Local Knowledge

Right Coast Report

By Laurie Fullerton

MARBLEHEAD - After 115 years Marblehead Race Week has
a well-earned reputation for offering sailing
competition that rivals most places in North America,
and with 200 boats and 1,000 sailors competing for
four days of tight racing, it is never over until the
final gun.

In the J-24 class, Beverly resident Paul Adam, 31, who
won his fleet 11 points ahead of the second-place
finisher, was awarded the coveted Norman Cressy trophy
for outstanding performance during Race Week.
Adam is a graduate of Salem State College
and has been competing at Race Week for five years.

"This is a great feeling and it is, without a doubt,
crew work that does it. The crew was focused and we
had the ability to find the breeze wherever it was,"
Adam said. "We really had it all together this week
and we executed our mark roundings really well."

The J-24 class is one of the most competitive at Race
Week, with 26 boats in the fleet. Adam had his four
crewmates - Jay Robichau, Andrew Crocker, John Pratt
and Matt Crowley - helping him all the way.

Managed as Sailing World's National Offshore One
Design regatta, Marblehead Race Week featured strong
performances from all the fleets. With four days of
sailing in perfect conditions by Race Week standards,
this week's 18-to-20-knot winds and flat seas made it
a perfect playing field for the sailors. The regatta
showed huge numbers in the Sonar, Rhodes-19 and J-24
fleets, with a spectacular 42 boats on the Sonar line
- one of the largest for Marblehead Race Week.

For his contribution to the Day Sailor class, retired
skipper Dan Duggan was awarded the prestigious Leonard
M. Fowle trophy this year.

"People are really coming out here to race hard and
win, and the mark roundings have been intense and
exciting, and the racing has been extremely close all
around," said Eastern Yacht Club race committee
chairman Susie Schneider. "With all the steady
breezes, we have gotten a lot of races under our belt,
and that makes a great regatta."

In the Sonar class, the win was down to the final
race, and Boston sailor Dave Franzel prevailed with 26
points. Close at his heels were some of the best
sailors in the Northeast, including Bill Lynn, Dave
Curtis and Stu Neff.

"This is my 30th year participating in Race Week,"
said Curtis, a Marblehead sailing legend and
world-class sailor. "I can't remember a regatta with
better conditions than this. The Sonar fleet is
incredibly competitive and the fleet is so deep with
talent that anyone in the top 10 could have won it. It
was great, close racing."

Curtis raced with his wife Joanne and his daughter,
Gretchen, 19.

In the Rhodes-19 class, 39 boats competed, and Kimon
and Christina Pandapas of Marblehead took the title.

"We went out this week and things were just chugging
on all cylinders. We were going fast, we were turning
when we should be turning," Christina Pandapas said.
"It just all worked."

One of the more classic fleets is the International
One Design class, and in a tightly competitive week,
the legendary sailor Bill Widnall of Lexington took
first place.

"Marblehead Race Week is always important because it
overlaps qualifiers and also stands on its own as a
great week of competition," said Rick Echard, a crew
member for Widnall. "The IOD fleet had a new mix of
skippers and crews, and it accelerated the level of
competition through the entire fleet."

In one of the oldest fleets in Marblehead, the Town
Class (which was a boat designed and built for
Marblehead sailors in the 1930s), Jane Cook has been
competing at Marblehead Race Week since the 1960s.

"I have always enjoyed Race Week, as it is fun and it
gives us four days of sailing where we can really
focus on competition," said Cook, who finished fourth
this year.

The top finisher in the Town Class was Swampscott
native Arthur O'Neill, who also won the coveted
Campbell Trophy for his performance in the Town Class
fleet.

Race Week is a cherished event for veteran sailors,
who always perform well here, but there are always new
faces in the fleets who emerge as winners.

"Marblehead remains a beautiful place to sail," said
Marblehead sailmaker and former America's Cup racer
Robbie Doyle. "We can sail out and be on the race
course in a short time and have four beautiful days of
sailing. It is great fun and it is also a family
tradition for many of us."