2011 New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup: U.S. Qualifying Series

[MLovett]

Day 1 of U.S. Qualifying Series of New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup

Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club and Bora Gulari Set the Pace

NEWPORT, R.I., September 8 -- The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series, sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, began today off Harbour Court, the New York Yacht Club’s on-the-water clubhouse, with 24 preeminent yacht clubs in America showing their hands. The prize for the top-three U.S. amateur teams is an invitation to the NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex in September 2011, where they will meet the top six teams from 2009: New York, Royal Canadian, Japan Sailing Federation, Nyländska Jaktklubben of Finland; Royal Cork of Ireland and Royal Bermuda, plus at least 10 other international teams.

It was windy for the first two races, about 16-18 knots from the southwest – stuck at that pace since Saturday’s passing of Hurricane Earl. The winds moderated later in the day. NYYC Race Committee Chair John Myles set the stage at the Skippers’ Meeting on Tuesday. “We’re here to sail; get in as many races as we can.” A man of his word is Mr. Myles.

The Red Fleet sailed the NYYC’s Sonars for the first four races, before switching to Sail Newport’s J/22s for the last four. The Blue Fleet started in J/22s and finished in Sonars.

After eight races for the Blue Fleet, Bayview Yacht Club of Detroit is first, with Bora Gulari, the 2009 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year in America, as skipper. The team posted the best record of the day with 21 points. Then came Sean Bennett’s San Francisco Yacht Club team and Peter Duncan’s American Yacht Club team from Rye, New York.

For the Red Fleet, Peter McChesney’s Annapolis Yacht Club is first. Larchmont, of New York, skippered by Danny Pletsch, is second and Eastern Yacht Club of Marblehead, Mass., led by Bill Lynn, is third.

The top six teams from the Red and Blue fleets will be determined after tomorrow’s racing; these 12 teams will compete on Friday and Saturday in Sonars to determine the three winners. The bottom six boats from either fleet will sail those days in a consolation round in J/22s.

The yacht clubs competing are American in Rye, N.Y.; Annapolis; Bayview in Detroit; Boston in Marblehead, Mass.; Carolina in Charleston, S.C.; Eastern in Marblehead, Mass.; Fishing Bay in Deltaville, Va.; Fort Worth Boat Club in Texas; Ida Lewis in Newport, R.I.; Indian Harbor in Greenwich, Conn.; Larchmont in New York; Little Traverse in Harbor Springs, Mich.; Long Beach in California; Newport Harbor in Newport Beach, Calif.; Pequot in Southport, Conn.; Rochester in New York; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; Seawanhaka Corinthian in Oyster Bay, N.Y.; Southern in New Orleans; St. Francis in San Francisco; St. Petersburg in Florida and Stamford in Connecticut.


The four-day regatta is sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, with the support of Sailing World, Shumway Marine, J/Boats and Team One Newport.

About Sperry Top-Sider
Since 1935, Sperry Top-Sider has been the leading brand of footwear for those with a Passion for the Sea. From its introduction of the world’s first siped rubber outsole for non-marking traction, to advanced technical fabrication to combat the elements, Sperry Top-Sider remains the vanguard of high-performance amphibious footwear. Available through independent, marine, outdoor and department stores, Sperry Top-Sider is the official footwear of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regattas, the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, the US Sailing Association, the Salt Water Sportsman seminar series and the National Safe Boating Council.

Based in historic Lexington, Massachusetts, Sperry Top-Sider is a division of Collective Brands Performance and Lifestyle Group, a subsidiary of Collective Brands, Inc. (NYSE:PSS). For more information, please visit www.sperrytopsider.com.


About Jaguar
From its beginning as a manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars in 1922, Jaguar Cars has grown to become one of the world’s premier manufacturers of luxury sedans and sports cars and with that, one of the most recognized commercial brands. The company's vision is simple: To produce beautiful fast cars that are desired the world over. The company operates two manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom and is fully engaged in environmental programs, community work and brand awareness exercises such as motorsports.

The U.S. Qualifying Series of the NYYC Invitational Cup is on the web at http://nyyc.org/2010USICQualifying/.

[MLovett]

BAYVIEW YACHT CLUB LEADS STANDINGS AT NEW YORK YACHT CLUB INVITATIONAL CUP U.S. QUALIFIYING SERIES


NEWPORT, R.I. (September 9, 2010) – It has been two challenging and fast-paced days for 24 of the nation’s foremost yacht clubs who are on the waters of Narragansett Bay competing in the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series, sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America.

Split equally into fleets designated Red or Blue, the competitors have spent half of each day’s races in either NYYC’s Sonars or Sail Newport’s J/22s. Eight races were sailed on the opening day of the series, with an additional six completed today to determine who still has a chance to convert a top-three finish in the overall standings into a ticket to the NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex to be held in September 2011.

