Newport Sailing Week class champions determined

by Jan Harley on 16 Jul 2012 Over 700 sailors from 17 states descended on Sail Newport this weekend to compete at The Newport Regatta® featuring Bacardi® Newport Sailing Week Presented by EFG Bank.

Organizers set up four courses to handle the 259 boats in 20 classes, with 181 races taking place over three days, July 13-15, 2012.

Collecting both Newport Regatta and Bacardi Newport Sailing Week trophies were: Bruno Pasquinelli (Dallas, Texas) in the J/80 class; Brad Boston and Lee Shuckerow in the Viper 640 class – which also earned them the Viper 640 New England Championship title; and the California team of Doug Smith (San Francisco) with crew John Rogers (Los Angeles) in the Star class.

'The competition was really good,' said Smith who was sailing his first event in New England in many years and hopes to be able to return next year to defend his title.

Lars Guck (Bristol, R.I.), displaying his formidable sailing talent, was the only skipper to sail a perfect event. He won all nine races sailed by the 10-boat A-Cat fleet to collect the top award in the class with an eight-point margin over his closest competitor.

Rhode Island’s John Mollicone, recent winner of the 2012 J/24 US National Championship, added the Northeast Regional Championship title to his sailing resume with his win in the 27-strong J/24 fleet at the Newport Regatta. In the 505 class, Mark Zagol (Pawcatuck, Conn.) is the 2012 Region 1 Champion having won the regatta in that 10-boat fleet.

Two other classes determined their Atlantic Coast Champions at the Newport Regatta: Steve Girling (New York, N.Y.) won in the 19-boat Etchells fleet, and Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, R.I.) won in the 27-boat Vanguard 15 class.

Marking its 28th year of competition, the Newport Regatta has become one of the largest multi-class events on the east coast.

In addition to the aforementioned classes, also racing were Club 420, J/22, J/105, Laser, Laser Radial, Sunfish, Swan 42, Snipe, VX One and 49er classes.

Newport Sailing Week and the Newport Regatta website