Saturday, September 23, 2017

American YC Fall Series Preview

J/105 sailing American YC Fall Series (Rye, NY)- Starting this weekend, the American YC will be hosting the first of its two-weekend Fall Series Regatta for a range of IRC/PHRF handicap classes as well as one-design classes for J/70s, J/88s, J/105s, J/109s and J/44s.

For the J/70s, it will represent the first of three-plus weekends of sailing that lead into the J/70 North American Championship hosted by American YC.  In the fourteen-boat fleet for the AYC series will be notable teams such as Scott & Alex Furnary’s ANY COLOUR, Dan Goldberg’s BAZINGA, Andrew & Melissa Fisher’s BUTTON FLY, Carrie & Ed Austin’s CHINOOK and Mike Zupon’s LOKI.

The J/88s have a robust turnout of nine boats, many of whom have been class leaders in the past two years on the 88 class circuit.  Incredibly, virtually all teams have posted at least a podium finish in a J/88 related event over the past 24 months.  Handicapping this event would be as effective as posting odds for the next 7.0 earthquake on the San Andreas fault- e.g. it’s not happening anytime soon!  Those crews participating include Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION, Kevin Marks’ VELOCITY, Doug Newhouse’s YONDER, Al Minella’s ALBONDIGAS, Ken & Drew Hall’s NEVERMORE, John Pearson’s RED SKY, Elizabeth Barry’s ESCAPE, Doug McKeige’s JAZZ, and Mike Bruno’s WINGS.

The thirteen-boat J/105 class features last year’s winners- the dynamic duo of Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault on the mighty GOOD TRADE. Chasing them hard will be American YC’s Junior Big Boat Team on YOUNG AMERICAN, Duncan Hennes & Za/Lib Jelliffe on ARETE, Paul Beaudin’s LOU LOU, and Richie Palmer’s TOLO.

The octet of J/109s includes the usual suspects of top teams from this past summer, such as Carl Olsson’s MORNING GLORY, John Greifzu’s GROWTH SPURT, Bill Rogers’ BIG BOAT, and Jonathan Rechtshaffer’s EMOTICON.

With seven J/44s on the line, things will always be close amongst the evenly matched boats all sporting identical class-supplied sails.  As a result, “who’s on first” is always a great discussion, as it all comes down to which crews are dialed into the conditions for the day (or weekend).  Like other J/classes, the 44’s have most teams taking a “win-place-show” in some event in the past year or so.  Such teams include Len Sitar’s VAMP, the US Coast Guard Academy’s GLORY, Don & Dick Rave’s RESOLUTE, Jim Bishop’s GOLD DIGGER, and Bill Ketcham’s MAXINE.

In PHRF 1 class, two veteran J/111 campaigners will be fighting hard for class supremacy- David & Maryellen Tortorello’s PARTNERSHIP and Paul Strauch’s ANDIAMO.  They will be challenged by Bill Ingraham’s J/124 TENEBRAE and Neil Hindle’s J/145 MUSKOKA.

The ten-boat strong PHRF 2 class will see Aleksandr Tichter’s J/29 AKULA dueling with Jason Viseltear’s J/80 UPSETTER for class honors.

Finally, the Leukemia Cup Navigators Course has two J/crews on the race track, including John & Corinne Forster’s J/92 SALTIRE and Jim Wilson’s J/100 LIBERTY.  For more American YC Fall Series sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.