REGATTA RESULTS – click here

Regatta Gear is available now from Team One Newport – click here

LYNN WINS 2^ND SONAR NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP

MARBLEHEAD, Sunday, Sept. 18 - Bill Lynn and his crew decidedly won his second North American Championship in the Sonar class this past weekend, finishing 14 points ahead of the second place boat in a field of 44 competitors. The event was hosted by both the Boston and Eastern Yacht Clubs September 15-19. Goeff Smith, race committee chairman of the BYC and Gordon Vineyard, chairman of the EYC, received high marks from all the top sailors for the outstanding race committee work over the three days. This was Vineyard’s last event as chair of the EYC race committee and he finished on a high note.

Bill and all the top five winners attributed their positions to their crews. Bill’s team consisted of Ed Keller, Chris Hufstader and Doug Sabin. The conditions were difficult for the first two days with the threat of hurricane Ophelia. Four races were run Friday and four on Saturday in a range of 5 -19 knots, fog, rain and choppy seas. No races were run on Sunday due to lack of wind. Second place finisher, Steve Cucchiaro, cited his crew for keeping the boat pointed in the right direction and moving forward “The Sonar is not a one person boat, but a team boat. The competition was very fierce. Bill is to be congratulated for consistently being outstanding in every race”. Stu Neff, 4^th place finisher, said “This was one of the classiest regattas I have attended. The organizers did a great job. The race committee set the line so I didn’t know which way to go. That’s a testament to them (the race committee).”

Rick Doer traveled from Clifton, NJ, to compete in the championship. Rick is a member of the 2005 US SAILING Disabled Sailing Team. For this regatta he had a “pick up” crew. None of them had ever sailed together. For Rick, it was a terrific regatta for outstanding team work. With this level of competition, “I had to be able to focus at the mark roundings on just getting boat clean around the mark. My crew took care of everything else. For me, that was very exciting”. His crew members were Dan Tucker of Marblehead, Rick’s college roommate, Bret Van Gelder, and Mark Whitney, both of Winchester, MA. “The conditions were such that at some point during one of the two days we all found ourselves next to one of the leaders. And we could pride ourselves by saying “we’re going just as fast!”

The Eastern Yacht Club was abuzz with the sounds of CopaCabana music Saturday night. And the Team One table with Sonar event products was constantly busy.

Tony Allott, formerly of Marlbehead, and President of the Sonar Class, was competing with Bob Munro. They turned in a 14^th place finish. “Marblehead is a great town for sailing. I was thrilled to see the two clubs come together and put on an excellent regatta. We didn’t have the usual international entries due to the fact that the Sonar World Championship is being held in Cowes, England, next weekend. However, the caliber of this event bodes well for 2007 when Marblehead will be the host site for the Sonar World Championship.

The Event Organizers – Charlie Garrard, Dru Slattery and Janet Drumm – did an awesome job and Fleet 14 members came out in numbers to support them. Appreciation went to Jenny Aspinall headed up the “Make It Easy” committee responsible for making things easy for the traveling competitors; Sarah Lynn for housing; Debbie and Chris Noble for the sponsor contributions; Annie Kaull for getting up before the sun for breakfast duty; Peg McMaster for her design of the Event T-shirt and Brent Larlee for the special North American website. And there were more working with each of the above individuals.