Bergan and Glass: Best of the Champions

The Championship of Champions featured three days of big wind on Long Island Sound, with Dalton Bergan (Seattle, Wash.) and Ben Glass (Seattle, Wash.) claiming the 2019 Jack Brown Trophy. The 45th Annual Championship was in Ideal 18s on October 4-6 in Stamford, CT.

RS Aero North American Champion, Bergen, and his crew, Glass, established a dominant lead early on, winning six of the total 13 races, including both races that occurred on the first day. With a considerable lead, they won with a race to spare.

To qualify for the Championship of Champions, competitors have to first claim victory at a National or North American Class Championship. This year featured a particularly wide age range with nine of the sailors under age 21.

Bergen attributed their success to their consistent focus on the water. “We put a lot of effort into setting up the boat before every race.” Glass added. “We went upwind to check our settings over and over again without resting much between races. It seems to have paid off.”

Both of the victors enjoyed the Championship’s unique crowd of fellow competitors, “We didn’t really know what to expect from the competitors at this event,” said Glass. Bergen noted, “It was really interesting to compete against such a broad spectrum of sailors. This is the only place where you’d see this group of people racing against each other in the same fleet.”

In second was Vincent Porter (Chicago, Ill.) and Andrew Barrett (Houston, Texas) representing the E-Scow Class. “This is the first time we’ve ever sailed with one another,” said Porter. “We were college roommates and decided to do this regatta kind of on a whim.” The pair’s lack of practice didn’t hold them back, though. On the second day of racing, they consistently placed in the top-five and moved up the leaderboard into the silver medal position.

Despite the solid lead over third-place sailors, Chris Raab (Sunset Beach, Calif.) and Geoffrey Ewenson (Annapolis, Md.), Porter and Barrett kept things exciting after finishing 18th in the second to last race, maintaining just a two-point lead over Raab and Ewenson.

“Well, we had just had our worst race of the regatta and honestly at that point, we didn’t worry about the points. We just figured, what the heck, let’s have fun and a good last race,” said Porter. The pair did just that, winning the final race to solidify their spot in second overall, earning Raab and Ewenson the bronze.

This year’s field of sailors included 11 North American Champions and eight National Champions, with a mystery guest entry filled by US Sailing President Cory Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.).

Final Results (Top 10 of 20; 13 races, 2 discards)
1. Dalton Bergan / Benjamin Glass , USA – 1 -1 -3 -1 -1 -5 -4 -2 -1 -[6] -1 -[21] ; 20
2. Vincent Porter / Andrew Barrett , USA – 5 -[10] -2 -8 -2 -4 -1 -6 -5 -5 -[18] -1 ; 39
3. Chris Raab / Geoffrey Ewenson , USA – 5.4 -2 -4 -[7] -7 -[8] -7 -3 -3 -2 -3 -5 ; 41.4
4. Bill Draheim / Jeffrey Grinnan , USA – 15.5 -5 -1 -9 -[16] -2 -10 -[16] -2 -3 -8 -2 ; 57.5
5. Matthew Sessions / Jack Hunger , US – 3 -3 -8 -4 -[14] -14 -12 -5 -4 -10 -[17] -3 ; 66
6. Paul-Jon Patin / Peter Beardsley , USA – 6 -6 -[15] -2 -15 -15 -3 -[17] -15 -1 -2 -6 ; 71
7. Kelly Holthus / Bill Hardesty , USA – 7 -7 -[13] -6 -11 -1 -[15] -11 -6 -4 -7 -13 ; 73
8. Ched Proctor / Steve Girling , USA – 2 -9 -5 -[13] -[13] -6 -6 -8 -13 -13 -5 -8 ; 75
9. Cory Sertl / Meg Myles , USA – 11 -12 -[17] -3 -6 -3 -8 -1 -8 -11 -13 -[15] ; 76
10. Tanner Probst / Jenna Probst , USA – 4 -8 -11 -[14] -5 -12 -2 -10 -9 -12 -[14] -9 ; 82

Event details – Entry list – Results – Photos

Source: US Sailing