Race Week at Newport - Sailing in Sun and Storms

Newport, Rhode Island, USA - 'Twas a dark and stormy race - or at least it began and ended that way for the 120 yachts in the New York Yacht Club's Race Week at Newport. Thursday's start of the event saw 30 knots of wind, and yesterday the racing was called when another storm brought 48 knots. Yet Friday and Saturday were both fair and rather calm for the fleet. As one would expect, adapting to these extremes made for an excellent test of the boats and crews, and for yacht racing none who were there will soon forget.

"You know it's windy when everything is going sideways -- the wind, the rain, the boat," said Damian Emery, who won the J/105 East Coast Championship with his overall victory here on Eclipse. "Today we were definitely sailing against each other." He went on to mention that Eclipse was hit directly by the storm on the second downwind leg. Fortunately the 'chute was already down, and only the boat's jib was destroyed.

In the J/109 class, victory went to Ted Herlihy aboard Gut Feeling. "We thought we'd do well, but this feels great," he said about his overall win. When the race committee cancelled, the wind was blowing 38 knots for Gut Feeling. While his crew scrambled to get the sails down, the gusts hit a full 48 knots: "Before they cancelled, we had been wondering how we were ever going to round the mark and go back to weather," he said afterwards.

Sponsored by Rolex, Race Week at Newport is a biennial event, currently in its sixth running. It has a split format which featured the Classics Regatta, held over the weekend of July 19-20, and this second session held from July 24-27 on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound for IRC, PHRF and one-design competitions. This event is part of the 2008 US-IRC Gulf Stream Series, and three one-design classes (the NYYC Swan 42s, J/109s and Melges 32s) used the event to determine their 2008 North American or National champions. In addition, Race Week at Newport served as the J/105 and J/122 East Coast Championships, as well as the Beneteau First 36.7 Northeast Championship.

2008 New York Yacht Club's Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex - Final

Race Week at Newport HANDICAP RATING CLASSES - Top 3 in each class

IRC 1 (6 boats) -- Seven races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, Total points
1. Rosebud/Team DYT, STP65, Roger Sturgeon, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1-2-3-1-3-2-1, 13 points
2. Blue Yankee, R/P66, Bob & Farley Towse, Stamford, CT, 3-3-1-3-1-3-3, 17
3. Aquarius, Swan 601, Sam Fleet, East Greenwich, RI, 2-4-4-4-2-4-4, 24

IRC 2 (11 boats) -- Nine races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, Total points
1. Sforzando, Taylor 45, Blair Brown, Newton, MA, 2-2-3-3-2-3-1-4, 22
2. Avalanche, Farr 395, Craig Albrecht, Sea Cliff, NY, 4-3-5-1-7-1-3-5-7, 36
3. Act One, Mills/King 40, Charlie Milligan, Newport, RI, 3-7-1-2-1-7-2-8-6, 37

PHRF 1 (5 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points
1. Settler, Cust. Peterson 42, Thomas Rich, Middletown, RI, 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1, 8
2. Integrity, Navy 44, Jahn Tihansky, Annapolis, MD, 4-3-4-2-3-2-2-2, 22
3. Gambler, Frers 41 TM, John Downey, Canton, MA, 3,-2-5-34-3-2-3, 25

PHRF 2 (5 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points
1. Bluto, Evelyn 32, Benjamin Hall, Tiverton, RI, 1-1-4-2-3-2-2-2, 17
2. Wolverine, Frers 33, David Nauber, Higganum, CT, 3-4-3-4-1-1-4-1, 21
3. Freightrain, Frers 36, Richard Hyde, Belmont, MA, 4-3-1-1-4-4-1-4, 22

ONE DESIGN CLASSES - Top 3 in each class

NYYC Swan 42 (20 boats) - Seven races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7, Total points
1. Tiburon, Mark Watson, Newport, RI, 9-2-2-1-3-1-4, 22
2. Tsunami, Preben Ostberg & Bud Dailey, Rockville, MD, 1-7-3-5-1-4-10, 31
3. Apparition, Kenneth, Colburn, Dover, MA, 4-9-1-2-4-15-1, 36

J/122 one design (7 boats) -- Nine races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, Total points
1. Christopher Dragon, Andrew Weiss, Rye, NY, 1-1-1-1-1-1-2-8-3, 19
2. Flying Jenny VI, David Askew, Annapolis, MD, 3-2-2-2-4-2-1-4-1, 21
3. Gambler, Doug Shaffer, Bayview, TX, 2-4-5-5-3-3-4-1-2, 29

J/109 one design (15 boats) -- Nine races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9, Total points
1. Gut Feeling, Ted Herlihy, South Dartmouth, MA, 4-4-2-1-4-1-9-7-2, 25
2. Gossip, Steve Kenny & Greg Ames, Wainscott, NY, 6-2-6-11*-2-4-2-4-1, 27
3. Caminos, Donald F. Filippelli, Amagansett, NY, 2-1-3-11*-1-5-10-1-6, 29

Beneteau First 36.7 one design (9 boats) -- Eight races completed
Position, Boat, Boat Type, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, Total points
1. Elan, John Hammel, Arlington, MA, 1-1-5-1-7-3-1-2, 21
2. Quokka, Tom Peelen, So Dartmouth, MA, 2-2-4-6-3-2-2-1, 22
3. Whirlwind, William Purdy, New York, NY, 3-4-1-3-1-1-3-7, 23

Melges 32 one design (22 boats) -- Five races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5, Total points
1. Star, Jeff, Ecklund, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 2-7-2-1-5,17
2. Bliksem, Pieter Taselaar, Scarsdale, NY, 13-3-1- 5-1, 23
3. New Wave, Michael Carroll /Martin Kullman, Tampa, FL, 9-4-6-2-3, 24

J/105 one design (19 boats) -- Six races completed
Position, Boat, Owner, Hometown, Race 1-2-3-4-5-6, Total points
1. Eclipse, Damian Emery, Shoreham, NY, 1-1-5-4-5-2, 18
2. Savasana, Brian Keane, Weston, MA, 2- 5-7-3-1-5, 23
3. Kincsem, Joerg Esdorn Rye, NY, 7-3-10-5-4-4, 33

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• Yacht Racing (racing sailboats)
• Newport
• Rhode Island
• Classics Regatta

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