Keane 2005 Star North American Championship MARINA DEL REY, Calif.-Despite an inauspicious beginning – when George Szabo and Eric Monroe took 42 points for an OCS (over early start) in the first race – the San Diego duo went on to win the Keane 2005 Star Class North American Championship. Even with their first race, Szabo was still in contention for first overall, and he admitted to “a bit of math and discussion” throughout the race. With only a three-point lead over world-class competitors, on the last downwind run the fitting that held the lower shroud broke. “We had to jury rig something for the last beat [to the finish] to hold it together,” said Szabo, “A broken mast isn’t going to come down right away, but we had to figure out how to fix it and get some speed.” On the last beat Szabo noted that rivals Merriman/Peters took “a huge flyer to the left.” “We considered covering him but we had to keep this race … if it didn’t work, we had to worry about our place in the regatta as well,” said Szabo. “It could have worked for him … but fortunately not quite well enough.” Merriman/Peters finished third and Szabo/Monroe sixth. With equal points (16) it came down to Szabo/Monroe’s two bullet record of 1-2-1-6-6, over Merriman/Peters’ 3-3-4-3-3. Szabo/Monroe were named Star Class North American Champions for 2005 at the Sunday evening prize-giving at California Yacht Club. Rick Merriman/Rick Peters finished second. Dane/Sperry’s first place finish in race 6 shot them to third overall in the 41-boat fleet, acing out close contenders Eric Lidecis/Michael Marzahl, who earned fourth place with 29 points; and Iain Murray/Andrew Palfram, fifth, with 39 points. http://www.calyachtclub.com/cms/index.cfm?vNavID=35&vSubNavID=94&mainid=5 Etchells Irish National Championship DUBLIN, Ireland (August 22, 2005) -Racing began at midday Friday of the coast of North County Dublin. Clear skies and 10 knots of breeze made for ideal conditions on the race course.
Given the proximity to the European championships, to be held in the same venue next week, the Irish National Championships has a distinctly international feel. Sailors from as far afield as San Diego in the US, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the UK are racing in the Irish Nationals as preparation for the European Championships next week. Dennis Conner, one of the worlds best known and most successful sailors, is sailing on these shores for the first time. Conners is one of the most successful Americas Cup helms ever, and a keen Etchell sailor. He went into todays racing as one of the strong favorites for overall victory.
Tight racing was the order of the day in a closely matched field. Nils Razmilovic, of the Royal Sweden Yacht Club, is the clear leader overnight on nine points with Jarvis Tilly from the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in second, and Nils’ brother Ante Razmilovic from the Royal Thames Yacht Club in third. First Irish boat is Galert, sailed by Dan O’Grady, Gerard Beshoff and Ben O’Donoghue. They are in sixth overall and only one place behind Dennis Conner in fifth. The Galert crew won the second race after commiting to the right hand side on the first beat. They rounded the first mark second but an excellant downwind leg earned them the lead, which they maintained to the finish. One of the favoured Irish contenders, William Lacy didn’t even get to start racing today, after another competing boat collided with them 10 minutes before the first start, leaving a 2 foot hole in the bow and a damaged foredeck.
Baird Wins Fourth on Swedish Match Tour ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (Aug. 21, 2005) – Ed Baird became a four-time winner on the Swedish Match Tour when he captured the St. Moritz Match Race, Stage 3 of the 2005-’06 Swedish Match Tour. The helmsman from St. Petersburg, Fla., and his crew of Mike Drummond and Nils Frei, members of America’s Cup syndicate Alinghi, defeated Mark Mendelblatt 3-0 in the final. Baird captured his first Tour event since the Nippon Cup last November. He scored 25 points towards the Tour championship and is tied for third on the leaderboard with two other skippers. Baird and crew also won approximately $28,000 of the approximately $117,000 prize purse. SWEDISH MATCH TOUR STANDINGS (After 3 of 9 stages) 1. Ben Ainslie (GBR) Emirates Team New Zealand, 30 points 2. Peter Holmberg (ISV) Alinghi, 29 points 3. Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi, 25 points T. Staffan Lindberg (FIN), 25 points T. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 25 points 6. Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 23 points 7. Gavin Brady (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 20 points T. Mark Mendelblatt (USA), 20 points St. MORITZ MATCH RACE FINAL STANDINGS Prize Purse: SFr 150,000 (approximately $117,000) Skipper (Country) Team, Record, Prize Money* 1. Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi, 12-3, SFr. 36,000 (approx. $28,000) (Crew: Mike Drummond, Nils Frei) 2. Mark Mendelblatt (USA), 9-7, SFr. 22,500 (approx. $17,600) (Crew: Dean Slater, Ed Smyth) 3. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, 8-7, SFr. 18,000 (approx. $14,000) (Crew: Robert Skarp, Carl-Johan Uckelstam) 4. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Musto, 9-7, SFr. 15,000 (approx. $11,700) (Crew: Steve Mitchell, Mark Nichols) 5. Ben Ainslie (GBR) Emirates Team New Zealand, 8-5, SFr. 13,500 (approx. $10,500) (Crew: Andy Hemmings, Andy McLean) 6. Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 4-9, SFr. 12,000 (approx. $9,400) (Crew: Teague Czislowski, David Gilmour) 7. Sebastien Col (FRA) K-Challenge, 7-3, SFr. 10,500 (approx. $8,200) (Crew: Christophe Andre, Teva Plichard) 8. Peter Holmberg (ISV) Alinghi, 5-5, SFr. 7,500 (approx. $5,800) (Crew: Claudio Celon, Matt Mitchell) 9. Eric Monin (SUI), 3-7, SFr. 6,000 (approx. $4,700) (Crew: Jean-Claude Monnin, Marc Monnin) 10. Mathieu Richard (FRA), 6-4, SFr. 4,500 (approx. $3,500) (Crew: Philippe Mourniac, Yannick Simon) 11. Marcel Walser (SUI), 4-6, SFr. 3,000 (approx. $2,300) (Crew: Fabio Muller, Urs Rothacher) 12. Mark Bradford (AUS) BMW Oracle Racing, 0-10, SFr. 1,500 (approx. $1,100) (Crew: Rodney Daniel, Nick Partridge) (*1SFr = .784004 USD on Aug. 21, 2005) St. MORITZ MATCH RACE RESULTS Final Round (3) Ed Baird (USA) 3, Mark Mendelblatt (USA) 0 Petit Final Round (2) Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 2, (1) Ian Williams (GBR) 1 Two American Teams in Top Five at 505 Worlds WARNEMUNDE, Germany (August 20, 2005) – The CSC 2005 505 World Championships were officially opened on Friday night. On Saturday, two races were scheduled. After an hour of waiting in the race area, at 12.00h a light Northerly sea breeze filled in and the first race got underway. The 505 class has long favored the gate start method for fair starting in large fleets. However, this time a lot of sailors were concerned if a gate start would work with 170 boats in light air. It has been argued that the windward back spill of the fleet queuing for the start would slow down the port tack pathfinder boat, putting a disadvantage on the right side of the start. American pathfinders Ethan Bixby/Erik Boothe proved all theories wrong by passing the first weather mark in the top twenties. Top 10 1 GER 8728 Dietrich Scheder-Bieschin , Reiner Gorge 2 DEN 8849 Per Larsen, Hendrik Andresen 3 GER 8875 Jens Findel, Johannes Tellen 4 USA 8824 Andy Beeckmann, Jeff Nelson 5 USA 8842 Mark Ivey, Shane Illidge 6 GER 8651 Claas Lehmann, Martin Scholer 7 GER 8750 Michael Rossler, Holger Neuhaus 8 GER 8466 Volker Niediek, Stefan Heising 9 GER 8851 Wolfgang Hunger, Holger Jess 10 DEN 8656 Bo Petersen, Henrik Buhl US SAILING News -U.S. Singlehanded Championship/George O’Day TrophyLONG BEACH, Calif. (August 21, 2005) – It looked like Kevin Taugher had his Laser on cruise control Sunday with a big lead before the last two races of the 2005 U.S. Singlehanded Championship for the George O’Day Trophy, but he’s been sailing long enough to know that no lead is too big to lose. Confronted by the lightest winds of the three-day regatta and a flock of Sunday boat drivers crossing the race course, conditions that favored lighter and luckier competitors. But even with two fifth places, his worst finishes in nine races, he still ended up with his first national championship. Runner-up Reed Johnson, 19, of Toms River, N.J., cut Taugher’s 18-point lead to a final 13 with a fourth and a first. Thomas Barrows, 17, of the U.S. Virgin Islands, was the first-day leader and recaptured his form in more favorable conditions with a pair of seconds to finish third overall. The finalists (23 boats, 9 races): 1. Kevin Taugher, Huntington Beach, 25 points. 2. Reed Johnson, Toms River, N.J., 33. 3. Thomas Barrows, St. Thomas, USVI, 53. 4. Peter Phelan, Santa Cruz, Calif., 57. 5. Vann Wilson, Long Beach, 62. -Campbell Wins Gold and Tunnicliffe Silver at World University Games IZMIR, Turkey (August 21, 2005) – Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif./Georgetown University/Laser) and Anna Tunnicliffe (Norfolk, Va./Old Dominion University/Laser Radial) sailed in with the gold and silver medal respectively on Saturday, the final day of the Sailing competition at the 2005 Summer World University Games. A second place finish in race eleven and a sixth in race twelve pushed Campbell past home country favorite Turkey’s Kemal Mutlubas for the gold medal. Tunnicliffe who entered the day in second place needing to finish ahead of Poland’s Katarzyna Szotynska was unable to do so, finishing eighth and fourth to Szotynska’s sixth and first. Final Results: Women’s Laser Radial 1. Katarzyna Szotynska (POL): 21 points 2. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA): 25 points 3. Krystal Weir (AUS): 37 points 15. Jennifer Gervais (USA): 145 points Men’s Laser 1. Andrew Campbell (USA): 34 points 2. Kemal Mutlubas (TUR): 34 points 3. Johann Cechosz (FRA): 37 points 12. Brendan Fahey (USA): 121 points For more information about the World University Games Sailing Team, please visit the team’s website at www.ussailing.org/olympics/2005WUG/team.htm. For more information about the World University Games, please visit the event website at -Argentinians Claim Men and Women’s 470 NA Titles SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Two teams from Argentina have won the men’s and women’s titles of 2005 North American Champion in the two-person Olympic class 470 sailboats. The 10-race series, which started 13 August with teams competing from 13 countries with an eye on the Beijing Olympics, was the first-ever 470 championship on San Francisco Bay and the first-ever Olympic class race for the hosting clubs. First for the men and receiving gold medals were Lucas Calabrese and Fernando Gwozdz. Fernanda Sesto and Consuelo Monsegur took gold for the women. In the ten-race series, with one throwout race, Calabrese/Gwozdz finished with 36 points on scores of (29)-10-2-5-4-3-3-7-1-1. But Sesto/Monseger were an unstoppable force with 20 points on scores of 1-2-5-1-1-3-2-4-1-2-(17). As late as race eight, yesterday, the men’s competition was too close to call, with five boats in a virtual tie for the top spots. Ultimately, US men’s favorites Michael Anderson-Mitterling and David Hughes took silver with finishes of 1-7-1-9-9-4-6-6-(11)-3. Matthias Schmid and Florian Reichstaedter of Austria took bronze with finishes of 3-5-(15)-4-3-1-11-8-9-4. The US and Austria took the second and third spots in the women’s division, as well. Amanda Clark and Sarah Mergenthaler won silver, with finishes of 2-(6)-3-6-(12)-2-3-1-3-2, and Austrian women Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher took home the bronze with finishes of 6-3-1-4-7-6-(17)-3-1-4. Thirty-two men and women sailors from the US, including a large crop of fresh talent, competed and put in strong performances that landed them in the top ten places. US women finished fourth (Carapiet/Bessy), fifth (Jolly/O’Bryan), seventh (Maxwell/Manard) and eighth (Tulloch/Maxam). US men in the top 10 took fifth (McNay/Biehl), sixth (Roberts/Martin), seventh (Law/Miller), and tenth (Brown/Kinsolving). Alpha Romeo Breaks Records in Maiden Race HAMILTON ISLANDS, Australia (August 20, 2005) – Autralian Neville Crighton steered his 30m super maxi Alfa Romeo to a record breaking performance in the opening race of the Hamilton Island Hahn Premium Race Week in the Whitsunday Islands. Alfa Romeo generating enormous power over all angles of sailing completed the 23-mile Lindeman Island race in 1 hour 58 minutes 45 seconds slashing over 8 minutes of the previous record set by the Stewart Thwaites skippered Konica Minolta last year. Remarkably this was the first competition race for Alfa Romeo which still remains relatively un-tuned with the crew still learning the required speed sailing technique. This was easily the most convincing maiden race performance ever recorded in the 22 year history of Hamilton Island Race Week with Alfa Romeo also outperforming her 1.738 handicap rating to claim the overall corrected time trophy by 1 minute 45 seconds over Stephen Ainsworth’s new Reichel Pugh 60 Loki while Wild Joe the canting keel Reichel Pugh 60 56 seconds away third.
