December 26th is normally a day of rest, those that celebrate Christmas wholeheartedly using the opportunity to relax from the feasting and excess. Not so the crews of the 93 yachts currently aiming to be on the start line of the 67th Rolex Sydney Hobart. Boxing Day, as the Commonwealth nations refer to the second day of Christmas, is no time to be sitting idle. With 628 nautical miles ahead of them, the notorious Bass Strait ‘Paddock’, and a rendezvous with ‘a quiet little drink’ in Hobart, they have plenty to do and to think about.

 

According to Garry Linacre, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the organising authority for the contest, “This year’s race has attracted a great group of yachts with an exciting mix of brand new, recently acquired and well established boats that will provide strong competition for line honours and through the divisions. The race for the elusive Tattersall’s Cup for overall honours will again be absorbing.” All Australian states are represented on the entry list, and six international entries will sail for France, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.

The newest yacht in the race is likely to be the Ker 40 AFR Midnight Rambler (AUS), launched in September and co-owned by Ed Psaltis, Bob Thomas and Michael Bencsik. Psaltis and Thomas are best remembered in the context of the race as having won overall the infamous 1998 edition, on a previous iteration of AFR Midnight Rambler. By contrast the oldest yacht is the 79-year old 9-metre Maluka of Kermandie (AUS), skippered by Sean Langman. Langman is one of the race’s current crop of true characters. Unlike Psaltis and Thomas, he may not have won the race overall, or taken line honours. But he entertains with his entries and tries as hard as any to realise the dream. In 2002, Langman defied conventional wisdom in bringing his 66 foot ‘skiff on steroids’, Grundig, home safely and in the second fastest time ahead of several larger maxi yachts.

Maluka is not just the oldest, but she is the smallest. Dwarfed by the 100-footers in size and technology. Wild Oats XI, the Reichel Pugh designed canting keeler, which set the current course record holder of 1 day 18 hours 40 minutes 10 seconds in 2005, is aiming for a sixth line honours win from seven starts. Up against her is Anthony Bell’s similar-sized Investec Loyal. What Investec Loyal lacks in winning pedigree compared to Wild Oats, she makes up for with an eclectic crew that accommodates some of the world’s best sailors and a number of Australian sporting celebrities, including the two-time Rugby World Cup winner Phil Kearns and former world title boxer Danny Green.

 The combination of the East Australian Current and the rapidly changing weather contribute to the challenge of navigating the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. 

   
Also on the Investec roster is the American navigator, Stan Honey. A Volvo Ocean Race winner with ABN AMRO One, Honey has raced on many of the sailing world’s recent winning and record-breaking projects. Almost oddly, he has only attempted the Rolex Sydney Hobart once before in 2006; “I’ve only raced in one Hobart race in the past, 2006, in which I navigated ABM AMRO One.  We had just taken the lead from Wild Oats, when we lost our mast. Maximus (now Investec Loyal) was also dismasted that same night, at about the same time.  So I have started but never finished a Hobart Race.” For the man that navigated the trimaran Groupama 3 to a record breaking round the world run in 201O, the Rolex Sydney Hobart remains one of the most prestigious and toughest of the major ocean races. Honey says; “I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in another race.  The combination of the East Australian Current and the rapidly changing weather contribute to the challenge of navigating the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.”

Honey is not the only American to be racing this year. Rives Potts’ 48-foot Carina (USA) is making the pilgrimage from the east coast of the USA via the 2011 Transatlantic Race, the Rolex Fastnet and a few places in between, “Carina is being delivered to Australia by my son Walker and my nephew Rives. She has just left Bora Bora with around 3,000 miles to go and should be in Sydney by mid-December.” Beneath this seeming air of nonchalance, Potts comes to the fray with some form in 600-mile offshore tests of seamanship. He was part of Ted Turner’s Tenacious crew that won the 1979 Fastnet. And, whilst she has classic lines, Carina has proved adept at performing offshore to her handicap, winning the 2010 Bermuda Race and her class in this year’s Rolex Fastnet.

 it will most likelybe rough and cold  Rives Potts, Carina (USA)
Like Honey, Potts is looking forward to taking on the southern hemisphere’s most famous race, “this is my first Rolex Sydney Hobart but from what I have read and from all of the stories I have heard from my sailing mates who have done the race before, it will most likely be rough and cold. We would like to sail a good, safe race and to push as hard as we can. Winning would be the best, but I am sure that every other competitor feels the same.”

 

Another yacht participating this year with half an eye on the main prize is Chris Bull’s Jazz. Remarkably for such a seasoned campaigner, well-known in the northern hemisphere, Bull has not yet managed to win one of the big 600-mile offshore races, helping show how remarkable are the achievements of those that do. Bull has come mighty close. At last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart he comfortably won his class, but was ousted from pole position for the main prize by Geoff Boettcher’s Secret Men’s Business 3.5. The second time this has happened in this race. He hopes to go one better this year. The Jazz crew comprises a number of foreign nationals aiming to help him in this goal. Amongst them is Maltese sailing-legend Christian Ripard. Ripard is another coming to race with form and ambition, and, may prove the lucky charm Bull needs. In October, Ripard won the 606-nautical mile Rolex Middle Sea Race having finished second in the 2010 edition. Ripard was in Bull’s crew in the Rolex Sydney Hobart last year. Could history be about to repeat itself?

Jazz is a Cookson 50. In recent years, much of the pre and post race comment has been about yachts of around this size with some highly competitive entries, including a number of optimised TP52s. The 84-year Syd Fischer may be the elder statesman of the Rolex Sydney Hobart, but with a fourth place in the 2008 race on his TP52 Ragamuffin (AUS), he demonstrated the qualities of these yachts and his determination not to be outdone by younger competitors. Amongst the five TP52s entered this time, two are racing under the colours of Hong Kong adding a touch of Asia to proceedings.

Anthony Day’s Ffreefire features a crew that lives or has resided in Hong Kong or Singapore and is one that has been sailing offshore together for many years on this boat. With Russ Parker, Rear Commodore of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, onboard the team relishes the challenge of the race and is hoping for a convincing performance. The second Asiatic TP52 is Geoff Hill’s Strewth, which finished third overall in the 2010 Rolex China Sea Race. Hill is harnessing the undoubted navigational talents of Lindsey May, who was the winning skipper of Love & War in 2006.

Whilst any number of sailors and adventurers will be setting out on their first Rolex Sydney Hobart, including one of Australia favourite daughters, around the world yachtswoman Jessica Watson, who at 18 is leading a crew whose average age is just 19, kudos should be given to Tony Cable, who plans to embark on his 46th race. That is two-thirds of the total number Rolex Sydney Hobarts so far held, and certainly suggests that Cable is not one who enjoys a leisurely Boxing Day.

The 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart starts from Sydney Harbour at 13.00 AEDT on 26 December.

