John Kilroy Wins IRC East Coast Championship

by US IRC org on 8 Nov 2007 Anticipation ran high in Annapolis this weekend at the Storm Trysail Club's three-day IRC East Coast Championship. Not only was there an important title at stake but also defending champion Dan Meyers (Boston, Mass./Newport, R.I.) showed up with a longer, better version of his champion racing yacht Numbers, now a new Judel-Vrolijk design purpose-built for the IRC rule.

After seven races, however, it was a west coaster, John Kilroy (Los Angeles, Calif.), who stood taller in IRC stature with his 'Box-Rule' Transpac 52 Samba Pa Ti. Kilroy and his team, which included multiple world and national champions as well as America's Cup talent, including Annapolis resident and Emirates New Zealand tactician Terry Hutchinson, won IRC Class 1 and became the overall IRC East Coast Champions when the Race Committee deemed them to have the best cumulative average corrected time for the regatta. The event hosted a total of 45 boats, divided into five classes, and was the final event in the 2007 IRC Gulf Stream Series.

Numbers performed as planned when Meyers won Friday's distance race, which for scoring purposes was weighted at 1.5 times the buoy races, but then Kilroy pushed Samba Pa Ti to three victories in four brisk-breeze races on Saturday. His resulting overall lead over Meyers was a mere .5 points, because Meyers had followed him in second for those three races and won the fourth.

'Waterline length prevails in reaching conditions, so Numbers had an advantage with that and the wind pressure (where she was ahead of us on the course) during the distance race,' said Kilroy. 'In the other races, she was still going faster and finishing over the line first, so we spent more time dealing with boats like Hissar (Edgar Cato's Farr 60) and Rima 2 (John Brim's Reichel/Pugh 55) tacking on us, so it's a tribute to our crew that we could do that. It was so fluky; there were unique opportunities and disappointments for everyone.'

In Sunday's first race, Meyers finished second to Kilroy's third, turning the tables to make the .5 lead his own, but Kilroy finally snatched overall victory for good when he won the last race (Meyers finished fifth) and put 3.5 points between them in overall scoring (Meyers finished second overall).

'We thought that we were through with our year at the Rolex Big Boat Series,' said Kilroy, explaining that over the last year his team has sailed in ten major races and won eight (including Rolex), while finishing second in two, 'but then we were bringing Samba Pa Ti to the East Coast to be optimized for all the IRC racing we've been doing , and we decided to stop here first.'

In the remaining classes, leaders emerged early and posted comparatively large margins of victory. Tsunami, a NYYC Swan 42 owned by Preben Ostberg/John Aras/Bud Dailey of Rockville, Md. won IRC Class 2; Sarah, an X-41, owned by Greg Manning of Warwick, R.I., won IRC Class 3; Rush, a J/109, owned by Bill Sweetser of Annapolis, Md., won Class 4; and KA'IO, a Beneteau First 36.7, owned by Art Silcox of West River, Md., won Class 5 for the one-design Beneteau 36.7s.

The 2007 IRC East Coast Championship was sailed on Chesapeake Bay with shore-side activities at Annapolis Yacht Club. It was sponsored by Annapolis Yacht Sales with support from Beneteau USA and Lewmar.

For complete results, go to http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=143

About US-IRC

The United States-IRC Foundation, Inc. (www.us-irc.org) works to support and develop use of the IRC rule in co-operation with US SAILING (www.ussailing.org), which is the authorized body that issues IRC certificates under the auspices of the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) (www.rorcrating.com).

The US-IRC's mission is to promote and enhance inshore and offshore yacht racing throughout the country by expansion of the use of the rule. An IRC certificate is, in effect, an international passport for a yacht, enabling it to travel across national and international borders using the same certificate wherever it goes. The supporting partners for the US-IRC rule are Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc., New York Yacht Club, Storm Trysail Club and St. Francis Yacht Club.

The annual US-IRC Gulf Stream Series, which starts in January and finishes in November, offers a comprehensive racing opportunity for sailors entering the major IRC events in the Caribbean and on the East Coast.

The IRC has been granted 'international' status by ISAF. It has been in existence since 1999 (adopted in the U.S. in 2004) and is now the basis for more than 7500 certificates issued worldwide and 625 IRC yachts active in the U.S. The rule is used worldwide at a variety of different levels, ranging from local club races to major offshore events.

About the Storm Trysail Club

The Storm Trysail Club, reflecting in its name the sail to which sailors must shorten when facing adverse conditions, is one of the world’s most respected sailing clubs, with its membership comprised strictly of skilled blue water and ocean racing sailors. In addition to hosting Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex in odd-numbered years, the club holds various prestigious offshore racing events (among them the annual Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race and the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race); annual junior safety-at-sea seminars; and a regatta for college sailors using big boats.

RESULTS: 2007 Storm Trysail Club - IRC East Coast Championship
Place, Yacht Name, Type, Owner's Name, Hometown, Results, Total Points

IRC 1 (6 Boats)

1. Samba Pa Ti, Transpac 52 52, John Kilroy, Jr., Los Angeles, CA, USA - 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, ; 12
2. Numbers, Judel-Vrolijk & Co. 66.5', Daniel Meyers, Boston, MA, USA - 1.5, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 5, ; 15.5
3. Sjambok, RP 45 13.84m, Michael Brennan, Potomac, MD, USA - 4.5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 4, ; 27.5

IRC 2 (8 Boats)

1. Tsunami, NYYC Swan 42 42, Preben Ostberg/John Aras/Bud Dailey, Rockville, MD, USA - 1.5, 1, 3, 1, 1, 4, 4, ; 15.5
2. Amelia, NYYC Swan 42 42, Alexander Jackson, New York, NY, USA - 4.5, 2.5, 2, 2, 4.5, 2, 1, ; 18.5
3. Bandit, NYYC Swan 42 42, Andrew Fisher, Greenwich, CT, USA - 3, 4, 4, 3/RDG, 2, 5, 3, ; 24

IRC 3 (13 Boats)

1. Sarah, X-41 41, Greg Manning, Warwick, RI, USA - 1.5, 1, 1, 1, 1, 6, 3, ; 14.5
2. Teamwork, J 122 40, Robin Team, Lexington, NC, USA - 3, 3, 4, 2, 2, 1, 4, ; 19
3. Dame Blanche, Beneteau First 40.7 39.9, Othmar Blumencron, Great Falls, VA, USA - 4.5, 2, 3, 3, 3, 8, 1, ; 24.5

IRC 4 (9 Boats)

1. Rush, J 109 35.25, Bill Sweetser, Annapolis, MD, USA - 1.5, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, ; 9.5
2. Saykadoo, J 109 35, Stephen McManus, Severna Park, MD, USA - 6, 5, 2, 4, 1, 2, 2, ; 22
3. Equilibrium, IMX-38 38, Robert Dunsky, Washington, DC, USA - 4.5, 1, 7, 2, 5, 4, 8, ; 31.5

Beneteau 36.7 (10 Boats)

1. KA'IO, Beneteau First 36.7 36, Art Silcox, West River, MD, USA - 1.5, 1, 6/SCP, 1, 1, 2, 7, ; 19.5
2. Volition, Beneteau First 36.7 36, Curt Schwab, Washington, DC, USA - 3.75, 5, 5, 4, 3, 1, 2, ; 23.75
3. Foxtrot Corpen, Beneteau First 36.7 36, James Keen, Solomons, MD, USA - 6, 6, 3, 2, 2, 6, 4, ; 29