J/Teams Collect Major Silverware at New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta
(Newport, RI)- The second weekend of June marked the start of the summer sailing season for the New York Yacht Club. The New York YC Annual Regatta took place over the June 12th to 14th weekend on the waters of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound. Hundreds of sailors enjoyed the gorgeous sunny weather that blessed the seaside resort of Newport, RI- “the city by the sea”- all weekend long. The regatta format featured the incredibly popular Round Island Race on Friday (a 21.0nm circumnavigation of Conanicut Island) and then two days of either round-the-buoys racing or PHRF navigational buoys racing. Here’s how it all went down by division, with many J/Teams collecting more than their fair share of silverware.
Round Island Race
Winning the ORC Overall and ORC 2 Division was Rick Lyall & Jeff Johnstone’s J/40 J/HAWK!
ORC B Division
In this ten-boat fleet, Steve Losik’s J/121 HABIRU started the regatta strongly with a bullet. But, they somehow accumulated three “down-the-mineshaft” finishes of 9-6-9 on their scorecard to drop them from a surefire podium finish to end up in fourth place.
ORC C Division
Sailing this 10-boat fleet were three J/122s (Robin Team’s TEAMWORK, Constantine Baris’s DIRE WOLF, & Jack Gregg’s TARAHUMARA), Tom Sutton’s J/111 LEADING EDGE, and Rick Lyall & Jeff Johnstone’s J/40 J/HAWK. As one might expect, with so many J/teams so close in performance, it was going to be a real battle for class honors. In the end, Robin Team’s J/122 TEAMWORK earned the bronze medal, followed by Rick Lyall & Jeff Johnstone’s J/40 J/HAWK in fourth place.
PHRF B Division
The huge fourteen-boat fleet featured several top J/teams. In the end, Joe Brito’s J/121 INCOGNITO had a rough start in the first race, posting a very uncharacteristic 13th place. However, the INCOGNITO team managed to regroup and fire off a 5-1-2 scoreline for their last three races to garner the bronze medal! In their regatta debut, Don Dwyer’s new J/40 BLUE YONDER III improved nearly every race to end up tied for 5th place, but losing the countback in the tiebreaker to settle for sixth.
PHRF C Division
The large sixteen-boat fleet saw a veteran J/111 team from Long Island Sound put some serious “wood” on the ball and knock it out of the park! Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111 FIREBALL is no stranger to the East Coast Regatta circuit. The boat pops up in regattas everywhere from Key West to Long Island Sound, often finding its way to the sharp end of the results table. But until this weekend, the Riverside Yacht Club team had never competed in North America’s oldest sailing event- the New York Yacht Club’s Annual Regatta in Newport, RI. The FIREBALL team was rewarded with a spectacular weekend of sunshine and moderate breeze, and a first-place trophy, courtesy of a dominating performance in the 16-boat PHRF C Class, the second largest at the 135-boat regatta.
“We loved it,” said Bill Baxter. “This is the first time we’ve done the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta. I love sailing up in Narragansett Bay. I really enjoyed the event. I think the best part of PHRF is that we had racing boats, cruising boats, and racer-cruisers, and we all had tight racing. The Navy 44 won one of the races today, which was just awesome.”
The next J/Teams were George Harrington’s J/112E #BIGSANDWICH in fifth place, Abhijeet Lee’s J/111 VARUNA in sixth, and Bill Kneller’s J/109 VENTO SOLARE in seventh place.
PHRF D Division
The huge fifteen-boat fleet was dominated by Doug McKeige’s J/99 SAVE THE SOUND. Starting off the regatta with a bullet, they never looked back, adding a 1-2-4 tally to their scoreline to win with just 8 pts total! Fred Darlington’s J/105 ALIBI also sailed a solid series with a 5-2-5-6 scoreline for 18 pts to take the bronze medal! Mark McGivenye’s J/99 SHAMBLES finished in fifth place.
For more New York YC Annual Regatta sailing information
http://www.nyyc.org