Fickle front conspires against Annual Regatta fleet

Newport, RI (June 14, 2014) – Yesterday’s tricky, occasionally windless, conditions for the Around the Island Race insisted on sticking around this morning, causing a postponement ashore for 189 teams sailing in the 160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex. Old friends caught up on the docks, but then put their game faces on when the AP flag was lowered and classes began dispersing to three different circles on Rhode Island Sound (IRC and One-Designs) and a fourth on Narragansett Bay (Classics and Navigators).

After further delays on the water, and with the wind blowing from a northerly direction “up the Bay” and southwesterly on the courses offshore, all classes completed one short race save for the Etchells, the largest class here with 46 boats, which went home empty-handed after a long day of hurrying up to wait.

Topping the IRC 1 class for the three largest IRC boats here was George David’s Reichel Pugh 90 Rambler. Team strategist Peter Isler said the northerly front was trying to come in but never transpired fully; thus the race committee’s decision to abbreviate the course to a four-mile windward/leeward that took Rambler 48 minutes to complete. “Our Windex at the top of the mast said we were on starboard tack but the sails were filled on port,” said Isler. “In light air races you have to pick your side and stick to your guns, because tacking is too costly. All of us went left but we were able to parlay a good start into a minute lead at the top mark and then we slowly opened up the lead even more downwind.” Isler noted that all but six of Rambler’s 24 crew were sent below on the last leg to optimize weight distribution for the ultra-sensitive 4-5 knot conditions.

The IRC 52 Interlodge, the Carkeek 40 Spookie, the X-41 Pendragon, the J/122 Wings and the Swan 44 Cygnette were other winners in five additional IRC classes.

“We got a little ahead and it was all gains after that,” said Bryson Hall, the mainsheet trimmer aboard Wings. He then described the finish where Wings crossed the line with the next closest boat one minute behind. That minute, however, turned into seven minutes when the wind dwindled.

Taking the 10-boat Swan 42 class was Charles Kenehan’s Mahalo, which represents one of the New York Yacht Club’s eight different commissioned one-design classes, celebrated this evening at the Annual Regatta Dinner held at New York Yacht Club at Harbour Court. A “Century of One-Design Racing” will feature the New York (NY) 30 Amorita, a Herreshoff design built in 1905, dockside and dressed for inspection. “She is the oldest yacht (1905) competing here and represents one of the very first one-design classes ever, certainly the oldest of the club’s, with the newest being the Swan 42,” said Amorita’s co-owner Bill Doyle, who is also racing the boat here. An NY 50 named Spartan is also sailing in the regatta; a 72-foot Herreshoff design, she was built in 1915 and today won Class 4.

A Spirit of Tradition class, for yachts that look the part but aren’t truly Classics because of their younger ages, was won by a second 90-footer in the regatta named Tempus Fugit.

Racing concludes tomorrow, with the Etchells class leaving the dock an hour early (10 a.m.) with the hope of catching up to the others on the racing schedule. An awards ceremony on the lawn of Harbour Court will immediately follow racing.

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Complete results: http://nyyc.org/yachting/racing/160th-annual-regatta

Top-three Results

160th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex
Weekend Series, Saturday, June 14, 2014
(Place, Yacht Name, Type, Owner/Skipper, Hometown, Results, Total Points)

Blue Class 1 – IRC 1 (IRC – 3 Boats)
1. Rambler, RP 90, George David , Farmington, CT, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Bella Mente, JV Mini Maxi 72, Hap Fauth , Minneapolis, MN, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Caol Ila R, Mini Maxi 68, Alex Schaerer , Newport, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

Blue Class 2 – IRC 2 (IRC – 6 Boats)
1. Interlodge, IRC 52, Austin and Gwen Fragomen , Newport, RI, USA – 1, ; 1
2. SLED, TP 52, Takashi Okura , Alpine, NJ, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Hooligan, TP 52, Gunther Buerman , Newport , RI, USA – 3, ; 3

Blue Class 3 – IRC 3 (IRC – 9 Boats)
1. SPOOKIE, Carkeek HP 40, Steve & Heidi Benjamin , Norwalk, CT, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Otra Vez, Ker 43, William Coates , Houston, TX, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Temptation-Oakcliff, Custom Ker 50, Arthur Santry – Oakcliff Sailing , Arlington, VA, USA – 3, ; 3

