The "Dragon" Sails to AYC Spring Series Win

(Larchmont, NY)- While not the largest fleet the AYC Spring series has seen in a number of years, the J class presence continues to grow with passionate, enthusiastic owners having fun in both handicap and one-design sailing fleets.  This year seventy-seven boats in nine fleets were in attendance with forty-two J's sailing (55% of the whole fleet) in 3 handicap fleets (IRC and PHRF) and 3 one-design fleets.  Again, the American YC PRO/ RC did a good job of getting in some nice course racing the a wide variety of conditions over the two successive weekends.

Whether there's five J/122s or fifteen of them, the class always has tight racing with  no one boat dominating the class-- the J/122s all seem to be so equal, on any given any boat can win.  This year's spring series that rang true, despite the fact that the Dragon team took the championship.  Sailing strongly this year was Barry Gold on SUNDARI, starting well with a 1st, then adding a 4-4-1 to his tally to just miss first place by 2 pts.  However, tied with SUNDARI at 10 pts even was the trio of Mike Bruno, Tom Boyle and Jim Callahan racing WINGS to a consistent 2-2-3-3 tally, losing the tie-breaker to SUNDARI.  Finishing first was the family team of Andrew Weiss sailing CHRISTOPHER DRAGON with a 4-1-1-2 for 8 pts.  Interestingly, it seemed the regatta was led by the "black ships brigade", the winning boat with green stripes and the second place boat with white stripes!

For more American YC Spring Series sailing results.   Sailing photo credits- photoboat.com