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