Blue Class 4 – IRC 4 (IRC – 10 Boats)
1. Pendragon, X-41, Quentin Thomas , Portsmouth, RI, USA – 1, ; 1
2. White Witch, King 40, Larry Landry , Newport, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Christopher Dragon, Sydney 43, Andrew & Linda Weiss , Mamaroneck, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 3 – CRF SoT (spinnaker) (CRF – 4 Boats)
1. Tempus Fugit, Tempus 90, Erbil Arkin , Lymington, Hants, UK – 1, ; 1
2. Lark, Eggemoggin 47, Tom Morris , Brooklin, ME, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Race Horse, W.37, Donald Tofias , USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 4 – CRF (non-spinnaker) (CRF – 7 Boats)
1. Spartan, NY50, Charlie Ryan , Providence, RI, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Angelita, 8 Metre, Henry Skelsey , New York, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Black Watch, S&S custom yawl, Joseph Robillard , Short Hills, NJ, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 5 – CRF (spinnaker) (CRF – 7 Boats)
1. Silent Maid, Barnegat Bay Catboat 33, Peter Kellogg , Short Hills, NJ, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Syce, 6 Metre 34, Bob & Farley Towse , Stamford, CT, USA – 2, ; 2
3. CHEROKEE, 6 Metre 37.24, Jerry Goldlust , Concord, MA, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 1 – 12 Metre M/GP (One Design – 5 Boats)
1. Victory 83, Dennis Williams , Hobe Sound, FL, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Laura, Kip Curren , Warwick, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Courageous, Ralph Isham/ Alexander Auersperg , New York, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 2 – 12 Metre Traditional (One Design – 2 Boats)
1. American Eagle, Anthony Chiurco , Princeton, NJ, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Nefertiti, Jon Wullschleger , Sarasota, FL, USA – 2, ; 2

Green Class 6 – S Class (One Design – 9 Boats)
1. Surprise, Fred Roy , Newport, RI, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Squaw, Angus Davis , Bristol, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Aquila, Geoffrey Davis , Providence, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 7 – ORR Navigators (ORR – 12 Boats)
1. Simpatico, Pearson 39, William Riley , Chatham, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Selkie, McCurdy&Rhodes 38, Sheila McCurdy , Middletown, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Temptress, Taylor 41, Mass Maritime , Carmel, IN, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 8 – PHRF 1 Navigators (spinnaker) (PHRF – 8 Boats)
1. Wild child, J 111, Chris Jones , Hamble, Southampton, UK – 1, ; 1
2. Wicked 2.0, J 111, Douglas Curtiss , South Dartmouth, MA, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Odyssey, J 111, Alfred Van Liew / David Brodsky , Providence, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 9 – PHRF 2 Navigators (spinnaker) (PHRF – 9 Boats)
1. Nighthawk, J 24, Barker,McVicker & Ryan , Newport, RI, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Spirit, J 92S, EC Helme , Newport, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Meddler X, J 29, Brian Kiley , Cranston, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

Green Class 10 – PHRF 3 Navigators (non-spinnaker) (PHRF – 8 Boats)
1. Jazz Fish, Freedom 35, Paul Koch, Jr. , Los Angeles, CA, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Crackerjack, Cambria 40, Alan Krulisch , Arlington, VA, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Mad Czech, Chaser 33, Jan Trousilek , Newport, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

White Class 3 – IRC 5 (IRC – 12 Boats)
1. Wings, J 122, Michael Bruno , Armonk, NY, USA – 1, ; 1
2. AmadeusV, Xp38, Udo and Michael Schroff , East Greenwich, RI, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Orion, J 122, Paul Milo , Leesburg, VA, USA – 3, ; 3

White Class 4 – IRC 6 (IRC – 10 Boats)
1. Cygnette, Swan 441, William Mayer , Greenwich, CT, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Rush, J 109, Bill Sweetser , Annapolis, MD, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Kalevala II, Grand Soleil 37, Tapio Saavalainen , Washington, DC, USA – 3, ; 3

White Class 1 – Swan 42 (One Design – 10 Boats)
1. Mahalo, Charles Kenahan , Swampscott, MA, USA – 1, ; 1
2. Hoss, Glenn Darden / Philip Williamson , Fort Worth, TX, USA – 2, ; 2
3. Arethusa, Phil Lotz , Newport, RI, USA – 3, ; 3

White Class 2 – Melges 32 (One Design – 5 Boats)
1. Argo, Jason Carroll , New York, NY, USA – 1, 1, ; 2
2. Dark N’Stormy, Edward Tillinghast , New York, NY, USA – 4, 2, ; 6
3. Volpe, Ryan DeVos , Macatawa, MI, USA – 3, 3, ; 6

Report by event media.