Perfect finale at Marblehead Junior Race Week

Marblehead, MA (July 22, 2015) – On the third and final day of Marblehead Junior Race Week (July 20-22), the weather gods served up a beautiful sunny day with northwest wind blowing 12 to 15 miles per hour. More than 300 sailors representing 28 clubs from throughout New England headed out to find shifty and sometimes gusty conditions that made for competitive racing and several leaderboard shakeups.

In the 40-boat 420 Championship fleet, Joseph Chomyn and Parker Swanson from Harraseeket YC held on to take first overall, with Rowan Byrne and Gillian Winn in second. The upset came in the battle for third, in which Grant Adam and Gavin Dowley of Pleon YC capitalized on the four races sailed to post solid numbers and leapfrog over several other teams to make it onto the podium.

Hingham YC teams prevailed to take all top five spots in the 40-boat 420 Green fleet. Ben Monnich and Grace Taylor lead the fleet with 18 points going into today and remained consistent with all top 10 finishes to take first place. Michael Hill and Morgan Langerhagen triumphed over Kaylee Hill and Sydney Langerhagen to move into second overall while Francis Cundari and Tyler Buckeridge recovered to move up from 4th to 3rd overall.

There were some heartbreakers on the 70-boat Opti Championship line as the shifty and gusty northwesterly wind challenged some of the division leaders.

Despite six first-place finishes out of 12 races, Grace Gear from Agamenticus YC couldn’t hold onto first in the 19-boat Opti Champ Red Division after going into the last race tied with Hayden Van Alstine from Portland YC. Alstine edged Gear out by just two points to take first overall in Red Division and the Opti Championship Fleet overall. Magdelaina Putnam from Pleon Yacht Club slipped from first to third after a tough day with inconsistent finishes. Putnam and Gear finished 2nd and 3rd overall for the Optimist Championship Fleet respectively.

Eliza Dunn from Hingham YC led by four points coming into the day, but fell to fifth with some deep final finishes, while Niall Kearney of Pleon YC jumped from 4th to first to win the division by three points over Benjamin Trotsky from Sandy Bay Yacht Club who ended up third.

Leopold Seuss of Pleon YC brought his A-game for Day 3 to solidify his Opti Champ White Division win and place 4th overall in the Opti Championship fleet. Sean McCaffrey from Quannapowitt YC and William Decker from Hingham YC held their relative positions to finish 2nd and 3rd in the White Division respectively.

In the 26-boat Opti Green Even Division, Reid Hamilton from Eastern YC won on the tie breaker to take first with 20 points, while Charlie Pingree from Pleon YC finished 2nd. Ashley Hoguet of Pleon lead going into today but the close battle ended with her in 3rd,, just two points out of first.

In the 34-boat Odd Division, Jamie Gabbay from Annisquam YC edged out Jack Wieman from Manchester Sailing Association by just one point to take the win. has all 1st and 2nd place finishes to lead with 7 points. Jack Homa held on to finish 3rd.

Caleb Robinson from Sail Maine held onto first place in the 17-boat Laser Radial fleet to take 1st overall by 12 points over Reid Shanabrook from Pleon YC. He goes into the final day with 15 points overall. William Bedfort from Pleon YC finished 3rd.

Mason Cheney was the bullet man in the 5-boat Laser 4.7 fleet consisting of all Pleon YC sailors. Mason won 10 out of 12 races. Nils Skaane finished 2nd and Mason’s sister Morgan finished third overall.

Event details – Results