SCIMITAR's Cutting Edge Team Wins J/105s
(Marblehead, MA- August 27-29)- The remnants of Tropical Storm Danny, which brought 25-30 knots of breeze out of the northeast on Saturday, turned the PHRF New Englands into a two-day event. Despite no racing on Saturday, each Race Committee was able to complete five races, making for an excellent championship for 104 boats entered in this year's PHRF Championship.
"We were anticipating winds of 30 knots or greater combined with 8-foot seas for Saturday and we put together a contingency plan. At 6 p.m. Friday night we had to call it off for Saturday and I think everyone is glad we did," said Principal Race Office Ken Adam of the Corinthian Yacht Club. "But, we got in six races over two days which the sailors all seemed to be happy with. The three race committees from the Corinthian, Eastern and Boston yacht clubs really worked together as a team with the safety and welfare of the sailors coming first."
The most competitive of all the fleets at the New Englands was the 22-strong J105 fleet. Henry Brauer and Stewart Neff and their crew aboard SCIMITAR won the J/105s in the most impressive fashion - winning four of five races and scoring just seven points in the competitive 22-boat J/105 fleet. Taking second in the J/105s was Peter & Doug Morgan's STEEL AWAY. Third was Ken Colburn's very well sailed GHOST from Portland, ME with local hotshot Bob Slattery aboard.
Brauer and Neff sailed in a local one-design keelboat fleet in Marblehead for 15 years and just this past July started racing in the larger J/105s. Their results have been nothing short of remarkable. "We felt it was time for a change so we sold our old boat and moved to a bigger boat," Neff said. "In our debut J/105 regatta, we were third overall at Marblehead Race Week and first place here today in the J/105 New Englands. It was fun to have a fellow Tufts Jumbo classmate, Stuart Johnstone, aboard to help on speed and tactics." The J/105 is one of the most dynamic racing fleets out of Marblehead today. "We have a lot more one design sailors coming into the New England J/105 fleet who really know how to work their way around a race course," said Fritz Koopman of Salem who raced with fifth-place finisher Mike Royer of Beverly. "I think the J/105 fleet has a lot more talent coming in and this has made the racing really interesting and far more challenging," Royer added.
On the PHRF handicap fleet front, in PHRF Class 2, Seamus Hourihan's J/120 RUFFIAN finished fifth and two J/130s battled it out to finish seventh and eighth, respectively, Kris Kristiansens's SAGA and Jeff Eberle's CILISTA. In PHRF Class 3, Chris Zibailo's SUPERSTITION was third followed by Raymond Janney's J/35 DIE FLEDERMAUS to round out the top 5. In PHRF Class 4, Ward Blodgett's J/33 SIRROCO was fifth and one point back was Adam Saidla's J/100 MOOSE DROOL. In PHRF Class 7, John Caldwell and his renowned "merry makers" (a.k.a. party animals) aboard the J/24 BLUE FOX handily won with two firsts. Fellow J sailors Jon Lakcs on his J/30 VIVA and Bob Cunningham on the J/30 RUFFIAN were fourth and fifth.