(Rochester, New York)- The historic U.S. Adult Sailing Championship
will unveil a new and exciting format for competitive adult women and
men sailors this Friday through Sunday, August 23-25, hosted by the
Rochester Yacht Club. The teams will be contending for the historic
Clifford D. Mallory Trophy on the waters of Lake Ontario. Teams will be
sailing matched International One-Design J/24s in a round robin format
with a minimum number of four crew including the helmsperson.Women have always been racing in this championship, but only as crew. The new U.S. Adult Sailing Championship has no gender restrictions on helmsperson or crews. As an "open" event, there were many women skippers in the regional qualifiers around America. Nevertheless, this year's eight finalists all have men skippers and four of the teams have women in the crew. In fact, many of the teams are championship-calibre J/24 sailors.
Pat Toole and his team from Santa Barbara, CA are traveling coast to coast to make their third run at the Mallory Trophy. Toole, along with Dale Turley, George Witter, and Kent Pierce finished second in the 2011 event held in Mooresville, NC and third in 2008 event in San Francisco. In June, they placed fourth at the 2013 J/24 National Championship in Lake Minnetonka, MN Toole won the 2010 J/24 North American title in Seattle, WA.
“We’ve been focused on calibrating our communication and boat handling by sailing numerous short courses,” said Toole. “The shifts and puffs we experienced in Rochester at the J24 Worlds were very challenging and very different than what we ever see in California. We are very excited about returning and giving it another try.”
Frank McNamara (Wenham, Mass.) was fifth in this year’s J/24 event at Charleston Race Week. He also placed second at the 2012 Rhodes 19 National Championships. McNamara will be sailing with crew Clinton Hayes (East Haddam, CT), Diane Economides (Ipswich, MA), and John Powley (Boxborough, MA).
“It’s just really exciting to have the opportunity to race against the level of competition you find at the Mallory,” said McNamara. “We will definitely have to sail our best to have a shot at winning, but we feel we know how to make the boats go pretty well. We need to get good starts, sail smart and avoid mistakes.”
McNamara and his team look forward to racing the J/24 this week. “The fact that the event is in J/24s this year is an added bonus because we’ve been racing J/24s for a number of years. Rochester is a fantastic venue with all the talent and resources to host a terrific regatta, as we learned when we sailed in the J/24 Worlds in Rochester last year,” he explained.
Other notable skippers in Rochester this week will be 2004 J/24 North American Champion David Klatt (Oxnard, CA) and 75 year old former Snipe Champion Russell Cook (Liverpool, NY).
The regatta is sponsored by Gill North America and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whiskey. The championship is also a Sailors for the Sea – Clean Regattas certification event. Twenty races are scheduled for the regatta-- it's intended for each team to race each boat one once with a maximum of five races sailed per day. The top three teams receive US Sailing Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. Special guest Charles Mallory, grandson of Clifford D. Mallory, will present the trophy to the winning team. For more J/24 US Adult Sailing Championship sailing information
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