Etchells Long Island Sound Championships

Girling, Johannessen and Hughes win

The team of Steve Girling, Chris Johannessen and Britt Hughes sailing USA 1200 - Lionheart, won the Long Island Sound Championships over the weekend of Aug 23-24th that was graciously hosted by the Duck Island Yacht Club in Westbrook, Connecticut. Girling and team scored 1,1,2,3,5,6 in the six race, one discard series to win by 3 points from Rob Hitchcock, Tim Platt and Justin Muller in second and Hank Lammens, Hank Lammens and Dirk Kneulman in third.

Jane Reilly, the PRO, kept the series on track with a timely move into Duck Island Roads after 2 races out in the roaring (reported 3+ knot) current on Saturday morning that tested everyone's patience when the wind shut down in the second race to a paultry 4 knots. Two races 'inside' finished Saturday off nicely with Girling in the lead with 6 points and Hitchcock and Lammens tied for second. A varied day of racing racing gave the fleet the perfect appetite for some wonderful hospitality back at the Duck Island Yacht Club on Saturday evening.

Sunday's two races were sailed in Duck Island Roads to complete the Championship in a light South-Easterly breeze.

Going into the last race, Girling had a slender one point lead over Lammens for the Championship with Hitchcock just two further back. In this deciding race, Girling and Hitchcock made reasonable starts and were one-two around the weather mark in the light southerly breeze. Lammens however was over the line at the boat end, well before the gun and had to circle back. He recovered to seventh over the three lap windward-leeward course from deep, but was out of contention. Girling built a significant lead and was never challenged. Hitchcock was challenged but was scored second for second overall in the regatta. Lammens ended up third overall.

Thanks go to the huge team of volunteers at the Duck Island Yacht Club with special thanks to the terrific PRO, Jane Reilly and her team, the amazing efforts of the Pilots Point marina General Manager, Bob Connell and the event organizers from Etchells Fleet 24, Tim Keyworth and Chuck Poindexter.

The Etchells schedule for the balance of the year includes the North Amercian Champs which take place in Annapolis in early September, the Atlantic Coast Championships in Oriental, North Carolina in late October and the Piana Cup (the first event in the four regatta Miami-based Jaguar series) in December.

Overall Results:

Full results and pictures at www.diyc.com