Annapolis to Newport Race 2009

The volunteers who stand watch both in the A2N Race Committee Headquarters at Harbour Court and at the Lighthouse had a steady stream of activity in the past 24 hours with 37 finishers between 1300 on Monday and 0900 on Tuesday. All but one class has finished all their competitors and if the forecast holds the last two boats should finish by the first daylight shift on Wednesday morning. With the rain Gods on our side once the boats made the turn at Chesapeake Light, a light drizzle has taken up residence in the extended finish area so no doubt that boats bringing up the rear are even more eager to complete their journey.

Rambler, the Reichel-Pugh-designed 90-foot maxi yacht owned by George David of Stamford, Conn., captured line honors for the 62nd anniversary edition of the Annapolis-to-Newport Race. Rambler crossed the finish line off Castle Hill Lighthouse in Newport, R.I. at 9:16 on Sunday morning with an elapsed time of 44 hours, 36 minutes and six seconds. That was slightly less than two hours shy of the course record of 42 hours, 58 minutes and 12 seconds, which was set by Joseph Dockery's Farr 60-footer Carrera in 2001.

“Obviously we are a little disappointed that we missed the record,” said Mick Harvey, boat captain aboard Rambler. “However, we are very happy we had a good race and were first across the line.”

David Askew, owner with his wife Sandy of Flying Jenny VI, a J/122 from Annapolis, took 1st Place Honors in a hotly contested IRC II fleet. “It was a nail biter. We had a wild ride down the Bay and kept our chute up as long as we could at a very hot angle passing quite a few boats just as we turned the corner and headed out of the Bay doing 14.2kts. We knew from the start that Upgrade and Fearless, both Farr 395s would be our competition so we kept that in mind during our tactical discussions and decided to sail our own race and not cover. We made the decision to jibe out and head away from Block Island anticipating the breeze coming from the East later on; what we didn’t plan on was 3 hours of nothing before that shift so it was a quite tense at times when we knew the other boats were closer to shore. Next thing we knew the breeze came in as we’d predicted and we popped the chute and off we went. We used our downwind inventory starting with the code zero, then the reaching kite then the light runner. In the long run it paid off but until the RC finished inputting the finish times and posted the scores, we weren’t quite sure if we had it nailed.”

Under the heading of “Family Affairs”, the Gibbons-Neff’s have long been prominent members of the sailing community in the Mid-Atlantic with roots in the greater Philadelphia area and Maryland’s Eastern Shore. With a strong history of participation in this event the extended family spread out into 4 classes in the 2009 event. Skippering his Farr 395 Upgrade along with his daughter Lyndsey included in the crew, Peter Gibbons-Neff was first over the line in IRC II but corrected to 3rd in this hotly contested class. His son Peter, a Midshipman at the NavalAcademy sailed on the NASS entry, Seawolf, finishing 3rd in PHRF I. Sewall, whose mother is Peter’s cousin sailed on Amadeus in PHRF II. Henry and his son Henner competed in PHRF III on Prim, a modified Owens 41. Prim sailed in her first Annapolis to Newport Race 54 years ago and the 09 event is her 12th.