(Annapolis, MD)- The Storm Trysail Club hosted their IRC East Coast
Championship and One-Design Regatta this past weekend in Annapolis on
the Chesapeake Bay. Sailing were a combination of one-design fleets and
IRC fleets. In the IRC 2 Class were two J/111s sailing. The J/109s
sailed as a one-design class.The five race series started with Friday’s 29.6-‐mile tour of the central Chesapeake, with a light and shifty northeast breeze in the 1.5 point-weighted race. The remaining four inshore races of the series were sailed on Saturday in a format shortened by the approach of Hurricane Sandy to the mid-Atlantic states, with organizers giving teams today to prepare for the hurricane-force winds predicted for the area Monday and Tuesday. The 13-17 knot northeasterly conditions sailed against an ebb tide on Saturday tended to favor the bigger boats until the ebb turned to slack in the last race. This made the beats shorter and high-speed runs longer, compressing the corrected times down to margins of mere seconds.
In
IRC 2 Class, the two J/111s had some great racing against one another
with new J/111 owner Kjell Dahlen sailing his newly acquired RAGIN to
3rd overall and 1st 111. Marty Roesch's team on VELOCITY had their
hands full with RAGIN's new team and managed to finish off the series
with a flourish of 3-3 to finish just behind her classmate.Paul Milo's J/109 VENTO SOLARE perhaps sailed one of the toughest, and best, series in the regatta. Why? Imagine having multiple J/109 champion sailor Bill Sweetser on RUSH to beat to the finish line. In the end, it was the first race (the long distance race) that mattered in the final count. By winning the first race, Paul's VENTO SOLARE team managed to compile a score of 1.5-4-2-1-1- for 9.5 points to win by a half point! Bill's tough RUSH team sailed very consistently and scored 3-1-1-2-3 for 10 pts to take the silver. Third was Stephen McManus's team on SAYKADOO. For more IRC East Coast sailing information
