Newport Sailors Among Top Finishers in NYYC Regatta

With 135 boats competing, the New York Yacht Club’s 157^th Annual Regatta broke all of its past attendance records, and with winds whipping into the high teens for buoy racing over the weekend, it certainly is in line for being the most memorable Annual Regatta in recent history.    

The oldest regatta in the country kicked off with an optional 18-nautical mile Around-the-Island Race on Friday that yielded Richard Oland’s Southern Cross 52 Vela Veloce as the IRC 2 class and overall winner, his performance worthy of a Rolex was as a prize. In weekend racing, Oland’s team continued to fare well but was ultimately outmatched in IRC 2 by David and Sandra Askew's TP 52 Flying Jenny, of Annapolis, Md., which won and was followed in the standings by Peter Cunningham’s (CAY) IRC 52 PowerPlay, leaving third forVela Veloce.

An additional five IRC classes sailed, with PHRF and Classics, each with a spinnaker and non-spinnaker class, rounding out the racing action, along with one-design competitions for J/105, Herreshoff S, 12 Metre, 6 Metre and Swan 42 classes.

“It was bloody hard work,” said Ken Read, of Newport, and skipper of Puma Ocean Racing’s Volvo Open 70 mar mostro, which beat out Dan Meyers' JV 66 Numbers in IRC 1 class, of Boston. "But anytime you have good breeze and gnarly conditions you feel like you actually accomplished something.”

Read’s reference to gnarly could have been to several outbursts of rain, but that didn’t deter the hardy, if decidedly damp, sailors from the task at hand. He noted that his crew is the same that will participate in the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race and the Transatlantic Race 2011.

“We are set up to go offshore right now with the same ten guys,” he said, “but we have an inshore component for the Volvo, so we have to practice and this was one of those times.  To say we were stunned to win is an understatement; we never for a minute thought that we’d do so well against these other top IRC boats. Our rating isn’t as bad as we thought; the boat is going darn good; and the crew is exceptional--without those three things it wouldn’t have been the same.”

Ken Colburn’s Apparition, of Dover, Mass., won the 13-boat Swan 42 class seemingly with ease and a low point score of just 11 points over five races.  Though an apparition is a sudden or unusual sight, there was nothing surprising about this team’s consistent performance, which included two second-place finishes in as many races on Sunday. 

"It was another day of very close competition," said Colburn back onshore, noting that Saturday’s racing proved to be extremely tricky with stiff winds, waves and chop, and saw some damaged sails and many position changes within the fleet.  "Terrific crew work made the difference; we had better wave starts than yesterday, and we found a pretty consistent groove that gave us good boat speed."

The 42s skipped Friday’s Around-the-Island Race to do three separate buoy races that counted as a U.S. qualifier for this September’s NYYC Invitational Club, so all teams left feeling both satiated and satisfied with quality racing.

Sam Croll's 8 metre Angelita, of Greenwich, Conn., which won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1928, won all of its races in Classic class, while Mike McCaffrey, of Newport, represented a brilliant demonstration of boat handling when he won all but one of the Hereshoff S class’s five races aboard Osprey. 

“After 20 years, you kind of get the hang of it,” he said, referring to the fact that he, like others in his class, lovingly restored this classic design that is 27½ feet, distinguished by a boom extending beyond the transom, and has 426 sq. feet of sail area.  It is also the oldest one-design class still actively racing and sailing in its original boats. “It was tough out there for this powerful little day sailer with such a big main. Ten to twelve knots is the groove for an S Boat, so the 16-18 was a challenge.”

Other teams winning all but one of their races were mar mostro; Stephen Devoe’sSwan 45Devocean, of Jamestown, in IRC 3; Joe Loughborough’s Luders 24 Belle, of Newport, in 6 Metre class; Dennis Williams’ Victory 83, of Hobe Sound, Fla., in 12 Metre class.

A new feature of the regatta was the Navigator Class for those who prefer a classic government buoy course to the more prevalent short-course racing. In those classes, one race was held each day of the weekend.

Rolex will award a timepiece to the overall winner of Saturday’s and Sunday’s combined series of races, which officially constitutes the NYYC 157th Annual Regatta presented by Rolex.  The prize, as well as engraved overall trophies in each class and the Great Corinthian Trophy for yacht club teams of three or more boats posting the best class finishes, will be awarded at the November 10 Annual Awards Dinner at the NYYC’s main clubhouse in New York City.