J/122s In American YC Spring Series

Great Sailing for J One-Design Classes

(Rye, NY)- Eighty one teams are participating in the AYC Spring Series.  And, as usual, being the wonderful hosts that they are for the opening of the Long Island Sound offshore sailing season, the team at AYC did a remarkable job to run five to six races (depending on course and class) this past weekend in the western reaches of the Sound.  Sailing within site of downtown NY and it's eponymous Empire State Building, the AYC Race Committee ushered the sailors out on the water Saturday morning with some degree of protestations as it looked like a proverbial mill pond out in the middle between the Long Island and Connecticut shorelines.  Nevertheless the AYC PRO's on both the East Course and the West Course persevered, the wind settled into the SSW building from zero up to 13 knots by late afternoon, enabling the East course to run four races and the West course three on what turned out to be a gorgeous, albeit challenging, day for sailing.  By Sunday, the same ginormous Low Pressure system that was terrorizing the American Midwest and South with tales of the world's largest and longest lasting F4 power tornado cutting a 200 mile buzz-saw path several miles wide through the southern heartland turned out to be true, unfortunately.  With thousands of lightning bolts spraying the landscape per hour, there was simply nowhere to hide in that region.  However, the explosive cocktail of warm Gulf of Mexico winds and cold Arctic/ Canadian air masses colliding with brutal fury dissipated by the time the continental-spanning monster front hit the NY region.  Luckily for the sailors, the forecasted 0 knots of wind gusting to 0 knots and incessant drizzle magically transformed into a great day of sailing in Easterly breezes.  With only two races scheduled for Sunday, both course started the first series of races in the 6-10 knot wind range and increased to 12-16 knots by the end of the second race.

The winning formula for success on Saturday in the southwest breezes was fairly typical for the conditions-- it meant playing shifts towards the right-middle of the course, staying in wind streaks and less adverse ebb-tide before sailing across the Sound to the windward mark placed near the Long Island shore.  Sunday, the strategies changed quite dramatically with easterlies and strong ebb.  As large cloud cells rolled through, the wind direction varied from 70 to 90 degrees, with enormous, gusty wind streaks filling in from both sides of the course.  While certainly keeping the RC mark boats on their toes, the tacticians had their hands full keeping their boats in the hunt for good positions to close out the first weekend of sailing.

The J/122 One-Design class saw Tom Boyle and Mike Callahan aboard WINGS figure out the tricky conditions and sail into contention in this tightly fought class, with three firsts and three seconds to be winning by a scant one point margin over Andrew Weiss' family racing CHRISTOPHER DRAGON that managed to garner a 3-1-1-3-2-1 tally.  Lying third is Barry Gold and Jamie Anderson sailing SUNDARI to 2-3-4-2-3-5 finishes.  Photo credits- Alan Clark/ Photoboat

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