September 22, 2006
U.S. Men's Sailing Championship: Day 3
Scott Young and his crew, John Morran & Douglas
Kern, from Austin Yacht Club (TX) win the 2006
U.S. Men's Championship. This breaks a tie in a
great rivalry between he and David Bolyard of
Pontchatrain, who with his son David, Jr. taking
over the reins and skippering this week, came in
second.
Young has notched his 5th win of the Clifford D.
Mallory Cup, twice as a crew and three times as
helm to Bolyard Sr’s four times as crew. The
last time he raced was 1987, that time also in
New England out of Beverly, MA. That win came
the year before his close competitor was born.
Only 6 points separated the two -- only 2 points
before the last race.
Despite his success, Scott Young said, “We never
felt totally confident in our speed. We were
hanging on for dear life”. Asked how that
translated into four bullets out of 5 on Day 1,
he took us through the event from his
perspective. Conditions on Day One were steady
but with subtle wind shifts -- like the lake
sailing Young is used to. So Day One’s success
came from capitalizing on many shifts with
frequent and efficient tacking.
Day Two earned Young and crew a second, two
fifths and a seventh. “We went out too defensive
and lost our mojo, said Young. At the start of
Day Three, the strategy was to “sail as if we
were behind”. Two points up going into the last
race, Young chose the left side, started at the
pin, nailed the start and went left. The left
filled in and being in the clear brought him to
the windward mark 3 boat lengths ahead of
Bolyard.
After today’s racing, David Bolyard, Jr. joked
that he was tired of Silver. He took a second in
the Sears Cup last year. But, this 18 year old
college freshmen has won two Junior Lipton’s (in
‘04 and ‘05) and came in second this year. We’ll
see him in headlines in the future.
Racing this week was blessed with the best
conditions -- sunny and various winds -- great
for a championship. This allowed the Race
Committee to stay on schedule with only two
races to finish today as planned. Today featured
an “A” and a “B” course of 5 legs to give the
racers “a little something extra,” said one race
official. C.H. Ritt, Boston Yacht Club’s
Commodore and this week’s PRO, said the best
part of the pulling this all together was to be
blessed by great weather and supported by a
wonderful team”.
Peter Barnet, Boston Yacht Club
Communications |
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September 21, 2006
U.S. Men's Sailing Championship: Day 2
After a long day of sailing, that started near
1000 hrs. and ended after 1700 hrs., Scott Young
and crew from Austin Yacht Club (TX) clings to a
small lead. Young is just three points ahead of
David Bolyard, Jr. of Pontchtrain. Charlie
Quigley of host Boston Yacht Club, slipped to
third with one bad race, seven points behind the
leader. With 9 races down and 2 to go tomorrow
the field is still very tight. Vineyard Haven
Yacht Club is 4 points out of the top three
places.
The long day started with heavy winds in the low
20s. The first race ended in 3 breakdowns. The
RC brought everyone in for lunch and flew the AP
while they repaired the boats and waited for the
weather to settle. The wind moderated to the
low teens and was 5 to 6 knots by the end of the
day, when the final race needed to be shortened
by a leg in order to insure it finished with
enough wind.
At the first rounding of Race 6 (first race of
today), two leading groups came in to the
windward mark. A boat in the second group
rolled to starboard and broached. He recovered,
broached, recovered and broached again. The
skipper fell off and tried to bring the
spinnaker down on a reach. The broach caused the
spinnaker halyard to jam in the sheath. At this
point he was back on port and he barely cleared
the windward committee boat before he could wrap
the spinnaker around the shroud, shielding it
behind the jib, so he could sail.
The sailors experienced every condition today
and the favored side of the course switched
frequently as evidenced by the spread of
results. One team finished with a 1, 3, 5, 7,
while another contender finished with a 2, 5, 7,
5. “The wind was far more difficult to read,”
said one skipper, “The leaders would go for the
same shift and it would fill in from places you
didn’t expect”.
One boat (who asked to stay anonymous) even had
a Man Overboard one minute before the last
start. His crew pulled him in and they didn’t
miss a beat, notching their best start of the
day.
Again the caliber of racing was evident in the
tight packs of boats. It was rare that one
would break away or the pack spread out. The
Championships wrap up tomorrow (Friday) with two
more races off Marblehead.
See the exciting photos of the racing at
USSAILING.ORG and more at BostonYachtClub.net
Peter Barnet, Boston Yacht Club
Communications |
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September 20, 2006
U.S. Men's
Sailing Championship: Day 1
Scott Young and his crew from Austin Yacht Club
dominated the day's racing with 4 First Places
out of the 5 races in today's U.S. Men's Sailing
Championships. Racers repeatedly said "It
doesn't get any better than this". "The boats
are tight and even," said Dan Vought of Monmouth
Boat Club.
The racing was tight, too. The pack never spread out. "If you
blinked, you had ten angry men right down on top
of you," said one skipper. "It was a perfect day
of racing," he said. Young is followed by
Charlie Quigley of Marblehead's Boston Yacht
Club, just 6 points behind and David Bolyard,
Jr. of Pontchatrain, another 8 points back.
The weather was flawless. We saw a steady north
west wind blowing 10
to 15 all day.
Many racers praised the Race Committee as having run the tightest
group of 5 races that could have been run. "They
got in a race an hour, until the one break down
of the day, which got handled in 15 minutes",
said Charlie Garrard of Boston Yacht Club. The
Race Committee in turn complimented the racers
for their help in organizing boats at the end of
the day's activities. "They didn't just leave it
to the volunteers," said one official.
Peter Barnet, Boston Yacht Club
Communications
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September 19, 2006
U.S.
Men's Sailing Championship: Day -1
Nine out of eleven teams made it out to the
practice line in Marblehead today, fine tuning
themselves for tomorrow’s launch of the U.S.
Men’s championships, hosted by Boston Yacht
Club. The other teams worked among themselves
practicing in the 23 foot Sonars that have been
overhauled and outfitted with all new sails for
the week’s racing.
“We had the ideal Marblehead
conditions we always talk about, but don’t
always get” Said Geoff Smith, Boston’s Race
Committee Chairman and Event Chair. The 10 knot
breeze was steady and it got the sailors excited
to go head to head tomorrow through Friday, when
they hope to get in 11 races for the three days.
This is not a challenge for Boston Yacht Club’s
Commodore, C.H. Ritt who will be the event’s
PRO. Ritt ran 68 races in two days at this
year’s Jackson Cup Team Race Regatta, also at
Marblehead, opening the season in April.
Get
ready racers – the wind will freshen from the
West tomorrow at 11 to 15. Good Luck All.
Peter Barnet, Boston Yacht Club
Communications |
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Information for Media:
peter@promosis.com
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