No Day for Excuses - NYYC Race Week at Newport

by Barby MacGowan on 27 Jul 2008
Today was the day to make moves at the New York Yacht Club's (NYYC) sixth biennial Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, where 120 teams are competing in eight classes (two each for IRC and PHRF and six for one-design). Afterall, with a gentle 7-9 knots of breeze and a sea much more settled than yesterday, there could be no excuses about conditions, and only one more day remains before final scores must be tallied to determine overall winners.

It was a tight day of racing today in IRC 1. 'Blue Yankee beat Aquarius by one second in race one, and we lost to Bella Mente by one second in race two,' said Malcolm Park, crew aboard Roger Sturgeon's Rosebud/Team DYT, which is leading the fleet. 'The net result was that Blue Yankee made up one point on us (in overall scoring) by a two second margin!' Rosebud now has 12 points, with Robert and Farley Towse's (Stamford, Conn.) Blue Yankee posting 14. According to Blue Yankee's tactician, America's Cup veteran Peter Holmberg (St. Thomas, USVI), 'We have a fighting chance if we do something special tomorrow.'

Andrew Weiss's (Rye, N.Y.) Christopher Dragon finished 1-2-4 today in the J/122 class, adding the scores to his previously perfect scoreline and posting 12 points overall. With David Askew's (Annapolis, Md.) Flying Jenny in second with 21 points, Christopher Dragon seems untouchable in this class. 'Everyone started waking up and picking on us today,' laughed Weiss about his less-than-perfect scores in the last two races. 'Up until today, we've had the pin end start all to ourselves, but the last two races, the committee end was favored and we were all stacked up there together.' He added that Flying Jenny has been just behind them in every race except in race two today, which she won. The J/122s are sailing their East Coast Championships.

Mark Watson's (Newport, R.I.) Tiburon turned in another impressive performance (3-1) today to maintain his lead from yesterday in the NYYC Club Swan 42 class, which is vying for its U.S. National Championship. 'In the first race we found ourselves in the lead at the weather mark, but we didn't jibe fast enough after rounding and found ourselves in third very quickly,' said Watson. 'But that's the great thing about this class, it's so competitive.' One of Watson's closest competitors in the second race, Chris Bulger (Brookline, Mass.) on Blazer (currently sixth overall), described how Watson went from fourth to first in that race, on the last downwind leg and with only 10 boat lengths to go before finishing. 'I was one of the ones he passed downwind,' said Bulger, 'He just had his boat going fast.'

In the ultra-competitive Melges 32 class, which is sailing its National Championship, Pieter Taselaar's (Scarsdale, N.Y.) Bliksem (currently fifth overall) won the first race after lots of lead changes. Before the regatta started, the boat's young tactician, Jeremy Wilmot (AUS), a crew from Disney's Morning Light team, had been a tad nervous about matching up to some other stars on his boat. 'We have Marco Constant, Mitch White, and Willem van Waay on board,' said Wilmot. 'Marco has done two America's Cups and three Volvo Ocean Races, Wilhem is a Farr 40 World champ, and White is a bow man from a Volvo campaign. It's scary; they all have so much experience.'

But today, the gains from experience in that class actually went to Jeff Ecklund (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), sailing Star. Ecklund, the National Champ from 2006, finished second in the first race, while yesterday's leader David Hoyt (Stowe, Vt.) aboard Goat finished fourth. Ecklund then battled with his historical class rivals Michael Carroll/Martin Kullman (St. Petersburg, Fla.) aboard New Wave (currently fourth overall) to edge them out by 2-3 boat lengths at the finish of race two. With Goat having finished ninth in that race, Ecklund's Star moved to first overall, with a three-point scoreboard lead over Hoyt.

They sailed a great race,' said Hoyt. 'They were on fire.'

In the J/105 class, vying for its East Coast Championship, Damian Emery's (Shoreham, NY) Eclipse added a 5-4-5 to his scoreline to keep his lead from yesterday.

In the J/109 class, which is sailing its North American Championship, Donald Filippelli (Amagansett, N.Y.) on Caminos regained his lead over Ted Herlihy's Gut Feeling (South Dartmouth, Mass.).

