1953 North American Championship - Milwaukee, WI
Regatta Report
In a slam-gang series of five races in Milwaukee, Robert Lippencott and William Norris defeated a fleet of 29 of the best American Star sailors in the game to win the 1953 Championship of North America. This series, held only in years when the World’s Championship is sailed on some other continent, was changed from a three to a five race event in 1953, in view of its importance as one of the Class’ top ranking championships. The calibre of the competition has supported this decision. The Milwaukee weather cooperated, and Lake Michigan staged five days of excellent breezes for the series.
Dick Stearns, who had just won the McNulty Series the weekend before against many of the same entries appeared a strong favorite by winning two of the first three races of the North American. Woodie Pirie’s Twin Star had won the other one; and Jack Van Dyke, in Sea Skate, was also consistently high, in fact never below sixth in the whole series. But Lippencott and Norris were even more consisten. After the first three races the scores, by total places, were: Flower, 7; Antares, 10; Twin Star 11; Sea Skate, 12.
Lippencott then solidified his position by winning the fourth race, which virtually put the Silver Star on Flower’s sail. However, he had to watch his step in the finale, because the last day turn up light and flukey, the only poor racing weather of the series. Bill Parks took Shrew III into an unbeatable lead, but Flower finished a very respectable fourth, to win the series by eight points. Everyone was glad to see Jack Van Dyke and his genial crew Gerrit Foster, both of whom played such a large part in running the event and making it a success, capture runner-up position for the host fleet.
Results
1953 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - MILWAUKEE Place No. Name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 3188 Flower Bob Lippincott Wm. Norris WJ 2 3 2 1 4 138 2 2985 Sea Skate Jack Van Dyke Gerry Foster Mil 6 2 4 6 2 130 3 2840 Antares Dick Stearns Dick Friskey WH 8 1 1 8 9 123 4 3337 Half Breed R. I. Miller Geo. W. Voss CLE 5 8 8 3 5 121 5 1961 Twin Star Lockwood Pirie Stan Fahlstrom BisB 1 7 3 11 11 117 6 2700 Flame Stan Ogilvy Bill Lynn WLIS 9 12 5 7 3 114 7 3308 Shrew III William Parks Robert Halperin SLM 16 4 7 17 1 105 8 3031 Luscious Too Donald L. Bever Paul Stack SLE 4 5 14 5 18 104 9 3005 Kathleen Herbert WilliamsEdw. Schnabel JrSLM 3 6 dsq 2 6 103 10 3344 En Garde Cal F. Hadden JrRob't. Jewell NOG 11 9 15 10 7 98 11 3315 Cygnet Owen C. Torrey Marge Torrey CLIS 12 14 6 16 8 94 12 3125 Shannon E. W. Etchells Mary Etchells CLIS 10 16 12 4 21 87 13 3079 Boomerang John K. Todd Frank Bartlett ES 14 11 13 13 12 87 15 1945 Tomboy Walt Lindemann Barry Norris Mil 13 15 9 19 10 84 16 3236 Double Martini Bill Taylor Bud Stantorff PS 19 17 11 9 14 80 17 2570 Hilarius Hilary H. Smart Wm. Clark BH wdr 18 10 14 13 65 18 3280 Blue Angel Paul Bishop Allan MacKay BH 21 10 20 20 17 62 19 2013 Lynx Ernie Hanmer Stan Stone Jr CLE 18 19 21 12 20 60 20 1865 Jade Pete SchoonmakerLes Brilliant WSFB 17 22 17 18 19 57 21 2355 Aloha Burdette Olson Wm. Bennett GL 7 13 16 dns dns 54 22 3330 Okay Philip Griffin Kay Griffin WH 22 20 22 23 16 47 23 2003 Lochinvar Rob't. Cameron H. L. Day PPL 26 21 dnf 15 15 43 24 3213 Bydand Bill Buchan Jr Wm. Buchan Sr PS 20 25 18 22 24 41 25 2887 Trigger Bev Waddell Gordon Bell SAR 15 26 23 21 25 40 26 2577 Music John O'Brien Duane Hines WSFB wdr 23 19 24 23 31 27 2429 Barbaree Ronald Sisson Frank Raymond PPL 23 24 25 26 22 30 28 2018 Folly Chas. Dole Wm. Wohlfarth JrW 29 27 26 25 26 21 29 2673 Galaxy Carl Tomasek Richard Weed WLM 24 28 24 27 27 20 30 2835 Javelin Harold Harper A. Kronsnoble WLM 27 29 28 21 28 11
