Breakwater Yacht Club, Sag Harbor, NY

Results, Photos

 A fleet of 24 boats contending in the North American JY-15 championships sailed 10 races mostly over windward-leeward courses in Sag Harbor over three days last weekend with Paul-Jon Patin of Forest Hills, who has world Sunfish and Interclub Dinghy championships to his credit, emerging as the victor.
    Steve Kelley of Sayville, the principal race officer, who oversaw three races on Friday, four on Saturday, and three on Sunday, said he was surprised to hear it was the first time Patin would have his name inscribed on the perpetual JY-15 North American trophy.
    “For him not to have won before shows you that we had very good sailors,” said Kelley, who competes year round in these quick yet relatively comfortable 15-foot mainsail and jib craft. “I’ve always had a special feeling for these boats — they’re very easy to work with. I started my kids crewing when they were 6. They’re in their 20s now.”
    Nine of the races were contested over tactically challenging upwind-downwind courses. Kelley tried one triangular course (an upwind leg with port and starboard reaches), “but the wind wasn’t heavy enough and they couldn’t plane off — the sailors didn’t like it.”
    As aforesaid, the fleet, with a due south wind, got in three races Friday afternoon, “two of them twice around and the last one once around,” beginning at 2 p.m. “There was a very consistent north breeze Saturday morning, Kelley said, “but it became confusing — very, very shifty — in the afternoon, to the extent that it became an unfair contest. I had to cancel one of the races. . . . We got in three races on Sunday and were done by noon.”
    The runner-up to Patin, by a relatively narrow margin, was Bill Nightingale, who won the North American championships two years ago, and placed second last year. Nightingale’s wife, Julie, was his crew.
    The Nightingales were atop the leaderboard by the end of the first day, with a third, a first, and a third. Patin and his crew, Felicity Ryan, were fourth at that point.
    “This is dinghy racing, the real deal — you get so much bang for your buck,” Bill Nightingale said at a buffet dinner Friday at the Breakwater Yacht Club, which held the races and whose members made up about half of the fleet.
    When asked if she was always aboard in the competitions, Julie Nightingale said, with a laugh, “He doesn’t do nearly as well when I’m not crewing for him.”
    Her husband said it helped that he was also a boardsailer and thus sensitized to subtle wind changes on the water. He boardsails at Napeague Harbor in Amagansett — “the best place on the earth for windsurfing.” That boardsailing experience was especially helpful sailing JY-15s swiftly downwind, he  said.
    “You sometimes plane on these boats,” he continued, “but the main thing is that they’re fun for anyone who wants to get into sailing. . . . Rodney Johnstone [the JY-15’s designer] is a genius.”
    As it happened, Rodney Johnstone was there that night.
    When asked why he had designed the JY-15, the 74-year-old Stonington, Conn., resident said, “I wanted to get husbands and wives and fathers and daughters sailing together. I wanted it to be something families could do together. And it was a family creation — I designed it with one of my sons, Alan. Since we started — we’ve since sold the company — 3,500 JY-15s have been built. Number 3,504 is here today.”
    When told one of the sailors had said the boat was tippy, Johnstone said, “Any small boat is tippy . . . there are hiking straps so you can lean out. Even an old guy like me can sail them. I still do.”
    Johnstone had spent the afternoon on the committee boat. “I have other obligations,” he said. “Otherwise, I would have sailed today.”
    Asked how the JY-15 compared to the Olympic dinghy, the 470, Johnstone said, “I think the JY-15 is an improvement on the 470. It’s a lot easier to sail and more comfortable.”
    Bill Nightingale’s sister, Sara, who also raced — one of three women skippers among the 24 — said Monday that the series had gone down to the wire. “Paul-Jon was up by 11 points going into the final day, but my brother won the first two races Sunday before disaster [in the form of a bad start] struck him in the last one.”
    That bad start had been the difference, said Patin, who, with Ryan, had wrested the lead with three firsts and a second in Saturday’s racing.
    As for the class, Patin said JY-15s “aren’t super technical, but very simple, and sailors of all sizes, ages, and abilities can compete at a high level in them. That’s where Rodney Johnstone’s genius comes in. He’s gotten younger, by the way, since the last time I saw him. I’d also like to say what a fantastic job Steve Kelley and the club did in putting these races on.”
    Sara Nightingale said that she’d “love to encourage more women to get into this — I’d be glad to teach them. You don’t have to be that strong to sail a JY-15, you just have to be smart.”
    Nightingale said that the Breakwater club, which is on Sag Harbor’s Bay Street, is “quite affordable,” and welcomes new members. “We sail every Sunday afternoon, at 3, at Havens Beach,” she said.
    Breakwater runs a very popular summer program for junior sailors, and, in the fall and spring, one for local high school students — Pierson recently dropped out, though its middle school is represented in the spring. Two of the high school program’s students, Caitlin Cummings and Sam Kramer, both of the Ross School, competed last weekend.
    Of Kramer, who crewed for her, Sara Nightingale said, “He was amazing — a great, great kid. . . . We finished 11th.”
    Lee Oldak, a fellow Breakwater member, who heads up Sag Harbor Community Rowing, and who placed 10th in the championship series, said Monday he hoped more high school kids would turn out for the sailing classes, which are overseen by Tom McArdle at the yacht club four afternoons a week.
    As for rowing, Oldak, who owns the Amagansett Beach Company in Amagansett, said, “I’ve got seven sixth grade kids — six girls and one boy — who are rowing with me now, along with high school students from Pierson, Ross, and East Hampton. We use racing shells — up to fours.”
    Classes are held three afternoons a week and Saturday morning at Sag Harbor Cove.
    Two rowing regattas, he said, were coming up — in Oyster Bay on Nov. 6, and in Riverhead on Nov. 13.    

