The J/122s are hosting their North Americans and have a solid turnout with past East Coast and North American Champions attending. Look again on the leader-board for the well-sailed family crew led by Andrew Weiss on CHRISTOPHER DRAGON. Contending for honors as well will be Jim Callahan and Mike Bruno on-board WINGS, plus offshore champions like the Tortorello's PARTNERSHIP and David Murphy's PUGWASH rapidly climbing the learning-curve will be in the hunt, too. With all eight boats being well-sailed and fast, there will be a heavy burden placed on each team's crew to execute in such tight quarters racing and, most importantly, for the tacticians to go in the right direction and keep their boats out of trouble.
The J/109 class is holding its North American championship and have thirteen boats on the starting line to challenge defending champion STORM, owned by Rick Lyall (Wilton, Conn.) and 2008 champion GUT FEELING, owned by Ted Herlihy (South Dartmouth, Mass.). Like the J/122s, there are many boats that have the capability to take the top three spots. Amongst those that should be vying for contention will be Bill Sweetser's RUSH, the Filipelli's CAMINOS and Rob Salks' PICANTE. As part of the J/109s East Coast Tour, it's currently RUSH and STORM dueling it out for a "case of xxx (t.b.d.)" and taking the trophy off (or defending it from going off) the wall at Annapolis YC!With twenty-two boats, the J/105s are by far the largest one-design class at the Rolex NYYC Race Week. And, the competition will certainly be hot as this event marks the second regatta to score for the J/105 Narragansett Bay Championship. With such a diverse group all loaded with plenty of local knowledge and talent, it's hard to determine who will be near the top of the leader-board. Nevertheless, look for class champions like Damian Emery on ECLIPSE, Joerg Esdorn on KINCSEM, Brian Keane on SAVASANA, Henry Brauer/ Stew Neff on SCIMITAR, Bruce Stone on POWER PLAY and Chris and Carolyn Groobey on JAVA to be dueling for the silverware.
For the second half of the event, NYYC is hosting the US IRC Nationals. J's participating in this event include the Torterello's J/122 PARTNERSHIP, Andrew Weiss's J/122 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, Jim Bishop's J/44 WHITE GOLD, Schulman's J/44 CHARLIE V, Bob Armstrong's notoriously fun and fast J/100 GOOD GIRL (where's the "bad girl"?) and a fleet of J/109s including class leaders Rick Lyall's STORM, Bill Sweetser's RUSH, the Kenny/Ames team sailing GOSSIP, Schwartz's NORDLYS and the Kamisher's BLUE RIDER. They will be up against some formidable IRC-optimized competition, so it will be a good test of boats and crew. For more Rolex NYYC Race Week sailing information