing skull, a bomb clutched in its jaws.

A lightbulb clicked in the dockmaster’s head. Some twenty years earlier, Ed Willman had owned a boat named Banshee. Could this be related?

Edward M. Willman was the Yacht Club’s 35th Commodore. A student athlete at Miami University of Ohio when WWII broke out, he left college to join the armed forces. He became a fighter pilot with the U.S. Marines “Bombing Banshees” flying squadron, serving in the Pacific theater. Among the many commendations he received was a Gold Star from the Secretary of the Navy for missions near the Philippines.

Ed contracted polio while in the South Pacific. A dedicated medical team, combined with his own sheer willpower and determination, restored him to health.

He spent his career in housing development in Sidney, Ohio, and then Ed and his wife Mary settled on Key Biscayne in the 1970s. They enjoyed bicycling and sailing and joined the Yacht Club, where Ed docked the Banshee. Among his prized possessions was a commemorative brass medallion honoring the Bombing Banshees squadron. He kept the medallion in a place of honor above the chart table in the Banshee’ssalon.

Ed became an avid racer, participating in over 200 sailing regattas on the Banshee. Among the highlights were races from Key West to Varadero, Cuba; from Daytona Beach to Bermuda; and from Miami to Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Ed and fellow sailor Ray Sullivan were early organizers of an annual sailboat race around Key Biscayne. The friendly yet competitive “Round the Island Race” is now one of the Yacht Club’s most anticipated events.

The Banshee’s happy days came to an abrupt end when Hurricane Andrew thrashed the island in August of 1992. The boat dragged anchor during the storm. Its wreckage was found across the Bay, near Mercy Hospital, but the treasured medallion was missing. Ed replaced the Banshee but never saw the medallion again. He passed away in 1994 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Fast forward to 2014. After seeing the medallion, the dockmaster called Ray Sullivan who, in a “Eureka!” moment, recognized it instantly. Ray proposed dedicating the Round the Island Race to Ed’s memory.

The medallion was later incorporated into a trophy for the race’s best performance by a boat from the Key Biscayne Yacht Club. Carlos Mandiola’s name is on there five times. So is Ray Sullivan’s, for his 2013 best performance aboard Second Wind.

So that’s the remarkable story of the Bombing Banshees medallion. After sitting at the bottom of the Bay for twenty years, it now shines prominently in the Seabelle room at the Key Biscayne Yacht Club.