Builder: Columbia Yachts
Designer: William H. Tripp Jr.
More: COLUMBIA 30 Specifications
News:
Rolex IMS Offshore Worlds to be held at New York Yacht Club
Author: Barby MacGowan
TOP TALENT TARGETS NEW YORK YACHT CLUB'S RACE WEEK AT NEWPORT PRESENTED BY
ROLEX
Regatta to Determine Rolex IMS Offshore World Champions; North American,
East Coast and Northeast Championship Titles in One-Design
NEWPORT, R.I (July 11, 2000) - Newport, R.I.'s intense summer sail racing
season will come to a crescendo this week when the New York Yacht Club
(NYYC) hosts its second biennial Race Week at Newport present by Rolex. The
regatta, which begins Saturday, July 15, and continues through Sunday, July
23, incorporates the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship and offers a
convenient split racing format, providing sailors with a rare opportunity
to compete in IMS or PHRF handicap racing during the first half of the
event and One-Design class racing during the second half. The event will
be headquartered at the NYYC's Harbour Court clubhouse, with racing taking
place on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound. Nearly 180 boats have
entered.
Rolex IMS Offshore Worlds
Thirty-five IMS yachts will vie for Rolex IMS Offshore World titles in
Racer and Cruiser/Racer divisions from the 15th through the 19th. Racing
will be around-the-buoys, with the exception of an overnight distance race
scheduled for the 17th.
Among the impressive IMS Racer entrants will be the Farr 52 Chessie
Racing, with owner George Collins (Annapolis, Md.) skippering and past
Rolex Yachtsman of the Year and J/24 World Champion Chris Larson
(Annapolis) at the helm. A reunion crew from Collins' namesake '97-'98
Whitbread (now Volvo Ocean Race) campaign will include former Newporter and
America's Cup veteran Mike Toppa (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) serving as
tactician and Jerry Kirby (Middletown, R.I.) managing the bow. The
all-star crew also will include Hartwell Jordan (San Francisco, Calif.),
who will represent the USA at the 2000 Olympics, crewing in the Soling
class.
Terry Hutchinson (Annapolis), another former Newporter whose sailing
name has a world-renowned ring, will sail with Craig Speck (Grand Rapids,
Mich.) aboard Speck's Nelson/Marek 39 VIM 3, while Steve Benjamin (South
Norwalk, Conn.) will sail with Robert Towse (Stamford, Conn.) aboard
Towse's Reichel/Pugh 66 Blue Yankee. Larry Leonard (Annapolis, Md.) will
join Isam Kabbani (Saudi Arabia) aboard Kabbani's Farr 60 Rima, which won
the inaugural NYYC Race Week at Newport in the IMS Racer divison. The
80-foot maxi yacht Sagamore, which earlier this summer won line honors in
the Newport to Bermuda Race, will sail with its owner, cable television
magnate Jim Dolan (Bethpage, N.Y.), aboard as well as its designer Bill
Langan (Newport). Perennial big-boat regatta favorite John Thomson, Jr.
(Port Washington, N.Y.) also will skipper his Farr 40 Solution, which-when
it appears again during the second half of race week--will defend its 1998
NYYC Race Week victory in the Farr 40 One-Design competition.
Two of the winning Italian yachts from the 1999 Rolex IMS Offshore
World Championships, held in Sardinia, Italy, have been shipped to Newport,
bent on reclaiming victory: the Frers 39 Winterhur Yah Man, with owner
Vittorio Rava skippering and Tommaso Chieffi set to steer, and the Beneteau
40.7 Drake, owned and skippered by Raul Marinuzzi Ronconi. Joining them
will be the Farr 43 Mascalzone Latino, owned and skippered by Vincenzo
Onorato, whose Farr 40, also named Mascalzone Latino, is signed up for the
Farr 40 One-Design competition.
PHRF
Tim Woodhouse's (Newport, R.I.) new Thompson 36 Rumours, fresh off a
class victory at Block Island Race Week, will be a boat to watch during
PHRF racing, which will host 49 entries beginning the 15th and concluding
the 18th. Again, around-the-buoys racing will be the order, with a
distance race beginning and finishing on the 17th. Chris Bouzaid's
(Jamestown, R.I.) Thompson 30 Wairere will be another hot boat to watch,
having finished third behind Rumours in its class at Block Island. Wairere
also finished third in its class at the last NYYC Race Week at Newport.
The PHRF fleet, like the IMS fleet, will be subdivided into classes by
rating.
One-Design
Thursday, the 20th will come and go with no racing action on the water
but plenty of activity at Harbour Court when 90 or more teams in seven
one-design classes check in and prepare for their next three days of
racing. This portion of the NYYC Race Week at Newport will serve as North
American championships for four classes: J/35, J/44, Mumm 30 and NY40. As
well, it will serve as East Coast Championships for the Farr 40 class and
Northeast Championships for the J/105 class. Also sailing will be 1D35s.
2000 America's Cup notables Ken Read and Kimo Worthington will go
head-to-head as tacticians in the 1D35s. Read, who steered Stars & Stripes
and is a six-time J/24 World Champion, will sail with John Fisher (Peabody,
Mass.) aboard Fisher's Jazz, while Worthington, who served as Young
America's strategist, will sail with Owen Kratz (Houston, Texas) aboard
Kratz's Joss.
New Zealand's Gavin Brady, who recently became his country's
representative in the Star class for the 2000 Olympics, will call tactics
for Steve Kaminer on Kaminer's Farr 40 Predator. Brady also has an
America's Cup connection, having been strategist on America One.
Rolex timepieces will be awarded to overall first- and second-place
finishers in both IMS divisions as well as to the overall winner in PHRF
and winners of the J/35, J/44 and Mumm 30 One-Design Competitions.
For more information, including entry lists, visit the NYYC web site
at www.nyyc.org
See also: COLUMBIA 29-2 for sale