How To Follow Event??
Further information on the Rolex Sydney Hobart may be found at www.rolexsydneyhobart.com

 

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Having cheered on the first six yachts when they departed on the Transatlantic Race 2011 two days ago, the 14-strong group of yachts that will take the second of the three staggered starts now have less than 24 hours until they begin the race across the North Atlantic for themselves.  The warning signal at 13:50 Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday, June 29, will cue the largest group of yachts to depart, including the show-stopping Maltese Falcon, and spectators are guaranteed to see a unique sailing spectacle when the cannon is fired at Castle Hill Light.

Without doubt, tomorrow’s start will feature the most diverse battle of the race.  The Open Class has just two yachts, but they are two of the showiest yachts in the race.  Maltese Falcon, at 289’, is the largest yacht competing and is up against the only multihull entered in the race, Phaedo, the Gunboat 66 owned by Lloyd Thornburg (St. Barthelemy).  The Lamborghini-orange catamaran and the futuristic Perini Navi will be a spectacular sight as they head off into the Atlantic.

In IRC Class Two, Jazz, a Cookson 50, has a star-studded crew including the highly experienced navigator, Mike Broughton (Hamble, U.K.), and skipper, Nigel King (Lymington, U.K.).  Unfortunately, due to family commitments, owner Chris Bull is unable to make the trip.  Two German teams on nearly identical yachts will also go head-to-head in the class:  Christoph Avenarius and Gorm Gondesen’s Shakti and Jens Kellinghusen’s Varuna should virtually match race across the North Atlantic.

IRC Class Three will feature six yachts, including Snow Lion, the Ker 50 owned by former NYYC Commodore Lawrence Huntington (New York, N.Y.).  Snow Lion is a proven winner, having won her class in the Newport Bermuda Race, and should be highly competitive on corrected time.  There are, however, some real fliers in this class, not the least of which is Zaraffa, the Reichel Pugh 65 owned by Huntington Sheldon (Shelburne, Vt.), whose crew includes several veterans of the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.  The Volvo 60 Ambersail, skippered by Simonas Steponavicius (Vilnius, Lithuania), is a much-travelled yacht having logged over 100,000 miles since being purchased in 2008 to celebrate a thousand years of Lithuanian history. After sailing around the world, Ambersail took part in the 2010 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, winning class honors and placing second overall.

The youth entry from Germany, Norddeutsche Vermoegen Hamburg, will be helmed by Eike Holst whose third Transatlantic Race will be his first as skipper.  And while the majority of the team aboard the Andrews 57 are university students in their 20s, two of the crew are just 18 years old.  Many of sailors in the race were introduced to the sport as a family activity, which means the parents of these sailors, in particular, have a degree of understanding and ease with the undertaking at hand.  That was not the case for Jerome Vigne, the Parisian-born mechanical engineering student who will have a very relieved mother welcoming him home to Germany.

Blending a comfortable interior with the performance of an Open 60 is Ourson Rapide, the Finot-Conq 60 owned by Paolo Roasenda (Vedano al Lambro, Italy).  This is a special boat that should have a dream-like ride downwind.  Scho-ka-kola, named for the German chocolate confection, is a Reichel Pugh 56 owned by Uwe Lebens (Hamburg) that has completed two previous Atlantic crossings.

Prodigy, a Simonis/Voog 54, is a proven winner.  Owner Chris Frost (Durban, South Africa) took line honors in the 2011 Heineken Cape to Rio Race and will compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race, as well as the Rolex Middle Sea Race, as part of a year-long campaign.  Of the 10 crew on Prodigy, two – including Aaron Gillespie (Butler, N.J.) and John Fryer (New York, N.Y.) – were recruited by Frost using the “Crew Finder” feature on the event’s website.  It will be Gillespie’s first Transatlantic crossing.

The two smallest yachts in start two are both Class 40s: Dragon and Concise 2, the latter skippered by Ned Collier-Wakefield (Oxford, U.K.).   Tony Lawson (Haslemere, Surrey, U.K.) assembled a crew of young aspiring sailors from Great Britain to make up Team Concise.  The team has become a force to be reckoned with having won the 2009 Class 40 World Championship, set a world record for the Round Britain and Ireland course and taken class honors at the RORC Caribbean 600 for the last three years.

Dragon is the only boat racing across the Atlantic double-handed. Owner Michael Hennessy (Mystic, Conn.) has been an avid sailor ever since introduced to the sport by his father at the age of four on San Francisco Bay.  Following college, Hennessy logged thousands of miles cruising along the New England coast before he started to focus on short-handed distance racing in 2002.  Since then he has competed in four Newport Bermuda Races, as well as dozens of other races across New England.  In 2008 he took notice of the fast growing Class 40 fleet and took delivery of his Owen Clarke-designed boat. In just two short years, Dragon has become a fixture on the ocean racing circuit.  Joining Hennessy will be co-skippered Rob Windsor (East Northport, N.Y.) who grew up sailing with his family on Long Island Sound.

Sponsors of the TR 2011 are Rolex, Thomson Reuters, Newport Shipyard, Perini Navi and Peters & May, with additional support by apparel sponsor Atlantis Weathergear.

For more information, visit http://www.transatlanticrace.org/.

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The sunshine burnt off the morning fog almost on cue as the first start of the Transatlantic Race 2011 got underway with six of the smallest yachts in the fleet beginning their journey across the Atlantic.  A gentle breeze wafted in from the southeast to give the competitors some champagne sailing conditions, at least for the moment — all of the yachts competing in the TR2011 know there are bound to be difficult times ahead.
 
Skippered by Rives Potts, Jr. (Essex, Conn.), local favorite Carina, a 48’ sloop, got away to a great start, hugging the coast to escape a knot of foul current.  Onboard are four fathers and five sons, as well as the youngest crew member in the race, Dirk Johnson, Jr. (Middletown, R.I.).  At just 16 years of age Johnson has been sailing since he was a baby and has always wanted to sail across an ocean.  “I don’t like trimming so much as I find it hard to concentrate.  But I love my position as float.  I like to get involved everywhere on the boat.  I have been sailing short offshore races for a while and I really wanted to do this race,” he explained.  “I guess I will miss home comforts the most, especially my Mum’s lamb chops.  But all of my family are sailors and this is in my blood.”
The Army Sailing Association’s British Soldier currently leads the fleet on the water and her skipper, Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Bate(Falmouth, Cornwall, U.K.), was relishing the challenges that lay ahead, as he commented just before the start.
“The first goal for us is to get around Nantucket Shoals and then we’ll head into the Atlantic proper.  I love the open ocean and the big rolling waves.  After a day or so the crew will settle into a routine.  For me, the most marvelous thing about this race is enjoying the fun and banter with the crew, you just cannot get that anywhere else.  There will be difficult times ahead, but we will battle through.  We know that we will get some pretty foul weather, but we know that it will improve.  The crew of British Soldier are not all highly experienced offshore sailors, but they are all good characters who can keep each other entertained when the going gets tough and I think that is priceless.”

