* J/105 Sailor Ken Colburn representing NYYC in Swan 42 Invite- New York Yacht Club-member Ken Colburn and his NYYC
Swan 42 Apparition are representing the NYYC at the Invitational Cup
presented by Rolex. Colburn, of Dover, Mass. and Southport, ME, got
there by virtue of decisively winning the Swan 42 class at the Annual
Regatta presented by Rolex in June and winning (on a tie breaker) the
NYYC Swan 42 US Nationals in July. On the last day of the latter regatta
a full 18 points separated Colburn and Apparition from NYYC-member Phil
Lotz and Arethusa. They were practically in different area codes. Then
Lotz, the successful defender of the 2009 Invitational Cup, won two
races that final day (July 17th ) and scored a sixth to even the score.
However, overall Colburn displayed an amazing five first-place finishes
to Lotz’s two to break the tie. Looking at the big picture Colburn had
84 points after 19 races in these two qualifying regattas to Lotz’s 98
points. Thus, the NYYC has a new standard-bearer. A total of six NYYC
skippers competed in the selection series to represent the club for the
2011 Invitational Cup.Colburn sailed for Brown University in the mid-70s; he was Commodore of the Brown Sailing Club as well as Vice President of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association from 1974-75. From there, he went to graduate school at the Yale School of Management and then to Wall Street with First Boston. He began raising his family first in Westport, Conn. and then in the Boston area, where he worked for First Boston, then Raytheon as Vice President of International Finance and then as the founding Chief Operating Officer of Highfields Capital Management. “I left college sailing and because of work and family responsibilities didn’t regularly race again for 25 years,” Colburn allowed. “It was very challenging to get back into the sport after so many years away.”
He purchased a used J/105 named Witch in 2000 that he subsequently replaced with a new J/105 he named Ghost (the beginning of a naming theme). He was attracted to the class’s strict one-design philosophy, owner-drivers, sail limitations and its asymmetrical spinnakers. He kept the boat mostly in Maine, where his family vacationed. Success didn’t come instantly or easily but it came. With Ghost he won locally in Maine (winning the Maine PHRF and One Design Championships in his class for four years in a row), then regionally finishing first in the PHRF New England Championship in 2006, which crowned his first of two seasons as the J/105 Fleet 2 Champion (Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire and Maine). He would also travel to more national venues for the additional challenge and regularly went to Block Island Race Week (finishing third in 2008) and Key West Race Week (finishing second in 2010). “Block Island Race Week and Key West Race Week offered the challenge of larger competitive fleets with boats from around the country. It was always great to race against boats you weren’t familiar with.”
With the NYYC Swan 42 Apparition, he placed first in class in Block Island Race Week in 2009 and 2011 and fourth in Class at Key West Race Week in 2008 (his first regatta ever on the boat). He has also raced Apparition in Maine winning the overnight Monhegan Race in 2009 and the MS Regatta in 2008 and 2010.
Colburn didn’t enter the NYYC’s defender-elimination trials for the IC in 2009, although he followed it with intense interest. His Apparition was chartered by the team from the Royal Yacht Squadron, in England. “To some extent I found myself rooting for them. Think about it; it’s my boat. I wanted them to do well. Yes, the New York Yacht Club is my club, and I wanted them to win, but I was rooting for Apparition out there as well. The crew of the Royal Yacht Squadron made a point of saying that they wanted to respect the boat and would drive it hard but safely. We became friends. I watched the final day of racing, went to the banquet at the end and sat at their table. It was great fun.”
Yacht-club affiliation and other rules become even stricter for the Invitational Cup. For example, eight members of the crew, which can number up to 11 (depending on weight), must be members of the yacht club they represent. Also, all but two of the crew must hold a passport from the country of the invited team’s primary location. Other rules say all crew (except for the owner’s rep.) must be amateurs. One-design sails are supplied by the organizer, the rigs are locked down and the use of instruments is limited.
“The New York Yacht Club is scrupulous about leveling the playing field,” said Colburn. “They’ve taken away any hardware advantages (rig, sails, etc.) I may have had. For instance, we had the boat superbly well-tuned this year and felt we could dial Apparition in for the full range of conditions. Now that’s gone. We’ve got to figure out how to make the sails and boat go with the rig locked – just like everyone else out there.”
Colburn, now semi-retired, is a private investor and is on the board of Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. In 2009, he spent a year as a Fellow (Ginny as a participating partner) at Harvard in the Advanced Leadership Initiative Program. It is for “highly accomplished, experienced leaders who want to apply their talents to solve significant social problems, including those affecting health and welfare, children and the environment, and focus on community and public service ...”
It’s with great anticipation that Colburn approaches the second biennial NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex that starts September 11th. There will be 22 yacht club teams from 16 nations from six different continents competing at the highest level in amateur sports. “I think the Invitational Cup brings something exciting and new to sailing as a truly international club vs. club Corinthian event in one-design big boats,” he said. “It may exist in other places, but I don’t quite know where.” Contributed by Michael Levitt, Communications Director NYYC
