1973 North American Championship - Chesapeake Bay, MD, USA
Regatta Report
1973 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP
By Robert A. Meara, Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun
First Race
Durward Knowles of Nassau, Bahamas, yesterday won the first race in the series of five for the North American Championship of the International Star Class. The sailing is being held on the Chesapeake Bay and sponsored by the fleet based at Gibson Island.
Saturday Knowles won the tune-up race after leading at all the marks. Yesterday he trailed Charles Morgan, the defender from St. Petersburg, Florida, and Dave Oberg, Cooper River, N.J., for the first three legs before taking command near the second windward mark and increasing his margin for a convincing victory over the 37-boat fleet. Morgan finished a solid second but Oberg faded to eighth as Tom Adams, of Wilmette Harbor, Ill., always with the leaders over the 12-mile course, nipped Jimmy Lippincott, Riverton, N.J., at the finish line. Lippincott was 12th at the end of the triangle but on the second windward leg moved to fifth. He gained third on the run only to be caught by Adams at the end.
Howard Lippincott, Jimmy's uncle and a past N.A. champ sailing for the Eastern Shore (Md.) Fleet based at the Tred Avon Yacht Club, Oxford, was the top local skipper. He was followed by Jack Lynch, commodore of the West River Sailing Club, and John Jenkins, of the host fleet.
The race started in a 15-knot easterly wind but it shifted southeast and dropped to 7 knots. In the process the breeze was quite shifty and some sailors complained of holes. The tide was ebbing and the seas slight. At the start Knowles held his starboard tack for quite a while and looked in good shape but Morgan appeared to be buried near the committee boat. Morgan flipped to a port tack early to follow Howard Lippincott leading a bunch of boats along the south edge of the fleet. Morgan, however, soon went back to starboard. After a few tacks he found a lift and clean air and started to move. Near the mark Oberg came in from the north edge of the fleet, port tacked Morgan and Knowles but Morgan steamed through to round first by three lengths. The second time upwind, Oberg crossed ahead of Morgan two-thirds of the way up but Morgan and Knowles got a lift. Knowles was the leader by seven lengths at the mark and sailed off to a lead of about a minute at the finish. Morgan had about two minutes on the dueling Adams and Lippincott at the end.
Second Race
Frank Zagarino, of Biscayne Bay, Fla., won yesterday's rough and windswept race, but Charles Morgan, of St. Petersburg, grabbed the lead in the chase for the North American championship of the International Star Class being sailed on the Chesapeake Bay off Gibson Island. Morgan, the defending champ, again led for half of the 12 miles sailed but gave up the lead on the second beat after a front with 30-knot winds came through. He saved a third, which coupled with Monday's second, is tops in the 37-boat fleet sailing.
Monday's winner, Durward Knowles, of Nassau, Bahamas, rallied to a fifth after getting a very poor start and being 19th after two legs and 14th after the triangle. He stands second overall. Third overall is Dave Oberg, Cooper River, N.J., with an 8-2, and from the same locale, John MacCausland is fourth with a 7-4. Tied for fifth are Zagarino, 11-1; Tom Oller, South Lake Michigan, Ill., 5-7, and Jimmy Lippincott, Riverton, N.J., 4-8.
The day started with little promise of a good race because the wind was light and skies overcast. By the time the fleet reached the racing area east of the Craighill channel entrance, the sun was breaking through and a breeze was building. The fleet went off on a west-northwest breeze at 7 to 10 knots. Bob Thompson, Eastern Shore (Md.) Fleet, and Jim Allsopp, Elk River, Md., got away on great port tacks near the committee boat. Morgan came out of the middle and Knowles found trouble at the other end. Morgan played the north side and rounded the first mark with a good lead. Tom Adams, Wilmette Harbor, Ill.; Howard Lippincott, Eastern Shore; MacCausland, and Thompson followed. Allsopp dropped to 11th.
There was no major change until near the third mark, the end of the triangle when the front came through with a spit of rain and high winds which soon built a white- capped sea. Morgan was the last to get the new breeze, a shift from 285 to 330 degrees, but he led at the mark. Zagarino charged from 13th to 9th and Knowles moved to 14th. The squall passed leaving a steady 22-knot breeze as the sun broke through. Upwind again, MacCausland led Oberg, Zagarino and Morgan with about five lengths between each boat. Then it was 50 yards to Howard Lippincott, and Jimmy Lippincott. Knowles moved to ninth. After a fast run and another back breaking beat, the three lead boats staged a dramatic finish. They were widely separated across the finish line but overlapped. Zagarino, near the flag end, got the gun with Oberg near the committee boat second, and Morgan in the middle third. MacCausland was 40 yards back, then came Knowles. The rest of the fleet staggered in. Two had withdrawn with gear failure.