With just four crew aboard, the German entry Sasha is going extremely well.  Owner Albrecht Peters and his wife Erika had a conservative start with their 42’ Olin Stephens design.  Eighty years ago another Stephens design, Dorade, won the Transatlantic Race that also started in Newport (finishing in Plymouth, England), and, if the right conditions prevail, Sasha could be extremely competitive after time correction.
Hans Albrecht’s beautiful 86’ yawl, Nordwind, is the oldest boat in the race. Built in 1939, Nordwind has been fully restored by her German owners and sailed 11,000 miles to take part in the Transatlantic Race 2011.
While the high performance yachts that are yet to depart will undoubtedly grab headlines, this group of yachts is worthy of equal praise and the starting area was full of spectator boats wishing them well.  The rocky outcrops and grassy hillsides along Fort Adams and Castle Hill were filled with people who cheered the boats on as they crossed the starting line at the Castle Hill Light.  Once they leave the shore, it will be several weeks before these yachts will see land again.
 
For more information, visit http://www.transatlanticrace.org/.
 
More about the Transatlantic Race 2011
The Transatlantic Race 2011 charts a 2,975 nautical mile course from Newport, R.I., to Lizard Point, South Cornwall, England.  Pre-start activities will take place at the New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, while awards will be presented at the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Cowes Castle clubhouse on the Isle of Wight.  Three separate starts – June 26, June 29 and July 3 – will feature 30 boats ranging from 40 to 289 feet in length.  In addition to winners in seven classes (IRC Class 1 Racer, IRC Class 2 Racer, IRC Class 3 Racer/Cruiser, IRC Class 4 Racer/Cruiser, Classic, Class 40, and Open), whichever yacht finishes the course with the fastest elapsed time will set the benchmark for a new racing record from Newport to Lizard Point, to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Council.  Rolex watches will be awarded to the record holder and the overall winner (on corrected time) under IRC.
The Transatlantic Race 2011 is also the centerpiece of the Atlantic Ocean Racing Series (AORS), which includes the Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race, RORC Caribbean 600, the Annapolis to Newport Race, Rolex Fastnet Race, Biscay Race and the Rolex Middle Sea Race.  Of the seven races in the AORS, three races, including the TR 2011 must be completed to qualify for a series victory.  Each race is weighted equally in overall series scoring with the exception of TR 2011, which is weighted 1.5 times.  All entered yachts are scored using their two best finishes in addition to the TR 2011.  Awards for the AORS will be presented in November, 2011, at the New York Yacht Club’s Annual Awards Dinner in Manhattan

You Can Track The Transatlantic Fleet HERE

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When it comes to serving one’s country, the crew competing in the Transatlantic Race 2011 aboard British Soldier (U.K.) could not be more dedicated. While most have returned from active duty only within the last year, all eight members have completed army tours in Afghanistan within the last 24 months, and two will be heading back there after undertaking a 2,975 nautical mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean. For British Soldier, the Transatlantic Race 2011, co-organized by the Royal Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and Storm Trysail Club, starts June 26 from Newport, R.I., and delivers the team back to home soil in the U.K. sometime in mid-August. (Two subsequent “staggered” starts for the race are scheduled for June 29 and July 3 to adjust for the relative speeds of 30 entered boats – ranging in size from 40 to 289 feet – and allow for a tighter finish among them.)

“It’s all about putting a bunch of guys in a demanding situation, out of reach of immediate outside assistance, where they must work as a team in arduous conditions in order to succeed,” said 47-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Bate, who serves as skipper of British Soldier. “That is the ethos of adventurous training; it also provides some excitement and reward in between other demanding duties.”

Bate, who has completed operational tours in Iraq (two), Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo and is trained as a tank commander, explained that British Soldier, an Archambault 40 bought by the Army Sailing Association in 2008, is regularly sailed by a squad comprised of approximately 100 soldiers on return from operational tours, offering them a chance to race offshore when on leave or between assignments. A number of injured soldiers also sail British Soldier as part of their rehabilitation. The yacht is not publicly funded but is supported by generous sponsors (currently Fujitsu), soldiers’ own contributions through the Army Sports Lottery, and some charitable trusts. (www.sailarmy.co.uk)

“We have a core of gladiators, but otherwise it’s a bit of a mix,” said Bate, explaining that 48 soldiers have raced with him recently, and he had a largely different crew aboard for both the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Annapolis to Newport Race, both distance races that – along with the TR 2011 – are part of the inaugural Atlantic Ocean Racing Series that British Soldier has also entered.

“Most of them haven’t done a great deal [of ocean racing],” said Bate, who noted that nevertheless, in 2010, the Army Offshore Team was named Services Sports Team of the Year. “It’s a bit scary for a lot of people actually. You are putting a team of people out there in a demanding situation, so you learn to cope and work as a team and that’s why we are out there. Sailing is demanding, frightening and awesome great fun.”

As for Bate, he has raced a wide variety of yachts from his own International Dragons and Cornish Shrimper up to 153’ classic yachts. He started racing on an IOR ¾ tonner in the early 1980s, and after joining the Army in 1987, he competed in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race on British Defender and has also sailed the Rolex Fastnet Race eight times. This will be his fourth Atlantic crossing.

“In 2008 British Soldier had a tremendous first season and was selected to represent Great Britain in the Rolex Commodore’s Cup,” said Bate. “On the offshore circuit, she achieved second overall among 250 yachts in the RORC Offshore Series, and we achieved the same overall result in the series again last year (2010), after races such as the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.”

Other crew members are Captain David Holdsworth (age 36),originally an Army engineer completing a tour in Afghanistan in 2010 and now a cardiologist based in Oxford,who has completed two Rolex Fastnet Races and a total of 20,000 miles of cruising and offshore racing in the last four seasons; Second Lieutenant Martin Livingston, a former Royal Navy officer of seven years who qualified as a doctor in March, who haslimited ocean racing experience but has completed around 4,500 cruising and racing miles; Lieutenant Corporal Terence (Polly) Parsons (41), who joined the Royal Engineers in May 1990 as a Combat Engineer and was injuredin Bosnia, sails as a form of rehabilitation and has logged approximately 5,000 “mostly-offshore” miles; Captain Oli Donaghy (31), who is returning from Afghanistan (16 Air Assault Brigade) just in time to start the TR 2011 and has completed roughly 7,000 miles of racing, including three Rolex Fastnet campaigns; Second Lieutenant Phil Caswell (24), commissioned in 2010 into the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, who has sailed 18,000 racing, cruising, military and youth sail training miles, and is making his first Atlantic crossing; Gunner Clarke Small (28), new to the Royal Artillery after completing basic training in April 2011, started sailing at age 16 in his native South Africa and has since completed a circumnavigation, several offshore passages and the Heineken Capeto Rio Race and Rolex Sydney Hobart Race; and Captain Richard Hall, who joined the British Soldier program at its start in 2008, is currently posted with the Army Training Regiment Bassingbourn to train new recruits and will shortly return to an engineer regiment for a second Afghan tour (his first was in 2010).

British Soldier, like several other entries in the TR 2011, is competing in the first-ever Atlantic Ocean Racing Series (AORS), which requires that entrants compete in the TR 2011 plus two other events selected from the now completed Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race and RORC Caribbean 600, the Annapolis to Newport Race (June 3); and the upcoming Rolex Fastnet Race (August 14); Biscay Race (September 11-12) and Rolex Middle Sea Race (October 22). Each race is weighted equally in overall series scoring with the exception of the TR 2011, which is weighted 1.5 times.