“Today was a little more challenging and dicey than yesterday,” said Bora Gulari the 2009 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year who is the skipper of Bayview Yacht Club’s team which includes John Van Tol, Sarah Somes, and incoming Rear Commodore Kent Colpaert (all of Detroit). “The wind shifts were a little bigger, and the pressure differentiation was quite a bit bigger, and added to the strong cross-course current it was tactically interesting. It’s challenging here [in Newport] especially when it’s not a seabreeze situation, when the winds and tide don’t line up. It was northwest today, and we were fighting the tide all day.”

“There are a lot of good sailors here, and I am very happy to even do well,” concluded Gulari who acknowledged making some “bone-head mistakes” in the Sonar. “It’s a whole new regatta tomorrow.”

For the final two days of racing, the top-six teams qualifying from the Blue Fleet (Bayview, San Francisco, Carolina, Newport Harbor, American and Pequot Yacht Clubs) will meet the top six that qualified from the Red Fleet (Annapolis, Larchmont, Eastern, Fort Worth, Fishing Bay and Indian Harbor Yacht Clubs) in Sonars.

“Today was pretty good, we had a good time this morning,” said Travis Weisleder (Richmond, Va.), skipper of the entry from Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville, Va., which qualified from the Red Fleet. “The biggest surprise this morning was you had to go hard left to get out of the current and get through it to stay in the pressure. Switching between the two boats has been a big challenge. There is a vast difference in the two boats, and they are sailed completely differently. You can tell by the finishing times between the first Sonar and last Sonar -- they finish within 40 seconds of one another, whereas the J/22s finish within two minutes of each other. We did better in the J/22 today after a good session with coach Skip Dieball last night just dissecting how to sail the J/22 better. We tuned up with another boat right away this morning and figured out the conditions. Then we went out and won the J/22 in the Red Fleet today with a 2-6-1. Without that [coaching] we would never have been able to qualify.”

The Fishing Bay Yacht Club had 32 members try out for this team with Rob Whittemore, Ben Buhl and Lud Kimbrough making the cut, as the chance to compete on this level has generated a lot of excitement at the club. Although the team is self-funded, a yacht club member purchased a Sonar for them to train on, and the club is now considering building a Sonar fleet.

The remaining teams from the Blue Fleet (Seawanhaka, Ida Lewis, Seattle, Boston, Little Traverse and Stamford) will face six from the Red Fleet (Rochester, St. Francis, Long Beach, Southern, San Diego and St. Petersburg) in a consolation round to be sailed in J/22s over the next two days.

The four-day regatta (September 8-11) is sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, with the support of Sailing World, Shumway Marine, J/Boats and Team One Newport.

[MLovett]

EASTERN, ANNAPOLIS AND NEWPORT HARBOR YACHT CLUBS REAP BOUNTY AT NEW YORK YACHT CLUB INVITATIONAL CUP U.S. QUALIFYING SERIES

NEWPORT, R.I. (September 12, 2010) – After four days of intense competition (September 8-11), the prevailing sentiment at the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series, sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, was that it had been a tough competition. During the first two days of racing on Narragansett Bay, in which 24 of the nation’s foremost yacht clubs were split equally into fleets designated Red or Blue, the competitors sailed half of each day’s races in either NYYC’s Sonars or Sail Newport’s J/22s. After 14 races were completed the top six teams from each fleet were combined into the “Gold” fleet to sail the final two days of the regatta in Sonars. The bounty for a top-three finish in the Gold fleet was a spot in the NYYC Invitational Cup presented by Rolex. That biennial event will see its second running in September 2011.

The 2007 Sonar World Champion, Bill Lynn (Marblehead, Mass.), skippered Eastern Yacht Club’s team to the overall win of the Gold fleet with his son, Peter Lynn, and Rick Myers (both Marblehead) and Alden Reid (Bedford, Mass) crewing. “There’s so many good sailors here it’s ridiculous,” said Lynn on the penultimate day of racing. “If you miss one shift you lose five boats, and you look around and all of a sudden you’re in 11th and there are 12 boats. It’s really close racing.” When asked if he had an advantage because of his experience in the Sonar class, Lynn explained: “Because you can’t tune them, I think it removes any advantage I might have. I think it’s pretty obvious there are a lot of people who haven’t sailed Sonars as much as I have, and they’re doing fine.”

Lynn also noted that “Winning is not the objective. Not losing is the objective.” But win he did after six races on the final day in which Eastern Yacht Club placed no worse than fourth to end the series with 40 points.

“It was a nice day of sailing, pretty shifty,” said Lynn shortly before the awards presentation at Harbour Court, the NYYC Clubhouse. “We were tied for first going into the day, and we didn’t blow it more than anything else. We stayed consistent, stayed in the top-five. Our goal for the week was to just qualify the club.”

