New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta: 169 teams, 17 classes

Newport, RI (June 13, 2015) – Transitioning from yesterday’s Around-the-Island Race, 169 teams at the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex took off this morning for four different rendezvous areas on Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay to begin a two-day regatta series that will determine victors in 17 classes.

With the wind blowing decidedly from the north, classes for IRC 3, IRC 4, C&C 30, Etchells, and Marstrom 32 staged the most spectator-friendly show, starting and finishing close to shore in an area south of the Pell Bridge and to the west of Fort Adams – similar to racing at the recent Volvo Ocean Race stopover.

“I loved sailing in there,” said Clay Deutsch, skipper of Just Friends, which sits in sixth among nine C&C 30s after two races today. (Don Cheresh’s Extreme2 leads.) “The breeze is kind of shifty, and there’s huge current, so tactically it’s interesting, and physically it’s beautiful. If you go to Cowes (England) or places like that, there’s all these interesting features – that’s what this is like. We should do more of it.”

The IRC classes and Etchells also completed two races, while the Marstrom 32 catamarans added a third. Ed Freitag, who is the owner/driver of the Summit 40 Downtime and has done the Annual Regatta at least six other times, said the 12 boats in his IRC 3 class are all relatively close in rating, which made it especially enjoyable on a day like today. “Yesterday the ratings were figured over a longer distance; today it was much closer. The courses are short distances, and the start is extremely important.” (Downtime is second to Craig Albrecht’s Farr 395 Avalanche in overall standings.)

The northerly quickly changed to a southwesterly sea breeze in the early afternoon, making downwind runs into upwind beats for some of the eight classes (three for CRF, three for PHRF, S Class and 12 Metre) sailing navigators courses “up the Bay.” Winding around government marks rather than placed buoys, the classes fit in two races each, except 12 Metres, which completed three races.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris crewed for Gordon McNabb’s Swan 44 Flying Cloud II in PHRF 3 Non-spinnaker class, helping to see finish positions of 1-4 on the scoreboard today for an overall lead among seven boats.

“My birthday is Monday, so for my present they invited me to crew,” said Harris, adding that his first time ever on a sailboat was yesterday aboard Flying Cloud II in the Around-the-Island Race. And what did he think of it all? “I love it,” he said. “I love the structures and the systems and learning what the vocabulary is and learning what your place is within it. It’s a nice combination of intensity and tranquility. You do something super-fast, then sit and look at the view; then they shout at you to tack, and you panic, put your gloves back on, tack and then relax.”

The wind was light and spotty for the four classes (IRC 1, IRC 2, Swan 42 and J/111) sailing offshore on Rhode Island Sound.

Lawrence Huntington’s Ker 50 Snow Lion is 7th out of 11 boats in IRC 2 (Austin and Gwen Fragomen’s Interlodge leads), and he says it’s a very good warm up for the long-distance races he really likes to do. He has raced across the Atlantic seven times, three of them in his own boat, and later this summer he will compete in the Transatlantic Race 2015 and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

“This kind of close-course racing offers lots of competition that hones everybody’s skills, so it’s very good for us to experiment and try things,” said Huntington. “You’re always learning.”

Racing concludes tomorrow.

Current Standings

CRF 1 Large (CRF – 2 Boats)
1. Spartan, NY50, Charlie Ryan, Providence, RI, USA – 1 ; 1

CRF 2 Medium (CRF – 9 Boats)
1. QUEST, 8 Metre, Diane Palm, Toronto, Ontario, CAN, 1 (1)
2. Sonny, S&S, Joseph Dockery, Newport, RI, USA, 2 (2)
3. Amorita, New York 30, Jed Pearsall, Newport, RI, USA – 3 (3)

IRC 1 (IRC – 11 Boats)
1. Interlodge, Botin HPR 44, Austin and Gwen Fragomen, Newport, RI, USA, 1, 1 (2)
2. SPOOKIE, Carkeek HP 40, Steve & Heidi Benjamin, Norwalk, CT, USA, 2, 2 (4)
3. HOOLIGAN, IRC 52, Gunther Buerman, Highland Beach, FL, USA, 3, 3 (6)

IRC 2 (IRC – 8 Boats)
1. Christopher Dragon, Sydney 43, Andrew & Linda Weiss, Mamaroneck, NY, USA, 1, 1 (2)
2. Next, Roger Martin 36, Jon Desmond, Boston, MA, USA, 4, 2, (6)
3. Oakcliff Farr 40-Black, Farr 40, Oakcliff Sailing, Oyster Bay, NY, USA, 2, 4 (6)

IRC 3 (IRC – 12 Boats)
1. Avalanche, Farr 395 39.5, Craig Albrecht, Sea Cliff, NY, USA, 2, 1 (3)
2. DownTime, Summit 40 39’10, Ed Freitag/Molly Haley, Annapolis, MD, USA 1, 2.5 (3.5)
3. Orion, J/122, Paul Milo, Leesburg, VA, USA, 3, 4 (7)

IRC 4 (IRC – 12 Boats)
1. Carina, Custom 48, Rives Potts, Westbrook, CT, USA, 1, 2 (3)
2. Rush, J/109, Bill Sweetser, Annapolis, MD, USA, 4, 1 (5)
3. Leading Edge, J/35, Tom Sutton, Houston, TX, USA, 7, 4 (11)

Swan 42 OD (One Design – 9 Boats)
1. Apparition, Swan 42, Colin Gordon, Guilford, CT, USA, 2, 1 (3)
2. Blazer, Swan 42, Christopher Culver, Stamford, CT, USA, 5, 2 (7)
3. Impetuous, Swan 42 42.5, Paul Zabetakis, Stuart, FL, USA, 4, 3 (7)

