2007 Clagett Winners celebrate at Sail Newport

by Jan Harley on 1 Sep 2007 An exciting finale was on tap at the fifth annual C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta, hosted by Sail Newport, as three days of racing (August 28-30) wrapped up on Narragansett Bay.

With five boats racing in both the SKUD 18 and 2.4 Metre classes, and eight in the Sonar, there were no huge numbers to drop once each fleet got to the requisite eighth race when a discard would be figured into the overall scores. That didn’t keep the drama factor down though as the competitors fought their way around the course through seaweed and in light and shifty winds that never exceeded 10 knots.

Scott Whitman (Brick, N.J.) and Julia Dorsett (West Chester, Penn.), fleet leaders in the SKUD 18s after winning all three of yesterday’s races, not only snagged a lobster pot for the second time during the series, they also posted finishes of 3-1-2. That tied them at 17 points with Karen Mitchell (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) and 2004 Sonar Paralympic Bronze Medallist J.P. Creignou (St. Petersburg, Fla.) who finished 1-2-5, with Whitman and Dorsett prevailing in the tie-breaker. 2005 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Nick Scandone (Fountain Valley, Calif.) and Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (Marblehead, Mass.) won the final race of the series – after earlier finishes of 2-3 net them 18 points – as all five boats crossed the finish line within 15 seconds of each other.

In the Sonar class, Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Tim Angle (Somerville, Mass.), and Bill Donohue (Brick, N.J.) hooked a mark in the first race of the day during a confused mark rounding. Retiring from that race, they picked up nine points, subsequently adding 5-4 for 25 points overall to end the series where they started – first overall. Israel’s 2004 Sonar Paralympic Gold Medallists Dror Cohen and Arnon Efrati, with Benny Vexler, moved to close yesterday’s 10-point gap with finishes of 3-1-5, and finished second overall with 26 points. 2000 Paralympian Paul Callahan (Newport, R.I./Cape Coral, Fla.) with 2004 Paralympian Roger Cleworth (Lithia, Fla.) and Tom Brown (Northeast Harbor, Maine), the two-time Paralympic 2.4 Medallist, finished third overall with 27 points after finishes of 2-2-3 today.

Ming Xue Qi (Beijing, China) improved on yesterday’s upward move to second overall in the 2.4 Metre class as finishes of 1-3-2 gave him 21 points and the fleet win. Mark Leblanc (New Orleans, La.) also made a big move – from fourth to second overall – with finishes of 3-2-1. He too carried 21 points, as did John Ruf (Pewaukee, Wisc.) who placed 2-1-3 today.

Complete results, racing photos and additional information can be found at: www.ussailing.net/Clagett/

Results:

C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Regatta

Series Standing - 10 races scored

Information is Final
Regatta results saved: Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:07:18 PM CDT

( Entries=18) 2.4mR | Skud 18 | Sonar

Division: 2.4mR (5 boats) (top)

Pos	Sail	Skipper	Crew	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total  Points	Pos
1	CHN 601	Qi, Minq Xue		[4]	1	4	4	3	2	1	1	3	2	21.00	1
2	USA 137	LeBlanc, Mark		2	2	5	3	1	[6/OCS]	2	3	2	1	21.00	2
3	USA 88	Ruf, John		3	3	2	1	[4]	3	3	2	1	3	21.00	3
4	USA 142	Rosenfield, Charlie		1	[5]	1	2	2	1	5	4	5	4	25.00	4
5	CHN 602	Li, Ke		[5]	4	3	5	5	4	4	5	4	5	39.00	5

Notes

(1)	Scoring System is ISAF Low Point 2005-2008
(2)	Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts

Division: Skud 18 (5 boats) (top)

Pos	Sail	Skipper	Crew	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Total  Points	Pos
1	USA 5	Whitman, Scott	Dorsett, Julia	4	[5]	4	1	1	1	3	1	2	17.00	1
2	USA 4	Mitchell, Karen	Creignou, JP	[5]	1	2	2	2	2	1	2	5	17.00	2
3	USA 22	Scandone, Nick	McKinnon-Tucker, Maureen	3	2	1	[4]	3	3	2	3	1	18.00	3
4	USA 1	Everhart-Skeels, Sarah	Jones, Bob	1	4	[5]	3	4	5	5	4	4	30.00	4
5	CHN 801	Jia, Hailiang	Cao, Aiping	3/MAN	3	3	[6/DSQ]	5	4	4	5	3	30.00	5

Notes

(1)	Scoring System is ISAF Low Point 2005-2008
(2)	Finishes in [brackets] denote throwouts

Division: Sonar (8 boats) (top)

Pos	Sail	Skipper	Crew	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total  Points	Pos
1	USA 674	Doerr, Rick	Angle, Tim/Donahue, Bill	1	1	1	3	5	3	2	[9/RAF]	5	4	25.00	1
2	ISR 1	Cohen, Dror	Vexter, Benny/Efrati, Arnon	4	3	3	1	3	[9/OCS]	3	3	1	5	26.00	2
3	774	Callahan, Paul	Brown, Tom/Cleworth, Roger	3	2	2	4	4	5	[9/OCS]	2	2	3	27.00	3
4	ISR 5	Ben Yakov, Shimon	Zehavi, Moshe/Barda, Yossi	5	5	[6]	6	1	1	4	1	3	2	28.00	4
5	757	Foster, Bert	Thweatt, Jim/Burdette, David	2	6	5	5	6	2	1	4	[7]	1	32.00	5
6	CHN 742	Wang, Tao	Xu, Jing Kun/Zhou, Yan Sheng	[7]	4	4	2	2	4	5	5	4	6	36.00	6
7	6	DelVecchio, Joe	London, Mark/Guay, Joe	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	[9/OCS]	58.00	7
8	513	Bourboniere, Annette	Maney, Will/Brady, Dennis	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	[9/OCS]	8	7	69.00	8