http://www.easthamptonstar.com/?q=Lead-article/20111005/Races-Down-Wire, Jack Graves, Sports Editor, Columnist

 

Local News:

 

Breakwater Yacht Club and JY-15 Fleet 2 of Sag Harbor, NY will host the JY-15 North American Championships Friday, Sept. 30 - Sunday, Oct. 2.

40 boats are expected to compete, including sailors from Mexico City, Michigan, and Rochester, NY. The racing area will be in the waters North of Havens Beach.

Participation is open to any current member of the JY Class Association ( $25 annual dues - www.jyca.org). The Notice of Race and Regatta Entry Form can also be found on this site. Sailors  can register and join the JYCA either in advance or at registration for the event at Havens Beach on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning.(BYC if raining.)

The JY-15 is a two person one-design centerboard dinghy designed by Rodney Johnstone in 1989. Breakwater Yacht Club owns a fleet of JY-15's that it makes available to its junior sailing program and to local high school sailing teams. Competitors may charter boats for the regatta for a fee of $25 per day. Members of Breakwater may also pay a small fee to "rent" the boats.

The original JY-15 was made out of thermoformed ABS plastic rather than the usual fiberglass or wood materials used for most dinghies. In 2010, the ABS version ceased being manufactured, but a fiberglass version is now being made by Nickels Boatworks in Fenton, Michigan. This regatta will be the first for the class in which fiberglass boats will compete against plastic boats. The goal of the new builders is to ensure that all boats remain equal in performance. Thus it will be the skill of the sailors that determines the outcome, rather than the quality of their equipment.

For the first time ever in the class, there will be two sailmakers permitted to provide "legal" sails for the event. North sails, which have up till now been the only "class legal" sails, and Intensity sails will both be permitted for use in the regatta. Intensity has donated a set of sails which will be auctioned off at the dinner on Saturday.

The event will begin on Friday, Sept. 30 with racing beginning at 2:00 p.m. followed by a dinner at BYC and talks by Rodney Johnstone and Hugh Armbruster, the new builder of the fiberglass boats. Racing will continue on Saturday with a dinner at BYC and will wrap up on Sunday afternoon with an awards ceremony and luncheon at BYC.

Many local sailors and enthusiasts will volunteer their time including Regatta Chair, Bud Rogers, and Co-Chair, Mark Webber, both of whom will also be competing in the event. The Principal Race Officer, Steve Kelley, will run the race committee assisted by local sailors Barry Allardice, Doug Culver, George Martin and Mary Ann Eddy, among others. Jane Babcook and Betty Martin will head up the shore committee. Northfork Chips has donated locally grown potato chips, The Milk Pail will donate apples from its Mecox orchard, and The Public House will donate locally brewed beer. Southampton based 

Janet O'Brien Caterers will donate some of the food.

Breakwater Yacht Club, a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt organization, provides sailing education and racing experiences to residents of Eastern Long Island. Unlike traditional yacht clubs, Breakwater Yacht Club has, since its inception, dedicated itself to community based charitable and educational "good works". This is evidenced by its  past sponsorship of the "Race Against Drug Abuse" and the creation of its Youth Sailing School and Scholarship Program, which awards scholarships to local children. BYC sponsors an "Adventure Sail" Regatta which gives "at risk" young women the chance to participate 

in an activity that may help change their futures for the better. BYC is a community sailing organization, and membership is open to the public and affordable.

JY-15 Fleet 2 consists of members of Breakwater Yacht Club who race JY-15's off of Havens Beach on Sunday afternoons from May - October. New sailors are always welcome.