J Sailors and friends dominate the U.S. Qualifying Series for New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. Surprised? The regatta saw Eastern Yacht Club's team, skippered by Bill Lynn (Marblehead, Mass.) and crewed by his son, Peter Lynn, and Rick Myers (both Marblehead) and Alden Reid (Bedford, Mass), besting 24 other prominent U.S. YC's for the right to compete in this coming year's New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup. During the first two days of racing on Narragansett Bay, in which 24 of the nation’s foremost yacht clubs were split equally into fleets designated Red or Blue, the competitors sailed half of each day’s races in either NYYC’s Sonars or Sail Newport’s J/22s.
Said Lynn of the regatta: "There's so many good sailors here it's ridiculous. If you miss one shift you lose five boats, and you look around and all of a sudden you're in 11th and there are 12 boats. It's really close racing. There’s so many good sailors here it’s ridiculous. If you miss one shift you lose five boats, and you look around and all of a sudden you’re in 11th and there are 12 boats. It’s really close racing.
Lynn also noted that, "Winning is not the objective. Not losing is the objective." But win he did after six races on the final day in which Eastern Yacht Club placed no worse than fourth to end the series with 40 points.
"It was a nice day of sailing, pretty shifty," said Lynn shortly before the awards presentation at Harbour Court, the NYYC Clubhouse. "We were tied for first going into the day, and we didn’t blow it more than anything else. We stayed consistent, stayed in the top-five. Our goal for the week was to just qualify the club."
Annapolis Yacht Club was second overall in the Gold fleet standings with 50 points. Skipper Peter McChesney, with Shane Zwingleberg and Scott Snyder (all Annapolis) as crew, was a fan of the conditions that had stymied some teams. "The current was good for us when it was strong at the starting line because we had good starts. On the Chesapeake we’re used to current and some of the lake people [competing here] are not. We were up on the line, and other people were getting pushed back. It was helpful for us." McChesney felt that it would not be an easy feat to be one of the U.S. teams that qualify because there were so many great sailors participating. "Our mantra was ‘first is third and third is first’ for this regatta. We’re very pumped to be where we are. The competition is fantastic. Racing is extremely tight, and the whole philosophy of the regatta is fantastic. It’s an honor to come to this regatta," he concluded.
Taking third place in the Gold fleet standings with 67 points was the team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club skippered by Payson Infelise (Newport Beach, Calif.). "It’s tough out there," Infelise said at the end of the final day of the event. With Chris Raab (Long Beach, Calif.) and Reid Vitarelli (Newport Beach) crewing, Newport Harbor won the first race of the day and struggled a bit before closing the series with another win. "I had a little trouble getting off the starting line today which was uncharacteristic of me, but we pulled through with some good tactics and boat handling and were able to pull off top-three and that’s what we’re here for. We were thrown out of race 10, which we had won, after we crossed a buoy line next to the Naval War College. Unfortunately we weren’t really paying attention at the time. We were all racing to get to the right hand side ‘cause that was definitely favored to get out of the current and that’s the way it turned out."
Although Infelise had sailed Sonars at NYYC during a championship in 2007, he was surprised by the current. "The last time I sailed here it wasn’t as big a factor. But it’s definitely tough racing out there, definitely a tough competition. Most of my sailing has been as the middle/tactician, so driving is kind of new to me; I think we surprised some people."
The event consumed its fair share of internet bandwidth over its four-day run. Newport Harbor Yacht Club kept fans at home up-to-date via Twitter (NHYCsail), while Fishing Bay Yacht Club posted regular updates to their Facebook page, Kattack followed the racing in real time, and Brad Dellenbaugh, NYYC’s sailing director, posted regular updates to the event blog from the race course.
The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series is sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, with the support of Sailing World, Shumway Marine, J/Boats and Team One Newport.
For more NYYC Invite Series sailing information.
http://nyyc.org/2010USICQualifying/
