Wednesday, July 26, 2006

J/109 North Americans

The inaugural J/109 North American Championships lived up to its billing as the pinnacle event for the rapidly growing J/109 class, as 19 boats from 8 states competed in a 10 race, no discard series during the New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport. Jon Halbert and his all-Texan crew (Dallas, TX) aboard VITESSE aced the last race to end up on top, ahead of Al Minella's RELENTLESS (Greenwich, CT) and Ted Herlihy aboard GUT FEELING from South Dartmouth, MA. The competitors saw the full range of conditions as Tropical Storm Beryl produced large swells for the first two days. In other race week action, Tom Coates and MASQUERADE topped a competitive 22 boat J/105 fleet, with Phil and Wendy Lotz on INDEFATIGABLE and Joerg Esdorn on KINSCEM finishing 2nd and 3rd. http://nyyc.org