(Larchmont, New York)- Over 430 college sailors raced on 52 owner-coached
keel-boats over Columbus Day Weekend (October 11-12) in the Storm
Trysail Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta (IOR) sailed in Western Long
Island Sound. The event is organized by the Storm Trysail Foundation
(STF) and the Larchmont Yacht Club and this year was led by Regatta
Chairman Barry Gold. The goal of the IOR is to introduce dinghy sailors
to the fun and teamwork of big boat racing, which is a new aspect of the
sport to many dinghy sailors. It also gives college sailors with big
boat skills a chance to compete in some of the best-prepared boats
around. The 52-boat fleet was divided up into five classes: 12 IRC
32’-43’ boats, five J/44s, 13 J/109s, 12 J/105s and 10 PHRF boats.A team from the US Naval Academy won the IRC Class sailing Ron Richman’s J/133 ANTIDOTE. After 6 races, their score line read 1-1-1-2-1-4 for a scorching 10 pts. Finishing fourth in class was Mike Bruno’s J/122 WINGS sailed by Bucknell University.
The five boat J/44 one-design class was won by the University of Michigan sailing Phil Gutin’s BEAGLE, followed by the US Merchant Marine Academy sailing Joerg Esdorn & Duncan Hennes’ KINCSEM in second. Taking third was Mass Maritime Academy onboard Len Sitar’s VAMP.
The
College of Charleston won the thirteen-boat J/109 class sailing Bob
Siegel’s PAX 3 with a blistering hot scoreline of 4-1-1-1-2 for just 9
pts. Not far behind in 2nd place was Mass Maritime Academy’s Team #2
sailing aboard Rick Lyall’s STORM. The past EDHEC Sailing Cup winners,
Arts et Metiers Paris Tech, took third sailing Jack Forehand’s
STRATEGERY- this French team was the best result of all foreign
entries. Fourth was University of Rhode Island aboard Jonathan
Rechtshaffer’s EMOTICON and in fifth was the other French entry, the
EDHEC Business School sailing on Bob Schwartz’s NORDLYS.Roger Williams University won the twelve-boat J/105 class sailing Jeremy Henderson’s CONUNDRUM that also posted to a white-hot tally of 1-2-2-3-1 for a mere 9 pts. Second was Boston University aboard Rob Alexander’s YOUNG AMERICAN and in third was the University of Wisconsin racing Josh Burack’s PEREGRINA. In this highly competitive fleet, Princeton University took fourth on Gary Myer’s MAGIC and rounding out the top five was US Naval Academy 2 onboard Za Jelliffe’s ARETE.
In PHRF Class, Iris Vogel’s J/88 DEVIATION was sailed by SUNY Maritime College into 4th overall and Rick Oricchio’s J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE saw St Mary’s College of Maryland take 5th. The overall winner came from this class, the University of Toledo onboard TROUBADOR.
Interestingly,
while your high point score divided by most points possible in your
class currently determines the “overall winner”, it does nothing to
eliminate the “skew” inherent in less competitive classes with greater
disparity between the boats. It was heard over the jungle telegraph
that by far the most competitive classes were the one-design fleets of
J/105s, J/109s and J/44s. It also stands to reason these one-design
classes are also the most closely “optimized” in terms of relative
speeds (ratings notwithstanding). On the statistical premise that the
top 50% of any fleet is a good measure of “fleet competitiveness”, it’s
interesting to see the J/105 and J/109 classes, in particular, score
very high on that index (an average of the top 50% efficiency scores).
On that basis, the overall winner by the narrowest of margins was Roger
Williams University on the J/105 CONUNDRUM followed by the College of
Charleston on the J/109 PAX 3!!Rick Lyall, the owner of the J/109 STORM, which was sailed by Mass Maritime said, “Over the years I have watched the talent level of the sailors grow. This year the top three J/109 teams were unbelievably well-sailed. The College of Charleston team was not only flawless in their boat handling, but also superior in their tactics. It seemed like every time our boat and their boat came together, the Charleston team had the advantage. They definitely deserved to win the biggest class of the regatta.”
The J/109 class had the most international entries, which included three of the four Canadian teams and two teams from France. Finishing third in the J/109 class was the team from Arts et Métiers from Paris. As the winners of the 46th EDHEC Sailing Cup raced last April in Les Sables-d’Olonne France, their team won an all expense paid trip (except for air fare) to the IOR thanks to the joint venture between the STF and the EDHEC Sailing Cup.
The EDHEC Sailing Cup is the world’s biggest college sailing regatta that draws over 1,500 sailors and 180 boats and the joint venture with the STF is designed to bring the top college sailors in the world together. As a result of being the overall winner of the IOR, the team from the University of Toledo has won an all expenses paid (except for air fare) to the 47th EDHEC Sailing Cup in La Rochelle, France to be sailed from April 24th to May 2nd 2015. All US collegiate teams are welcome.
The IOR is extremely popular with both the sailors and boat owners. An example comes from Bob Schwartz, owner of the J/109 NORDLYS who wrote, “The regatta was a great, as well as, an important event as usual. The nicest part is that you immediately realize that college age sailors are the most wonderful kids you would ever want to meet. Smart, polite, capable, etc. Our sport attracts the best and we have to keep them involved.” Sailing photo credits- Howie McMichael Storm Trysail College Big Boat Sailing on Facebook For more STC International Offshore Regatta sailing information
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