12th Annual Jackson Cup at Boston Yacht Club + Video

by Leighton O'Connor on 18 Apr 2011 12th Annual Jackson Cup and Marblehead's, Boston Yacht Club played host to seven racing teams last weekend. The victory went to New York Yacht Club.

Clubs included New York Yacht Club, Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (Long Island), St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco), Southern Yacht Club (New Orleans) and Marblehead's own Boston, Eastern and Corinthian Yacht Clubs. Each club had three teams and raced in Marblehead harbor in some what unpredictable winds for two rounds of round robins for two days followed by a medal round on Sunday.

New York Yacht Club took first place, Southern took second with Eastern in third and Seawanhaka in fourth. Team Captain for the NYYC, Stuart Saffer said ' The race courses were incredibility exciting and my team did amazing in some pretty tough conditions. Very puffy winds. I didn't think the race committee could pull off having the medal
round pretty much off the Boston Yacht Club dock, but it was a fantastic course.' This was Stuarts fourth Jackson Cup and his first time as team captain.

Round Robin Points:

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club 14
Southern Yacht Club 14
New York Yacht Club 13
Eastern Yacht Club 11
Boston Yacht Club - Team One 6
St. Francis Yacht Club 5
Boston Yacht Club - Team One 2
Corinthian Yacht Club 1

PRO, Anne Coulombe, said ' I'm glad we were able to get races off today we when thought it be blowing over 25 knots all day. It finally ended blowing between 15 and 20 knots steady. It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Lots of exciting racing, lots of close calls, close starts, rigs getting tingled. Lots of shouting, which is the
norm for team Sonar racers. Looked like a ton of fun for the them out there.'

Leighton O'Connor recounts the event.

'I came here Friday afternoon to do some on board shooting during St. Francis' practice. When I was on board one of their boats shooting, their team captain, Harrison Turner, asked me if I knew of any locals that might like to race because they had two guys that dropped out. My answer was...'Pick me....as long as I can bring a camera.' He asked me my weight I proudly stated '230!' because I knew my girth would come in handy for the winds they were predicting.

I did negotiate a bit for the customary free tee-shirt, a prime rib dinner Saturday night and all the non-alcoholic St. Pauli Girls I could drink for the weekend. Harrison agreed to my terms and I weighed in at the BYC that
night. I didn't tell my new skipper that I had only raced a few times on a Sonar and have never team raced before. I think the only thing Harrison knew about my sailing CV that I was a bit of a boat whore.

I was nervous Friday night for about five minutes, which I quickly talked myself off the cliff. I told myself 'I have raced on a ton of boats, don't get cold, don't care if I get wet and I'm nimble as 230 pound ballerina can be.'

Well the weekend was amazing! I kind of fell in love with team racing. Our team took three wins and I learned a little bit about team racing. Most of this team racing stuff is still pretty Greek to me.

Still don't know why if you are in first place to cross the line you would start luffing sails to wait for fleet to catch up. WTF? Oh well...I got some sun, some great footage during the races, dinner and more needed sailing swag. Oh yeah..and places to stay in San Fran when I go to cover the America's Cup.'

Check out Leighton's three very cool on board videos shot during the Jackson Cup: