Drama-filled Conclusion @ AYC Fall Series

(Rye, NY)- The American YC’s annual Fall Series that takes place over two weekends at the end of September and start of October always seems to have a combination of benign sailing weather and dramatic storms to round out the experience.  The 2017 series was no exception.  The first weekend produced near pristine sailing conditions on Saturday and much lighter breezes on Sunday- all punctuated by clear skies and sunny days.  The second weekend was anything but that scenario- with Saturday’s weather influenced by the “tail feathers” of Hurricane Maria offshore, producing an enormous “water spout” (a water-borne tornado) just six miles southeast from where the fleet was sailing and stormy northerly winds all day. By contract, Sunday had virtually no winds and was a sunny warm "shorts & shades" day!

For the 120-odd boats that registered to sail over the two weekends, they sure got their money’s worth.  Great sailing on at least one day for both weekends, that’s a good thing in western Long Island Sound at this time of year!

In the J/70 class, Scott & Alex Furnary on ANY COLOUR easily won the class with five bullets in their scoreline to win with just 11 pts net in nine races sailed!  A forecast of things to come in the J/70 North Americans??  Time will tell if they can maintain that pace against J/70 class veterans.  Second was Trevor Roach’s SEMI-CHARMED with 29 pts net and third was Carrie & Ed Austin’s CHINOOK with 45 pts net.  The balance of the top five were Ernest Bourassa’s ALTHEA in 4th place and Dan Goldberg’s BAZINGA in 5th position.

The J/105 class saw the St Francis YC duo of Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault on GOOD TRADE just eke out another win, just barely.  Tied on points at 18 pts net each with Damian Emery’s ECLIPSE, the GOOD TRADE duo just squeezed out another win against great competition.  Third was Paul Beaudin’s LOU LOU with 25 pts net.  Rounding out the top five were George & Alex Wilbanks REVELATION in 4th and Randy Bourne’s STRANGE BREW in 5th place.

The J/88 class had incredibly tight racing for the top three spots on the podium.  In the end, it was Newport’s Doug Newhouse’s crew on YONDER that took the class prize with just 19 pts net.  Two women skipper’s featured in the next two slots on the podium, a first for this highly-competitive class.  Elizabeth Barry’s ESCAPE was second with 22 pts and Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION was third with 27 pts net.  Mike Bruno’s WINGS was 4th with 29 pts net and Ken & Drew Hall’s NEVERMORE ended up in 5th position with 40 pts.  Again, showing the depth of the fleet, all five boats in the top five won races!

It sure is hard to slow down a freight-train once it is moving fast!  That has seemed to be the case for David Rosow’s crew on the J/109 LOKI.  Continuing on their successes all season-long, they won five of ten races to easily be crowned kings of the J/109 class for the falls series.  Second was Jon Rechtshaffer’s EMOTICON with 22 pts, third was Bengt & Marie Johansson’s ZIG ZAG, fourth Bill Rogers’ BIG BOAT and fifth was Carl Olsson’s MORNING GLORY.

Upsetting the momentum of the “gold diggers” on the second weekend was Bill Ketcham’s MAXINE in the J/44 class, winning class by just one point.  Jim Bishop’s crew on GOLD DIGGER closed with a bullet in the last race, but it was not enough to overcome back-to-back 4-4’s on the beginning of the day to ultimately take second in class.  Third was Len Sitar’s VAMP, fourth Don & Dick Rave’s RESOLUTE and fifth the US Coast Guard Academy’s GLORY.

In the PHRF handicap-racing world, J/Teams just about cleaned house.  Winning PHRF 1 Class was Neil Hindle’s J/145C MUSKOKA, with Ron Richman’s J/133 ANTIDOTE taking 4th in class.

Crushing the PHRF 2 Class was David & Maryellen Tortorello’s PARTNERSHIP with just 9 pts net.  They were followed by Paul Strauch’s ANDIAMO with 13 pts, tied for 2nd place but losing the tie-break to take 3rd in class.

In PHRF 3 Class, Andy Oeftering’s J/92 SHOOTING STAR sailed a solid series against a variety of high-powered boats to take 2nd in class.  For more American YC Fall Series sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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