J/105 STEEL AWAY Takes Class(Marblehead, MA)- The New England PHRF Championships were held this past weekend off the beautiful Marblehead and Salem coastline. The fleet was blessed with decent weather conditions with the PHRF Classes and nineteen J/105 one-designs enjoying good, competitive sailing-- most fleets managed to sail seven races over two days!
The STEEL AWAY team led by Peter Morgan sailed a great regatta, leading the charge amongst the large J/105 one-design fleet with a 12 pt win! Peter's fast crew amassed an incredible consistent record of 3-3-4-2-2 for just 14 pts. Just behind him, it was an all-out dogfight for the next two positions on the podium. Emerging from the dust in the ring was Matt Pike's GOT QI! with a roller-coaster-like 1-4-9-1-11 record for 26 pts. Third was past NE-PHRF champion Fred deNapoli sailing ALLEGRO SEMPLICITA to a 2-6-8-9-6 tally for 31 pts. Just one point back in fourth was Mark Masur's TWO FEATHERS with a 6-1-12-8-5 for 32 pts, falling off into the deep end of the pool after a strong start! Rounding out the top five was George Lowden & Rich Hill's DARK HORSE 2, sailing a "barbell" shaped score of 13-5-3-3-10 for 34 pts.
In the PHRF handicap world, it was pretty clear the J/109 fleet had a handle on the race course as well as their competitors, simply smoking fleet and taking the top FIVE spots in PHRF 3 class! Chris Zbailo's SUPERSTITION started slowly and finished with a flourish, scoring a 6-2-1-3-2-2-1 for just 11 pts in seven races! Giving them a serious run-for-the-roses was Gary Weisberg's well-traveled HEAT WAVE, proving that their Key West Race Week 2012 and Charleston Race Week 2012 were good warm-ups for a strong summer sailing season by his team. Gary managed to score consistent top five finishes to finish 2nd overall with a 4-1-2-1-5-1-4 record of 13 pts-- they were the only three race winners! Third on the podium was the Feeley family sailing LADY LOVE to a 1-3-7-2-1-5-3 scoreline for 15 pts. Rounding out the top five were Dan Boyd & Mitch Wiest's WILDTHANG in 4th with 27 pts and 5th was John Doub's RESOLVE with 28 pts.
In the rest of the PHRF world, the J/100 MOOSE DROOL sailed by Adam Saidla was 4th in PHRF 4 class, finishing in 5th behind them was Ward Blodgett's J/33 SCIROCCO. In PHRF 5 class, the J/29 UNO MAS sailed by Jon Desmond finished 2nd and another J/29 APEIRON skippered by Tom Zampini was 5th. In PHRF 7 class, the J/24s still got it and, sailed well, are always extremely competitive in PHRF racing-- witness SPEED JUNKY's 3rd in class, job well done by Rob Petersen and crew! Sailng photo credits- Tim Wright/ Photoaction.com. For more PHRF New Englands sailing information
