Andrew Weis''s J/122 Christopher Dragon sailing up wind with her MatriX upwind sails. JH Peterson photo.
The US IRC National Championship was sailed as part of the second half of the New York Yacht Club�s seventh biennial Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex and UK-Halsey customers won two of the five classes.
Andrew Weiss�s CHRISTOPHER DRAGON (shown above) held onto her IRC Class 4 lead by scoring a second in the final race, which was sailed in light and lumpy conditions. DRAGON won by one point over Craig Albrecht�s Farr 395 AVALANCHE. �Our class had a great cross section of competitive IRC boats,� said Weiss. �We had every thing from two brand new Summit 35s to a modified J/44 and a Ben. First 44.7. The two J/122s fell in the middle of the rating band.�
�Our boat and crew made up of family and long-time-friends got tested in different conditions and courses,� said Weiss. �With no throwouts and varied conditions (4 to 30 knots) we tried to sail conservatively aiming to win the series, not individual races. This year we switched to UK-Halsey sails because in the past three years we�ve struggled downwind with our spinnakers. The new UK VMG chute and runner were terrific. Instead of losing ground on every down wind leg, we were able to pass boats and extend our lead. We believe we were about 30 seconds a leg faster.�
1. Christopher Dragon (J/122/Andrew Weiss) 1-1-1-3-4-2 12 points
2. Avalanche (Farr 395/Craig Albrecht) 2-2-4-2-2-1 13 points
3. Partnership (J/122/David Tortorello) 5-4-2-1-3-3 18 points
The winner of IRC Class 5 was Rick Lyall�s J/109 STORM. �We only just started racing in IRC; this was our fourth or fifth IRC event. It�s a very good measurement and rating system. We worked really hard at making sure we had a good configuration in the sail plan, and we sailed really well. To beat CARINA, the winner of Newport Bermuda Race says a lot and it shows how top-notch the competition was.
After six races, STORM tied with the J/109 RUSH from Annapolis. Breaking the tie was not easy since both boats had the exact same scores after a count-back. The tie was broken by who beat who in the last race. �RUSH beat us earlier this year at the Annapolis NOOD, and it�s been back and forth with them. They put in a really good effort,� said Lyall
�By the way, we had a terrific distance race. You can�t ever beat a long race with 25 knots of wind. We were going 14 knots; it was fantastic racing!�
1. Storm (J/109/Rick Lyall) 1-4-3-2-4-3 17 points
2. Rush (J/109/ Bill Sweetser 3-2-4-1-3-4 17 points
3. Nordlys (J/109/Robert Schwartz) 4-7-6-3-1-1 22 points
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