Having finished first in class in the RORC Caribbean 600, British Soldier was just over 100 miles from the finish of the Annapolis to Newport Race at press time, and after the TR 2011 will compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Biscay Race if all goes as planned; however, being on “active duty” has its consequences. “I’m, in fact, active enough that my office wants to send me back to Afghanistan at the end of July for nine months!” said Bate.

There are 30 entries total in the TR 2011, with the U.S. fielding 14 teams, Germany six, the U.K. four, and China, Italy, Lithuania, Monaco, Saint Barthelemy and South Africa one each.

Sponsors of the TR 2011 are Rolex, Thomson Reuters, Newport Shipyard, Perini Navi, and Peters & May.

TR 2011 Roster of Entries
Yacht Name, Skipper, Hometown

Ambersail, Simonas Steponavicius, Vilnius, Lithuania
Beau Geste, Karl Kwok, Hong Kong, China
British Soldier, Lt. Col. Nick Bate, Falmouth, Cornwall, U.K.
Carina, Rives Potts, Essex, Conn., USA
Concise 2, Ned Collier-Wakefield, Oxford, U.K.
Cutlass, Nick Halmos, Palm Beach, Fla., USA
Dawn Star, William N. Hubbard III /William N. Hubbard IV, both New York, N.Y., USA
Dragon, Michael Hennessy, Mystic, Conn., USA
ICAP Leopard, Clarke Murphy, New York, N.Y., USA
Jaqueline IV, Robert Forman, Bay Shore, N.Y., USA
Jazz, Nigel King, East London, U.K.
Kamoa’e, Eric LeCoq, Bridgeport, Conn., USA
Maltese Falcon, Elena Ambrosiadou, Monaco
Norddeutcshe Vermoegen Hamburg, Eike Holst , Hamburg, Germany
Nordwind,Hans Albrecht, Munich, Germany
Ourson Rapide, Paolo Roasenda, Vedano al Lambro, Italy
Persevere, Bugs Baer/Colin Rath, Madison, Conn. / Darien, Conn., USA
Phaedo, Lloyd Thornburg, St. Barthelemy
Prodigy, Chris Frost, Durban, South Africa
PUMA Ocean Racing mar mostro, Ken Read, Newport, R.I., USA
Rambler 100, George David, Hartford, Conn., USA
Sasha, Albrecht Peters, Hamburg, Germany
Scho-ka-kola, Uwe Lebens, Hamburg, Germany
Shakti, Christoph Avenarius / Gorm Iver Gondesen, Hamburg, Germany / Flensburg, Germany
Snow Lion, Lawrence Huntington, New York, N.Y., USA
Sojana, Peter Harrison, U.K.
Sumurun, Bob Towbin, New York, N.Y., USA
Vanquish, USMMA Oakcliff All American Offshore Team, Kings Point, N.Y., USA
Varuna,Jens Kellinghausen, Hamburg, Germany
Zaraffa, Huntington Sheldon, M.D., Shelburne, Vt., USA

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Even though it moved along at only five knots for several hours and briefly “parked” three times when the wind switched off completely, Rambler 100, George David’s (Stamford, Conn.) rocket ship built for speed, broke–by 42 minutes and 45 seconds– Boomerang’s 2002 record in the Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race.  The 186 nautical mile race, a Long Island classic that has been held annually for 66 years, started on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day Weekend and sent 59 boats in eight classes (six IRC and two PHRF) on a course from Stamford, Conn. (where host Stamford Yacht Club is located), down Long Island Sound, clockwise around Block Island (R.I.), and back. Rambler 100 finished early Saturday morning after sailing for just over 15 hours and 43 minutes, while the last boat finished Sunday afternoon just after 4 p.m.

 

Though gaining an edge in the Block Island Race typically means correctly choosing between two current-ridden passages –Plum Gut and “The Race”–for the fastest transport to Block Island (and then again coming back from it), this year’s key to success seemed to lie in getting to the Long Island shore as quickly as possible after the start.

 

“Whoever got there got the new breeze first,” said Event Chair Ray Redniss, explaining that the fleet started upwind in 9-12 knots when in past years spinnaker starts have prevailed.   Rambler’s class was the last to start, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s (Kings Point, N.Y.) Reichel/Pugh 65 Vanquish, sailed by the youthful Oakcliff All American Team, made the move to shore first, while others who were in the middle of the Sound seemed stuck.  According to Rambler 100’s manager and crew member Mick Harvey (Newport, R.I.), his team was becalmed just a half hour after the start but overtook Vanquish about 1 ½ hours into the race after the southwest breeze kicked in and “surprisingly held steady” enough to carry the team out of the Sound and around Block Island.  Rambler 100’s navigator Peter Isler chose to pass through Plum Gut both coming and going, but it was during the return from Block Island to the Gut where the wind lightened to 5 knots or so for a couple of hours.

 

According to George David, who steered the boat, “We thought our chances (for breaking the record) were gone over the last 12 miles coming back into the Gut.  This was the lightest sustained air for us…then it changed right at the Gut, and we carried 12+ knots (at the masthead) all the way past Stratford Shoal and up to three miles from the finish.  The record looked more and more likely as we came down the Sound and the breeze held, which we hadn’t expected at all.”

 

Breaking the record despite some light breezes may have had much to do with Rambler 100 being 20 feet longer and 10 tons lighter than Boomerang, with a mast 30 feet higher to harness more wind aloft, but the accomplishment also had sentimental meaning for David. “We had three runs at it with the 90 footer (Rambler), so we’d have to say we were looking for it,” said David.

 

Noting that Rambler 100’s mission is to break existing records and establish a new record from Newport to The Lizard (Cornwall, U.K.) in the 2011 Transatlantic Race later this summer, Mick Harvey added, “If we had had breeze the whole way in the Block Island Race, we might have taken only 10 hours to get around.”

 

Peter Rugg (New York, N.Y.) on the J/105 Jaded, also saw the advantage of going to the Long Island shore right away, but since he started first in the 11-boat double-handed class (sailing with Dudley Nostrand of Hamilton, Mass.), he had no other classes to follow there. “The NOAA forecast said five knots out of the southeast for the next couple of days, but because we didn’t have that at the start (it was out of the east and even a bit north of that), we didn’t think it would hold.  We were the first boat to tack to the Long Island shore, and when we saw other boats sailing there in a 15-knot southerly to southwest breeze, we said ‘holy smokes this is important.’”

 

About a mile from Plum Gut, Rugg noted that only those with code zero sails were able to stay high enough on shore to avoid “running into competing doldrums” in the middle of the Sound.  “When we got close to the Gut, the breeze died, but we had just enough wind to squeak around the corner and be flushed through the Gut on a fair current,” said Rugg.

 

Rugg said Jaded ran into a bit of a drifter on the north side of Block Island, but the south side greeted them with more wind, some chop, and the lasting impression of baby nurse sharks all around.  “The last two miles to the finish were the worst,”  said Rugg. “The wind dropped, the tide was taking us away from the mark, and we were rolled by another double-handed boat.  We just had to finish before we gave away our time to the other boats.”

