Mumm 30s and Farr 40s
Crank Up for World Championships:
New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex
NEWPORT, R.I. (July 18, 2002) -- While
the Mumm 30 class sails its North American Championships this
week at the New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented
by Rolex, it also will be preparing for its World Championships
scheduled for September in Annapolis, Md. As well, the Farr
40 class will be gunning for bragging rights in the lead up
to the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship this November in the
Bahamas.
Rolex Yachtsman of the Year (2000) Mark
Reynolds, a decorated Star sailor whose accomplishments include
three Olympic medals (two gold, one silver) and two Star World
titles, will serve as tactician aboard the Farr 40 Le Renard,
owned and skippered by Stephen Phillips of Annapolis, Md.
“I’ve sailed in Newport only a few times, mostly
aboard 50 footers and Maxis,” said Reynolds, a sailmaker
who lives in San Diego. “It will be great to get back
again. I’ve just started with this program, so it will
be a good regatta to get under our belts, as a team, before
the Worlds.”
Tough competition will come from veteran
Swan sailor Clay Deutsch of Sewickley, Pa., who has chartered
the Farr 40 Raging Bull for this event. Deutsch just finished
eighth in class at the Bermuda Race aboard his Swan 68 Chippewa,
which has been sent on to the Mediterranean for the Swan Worlds
in Sept. Deutsch, though he has never before sailed a Farr
40, will have plenty of talent aboard, including Californian
Farr 40 North American and SORC champions Matt Ciesicki (San
Francisco) and Eric Arndt (Santa Barbara, Calif.), and world-champion
crew members Nancy Hood of Middletown, R.I. and Jack Slattery
of Marblehead, Mass.
The Australia-based team aboard Foreign
Affair leads the list of contenders for the Mumm 30 North
Americans. Foreign Affair, owned by Sydney’s Richard
Perini, was commissioned last year for the Mumm 30 Worlds
in Italy, where it finished 12th , and then was shipped directly
to North America for the 2002 Mumm 30 circuit. This will be
the sixth time the Foreign Affair crew has been flown to the
States for a major regatta, and plans are to sustain the boat’s
impressive record, which includes class victories at Key West
Race Week in Florida and the Newport Gold Cup more recently
here in Newport.
“Though Richard Perini owns and
campaigns a Farr 40 called Corinthian Doors, the Mumm 30 is
the priority as we look toward the Worlds later this year,”
said Foreign Affair’s Boat Captain/Team Manager Darren
Jones, also of Sydney. “When we launched, we had a two-year
goal of winning the Worlds in France next year. We’re
not short-tracking it for this year, but the way we ’ve
been sailing, we’re certainly capable of winning here
and in Annapolis. We’re consistently in the top six,
and I guess if you’re in that position and luck goes
your way, anything can happen.”
Jones added that one Race Week entrant
he will watch closely is Dan Cheresh’ s Chicago-based
Team Intermec, since that boat is “doing well on the
U.S. Circuit.”
The one-design portion of Race Week
at Newport, which starts tomorrow and continues through July
21, also is serving as the J/44 North Americans, 1D 35 East
Coast Regional Championship and the J/35 New England Championship.
For the first half of Race Week at Newport,
which toop place July 13-16, Jones sailed aboard the winning
local boat Rumours, a Thomson 35 owned and skippered by Hood
Sails owner Tim Woodhouse of Newport. The Race Week’s
unique split-racing format allows such dual participation
in handicap racing and one-design racing.
“Whenever you see the name Rolex
attached to a regatta, you know it will be quite a prestigious
event,” said Jones. “Foreign Affair’s goal
for the one-design racing is clear, but it was also very important
to me to help Rumours win its class, since I’ve sailed
the last three Block Island Race Weeks with Tim and the Chicago
Mac last year. The two racing segments really have equal status.”
