1963 North American Championship - Rye, NY
Regatta Results
Report from the 1964 Star Class Log

Note: This report has been scanned in by Ed Sprague. For a collection of Worlds' reports plus photographs contact Ed Sprague ( ejspraguejr@mac.com ) to order his book "The San Diego Bay Star Fleet".

RYE, N. Y. - Leading from first mark of the opening race Joe Duplin of Boston stayed ahead of 61 other Star sailors and won the North American Star Championship by 34 points in a five-race series ending Aug. 30.

Duplin, an M.1.T. sailing instructor put together finishes of 1-2-3-3-2 for 304 points. Second was G. Shelby Friedrichs of New Orleans, with 270.5 points. Bob Lippincott, of Riverton, N. J., took third.

Duplin easily won the first race in a gentle southerly only forty-five, minutes before the 3-1/2 hour time limit. Duarte Bello of Cascais, Portugal, last year's World runner-up, came in second, and Jack Streeton of Maryland took third. In taking a port-tack start, Duplin opened up a two-minute lead before the weather mark and extended it to five on the reaching leg.

Duplin took second in the second heat to winner Chester Peet of Larchmont, N. Y., when Peet edged ahead of everyone rounding the second mark, and extended his series lead to 10 points. Duplin, or someone else, might have won the race if Takaaki Takebe of Tokyo, who led around the weather mark, hadn't taken off on a course for the Atlantic instead of the second mark. Everyone followed him instead of their compasses, and by the time the fleet woke up Peet was high-tailing it for the second mark.

Paul Woodbury of Rockport, Mass. won the fourth race in choppy 20-knot winds. Joe Burbeck of Larchmont, N. Y. was second and Duplin third. Dave Miller won the fifth race in airs, which arrived late and threatened to go away; Duplin hung on for the second place and Charles Lyon Jr. of Oceanport, Mass. came in third.

Duplin's sailing was marked by conservatism. In 1958 he won the first and fifth races of the North Americans, but finished seventh overall after he hit a marker in one race and took a DSQ. Worse yet, he did the same thing in the '56 World's at Havana, blowing the series after leading all the way. In the '63 North Americans, he even deliberately overstood a mark and let another boat in ahead of him to avoid risking that bugbear DSQ.