Jaded did that successfully, winning not only the Gerold Abels Trophy for the best performance by a double-handed team but also the Harvey Conover Memorial Overall Trophy, awarded to the boat that has won her class and, in the judgment of the Flag Officers and Race Committee, had the best overall performance.

 

Rambler 100 won both the Governor’s Race West Trophy for best elapsed time in the IRC fleet and the William Tripp Jr. Memorial Trophy for best corrected time. It also won the Commodore’s Trophy, which goes to the boat that has won her class and has beaten the 2nd and 3rd place boat by the greatest margin of time.

 

In PHRF class, Threebeans, owned by Christopher Rosow (Fairfield, Conn.), won both the Terrapin Trophy and the Governor’s Race East Trophy (best corrected and best elapsed time, respectively)

 

The Block Island Race was first held in 1946 and is a qualifier for the Northern Ocean Racing Trophy (IRC), the Double Handed Ocean Racing Trophy (IRC), the New England Lighthouse Series (PHRF), and the Gulf Stream Series (IRC). The Block Island Race is also a qualifier for the Caper, Sagola, and Windigo trophies awared by the YRA of Long Island Sound and the ‘Tuna’ Trophy for the best combined IRC scores in the Edlu (40%) and the Block Island Race (60%).

About the Storm Trysail Club

The Storm Trysail Club, reflecting in its name the sail to which sailors must shorten when facing severe adverse conditions, is one of the world’s most respected sailing clubs, with its membership comprised strictly of skilled blue water and ocean racing sailors. In addition to hosting Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex in odd-numbered years, the club holds various prestigious offshore racing events (among them the annual Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race and the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race); annual junior safety-at-sea seminars; and a regatta for college sailors using big boats.

For more information on the Storm Trysail Club and its events, including the Block Island Race, visit the official website www.stormtrysail.org.

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Storm Trysail Club’s 66th Block Island Race
Overall Results

Finish Position, Yacht Name, Yacht Type Length, Skipper, Hometown

IRC Doublehanded (IRC – 11 Boats)

1. Jaded, J 105, Peter Rugg , New York, NY, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Choucas, Jeanneau SF 36, Frederic Cosandey , New York, NY, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Skye, Farr 395, James T. Anderson , Riverside, CT, USA – 3, ; 3

IRC-35 (IRC – 6 Boats)

1. Carina, Custom 48 48′, Rives Potts , Westbrook, CT, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Afterglow, Express 37 37, Bill Walker , Easton, CT, USA – 2, ; 2

3. KYRIE, Tartan 4100 41.25, John DiMatteo , Centerport, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

 

IRC-40 (IRC – 12 Boats)

1. Beagle, J 44, Philip Gutin , New York, NY, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Christopher Dragon, J 122, Andrew Weiss , Mamaroneck, NY, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Soulmate, J 120, Joseph Healey , Chestnut Ridge, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

 

IRC-45 (IRC – 4 Boats)

1. Dragonfly , J 130, Colin McGranahan , Larchmont, NY, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Xcelsior, IMX-45, Todd LaBaugh , Rye, NY, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Tiburon, Swan Club 42, M/N Kevan Stoekler , Kings Point, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

 

IRC-50 (IRC – 8 Boats)

1. Bombardino, Santa Cruz 52, James Sykes , New York, NY, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Gracie, MH Sloop 69, Stephan Frank , Darien, CT, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Magic, Santa Cruz 52, Kenneth Laudon , Croton on Hudson, NY, USA – 3, ; 3

 

IRC-ZERO (IRC – 3 Boats)

1. Rambler 100, JK 100, George David , Hartford, Ct, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Vanquish, Reichel/Pugh 65, Oakcliff All American Offshore Team , Kings Point, NY, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Zaraffa, Reichel/Pugh 65, Huntington Sheldon , Shelburne, VT, USA – 3, ; 3

 

PHRF-1 (PHRF – 11 Boats)

1. Patience, Tripp 33, Rick Royce , Glen Cove, NY, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Gringo, Pearson 37, Michael McGuire , Darien, CT, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Audacious, Frers 33, Robert Farnum , Oxford, CT, USA – 3, ; 3

 

PHRF-2 (PHRF – 5 Boats)

1. Threebeans, Santa Cruz 37, Christopher Rosow , Fairfield, CT, USA – 1, ; 1

2. Red Stripe, Flying Tiger 10M, Charlie Reynolds , Southport, Ct, USA – 2, ; 2

3. Eagle, J 120, Steven Levy , Greenwich, CT, USA – 3, ; 3

 

 

66th Block Island Race – Overall Trophies

 

George Lauder Trophy - Best performance by a Vintage boat (15 years old +)

Carina Rives Potts

 

Commodore’s Grail Trophy – Best corrected time in IRC below 1.08

Carina Rives Potts

Governor’s Race West Trophy – Best elapsed time in the IRC Fleet

Rambler 100 George David

 

William Tripp Jr. Memorial Trophy – Best corrected time in the IRC Fleet

Rambler 100 George David

 

Terrapin Trophy - Best corrected time  –  PHRF

Threebeans Christopher Rosow

Governor’s Race East Trophy – Best elapsed time – PHRF

Threebeans Christopher Rosow

Gerold Abels Trophy – Best Performance Double-Handed

Jaded Peter Rugg / Dudley Nostrand

 

Roddie Williams Team Race Trophy

Storm Trysail Red      Gracie / Skye / Dragonfly

 

Tuna Trophy - for the best IRC combined scores in the Edlu (40%) and the BI Race (60%)

Christopher Dragon Andrew Weiss

 

Commodore’s Trophy – To the boat that has won her class and has beaten the 2nd and 3rd place boat by the greatest margin of time.

Rambler 100 George David

 

Harvey Conover Memorial Overall Trophy – Awarded to the boat that has won her class and, in the judgment of the Flag Officers and Race Committee, had the best overall performance.

Jaded Peter Rugg / Dudley Nostrand

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Among the 30-strong fleet preparing to compete in the Transatlantic Race 2011 in late June and early July, there are at least as many variations on the theme of traversing 2,975 nautical miles of ocean stretching from the start in Newport, R.I., to the finish at The Lizard on the coast of Cornwall in Southwestern England. For some, sailing across the Atlantic in this race, co-organized by the Royal Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Ocean Racing Club and Storm Trysail Club, is about the chance to sail into the history books, while for a younger generation of sailors it is about building a foundation for future success in the sport.

A growing contingent of younger competitors is seeking sailing opportunities beyond the inshore dinghy programs typically offered at yacht clubs, high schools and colleges. The young sailors making up the Oakcliff All American Offshore Team (AAOT) on the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) IRC 65 Vanquish and the German team on the Andrews 56 Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg are two groups who are taking advantage of the Transatlantic Race 2011 to expand their skills and hopefully build reputations as the next wave of capable ocean racers.

