Amanda Callahan wins first New England Regional of 2017

by Sunfish Class on 14 Jun 2017 On a beautiful Rhode Island weekend, Amanda Callahan managed an unmatched level of consistency over nine races that featured a little bit of everything to win the first New England Sunfish Regional Championship of 2107 on June 10-11.

Callahan took control of the 23-boat regatta on Sunday by tallying nine points in four races that day, to move ahead of day-1 leader Bill Brangiforte. She finished the nine-race championship with a net of 23 points to Brangiforte’s 29. Scores include one throw-out, so there was a net of eight races.

Rounding out the top five were Scott Greenbaum (40 points), Andy David (44 points) and Alan Beckwith (45 points).

Saturday began with a (very) light breeze from the south and a tide that was starting to run out of Narragansett Bay; left to right across the course. Andy David took race one and followed that with a fourth in race two, which was also sailed in light air.

The air steadily built through the first three races and held at a steady 15 to 20 knots for race three and four. The sea breeze also brought with it the infamous Barrington chop, making for some hard sailing upwind and surfing conditions downwind.

Brangiforte was up to the task and took race three. Race four saw the peak of the sea breeze and tide strength. David Nielsen took advantage, hitting the far right corner of the first beat and riding the favorable current to the mark, while most of the fleet hit the left side of the course looking for a geographic lefty off the Barrington shore. That shift never materialized and Nielson won race four.

Check the race-by-race scores, and you will see the effect that the changing conditions had on many.

Race five brought something new as well. The sea breeze eased noticeably down to about 10 knots, leaving behind much of the chop, making moving upwind especially tricky. In that race Brangiforte grabbed his third win of the day, while Callahan finished second.

Day 1 ended with Brangiforte holding a 16 to 23 lead over Callahan, but Callahan had that 12 eligible for a throw-out, which would come after race six.

Sunday’s racing began with a light southerly once again, only a bit stronger than on race one on Saturday. Unlike Saturday, the wind didn’t build for several hours, meaning three of the four races were sailed in light air, with one race seeing a complete collapse of the breeze and a near 180% flipping of the fleet as it filled in spottily across the course.

Callahan took to the conditions, winning race six and finishing second in race seven. Race seven was won by Eric Woodman (your humble correspondent who finished seventh for the regatta), who managed to round the windward mark third from last and the leeward mark in first, as the wind completely died halfway down the run. It was a fluky race, at best! In that race, Brangiforte ended up eighth, which ended up being a major factor in his losing the lead in the regatta.

Race eight saw Marguerite Koehler (sixth for the regatta) sail brilliantly, winning wire to wire over Callahan and Beckwith. She followed that up with a win in race nine, the final race of the regatta. For the day, only Callahan beat Koehler’s total of 14 points.

For a regatta that has been victim of more than its fair share of lousy weather over the last decade or so, the perfect weather for the weekend was most welcome! The Barrington Yacht Club, and PRO Leo Berendes, did a nice job running things and the work of the volunteers is always appreciated!

2017 New England Sunfish Regional - Preliminary Cumulative Results

Bow Sail Number Yacht Name Yacht Design Owner/Skipper Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Race 9 T O Total New England Sunfish Regional Racing One Design Division Sunfish 1.   USA 80876 380 Sunfish Amanda Callahan 4 2 6 12 2 1 2 3 3 [12] 23.0 2.   61299 Gisele Sunfish Bill Brangiforte 5 1 1 8 1 8 3 10 2 [10] 29.0 3.   USA 54311 None Sunfish Scott Greenbaum 8 3 4 2 4 4 8 7 9 [9] 40.0 4.   USA 55900 boat Sunfish Alan Beckwith 2 5 7 3 10 11 7 2 7 [11] 43.0 5.   40728 Sunfish Sunfish Andy David 1 4 8 11 3 5 6 6 24/ OCS [24] 44.0 6. 71   71 71 Sungush Marguerite Koehler 3 6 17 16 9 3 9 1 1 [17] 48.0 7.   58984 Breaking Wind Sunfish Eric Woodman 10 8 9 5 13 19 1 11 4 [19] 61.0 8.   12 Sunfish Sunfish Ken Charles 6 10 10 9 6 7 11 4 24/ OCS [24] 63.0 9.   21 Kind of Blue Sunfish Lee Montes 9 7 5 4 5 16 16 17 11 [17] 73.0 10.   40725 Lucy Sunfish John Fonseca 11 9 14 14 7 6 4 12 24/ OCS [24] 77.0 11.   79161 Slowdive Sunfish David Nielsen 14 15 3 1 11 9 18 18 8 [18] 79.0 12.   15 Sunfish Sunfish Korey Charles 12 13 12 13 24/ DNS 14 13 5 6 [24] 88.0 13.   3868 3868 Sunfish Drew Staniar 7 11 11 7 24/ DNS 17 17 13 5 [24] 88.0 14.   USA 47 Sunfish Sunfish Pete Sylvester 15 14 2 6 8 22 19 20 13 [22] 97.0 15.   9 9 Sunfish Katie Koehler 16 17 18 19 16 2 12 9 10 [19] 100.0 16.   43433 43433 Sunfish Elizabeth Genovese 17 19 16 17 12 13 10 16 12 [19] 113.0 17.   29629 29629 Sunfish Les Johnston 18 18 13 10 15 20 22 8 16 [22] 118.0 18.   5785 sunfish sunfish Lee Parks 19 16 19 24/ DNS 24/ DNS 10 5 15 17 [24] 125.0 19.   USA 49899 Daydream Believer Sunfish Nicky Einthoven 13 12 21 18 14 18 20 19 15 [21] 129.0 20.   81221 None Sunfish Artur Zembowicz 21 22 15 15 17 12 14 21 24/ DNF [24] 137.0 21.   81286 81286 Sunfish Robert Stephan 22 20 22 20 18 23 21 14 14 [23] 151.0 22.   usa 27777 feather power sunfish paul odegaard 20 23 20 21 24/ DNS 15 23 22 24/ DNS [24] 168.0 23.   9102 9102 Sunfish Rapid Buttner 23 21 24/ DNS 24/ DNS 24/ DNS 21 15 24/ DNS 24/ DNS [24] 176.0