Annapolis Yacht Club was second overall in the Gold fleet standings with 50 points. Skipper Peter McChesney, with Shane Zwingleberg and Scott Snyder (all Annapolis) as crew, was a fan of the conditions that had stymied some teams. “The current was good for us when it was strong at the starting line because we had good starts. On the Chesapeake we’re used to current and some of the lake people [competing here] are not. We were up on the line, and other people were getting pushed back. It was helpful for us.”

McChesney felt that it would not be an easy feat to be one of the U.S. teams that qualify because there were so many great sailors participating. “Our mantra was ‘first is third and third is first’ for this regatta. We’re very pumped to be where we are. The competition is fantastic. Racing is extremely tight, and the whole philosophy of the regatta is fantastic. It’s an honor to come to this regatta," he concluded.

Taking third place in the Gold fleet standings with 67 points was the team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club skippered by Payson Infelise (Newport Beach, Calif.). “It’s tough out there,” Infelise said at the end of the final day of the event. With Chris Raab (Long Beach, Calif.) and Reid Vitarelli (Newport Beach) crewing, Newport Harbor won the first race of the day and struggled a bit before closing the series with another win. “I had a little trouble getting off the starting line today which was uncharacteristic of me, but we pulled through with some good tactics and boat handling and were able to pull off top-three and that’s what we’re here for. We were thrown out of race 10, which we had won, after we crossed a buoy line next to the Naval War College. Unfortunately we weren’t really paying attention at the time. We were all racing to get to the right hand side ‘cause that was definitely favored to get out of the current and that’s the way it turned out.”

Although Infelise had sailed Sonars at NYYC during a championship in 2007, he was surprised by the current. “The last time I sailed here it wasn’t as big a factor. But it’s definitely tough racing out there, definitely a tough competition. Most of my sailing has been as the middle/tactician, so driving is kind of new to me; I think we surprised some people.”

Finishing just one point out of the top-three was Larchmont Yacht Club with 68 points. The remaining standings for the Gold fleet are: American (74 points), Pequot (77), Bayview (81), Indian Harbor (84), San Francisco (88), Fishing Bay (104), Fort Worth (105) and Carolina (120).

There was also an incentive for the teams in the Silver fleet who were sailing the consolation round in J/22s: an automatic invitation to the 2012 Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series for a top-three finish in this group of 12. That bonus went to St. Francis, Seawanhaka and Ida Lewis Yacht Clubs who finished, respectively, with 31, 55 and 62 points. Losing the tie-breaker for third place, and the automatic invite, was Southern Yacht Club. Rochester Yacht Club (64 points), Long Beach (66), San Diego (70), St. Petersburg (88), Seattle (95), Boston (104), Little Traverse (105) and Stamford (135) round out the overall standings in the Silver fleet.

The event consumed its fair share of internet bandwidth over its four-day run. Newport Harbor Yacht Club kept fans at home up-to-date via Twitter (NHYCsail), while Fishing Bay Yacht Club posted regular updates to their Facebook page, Kattack followed the racing in real time, and Brad Dellenbaugh, NYYC’s sailing director, posted regular updates to the event blog from the race course.

The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series is sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, with the support of Sailing World, Shumway Marine, J/Boats and Team One Newport.

About Sperry Top-Sider
Since 1935, Sperry Top-Sider has been the leading brand of footwear for those with a Passion for the Sea. From its introduction of the world’s first siped rubber outsole for non-marking traction, to advanced technical fabrication to combat the elements, Sperry Top-Sider remains the vanguard of high-performance amphibious footwear. Available through independent, marine, outdoor and department stores, Sperry Top-Sider is the official footwear of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regattas, the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, the US Sailing Association, the Salt Water Sportsman seminar series and the National Safe Boating Council.

Based in historic Lexington, Massachusetts, Sperry Top-Sider is a division of Collective Brands Performance and Lifestyle Group, a subsidiary of Collective Brands, Inc. (NYSE:PSS). For more information, please visit www.sperrytopsider.com <http://www.sperrytopsider.com> .

About Jaguar
From its beginning as a manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars in 1922, Jaguar <http://www.jaguar.com/us/en/#/?campaignid=L0000726&advertiserid=IS_2007&bannerid =Google&gclid=CJbKx4Tc-KMCFQwTbAodOHgtHA> Cars has grown to become one of the world’s premier manufacturers of luxury sedans and sports cars and with that, one of the most recognized commercial brands. The company's vision is simple: To produce beautiful fast cars that are desired the world over. The company operates two manufacturing plants in the United Kingdom and is fully engaged in environmental programs, community work and brand awareness exercises such as motorsports.

The U.S. Qualifying Series of the NYYC Invitational Cup is on the web at http://nyyc.org/2010USICQualifying/.

[vance]

A lot of the clubs around the country will actually give you training on exactly how to drive a specific boat! Just think of all the cool activities you will be able to do with your family if you joined a boat club or a yacht club. You could take your kids swimming by one of the local reefs, or maybe you would like to take up scuba diving.