The German team is organized by Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt e.V., an organization founded in 1903 in Hamburg with the express goal of maintaining seagoing vessels and training young people, both physically and temperamentally, to become skilled mariners. The German crew looks to be the youngest in the race, with an average age of 22.5, but has experience that belies their years as all have offshore experience from racing long and short distances as well as making passages on the Mediterranean, Baltic and North Seas.

“This specific team never sailed together before,” said Eike Holst whose third Transatlantic Race will be his first as skipper. “We all knew each other and almost everyone sailed together somehow but never in this constellation. This is caused by the structure of our club. For example, me and my navigator, Max Wilckens, sailed together exactly in these positions in the 2010 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, finishing second in our division, and we sailed together with one other crewmember, Katrin Hilbert, in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race when Max was one of the watch officers and I sailed as bowman.”

Holst selected the team to undertake the Transatlantic Race 2011 “with good advice of Max,” and noted that while most of the crew participated together in an ISAF Survival at Sea Seminar in March as well as in “teambuilding meetings” during the winter, the first time they all sailed together was in April. When Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg, launched in 1999, departs with the 15 other boats during the second start (June 29), Holst and his crew will have spent close to three weeks in Newport making their final preparations for the race.

“Probably we’ll be the youngest crew in the race this year and we’re really curious what the race will bring,” said Holst. “In long distance racing everything is possible, so let’s see what a young crew will achieve with an ‘old’ boat.”

Learning of the German entry in the Transatlantic Race 2011 was all the motivation Ralf Steitz, President of the USMMA Sailing Foundation, needed to form the Oakcliff AAOT earlier this year. Steitz brought his long-held desire to establish a youth-driven ocean racing movement to fruition with the backing of other leaders on the U.S. sailing scene, and, once the program was announced, saw 250 applications pour in over four weeks from sailors anxious to seize the opportunity. The average age of the 14 Oakcliff AAOT members who will race aboard Vanquish is 23.75, and, like the young German team, with just a few short months to prepare they will get a crash-course in working as a cohesive unit during their participation in Storm Trysail Club’s Around Block Island Race and the Annapolis to Newport Race prior to making the third start (July 3) of the Transatlantic Race 2011.

“I really enjoy sailing offshore,” said Nate Fast (Noank, Conn.), who will celebrate his 20th birthday two days before starting the race and is the youngest member of Oakcliff AAOT. “I did the 2008 Bermuda Race, which was my introduction to the high level and complexity of offshore sailing. Being the youngest means I have to work that much harder, but that will probably help me because I’ll be trying to prove myself. Offshore sailing is a lot of fun and a great experience and I hope to continue with it after this race.”

Both the American and German teams qualify as youth entries in the Transatlantic Race 2011, meaning that at least 50% of the crew is age 25 or younger on the date of that yacht’s start in the race. In addition to respective class honors, the two teams will vie for the Venona Trophy, which will be awarded to the highest placing youth entry.

“Of course we want to win this trophy!,” said Holst. “But it’s going be really hard work for us. The Oakcliff AAOT has a really young but very professional crew (some of them are sailing in the RC44 circuit regularly) and for sure the faster and newer boat. Crossing the finishing line in front of them would be great but probably as hard as beating them by corrected time. Of course we also have quite a lot of experience in offshore sailing but in a different way. The focus in our club lies on good seamanship and education for becoming skilled mariners but this doesn’t imply that we’re becoming professional offshore sailors. But besides that we’re having regular contact with Oakcliff AAOT and are looking forward to meeting them and having fun together in Newport.”

More about the Transatlantic Race 2011
The Transatlantic Race 2011 charts a 2,975 nautical mile course from Newport, R.I., to Lizard Point, South Cornwall, England. Pre-start activities will take place at the New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, while awards will be presented at the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Cowes Castle clubhouse on the Isle of Wight. Three separate starts – June 26, June 29 and July 3 – will feature 30 boats ranging from 40 to 289 feet in length. In addition to winners in seven classes (IRC Class 1 Racer, IRC Class 2 Racer, IRC Class 3 Racer/Cruiser, IRC Class 4 Racer/Cruiser, Classic, Class 40, and Open), whichever yacht finishes the course with the fastest elapsed time will set the benchmark for a new racing record from Newport to Lizard Point, to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Council. Rolex watches will be awarded to the record holder and the overall winner (on corrected time) under IRC.

The Transatlantic Race 2011 is also the centerpiece of the Atlantic Ocean Racing Series (AORS), which includes the Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race, RORC Caribbean 600, the Annapolis to Newport Race, Rolex Fastnet Race, Biscay Race and the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Of the seven races in the AORS, three races, including the TR 2011 must be completed to qualify for a series victory. Each race is weighted equally in overall series scoring with the exception of TR 2011, which is weighted 1.5 times. All entered yachts are scored using their two best finishes in addition to the TR 2011. Awards for the AORS will be presented in November, 2011, at the New York Yacht Club’s Annual Awards Dinner in Manhattan.

For more information, visit www.transatlanticrace.org

TR 2011 Roster of Entries
Yacht Name, Skipper, Hometown

Ambersail, Simonas Steponavicius, Vilnius, Lithuania
Beau Geste, Karl Kwok, Hong Kong, China
British Soldier, Lt. Col. Nick Bate, Falmouth, Cornwall, U.K.
Carina, Rives Potts, Essex, Conn., USA
Concise 2, Ned Collier-Wakefield, Oxford, U.K.
Cutlass, Nick Halmos, Palm Beach, Fla., USA
Dawn Star, William N. Hubbard III /William N. Hubbard IV, both New York, N.Y., USA
Dragon, Michael Hennessy, Mystic, Conn., USA
ICAP Leopard, Clarke Murphy, New York, N.Y., USA
Jaqueline IV, Robert Forman, Bay Shore, N.Y., USA
Jazz, Nigel King, East London, U.K.
Kamoa’e, Eric LeCoq, Bridgeport, Conn., USA
Maltese Falcon, Elena Ambrosiadou, Monaco
Norddeutcshe Vermoegen Hamburg, Eike Holst , Hamburg, Germany
Nordwind, Hans Albrecht, Munich, Germany
Ourson Rapide, Paolo Roasenda, Vedano al Lambro, Italy
Persevere, Bugs Baer/Colin Rath, Madison, Conn. / Darien, Conn., USA
Phaedo, Lloyd Thornburg, St. Barthelemy
Prodigy, Chris Frost, Durban, South Africa
PUMA Ocean Racing mar mostro, Ken Read, Newport, R.I., USA
Rambler 100, George David, Hartford, Conn., USA
Sasha, Albrecht Peters, Hamburg, Germany
Scho-ka-kola, Uwe Lebens, Hamburg, Germany
Shakti, Christoph Avenarius / Gorm Iver Gondesen, Hamburg, Germany / Flensburg, Germany
Snow Lion, Lawrence Huntington, New York, N.Y., USA
Sojana, Peter Harrison, U.K.
Sumurun, Bob Towbin, New York, N.Y., USA
Vanquish, USMMA Oakcliff All American Offshore Team, Kings Point, N.Y., USA
Varuna, Jens Kellinghausen, Hamburg, Germany
Zaraffa, Huntington Sheldon, M.D., Shelburne, Vt., USA

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While the water views from anywhere along Newport Harbor (R.I.) are already magnificent, they will be absolutely breathtaking in late June and early July when 32 ocean-going yachts set sail in the Transatlantic Race 2011, which charts a course that stretches 2,975 nautical miles from Newport to Lizard Point, at the end of a peninsula in South Cornwall (UK).  This history-making event is organized by the Royal Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Ocean Racing Club and Storm Trysail Club, with pre-start activities taking place at the New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport and the awards taking place at the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Cowes Castle clubhouse on the Isle of Wight.

