FYI… We had a great race at Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club (
http://www.fleet250.org/ ) over the 4th of July weekend as reported by the local press. This may be of interest to the 72 boats that participated or any of you planning next year to join us. Fun was had by all
'Spectacular' Liberty touches race winner
Friday, July 12, 2002
BY CHARLES ZUSMAN
Star-Ledger Staff
We natives of these parts often forget how impressive some of our resources are, natural and otherwise. Often, it takes a visitor to remind us. Take the Statue of Liberty, for example.
"Spectacular, simply spectacular," said Patricia Alexander, minutes after stepping ashore following the annual Statue of Liberty Race on Saturday. "I'm going to call my mom on the cell phone right away."
Of course her excitement was in part kindled by having won the race, going along as crew with skipper Eric Anderson aboard a Nacra 6.0 and beating the field of 72 catamarans. The race, held by the Sandy Hook Bay Catamaran Club, runs 37 miles from the club's beach in Atlantic Highlands, around the statue and back.
Alexander, a native of Kansas City, Mo., now lives in Beverly, Mass., and winning made her first visit to the New York area special.
For Anderson, of Andover, Conn., it was his ninth Statue race and experience paid off. He went right when most of the fleet went left, and that gave him the edge in fighting the wind and current coming from the north.
"This race is very difficult in that you have an incredible number of tactical options," said Anderson, a biophysics researcher. "You make your best guess and stick to it."
That guess for the winners was to go to the Coney Island side rather than Staten Island, as most of the racers did, and they found the most favorable winds and currents, covering the distance in four hours and 53 minutes.
It was a double victory for Anderson and Alexander in that they were first over the finish line, and then won the overall victory based on corrected time. In such races a variety of boats with different performance capabilities compete together so a handicap rating system is used to level the playing field.
The second- and third-place crews also sailed the 20-foot Nacra 6.0s. Second was Bob Bergstedt of Bayville and Garrett Norton of Bayville. Rick Bliss and Brandy Wood of Mansfield, Mass., finished third.
