Challenge 37 pull the pin
So I'm the skipper, but I don't want all the accolades. "The IC37 is all about teamwork, it's a team effort. "We just really tried to get clean starts, not to do the high-risk starts at the boat or the pin end, which often get super crowded, especially in this fleet," said Lewis. With 1984 Olympic silver medalist Terry McLaughin and the Defiant crew lurking in second, one point behind, the opening regatta of the IC37 season was effectively a dead heat with two races remaining.ĭespite the pressure, Lewis and his crew stuck true to their game plan, sailing clean and working together. 17) had their worst finish of the regatta, a sixth, in Sunday's first race. "This is the first time we've actually pulled it off."Īfter a very strong start on Saturday, Lewis and his mostly Texas-based crew on Qubit (at left, Bow No. "I've been leading going into the last day for two other IC37 events," said Lewis. Qubit during the 168th Annual Regatta at the New York Yacht Club - photo © Daniel Forster Photography / Chris Lewis had the same sentiment regarding his win in the 20-boat IC37 division, the regatta's largest. Those decisions don't always work out, but they worked out really well today." "We had pretty specific places we wanted to go on the course to take advantage of currents and wind conditions. "Chuck Allen, our tactician, called great starts, and we had the racecourse kind of mapped out," says Jones. He entered PHRF at the Annual Regatta and found himself in a division with a 55-foot Jason Kerr design, a Tripp 65, a custom 60-foot Reichel/Pugh design and a modified Farr 40.
She was built for Spirit of Tradition racing, but after a few years of success in SOT and classic divisions, Jones was eager to raise the bar. Outlier looks like a classic yacht from the waterline up, but hides a 9-foot bulb keel underneath. The 168th Annual Regatta is sponsored by Hammetts Hotel, Safe Harbor Marinas and Helly Hansen. Since 1988, however, the event has been sailed out of the Harbour Court clubhouse in Newport, R.I., and has settled into the current three-day format, which includes a race around Conanicut Island on Friday, two days of buoy or navigator-course racing on Saturday and Sunday and nightly social activities on the grounds of the historic Harbour Court mansion. For the majority of its existence, the Annual Regatta was raced on waters close to New York City. With a few exceptions for world wars and other global crises, the event has been held every year since.
Challenge 37 pull the pin trial#
A similar competition the previous year was called a Trial of Speed. The New York Yacht Club's Annual Regatta was first sailed on the Hudson River on July 16 and 18, 1846. We were lucky enough to pull out two bullets today." We came in today thinking, 'It's a great regatta and we're going to do okay.' But we had no idea we were going to win the regatta. "This was the first real regatta we've done this year, so there was some learning going on. "We are very proud of our performance," said Jones. With a win in the PHRF 1 division of the 168th edition of the New York Yacht Club's 168th Annual Regatta, Jones and his Outlier team showed that the wood is still good for raceboat hulls, even when matched against the carbon fiber and fiberglass found in many modern raceboats. "There are companies that spend their time maintaining wooden boats, which is great, but if you don't have innovation in wooden boat building, you'll lose the art over time." "I built the boat to drive innovation in wooden boats," said Jones.
He wanted all of the intangibles that come with a boat built primarily with natural raw materials-and he also wanted something more. Harvey Jones had a specific goal when he built the 55-foot Outlier, a cold-molded wooden yacht designed by Marcelino Botin and built by Brooklin Boat Yard in Brooklin, Maine.