A bad start in light air in a 37-boat fleet can be fatal. If you let it be. Skipper John Baxter and his team on the J/70 Team Vineyard Vines were determined not to let a mistake at the outset of the first race define their regatta. So instead, they got to work, found the advantageous puffs and shifts, and battled through a fleet of top amateur and professional sailors to an 11th in the only race on the first day of the second annual New York Yacht Club One-Design Regatta, which was sailed Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1 out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court in Newport, RI. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was enough to keep them in the hunt. Sunday, in virtually identical conditions, Baxter and his team, which includes his wife Molly, Jake LaDow and Ben Lamb, were nearly unbeatable, winning two races and placing third in the final race to secure a seven-point win in the regatta’s biggest Class. “(Saturday), we didn’t start very well; we were real deep and then we ground back to an OK finish,” said John Baxter, from Riverside, NY. “(Sunday), we started better and were able to use our speed to get out of some sticky situations. [The goal] was really to minimize the bad starts, because a lot of the teams go the same speed. You’ve got to have a front-row start and just go fast.” The wind played possum for much of the weekend, but the New York Yacht Club Race Committee earned strong reviews for getting in four races for each of the Classes.
J/70 Top Five (37 Boats)
- Team Vineyard Vines, John & Molly Baxter , USA – 11 -1 -1 -3 ; 16
- USA 2, Timothy Healy , USA – 1 -9 -3 -10 ; 23
- Surge, Ryan McKillen , USA – 5 -6 -11 -1 ; 23
- Rimette, John Brim , USA – 3 -2 -4 -20 ; 29
- The SLED, Eiichiro Hamazaki , JPN – 2 -5 -5 -18 ; 30
For complete results, visit https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=4624.