As well, William Purdy's (New York, N.Y.) Whirlwind regained the lead on John Hammel's (Arlington, Mass.) Elan in the Beneteau First 36.7 class, which is contesting its Northeast Championship.

In IRC Class 2, Blair Brown's (Newton, Mass.) Taylor 45 Sforzando posted a 1-4 to maintain his lead from yesterday, while Charlie Milligan/Allan Stern/Tom Roche's (Newport, R.I.) King 40 Act One, finished 2-8 and fell behind Craig Albrecht's (Sea Cliff, N.Y.) Avalanche in overall scoring. Albrecht finished 3-5 today to secure his second place.

With two more victories today, Tom Rich's (Middletown, R.I.) Peterson 42 Settler still leads in PHRF 1 with a perfect scoreline.

In PHRF 2, Ben Hall's (Tiverton, R.I.) Evelyn 32 Bluto holds his lead with 15 points to Mike Perry's (Somers Point, N.J.) 17 points on Bloody Hell.

On-demand video will be available after 9 pm each evening of Race Week at www.nyyc.org, where complete results also can be found.

2008 New York Yacht Club Race Week presented by Rolex
Newport, RI
July 26, 2008 (Day 3 of 4)

HANDICAP RATING CLASSES - Top 3 in each class

IRC 1 (6 boats) -- Six races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6, Total points

1. Rosebud/Team DYT, STP65, Roger Sturgeon, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1-2-3-1-3-2, 12 points
2. Blue Yankee, R/P66, Bob & Farley Towse, Stamford, CT, 3-3-1-3-1-3, 14
3. Aquarius, Swan 601, Sam Fleet, East Greenwich, RI, 2-4-4-4-2-4, 20

IRC 2 (11 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points

1. Sforzando, Taylor 45, Blair Brown, Newton, MA, 2-2-3-3-2-3-1, 20
2. Avalanche, Farr 395, Craig Albrecht, Sea Cliff, NY, 4-3-5-1-7-1-3-5, 29
3. Act One, MILLS/KING 40, Charlie Milligan, Newport, RI, 3-7-1-2-1-7-2-8, 31

PHRF 1 (5 boats) -- Seven races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, Total points

1. Settler, Cust. Peterson 42, Thomas Rich, Middletown, RI, 1-1-1-1-1-1-1, 7
3. Integrity, Navy 44, Jahn Tihansky, Annapolis, MD, 4-3-4-2-3-2-2-, 20
2. Gambler, Frers 41 TM, John Downey, Canton, MA, 3,-2-5-34-3-2, 22

PHRF 2 (5 boats) -- Seven races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, Total points

1. Bluto, Evelyn 32, Benjamin Hall, Tiverton, RI, 1-1-4-2-3-2-2, 15
2. Bloody Hell, Evelyn 32, Mike Perry, Somers Point, NJ, 2-2-2-3-2-3-3, 17
3. Freightrain, Frers 36, Richard Hyde, Belmont, MA, 4-3-1-1-4-4-1, 18

ONE DESIGN CLASSES - Top 3 in each class

NYYC Swan 42 (20 boats) - Six races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6, Total points

1. Tiburon, Mark Watson, Newport, RI, 9-2-2-1-3-1, 18
2. Tsunami, Preben Ostberg & Bud Dailey, Rockville, MD, 1-7-3-5-1-5, 22
3. Apparition, Kenneth Colburn, Dover, MA, 4-9-1-2-4-16, 36

J/122 one design (7 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points

1. Christopher Dragon, Andrew Weiss, Rye, NY, 1-1-1-1-1-1-2-4, 12
2. Flying Jenny VI, David Askew, Annapolis, MD, 3-2-2-2-4-2-1-5, 21
3. Gambler, Doug Shaffer, Bayview, TX, 2-4-5-5-3-3-4-1-, 27

J/109 one design (15 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points

1. Caminos, Donald F. Filippelli, Amagansett, NY, 2-1-3-11-1-5-10-1, 23
2. Gut Feeling, Ted Herlihy, South Dartmouth, MA, 4-4-2-1-4-1-9-7, 23
3. Gossip, Steve Kenny & G