 The fleet runs the gamut from sleek traditional designs, such as the 94’ William Fife-designed Sumurun, to sophisticated super yachts, such as the 289’ custom Perini Navi clipper sailing yacht Maltese Falcon, with three masts so tall (190’) they barely clear Newport’s towering Pell Bridge, which serves as a gateway to Rhode Island’s famous City by the Sea.  And as those who are veterans of ocean racing will attest, crossing the Atlantic Ocean is no small feat, especially when storms, testing seas and even icebergs (still a danger in the North Atlantic in June) are included in the mix of challenges encountered.

 “What I find so incredible with open-ocean racing is that there are very few things that you can do these days that are the same as what people did 400 years ago,” said Sumurun’s owner Robert Towbin . “You have such a sense of history when you’re out there and for a couple weeks you get to feel, in effect, the same way Columbus felt.”

 Towbin has sailed Sumurun in two previous transatlantic races, winning the Classic Division in the 2005 Rolex Transatlantic Challenge and taking overall victory in the 1997 Atlantic Challenge Cup presented by Rolex.  He is currently preparing his classic yacht, which was built in 1914, to endure what will be its first challenge of the 2011 sailing season.  “If you have an older boat, a race of this complexity takes a lot out of it, so we are putting a lot of work into it to get it up to date,” said Towbin.

Three separate starts – June 26, June 29, and July 3 – are planned (Sumurun will be in the first start) to “stagger” the yachts of different sizes and ability so that they will arrive in England in proximity to each other. Challenging their crews both mentally and physically, the larger boats hope to finish the race in 8 to 12 days, while the smaller boats may take up to 18 to 22 days to finish. 

 In addition to class winners, whichever yacht finishes the course with the fastest elapsed time will set the benchmark for a new  racing record from Newport to Lizard Point, to be ratified by the World Speed Sailing Council. Rolex watches will be awarded to the record holder and the overall winner (on corrected time) under IRC.

 It’s anyone’s guess which of the true racing thoroughbreds entered might prevail.  Among them, scheduled to depart in the final race group, are the VOR 70 crewed by PUMA Ocean Racing Team, the Newport-based second-place finisher in the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race and entrant in the next edition as well; Rambler 100, George David’s  maxi rocket ship that has been tearing up race courses since the beginning of the year, including breaking the record for the RORC Caribbean 600 and taking line honors at the Pineapple Cup-Montego Bay Race; and ICAP Leopard, which holds the current record from Ambrose Light to Lizard Point for monohulls using powered sailing systems. 

 And if that’s not impressive enough, there will be two all-youth teams competing, one from Germany (aboard the Andrews 56 Norddeutsche Vermoegen in race start two) and one from the U.S.A. (the All American Offshore Team’s IRC 65 Vanquish in race start three).  In addition, four Class 40s, high-performance monohulls designed specifically for shorthanded sailing, will have their own class (starting in the second group).

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After four days of racing in a variety of conditions across a mix of around-the-buoys and distance, New York Yacht Club’s seventh biennial Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex came to an end this afternoon. Light winds threatened to cancel the last day of racing for the 35 competing boats, but by 2pm Newport’s classic southerly sea breeze filled in against a stubborn northerly and offered suitable conditions for racing. All classes raced on a four-leg windward/leeward course, and at the end of the day the Southern Cross 52 Vela Veloce was determined the best performing boat and was named the 2010 Rolex US-IRC National Champion. Its owner and skipper, Richard Oland (St. John, New Brunswick, CAN), was presented with a specially engraved Rolex Yacht-Master at this evening’s Rolex Gala and Awards Party held at Harbour Court.
“This is a tremendous thrill for us,” said Oland, who won his IRC class in March’s International Rolex Regatta. He pointed out that competing against all of the boats in the fleet is exciting. “That’s the secret of IRC. The reason it’s become so good is because it allows for innovation. If you look at the results, and you look at boats you see how close they are. Like in our class, class 2, we were all within 50 feet.”

The overall winner was calculated by comparing all entries based on a formula of average seconds per nautical mile. In determining the overall winner, the NYYC Sailing Office noted that the time separating winner Vela Veloce from the second-place overall was 13/100s of a second.

Winning the class wasn’t enough; it was the overall performance that counted. Not much of a consolation to Steve Benjamin (South Norwalk, Conn.) and his team onboard his Tripp 41 Robotic Oncology, which won IRC Class 3 and finished in second place overall.

“We knew we won our class quite easily,” said Benjamin. “We knew we had a good shot at the overall title. Today was great, but we were nervous because there was so much on the line. We have been trying to win with this boat for the past five years, and although we have had some success there was all this added pressure.”

Vela Veloce won IRC Class 2 with an impressive score line of four first places and two seconds. In second place was Captivity, George Sakellaris’s (Framingham, Mass.) Farr 60, 10 points back. Although Blair Brown’s (Padanaram, Mass.) 55-foot Sforzando won today’s final race, it wasn’t enough to move up in the standings, and it finished in third.Robotic Oncology finished the regatta with five wins and one fifth-place finish in six races. After racing, Benjamin’s oncologist Dr. Samadi of Mount Sinai Hospital, who was on the water watching today’s race was clearly impressed with his patient’s racing skills. “The way that he worked with his team is the same as when you do robotic surgery. You have to work together with your team in the same way. Steve did an amazing job.”

John Cooper’s (Springfield, Mo.) Mills 43 Cool Breeze placed second in IRC Class 3, while Philip Lotz’s (Newport, R.I.) NYYC Swan 42 Arethusa finished in third.

Daniel Meyers’s (Boston, Mass.) J/V66 Numbers took a second in today’s only race and held onto the lead in IRC Class 1. George David’s (Hartford, Conn.) Rambler finished in second place, while Ray Roberts’s (Sydney, Australia) STP65 Evolution Racing is in third.

IRC Class 5 winner was Storm, Rick Lyall’s (Wilton, Conn.) J/109 that moved up to win the overall class by placing third in today’s race. “We only started racing in IRC, and this is our fourth or fifth IRC event. It’s a very good measurement and rating system. We seem to have a competitive boat. We worked really hard at making sure we had a good configuration in the sail plan, and we sailed really well. To have beat Carina, the winner of Newport Bermuda Race, in the Annual Regatta and now here. Well, that’s top-notch competition. You know, Rush beat us earlier this year, and it’s been back and forth with them. They put in a really good effort.”

Bill Sweetser’s (Annapolis, Md.) J/109 Rush finished in second, while Nordlys, Robert Schwartz’s (Port Washington, N.Y.) J/109, finished in third by winning the last race.

