Rob Doolittle Wins VX One North American Championship

Rockwall, TX (November 10, 2013) – Rob Doolittle of Mandeville, LA utilized consistent finishes to earn the 2013 VX One North American Championship. Hosted by Rush Creek Yacht Club in Rockwall, TX, the 21-boat fleet completed eight races from November 8-10.

Racing The Spaniard with Bob Hodges, Doolittle posted scores of 4,4,3,3,(7),3,1,6 for 24 points. Kevin Northrop put together an impressive regatta for second place with 26 points. Erich Schloemer’s Animal took the bronze position with 37 points. No racing took place on Sunday due to lack of breeze on Lake Ray Hubbard for this second North American Championship of the young VX One Class.

“We stayed pretty conservative, and we wanted to stay in the top 10 for every race,” summarized Doolittle. “One of our strategies was if we thought the boat was favored, we’d start closer to the pin just to stay clear of the crowd because that’s where you can get buried. You gotta get off the line. You can keep on making gains as you round marks, but it’s a race to the windward mark.”

Among the 21 teams competing in the event were an entrant from Australia and one from Great Britain.

Racing GBR149 were Nathan Batchelor and David Eve. Batchelor is a Sales Manager at Ovington Boats and based in Newcastle (northeast of England). He is a European J/24 champion 2010 (helm) and has placed fifth at the J/24 Worlds as helmsman (2010), third at the J/24 Worlds calling tactics (2011), fourth at the J/24 Worlds on tactics (2012), and a member of the 470 GBR Olympic development squad at the helm (2008). Eve was born in England and now lives in Charlotte. He is an ex-Viper owner and an early adopter of the VX One with boat number 105.

Racing AUS136 was Andrew York. York is the proprietor of Forestay Pty Ltd trading as VX One Australia. He has won the Laser Nationals and has sailed in 13 world championships, placing in the top four in Laser, Tasar, J/24s, Etchells and Dragons. Yorky has been the Laser Olympic and National Coach, and served on the Olympic Athlete Planning Committee for Yachting Australia. He sailed in the 1983 America’s Cup as mainsheet for Advance and as navigator with the Kookaburra 1987 defense. He has skippered boats in five Sydney to Hobart races and won the Blue Water Pointscore (long ocean races at the CYCA, including the Hobart race) with a race to spare as skipper at his first try.

VX One North American Championship Results (Top 5 of 21)
1. Rob Doolittle & Bob Hodges – 4, 4, 3, 3, [7], 3, 1, 6 = 24
2. Kevin Northrop, Karl Kleinshrote & Mya Newman – [19], 2, 2, 4, 5, 7, 5, 1= 26
3. Erich Schloemer & Gavin Roudolph – 3, 7, 8, 1, 9, [17], 2, 7 = 37
4. David Eve & Nathan Batchelor – 7, 5, [17], 6, 8, 1, 9, 4 = 40
5. David Guggenheim & John Potter – 9, 11, 4, 8, 1, 5, [14], 11 = 49

Christopher E. Howell reporting