(Rye, NY)- The American YC Fall Series concluded with some amazing weather conditions both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Sunday's racing in particular had some incredibly strong breezes out of the northeast, with "condo-jumping" waves blowing at least 15-25 knots.
For the one-design classes, the two weekend event was especially challenging as tight fleet racing often brought about large changes in positions at each mark rounding. Nevertheless, in the twenty boat J/105 class, Joerg Esdorn's KINCSEM won with Damian Emery's ECLIPSE in second. Lying third was a good performance by Paul Strauch's ANDIAMO. The eight boat strong J/44s had great competition, all boats sailing with class sails. After eleven races, the cream was surely going to rise to the top in this class as no one boat can dominate with the boats being so even. Even then, Bill Ketcham's MAXINE notched four 1sts in their scores to grab first place by just one point! Giving Bill a serious run for the money was Jeff Willis' CHALLENGE IV with a hotshot crew aboard, some of them from Newport! Jim Bishop's renowned veteran campaigner, GOLD DIGGER, finally did manage to dig themselves out of a hole from the first weekend's racing to grab 3rd overall. Gotta hand it to Jim, his vision for one-design class sailing in big boats continues to be a formula for long-term success-- still the largest one-design class to sail to Bermuda for over 15 years!
Over in the IRC/ PHRF handicap world, Rick Lyall's very successful J/109 STORM finished third in IRC 35 Class. In the IRC 45 Class, Tom Carroll's J/133 SIREN SONG won over Ron Richman's J/133 ANTIDOTE. Finally, the extraordinary HUSTLER, John and Tony Esposito's masthead J/29, absolutely crushed their PHRF division, rattling off eight 1sts and just two 2nds in a total of ten races-- call it vaporization (or atomization?) of their competition. For more American YC Fall Series Regatta sailing information.
