(Rye, NY)- The annual spring rite of passage for the start of the Long
Island Sound offshore sailing season was finally completed this past
weekend. Hosted by the American Yacht Club in Rye, NY, the excellent
turnout was helped by gorgeous, cool, spring weather conditions with
sunny days prevailing for both weekends of sailing.In IRC I Class, the J/133 ANTIDOTE sailed by Ron Richman had a terrific series and managed to finish second against a fleet of basically completely custom, tricked-out forty footers, included in this fleet were a Ker 40, Farr 40s, X41, King 40, Farr 400 and Ker 11.3. Great to see a "family cruiser-racer" come out on top over outright racing machines.
In IRC 2 Class, the J/122's were fighting hard for the top five. In the end, third was Steve Furnary's PATRIOT followed by WINGS sailed by Mike Bruno, Tom Boyle and Jim Callahan in fifth.
The J/44s continued to have a wonderful time racing. This time, Jim Bishop's GOLD DIGGER team proved themselves as one of the class leaders. Finishing the series with 1sts, 2nds and 3rds enabled them to climb up the ladder fast and win the regatta overall in the J/44 One-Design Class. Second with three 1sts and a 2nd on the last weekend was Phil Gutin's BEAGLE. Third was Bill Ketcham's MAXINE, fourth Jeff Willis' CHALLENGE IV and fifth Don & Rick Rave's RESOLUTE.
The J/105 one-designs were having yet another epic battle for "top dog" on Long Island Sound. But the second weekend proved to be the real testing ground for this fleet. KINCSEM took the lead in the AYC Springs Series on Saturday and narrowly held on on Sunday to win the regatta over Sean Doyle's KESTREL. The Joerg Esdorn/Duncan Hennes team on KINCSEM finished the regatta with a scant 25 points over 11 races. But KESTREL also ended with 25 points, thanks to a 2-3 finish on Sunday versus a 1-6 for KINCSEM. The tiebreaker went to KINCSEM. Over the 11 races, KINCSEM finished ahead of KESTREL 6 times, while KESTREL had the better finish 5 times. KINCSEM won four races; KESTREL three. Both teams threw out a 6 as their worst finish (KINCSEM had two 6s). Doesn't get much tighter than that. Paul Beaudin's LOULOU finished the regatta in third, followed by Kevin Grainger's GUMPTION3 in fourth, and George and Alex Wilbanks's REVELATION in fifth.
In PHRF 1 Class, the J/111 ANDIAMO sailed by Paul Strauch rattled off a few more 1sts to win PHRF 1 by 15 pts. J/109s took 3 out of the top five. Third was Bob Schwartz's NORDLYS, fourth was John Pearson's BLUE SKY and fifth was Mike Sleightholme's APSARA.
Finally, in PHRF 4, the Esposito gang on the J/29 HUSTLER prevailed to win their class, but on a squeaker-- winning on a tie-breaker. Third overall in class was Matheus Hovers' J/29 KATOENDRA, a result of a strong performance over this past weekend. For more AYC Spring Series sailing information