Lyall went on to give credit to the split-format of Race Week. “The first half of the week was our J/109 North American championship,” he said. “And that was very tough and competitive racing. Coming into it I was the defending champion. I was disappointed we didn’t’ defend, but Gut Feeling is a bunch of great sailors and we take no shame in losing to them. In the IRC event, we had a really terrific distance race. You can’t ever beat a race like that with 25 knots of wind. We were going 14 knots; it was fantastic racing!”

Christopher Dragon held onto its IRC Class 4 lead going into today’s final race, finished second and held on to win overall. “To tell you the truth, we were hoping for no race,” joked owner and skipper Andrew Weiss (Mamaroneck, N.Y.) “It turned out pretty well. The breeze filled in, and the wind wound up being steadier than yesterday.”

The J/122 won by one point over Craig Albrecht’s (Sea Cliff, N.J.) Farr 395 Avalanche. “All we did for today was cover Avalanche and the other J/122, Partnership,” said Weiss. “We sailed more conservatively, after being over the line early yesterday. To win the series was our goal.”

About the Rolex US-IRC National Championship

With the concept of moving the Rolex US-IRC National Championship around the country to encourage growth in IRC fleets, the 2009 championship was run in conjunction with St. Francis Yacht Club’s Rolex Big Boat Series, in San Francisco, Calif. and crowned a winner in Vincitore, the Custom 52 owned by Jim Mitchell (Zurich, SUI/Chicago, Ill.). In 2008, the championship was sailed in conjunction with the 48th Little Traverse Yacht Club Regatta and One Design Series, in Harbor Springs, Mich. and won by Stripes, the Great Lakes 70 owned by Bill Martin, (Ann Arbor, Mich.), and in 2007, the inaugural championship was held as part of the Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex and won by Blue Yankee the Reichel/Pugh 66 owned by Bob and Farley Towse (Stamford, Conn.).

The event is part of the 2010 US-IRC Gulf Stream Series http://www.us-irc.org.

New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex
Rolex US-IRC National Championship| July 21-24, 2010

Final Results, July 24 – Day 4 of racing

One race completed (six in the series)

Overall Rolex US-IRC National Championship

1. Vela Veloce, Southern Cross, Richard Oland, Saint John, Maine
2. Robotic Oncology, Tripp 41, Stephen Benjamin, South Norwalk, Conn.
3. Numbers, JV 66, Daniel M. Meyers, Boston, Mass.
4. Christopher Dragon, J122, Andrew Weiss, Mamaroneck, N.Y.
5. Storm, J/109, Rick Lyall, Wilton, Conn.

Class Winners

Position, Boat Name, Boat Type, Skipper, Hometown, Race 1-R2-R3-R4-R5-6, Total points

Class – IRC 1

1. Numbers, JV 66, Daniel M. Meyers, Boston, Mass, 2-2-1-1-1-2, 9
2. Rambler, Custom 90, George David, Hartford, Conn., 1-1-2-3-3-1, 11
3. Evolution Racing, STP65, Ray Roberts, Alexandria, AUS, 3-3-3-2-2-3, 16

Class – IRC 2

1. Vela Veloce, Southern Cross, Richard Oland, Saint John, Maine, 1-1-1-1-2-2, 8
3. Captivity, Farr, George Sakellaris, Framingham, Mass., 2-2-8(DNF)-2-1-3, 18
2. Sforzando, Kerr 55, Blair, Brown, Padanaram, Mass., 4-3-4-3-4-1, 19
5. Snow Lion, Ker 50, Lawrence Huntington, New York, N.Y., 3-4-6-5-3-7, 28
4. Privateer, Cookson 50, Ronald O’Hanley, Boston, Mass., 5-6-2-7-5-6, 31
6. Rima2, R/P 55, John Brim, New York, N.Y., 6-7-3-4-6-5, 31
7. Anema&Core, JV52, Ennio Staffini, Annapolis, Md., 7-5-5-6-7-4, 34

Class – IRC 3

1. Robotic Oncology, Tripp 41, Stephen Benjamin, South Norwalk , Conn., 1-1-5-1-1-1, 10
2. Cool Breeze, Mills 43 Custom, John Cooper, Springfield, Mo., 2-2-4-3-2-2, 15
3. Arethusa, NYYC 42, Philip Lotz, Newport, R.I., 3-4-1-2-3-3, 16
4. The Cat Came Back, NYYC Swan 42, Lincoln Mossop, Bristol, R.I., 7-7-2-4-4-4, 28
5. Devocean, Swan 45, Stephen DeVoe, Jamestown, R.I., 4-3-3-6-6-6, 28
6. Big Booty, Lutra 42, Pat Eudy, Charlotte, N.C., 5-5-7-5-5-5, 32
7. Temptation, Taylor 45, Arthur Santry, Arlington, Va., 6-6-6-7-7-8(DNF), 40

Class – IRC 4

1. Christopher Dragon, J/122, Andrew Weiss, Mamaroneck, N.Y., 1-1-1-3-4-2, 12
2. Avalanche, Farr 395, Craig Albrecht, Sea Cliff, N.Y., 2-2-4-2-2-1, 13
3. Partnership, J/122, David & MaryEllen Tortorello, Fairfield, Conn., 5-4-2-1-3-3, 18
4. Act One, Sloop, Charlie Milligan /Tom Roche, Newport, R.I., 3-7-3-4-7-5, 29
5. Alliance, Summit 35, Dominick Porco, New York, N.Y., 7-3-8-5-1-7, 31
6. Indra, Beneteau First 44.7, Thomas Linkas, South Hamilton, Mass., 8-8-6-6-5, 33
7. Settler, Cust. Peterson 42, Thomas Rich, Middletown, R.I., 4-6-7-8-6-6, 37
8. White Gold, J/44, James D. Bishop, New York, N.Y., 8-5-5-7-8-DNS, 42

Class – IRC 5

1. Storm, J/109, Rick Lyall, Wilton, Conn., 1-4-3(RDG)-2-4-3, 17
2. Rush, J/109, Bill, Sweetser, Annapolis, Md., 3-2-4-1-3-4, 17
3. Nordlys, J/109, Robert Schwartz, Port Washington, N.Y., 4-7-6-3-1-1, 22
4. Carina, Cstm Sloop, Rives Potts, Essex, Conn., 7-1-1-6-7-2, 24
5. Cowboy, N/M 46, Isdale/Cochran, Greenwich, Conn., 2-5-8-4-2-6, 27
6. Good Girl, J/100, Robert W. Armstrong, Christiansted, St. Croix, USVI, 5-6-2-5-5-10(DNS), 33
7. Eclipse, Corby 33, Dave Kellogg, Oyster Bay, N.Y., 6-3-9-8-8-5, 39
8. Out of Reach III, X-35, Louis Nees, New York, N.Y., 8-8-5-7-6-10 (DNS), 44
9. Blue Rider, J/109, Eric Kamisher, Norwalk, Conn., 9-9-3-9-9-10 (DNC), 49

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