J/24 World Championships at Rhode Island, USA - Day 1
by Event Press 26 Sep 2000 11:58 BST
Brad Read Wins Opening Race of MFS Regatta J/24 World Championship
Spectacular conditions welcome international fleet of 73 teams
NEWPORT, R.I., USA (September 25, 2000) – Brad Read and his crew of Jay Miles (Newport, R.I.), Gordon Borges (New Bedford, Mass.), Randy Borges (Bristol, R.I.), and Paul Grenauer (Buffalo, N.Y.) sailed to a victory in the opening race of the MFS Regatta J/24 World Championship, topping a 73-boat fleet that includes world champions, America’s Cup sailors, and many talented one-design skippers. The regatta, presented by US Watercraft and Cambridge Technology Partners, opened with a crisp 18-knot northerly breeze on the Atlantic Ocean. The Race Committee, led by Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio (Essex, Conn.), set a twice-around windward/leeward course, with an upwind finish just off Newport, R.I. The remainder of the week’s schedule is to race two windward/leeward races per day through Friday, September 29, with the prizegiving immediately following racing.
"We started about 10 seconds late in pretty bad air, but we reached through the guy who won the pin end," said Read. "The line was five degrees or so favored to the pin. No one could really lay the line, so we thought, ‘Be conservative. Don’t try and win it.’ As Jay put it, it didn’t matter how much we had to reach, we were in the top 15 or 20 off the line." At the first windward mark Read and his crew on Blind Squirrel climbed into the top five boats, and as the wind continued to shift Read kept his concentration on sailing fast. "Jay did a great job of keeping my head in the boat and not swivelnecking," he said. That speed paid off as Blind Squirrel rounded the second windward mark in the lead and never looked back, finishing the race by almost a minute ahead of second-place Convicts Revenge, skippered by Stephen Girdis (Sydney, Australia).
The last time that Brad Read (Middletown, R.I.) won a J/24 world championship was 14 years ago when he was just 21 years old and freshly crowned the College Sailor of the Year at nearby Boston College. A lot has happened in Read’s life since then, including taking over the leadership of Sail Newport, the regatta’s host site. But one thing remains constant; the man loves J/24 racing and has seen his dream of hosting the first J/24 world championship of the millennium come true. "I can’t tell you how proud I am to be able to host this regatta," said Read. "The regatta is going well and the fact that we won the first race is secondary to that."
In fact this regatta has drawn many gifted and titled J/24 sailors, including Girdis and Carlos Campolo (Buenos Aires, Argentina), sailing Duke. Girdis and his all-Oz crew have sailed together for four years and are the reigning Australian National J/24 Champions.
Hosted by Ida Lewis Yacht Club, Sail Newport and Fleet 50 of the International J/24 Class Association, the regatta has drawn over 300 sailors from the U.S. and Canada, Australia, Chile, Ireland, Bermuda, Great Britain, Sweden, Peru, Argentina, Italy, Japan and The Netherlands.
During racing each day the fleet will be tracked on the website with software specifically designed for the event. Viewers will be able to watch each boat from the start of the race around each of the windward and leeward marks, and then to the finish line. Boats will be tracked with an assigned unique color code. In addition to the graphical information, on-the-water reporters will update the site with live commentary. All information posted will be unofficial, although official results will be posted to the website.
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