Wind Gods Smile on Race Week 2009
July 11-19, 2009
Larchmont, NY
2009 was one of the best Race Weeks in recent memory, as consistent breezes made for excellent sailing in the one design, big boat and junior fleets. Jed Kelly's Race Committee did a superb job all week and made the most of the conditions. Things went just as well ashore as the famous Race Week social functions proved as popular and well run as ever. Overall, 635 boats and over 1200 sailors competed over the course of eight days.
Shields Fleet Downwind
Photo by Maureen Koeppel
The first weekend of Race Week saw breeze in the teens for the Senior One Design and Racer/Cruiser divisions. The wind continued to blow for the first two days of Junior Race Week, with lighter conditions dominating the final day of Junior Race Week on Wednesday and Opti Day on Thursday. A 10-knot westerly allowed for more great racing on the second Saturday before extremely light airs on the final Sunday prevented a perfect 8-for-8 of fantastic weather at Race Week.
Senior One Designs
40 boats competed in 5 classes of Senior One Designs, with LYC sailors notching wins in all classes except for the RSK6 division. Six races were held the first weekend and four the second. In the Shields class, Com Crocker and Dual Macintyre prevailed over H.L DeVore in the 16 boat fleet, with class stalwart Mike Carr completing the podium in third. Crocker/Macintyre were awarded the Cullen trophy for the best overall performance at Race Week, as well as the Thomas Fitzsimons trophy for winning the Shields class. Crocker had won the Cullen trophy the prior two years with his then co-owner Kurt Weisenfluh. In the Etchells class, which raced only the second weekend, Dave Smalley took the win and the Stanley King Turner trophy after a close fought battle with Chris Marx. Tony Huston won 5 of the 10 races in the IOD Class to take the Joseph Weed trophy by 13 points. In the S-Boat fleet, Bill Simmons proved dominant, winning 7 of the 10 races while cruising to a 13 point victory. In the one-day Ideal 18 series, Clemmie Everett from American YC won convincingly with LYC’s Matthew Habig and Pierce McCreary taking second and third respectively. Results.
Big Breeze Gets the Better of Justin Gibbons and Shields 142
Photo by Howie McMichael
Racer/Cruiser
34 big boats took to the Racer/Cruiser circle in 5 divisions. Rich duMoulin, sailing his Express 37 Lora Ann, was the big winner. Rich handily won the IRC 35 class and the strength of his performance netted him the Vincent Monte-Sano trophy for best overall performance in the handicap fleet. In addition Lora Ann was awarded the Brassem trophy by virtue of her overall victories in Race Week and the Edlu Race. Damian Emery with his J/105 Eclipse from the Mount Sinai Sailing Association won the Charles Vanderlaan trophy for the best cruising yacht performance. Results.
IRC 40 Winner Avra Rounds the Weather Mark
Photo by Howie McMichael
Junior Race Week
273 boats competed for the three days of Junior Race Week. Pearson Potts traveled up from Southern YC in New Orleans to win the Commodore’s Trophy for best overall performance at Junior Race Week, along with the William S. Luckett Memorial trophy, for top performance in the 95-boat Club 420 class. His teammate Beverly Elmer was awarded the Crew Prize. LYC juniors Matt Kaplan, Katie DeVore and Jack Knowles dominated the 62-boat Pixel class. Kaplan was awarded the Al Bamberger perpetual trophy for his win and DeVore won the Windjammer trophy for seamanship and sportsmanship. Ryan Schmitz of Port Washington YC won the 74-boat Laser Radial class and Dan DelBello of American YC won the 32-boat Laser full-rig class. Diana Weston and Kristen Panero of Douglaston Yacht Squadron won the Blue Jay division. Results.
Large Junior Fleet Prepares to Head Out
Photo by Maureen Koeppel
Opti Day
226 Optimist sailors, divided into divisions by age, competed on Opti Day. 24 juniors ages 13-15 sailed in the red division, 122 sailors ages 11 and 12 sailed in separate blue and green divisions, and 80 sailors ages 8 1/2-10 competed on a separate circle in two divisions. The light but steady wind allowed for three races for the older sailors and four on the other course.
LYC juniors excelled on the older-sailor circle. Reinier Eenkema van Dijk and Harry Koeppel placed one-two in the red group, Drew Gallagher won all three races in the blues and Chrissie Klingler won all three races in the greens. Jack Budill and Matt Kaplan, fresh from his Pixel victory, followed right behind Chrissie, taking second and third in the green division. John Schinto of Riverside YC and Cooper Yeager of Stamford YC won their divisions on the circle for 81/2-10 year olds. Results.
Vanguard 15s
30 Vanguard 15s came out for the second weekend of Race Week and were treated to 11 solid races. LYC members made a clean sweep of the podium with Scott Hogan/Marla Menninger taking a close-fought win from Jay Rhame/Katie Murphy, with Ward Young/Julia Werb finishing third. Hogan and Menninger also won the coveted Battle of the Champions late Saturday afternoon, a match racing event in Ideal 18s featuring the leaders from each of the Race Week classes. Results.
V-15 Team Racing Display on July 11
Photo by Maureen Koeppel
Special thanks goes to the sponsors of Race Week, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Mount Gay Rum, for provisioning sailors on the weekends, and Good Humor Ice Cream and Klondike for keeping the junior sailors cool midweek.