Third Race
There were a couple of new names at the top of the finishers in yesterday's race, winner Jimmy Lippincott, of Riverton, N.J., and runner-up Basil Kelly, of Nassau, Bahamas, but Charles Morgan stayed atop of the overall scoring in the chase for the North American Championship of the International Star Class. Morgan, the defender from St. Petersburg, Fla., never tasted the lead as he had in the first two events of the five-race sailing series as he finished sixth to post a leading 112 points. Jimmy Lippincott (there are four of the boat-building clan skippering and three more crewing) and Dave Oberg, third yesterday, another Jerseyite from Cooper River, are tied for second overall at 110. Tom Oller, South Lake Michigan, stands fourth at 107 and Durward Knowles, Nassau, winner of the first race, tumbled to fifth at 106 after an 11th yesterday. Kelly is next at 103.
The finish was another three-boat thriller, the leaders pulling away from the strung out fleet by 150 yards, this time off the wind, as the committee went to the standard Star course. Lippincott, Kelly and Oberg battled down the final leg in a surging breeze which favored one, then another. Lippincott had half a length on Kelly, who was a length ahead of Oberg at the end.
At the second upwind mark, Oberg had been on top by a length over Kelly and another on Lippincott after they had battled up the western edge of the fleet. On that leg, Morgan, who had followed Knowles around the leeward mark, held a long port tack away from the majority of the 36-boat fleet. After making one short starboard tack he hit his lay line about a quarter of a mile out and moved to fifth from ninth. Chris Jensen, Jackson Park, got by him on the run. Richard Lippincott, Eastern Shore Fleet, was disqualified for not answering a recall for starting early, and John MacCausland, Cooper River, who was fourth in the series after two races, withdrew after the triangle.
The wind was piping at 15 knots at 015 degrees for the start, but it soon backed to 350 degrees and oscillated frequently while being mostly 030. It also pooped to about eight knots at the end. The seas, a bit lumpy for the start, soon smoothed.
The fleet got away cleanly except for Knowles, Bob O'Neil, and Richard Lippincott, who were over early. Knowles, near the committee boat, recovered rapidly while O'Neil lost several hundred yards and Lippincott drew a DSQ. Jensen led upwind the first time with Oller three lengths back, followed by Jimmy Lippincott, Stan Lippincott, Howard Lippincott, Tom Adams, Morgan, Oberg, Frank Zagarino, and Knowles. Jimmy Lippincott took the lead at the end of the triangle followed by Kelly and Oberg, which set up the duel to the finish.
There's no sailing today as skippers hauled their boats for cleaning and tuneups. Two races conclude the series, one tomorrow and the finale Saturday.
Fourth Race
The Chesapeake Bay weather served up some baffling breezes, Charlie Morgan fouled out of yesterday's race and a new leader, steady sailing Jimmy Lippincott, of Riverton, N.J., took command in the chase for the North American Championship for the International Star Class. Tom Adams, of Wilmette Harbor, Ill., won yesterday's 12-mile sail over an Olympic course to jump into second place with 130 points. His previous placings were 3-10-8. Durward Knowles, of Nassau, Bahamas, past world's and N.A. titlist and Olympic gold medal winner in Japan in 1964 rebounded to third with 126 points on a 1-5-11-9.
Biggest victim of the vagaries of the shifty, spotty northeaster was Morgan from St. Petersburg, Fla. He went into yesterday's race on top of the standings but now rests in 11th place. As he was approaching the first upwind mark, the wind started to die. Near the mark, he tried to shoot around it, failed and was forced on to a port tack where he tagged Tom Oller, on starboard tack and with right of way. Morgan withdrew. He had looked pretty good early on the leg but near the mark, the breeze was lighter on the eastern side of the fleet, where he elected to sail and fell rapidly astern. He was about 18th when he withdrew from the 37-boat fleet.
Richard Lippincott, sailing for the Eastern Shore (Md.) Fleet, led at the first mark followed closely by Jim Allsopp, Elk River, Md. The two had about 100 yards on Adams and Jimmy Lippincott. At the end of the triangle, the leaders had closed up and Jim Lippincott moved to third. The second time upwind, Adams moved up rapidly and rounded inside of Richard Lippincott. Jimmy Lippincott was five lengths back. Howard Lippincott, also Eastern Shore, moved to fourth and Allsopp dropped to fifth. After the run, Adams opened a lead of a minute and a half over Richard and Jimmy Lippincott, who rounded together. Allsopp recovered fourth. On the final beat to the finish line, Adams drew away to win by almost two minutes. Richard Lippincott worked out a minute on his brother Jimmy, but it was the latter who grabbed the series lead.
The last race is scheduled to start east of the Craighill Channel at 11 a.m. today.
Fifth Race
A stiff 25-knot southerly breeze juggled the fleet again and blew in the new North American Champion, Tom Adams, of Chicago, in the sailing yesterday off Gibson Island. Three skippers finished within one point of each other after the five-race series. Adams, who has sailed a Star for 12 years without taking a major title, connected here against some of the Class best with a series placing of 3-10-8-1-4 for the winning score of 164 points. His crew was Bill Richards.
