Today’s sunny weather made for a grand opener at the New York Yacht Club’s Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. The first half of the biennial event started today with 66 boats competing in handicap racing for three IRC and three PHRF classes as well as a class each for Classics and 12 Metres. A total of 161 boats will have participated in Race Week by the end of next weekend when the regatta’s second half is completed for additional competitors in several one-design classes.

Local sailor Tom Rich (Middletown) made some keen early plays aboard Settler to top his PHRF Class 5. The entire regatta fleet was sent north of the Newport Bridge due to early-morning fog that race organizers thought would be quicker to lift there than on Rhode Island Sound. It was the right call, as the fog lifted and allowed Rich’s class and three others to sail three races and the balance of the fleet to sail four in breezes ranging anywhere from 8-18 knots.

“We won all three races,” said Rich, “because of decent starts and terrific crew work. The second race was pretty tight with Elan (John Hammel’s Arlington, Mass. Entrant, currently in third overall), but the others were easier. We owe Elan a bunch of time on handicap. We weren’t saving our time on him in the second race until the wind died, so we were lucky.” Rich explained that among his all-Rhode Island crew were his two daughters, two nephews, a cousin and his wife. “It’s a family affair.”

Another PHRF boat with three victories in as many races was Samuel Croll’s (Rye, N.Y.) Eight Metre Angelita in Classics. Avalanche, Craig Albrecht’s (Sea Cliff, N.Y.) Farr 395, posted four bullets in PHRF Class 3. “Eight to 12 knots is the sweet spot for a Farr 395,” said Albrecht, who counts this as his third Race Week at Newport and is watching past winner Hooligan (skippered by Riverside, Conn.’s Peter Brinckerhoff and currently in second overall) closely. “Plus we had the flat water, so we were fortunate today.”

In IRC Class 1, favored competitor Bob Towse (Stamford, Conn.) and his Blue Yankee suffered a setback when on the second upwind leg of the first race the boat’s mainsail parted from its track. The team’s handy lead was not lost, and it went on to win the race, only to start the second race under jib alone before retiring for the day. “The one day the race committee is lucky enough to get four races in and we’re unlucky enough to have this happen,” said Blue Yankee’s tactician Chris Larson (Annapolis, Md.), adding that he wasn’t sure if the boat would make it to the starting line tomorrow.

The IRC Class 1 leader is certainly hoping it can. That would be Jim Madden, skipper of the Reichel/Pugh 66 Stark Raving Mad, who finished second to Blue Yankee in the first race and went on to post finish positions of 2-1-3. “We’ll be disappointed if they can’t make it,” said Madden, “because they are such good competition. We have a relatively new boat, so as the day went on we got more and more comfortable with it and felt our way around the course better.”

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