Sports
Local Man Excels at Historic Rhodes 19 National Championship
Doug Trees and his sailing partner earn three top-five finishes.
A Hamilton man had a top performance last month at the Rhodes 19 National Championship sailing event in Marblehead.
The championship, hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club and Marblehead Fleet 5 on Aug 19-20, set a new record with 46 competitors registered.
Doug Trees of Hamilton and Chris Small of Ipswich, sailing with Meredith Bruenjes of Boston, had three top-five finishes on day two after racing on day one was cancelled because of the weather.
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The event consisted of six races and 46 teams, making the Marblehead-hosted competition the largest National Championship event in the history of Rhodes 19 racing.
Bill and Renee Heffernan of Dover and Julie Savage of Marblehead formed the team of champions, edging out Kim and Christina Pandapas of Marblehead by just one point in the standings.
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The victor was decided by the final race of the series, with the Pandapas crew finishing second and nearly catching the Heffernans on the event leader board.
The North Shore was well represented in the six races, with the top 10 finishers all locally based. The success by local fleets was a welcomed surprise, as fleets from New Orleans have dominated National Championship racing for six of the last eight years.
The Rhodes 19 races are one-design competitions, meaning that all boats are identical. To ensure the integrity of the competition, each boat undergoes a rigorous inspection before being approved for the event.
To be eligible to compete in the National Championship event in Class 19, a competitor must be registered with a fleet on the local level and compete in at least 20 percent of that fleets races. Crews that do not meet these criteria can gain entry to the event if signed off by the fleet captain.
This year's event was organized by The Corinthian Yacht Club and local fleet volunteers, who handled everything from event and lodging logistics to race day event management. Inclement weather forced the event to be cut from its scheduled three days down to two.