Past World and North American champion Durward Knowles, of Nassau, Bahamas, was the runner-up with 163 points on a 1-5-11-9-1. He was the only one to win two races during the week; Monte Higgs crewed. Jimmy Lippincott, of Riverton, N.J., who went into the finale with a 6-point lead, finished 11th yesterday and dropped to third overall. He, with his brother Bo as crew, also had 163 points but Knowles beat him in 3 of the 5 races to break the tie. His previous finishes were 4-8-1-3.
Adams's ability yesterday to go to windward better than Lippincott when the wind piped up was the deciding factor and the 12-mile Olympic course had three beats totaling half the distance. Knowles led at all the marks and was never threatened as he worked out to a winning margin of 1 minute 10 seconds.
A great chase for second place developed on the last leg and defending champion Charles Morgan, of St. Petersburg, perhaps best known for his campaign to be the America's Cup defender in Heritage in 1970, grabbed it. Right at the finish line Morgan nipped Frank Zagarino, of Biscayne Bay, Fla., by a foot, and Adams was a length back. At the start the breeze was at 10 knots and the seas smooth but as the race progressed the wind and seas built. The wind showed its strength on the third leg and the boats were surfing. Knowles led at the end of the triangle by 3 lengths on Zagarino and the pair had about 75 yards on O'Neil, Morgan and Adams in that order. Lippincott picked up another boat. After the next beat Knowles had 30 lengths on Zagarino who had 5 on Adams. Morgan was another 5 back. As Morgan picked off both Adams, about a quarter of a mile out, and Zagarino at the line, Adams's fourth insured his series victory when Lippincott fell to 11th.
Results
1973 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - CHESAPEAKE BAY Place No. Name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 5576 Big T R Thompson Adams Bill Richards WH 3 10 8 1 4 164 2 5525 Gem Durward Knowles Monte Higgs N 1 5 11 9 1 163 3 5758 Superstar James LippincottBone Lippincott BB 4 8 1 3 11 163 4 5690 Zig Zag III Frank Zagarino Frank Egger BisB 11 1 12 5 3 158 5 5609 Wild Thing David Oberg James Wolf CR 8 2 3 14 9 154 6 5767 Sashay Thomas Oller Robert Maine SLM 5 7 4 13 12 149 7 5749 Cirrus Howie LippincottJohn Engle ES 14 6 10 10 10 140 8 5660 Mustard Seed Charles Morgan John Winters TaB 2 3 6 wdr 2 139 9 5715 Brutus Basil Kelly Steven Kelly N 9 9 2 17 14 139 10 5540 Spirit J.M. MacCauslandVictor Oberg CR 7 4 wdr 4 5 132 11 5762 White Trash Steve Haarstick Ith 12 11 14 16 6 131 12 5700 Spankuk Chres Jensen Lars Hansen JP 6 23 5 8 21 127 13 5775 Hallelujah! Stan Lippincott Alan Lippincott WJ 10 12 7 19 26 116 14 5719 Donnybrook Jack Lynch John McKeague WS 15 19 9 18 16 113 15 4978 Shadow James Allsopp James Mahan ER 19 14 20 11 20 106 16 5730 Ragamuffin Robert O'Neil SLM 27 21 24 7 7 104 17 5494 Ice Blue Secret Ted Rapp Ted Rapp III WJ 23 13 25 12 13 104 18 5600 Hacker Bob Lippincott ES 13 16 dsq 2 18 103 19 5630 Riot IV Henry Rowan Dal Dhein LG 17 18 wdr 6 15 96 20 5539 Raindrop Randall Wilkin Michael Thomas WH 29 20 15 28 8 90 21 5345 Tellystar John Jenkins James Scott CB 16 25 22 25 19 83 22 5651 Impossible Robert Hall Roger Price WSFB 20 29 13 32 17 79 23 5562 Windsong Robert Thompson Sidney Dickson ES 21 15 18 30 28 78 24 5658 Windsong VI John Thompson Terry Hill ES 24 28 16 21 29 72 25 5294 Surprise Jack Rickard Frank Murphy JP 18 dnf 19 15 30 70 26 4745 Impulse Sam Hall Hank Cobb CB 22 30 23 23 25 67 27 5768 Demon VI Kenneth Cole Gil Cole LS 33 27 21 20 24 65 28 5640 Yankee Doodle Ralph DeLuca Ralph Bennett BisB 36 17 28 24 22 63 29 4995 Gadfly Bruce Dougherty Ray Grabo ER 34 31 17 22 31 55 30 5455 Spindrift John Finch James Finch LOC 32 22 31 26 27 52 31 5330 Old Blue Too Ed Pinkham Jack Levedahl BisB 25 26 32 29 34 44 32 5319 Granny Sampson Smith Rodman Carter OtL 26 32 26 31 32 43 33 5141 Zoo Richard Wait David Wilbur OtL 30 33 27 27 33 40 34 5516 Wind Machine Thomas Dudinsky TaB 28 24 -- wdr 23 39 35 5789 Six Pack Mike Greenwood Carla Chandler WS 31 dnf 30 35 35 21 36 5567 Irish Mist James O'Brien James O'Brien LH 35 dnf 29 33 37 18 37 5100 Amethyst Gerard Cayne William Cox ERF 37 34 33 34 36 16