J-111 OD (One Design – 19 Boats)
1. Lake Effect, J 111 36.5, Robert Hesse, Youngstown, NY, USA, 1, 5 (6)
2. My Sharona, J 111 36.5, George Gamble, Pensacola, FL, USA, 6, 2 (8)
3. Wooton, J 111 36.5, William Smith, Chicago, IL, USA, 2, 9 (11)

C&C 30 OD (One Design – 9 Boats)
1. Extreme2, C&C 30, Dan Cheresh, Saugatuck, MI, USA, 3, 1 (4)
2. Stark Raving Mad VIII, C&C 30 One Design 30, James Madden , Newport Beach, CA, USA, 2, 2 (4)
3. Themis, C&C 30, Walt Thirion, Annapolis, MD, USA, 1, 6 (7)

Etchells OD (One Design – 15 Boats)
1. Swedish Blue, Etchells 22, Ante Razmilovic , Annapolis, MD, USA, 1, 2 (3)
2. America Jane 11, Etchells 30, Scott Kaufman , New York, NY, USA, 3, 1 (4)
3. Clean Execution, Etchells 30, Michael Gavin , Westport, CT, USA, 4, 6 (10)

M32 (One Design – 4 Boats)
1. Escape Velocity, Marstrom 32, Ron O’Hanley , Boston, MA, USA, 3, 1, 2 (6)
2. Bronco, M32, Michael Dominguez , Barrington, RI, USA, 2, 4, 1 (7)
3. Astan Harold, Marstrom 32, Malcolm Gefter , Newport, RI, USA, 1, 3, 3 (7)

S Class (One Design – 8 Boats)
1. Squaw, S-Boat 30, Matt Hayes , Bristol, RI, USA, 1, 1 (2)
2. Swallow, Herreshoff S 27.5, Andrew McClatchy , North Kingstown, RI, USA, 3, 2 (5)
3. Aquila, S Class 27, Geoffrey Davis , Providence, RI, USA, 4, 3 (7)

12 Metre – Grand Prix (One Design – 2 Boats)
1. New Zealand, 12 Metre, Gunther Buerman Lexi Gahagan , Newport, RI, USA 1, 2, 2, 1 (6)
2. KZ5 Laura, 12 Metre, Kip Curren , Warwick, RI, USA, 2, 1, 1, 2 (6)

12 Metre – Modern (One Design – 3 Boats)
1. Victory 83, 12 Metre, Dennis Williams , Hobe Sound, FL, USA, 1, 3, 1, 1 (6)
2. Courageous, 12 Metre, Ralph Isham /Alexander Auersperg , Newport, RI, USA 3, 1, 3, 2 (9)
3. Intrepid, 12 Metre, Jack Curtin , Toronto, Ont, USA, 2, 2, 2, 3 (9)

12 Metre – Traditional (One Design – 4 Boats)
1. Weatherly, 12 Metre, Jay Schachne , Barrington, RI, USA, 1, 3, 1, 1 (6)
2. American Eagle, 12 Metre, Tony Chiurco / Jeff Gronning , Princeton, NJ, USA, 2, 1, 2, 2 (7)
3. Nefertiti, 12 Metre, Jon Wullschleger , Sarasota, FL, USA 3, 4, 3, 3 (13)

PHRF 1 spinnaker (PHRF – 8 Boats)
1. Wild Child, J/111, Kenn Fischburg , Norwich, ct, USA 1, 1 (2)
2. Pursuit, Custom 48, Norman Dawley , Lusby, MD, USA, 3, 3 (6)
3. Temptress, Taylor 41, John Gowell , East Greenwich, RI, USA, 5, 2 (7)

PHRF 2 Spinnaker (PHRF – 11 Boats)
1. Brigadoon X, Nimble 30, Robert Morton , Newport, Rhode Island, USA 4, 1 (5)
2. Tonto, J/105, Fred Darlington , Cumberland, RI, USA, 1, 4 (5)
3. Santas Reign, Dear, J/105, Donald Santa , Edgewater, MD, USA, 2, 5 (7)

PHRF 3 Non-spinnaker (PHRF – 7 Boats)
1. Flying Cloud 11, Swan 44, Gordon McNabb , Middletown, RI, USA, 1, 4 (5)
2. Duck Soup, C&C 37 R/XL, Bill Clavin , Warwick, RI, USA, 5, 1 (6)
3. Crackerjack, Cambria 40, Alan Krulisch , Arlington, VA, USA, 3, 3 (6)

SCORING (CRF non-spinnaker) (CRF – 9 Boats)
1. Spartan (WHITE), NY50, Charlie Ryan , Providence, RI, USA, 1, 2, 1 (4)
2. Silent Maid (YELLOW), Catboat, Peter Kellogg , Summit, NJ, USA, 3, 1, 2 (6)
3. Amorita (ORANGE), NY 30, Jed Pearsall , Newport, RI, USA, 2, 5, 3 (10)

SCORING (CRF spinnaker) (CRF – 7 Boats)
1. Sonny (ORANGE), S&S, Joseph Dockery , Newport, RI, USA, 1, 2, 1 (4)
2. Belle (YELLOW), Luders 24, Joe Loughborough , Newport, RI, USA, 4, 1, 4 (9)
3. Isla (ORANGE), NY 32, Henry May , Houston, TX, USA, 2, 5, 2 (9)

SCORING (CRF Spirit of Tradition) (CRF – 2 Boats)
1. Quest (ORANGE), 8 Metre, Diane Palm , Toronto, Ont, CAN, 1, 1, 1 (3)
2. Wild Horses (WHITE), W-Class 76, Donald Tofias , Newport, RI, USA, 2, 2, 2 (6)

Event website – Complete results – NYYC Regattas Facebook page

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