CHRISTOPHER DRAGON Wins a Cliff-hanger
(Rye, New York- Sept. 26-27)- The nine J/122s competing for the East Coast Championship on the second weekend of the AYC Fall series saw extremely close and very competitive sailing. In addition to some of the local fleet favorites on Western Long Island Sound, some boats came as far as Annapolis- PLUM CRAZY and FLYING JENNY VI- to mix it up with the New York/ Connecticut crowd. This regatta was the culmination of the summer sailing season for the J/122 class- with strong one design showings at the Rolex NYYC Regatta in Newport, Rolex Block Island Race Week and the Larchmont NOODS.
In keeping with the close racing amongst these remarkably evenly matched boats, it was a wild finish to the J/122 East Coast Championships after the dust cleared. The weekend was tough on everyone- tacticians, crews and crew work in general, putting a premium on starts, course positioning, good execution and good mark roundings. Coming out of the fog of war in the last race was Weiss's CHRISTOPHER DRAGON, just beating their erstwhile competitors to be crowned the 2009 East Coast Champion. It was a strong finish for them after a somewhat dismal start in the first two races. CHRISTOPHER DRAGON won by one point over Skibo's PLUM CRAZY II, the last race determined the outcome of who ultimately beat who for the championship. Had these two flip-flopped their finish positions of 3-4, respectively, PLUM CRAZY would've won on a tie-breaker with most firsts! Askew's FLYING JENNY VI ultimately did end up in a tie-breaker for second with PLUM CRAZY, despite winning the last race, and got the short end of that stick to finish third overall. Showing steady improvement over their summer of sailing was David Murphy aboard their Einstein-inspired namesake, PUGWASH. Murphy and crew managed to win a race and get two more podium finishes to ultimately end up fourth; an eighth in the last race skewering any chances of their finishing in the top three. Perhaps they've earned the "Most Improved" Award for the 2009 summer season!
For more info:
http://www.americanyc.com/
