(Youngstown, NY)- According to Tim Finkle at RCR Yachts in New York,
“We had a nice turnout at our signature one design event in Youngstown-
the Can-Am Challenge. With 17 boats, we had the largest fleet in the
regatta. There were many very good sailors in the fleet, but there were
also a lot of family crews. The winning boat was Thom and Anne Bowen,
third place team was Morgan Paxhia with sisters Emily and Jordan. Corbo
and Donna Corbishley in 4th, The McKennas family, Tony and Patrick
Byrne, The Weibels, and Winkelsteins, all with family crew. We also had
some boats travel to their first ever J/70 regatta, which was a fun
learning experience for them and hopefully we were hospitable and they
will come back. We would like to continue this trait in future CanAms
and we will do whatever we can to support the teams interested in
attending, just let us know what we can do to help.”Here is a quote from one of the competitors, Marty McKenna who sails his boat with his wife, his kids and brother, which is what the J/70 is all about:
“For me it is an intense chess match played out on a changing board. And the struggle to compete has been important to share with my family and to teach my children. I have enough activities that pull me away from family, so when we bought the J/70 it was with the intent of sailing as a family. Others have come to the same place - you will see multiple Weibel children on "Tigress" and three siblings on Paxhia's "Penny Pincher" just within the competitive J/70 class. We have sailed both CanAm Challenges with just McKenna's on board.
A family team from Pittsburgh competing well against a strong class with many top pro’s is a great story. We were thrilled to compete well Sunday in very light air winning the last two races. For me it was interesting to see the journey my brother and I have taken in Youngstown, my wife sailing very well and my 12 year-old daughter that named the boat after her favorite My Little Pony flying spinnaker all weekend and having the opportunity to fly the purple spinnaker across the line to close out the regatta. Many thanks to the YYC team and surrounding clubs for making this weekend a huge success...for a very long period of time.”
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