1960 North American Championship - Milford, CT, USA
Regatta Report
by E. Chester Peet, 1961 Star Log
Winning the 1960 North Americans at Milford, Connecticut, took a brand of consistency that no one was able to demonstrate except Dick Stearns. It made him a member of the highly select group who have won two Silver Stars in one year.
After a hurricane had blown out both itself and the first race of the series, the weather was light to moderate; winds never exceeded fifteen knots. The Tilford race committee, headed by Don Spengler, after warming up for the series all summer, functioned superbly; races started on time, courses were properly laid, and the lead boat led without a hitch. Although Glider won the championship by nine points, for three races the scores were extremely tight, and the weird last race could have changed the final outcome.
The first race started tamely enough with a southerly of about five knots. The fleet split and the boats that stood to the east were favored. Surprisingly, Mirage found herself first at the weather mark, with Flamingo and Circus close astern. The wind dropped during the two reaches, but the leaders' positions were unchanged at the end of the first round. Starting the second time up, the breeze freshened, favoring the first few boats. Circus, Flamingo and Glider had a fine battle for second and finished in the order named.
The second day called for a double-header to bring the series back on schedule. It was a day few will forget; the wind played awful or wonderful tricks, depending on where you were sitting. Both races were sailed over the new alternate three-round course. Six laps in one day made most of us feel as if we were on a merry-go-round which would never come to rest. The morning race had a good breeze, with holes in it. Circus and Glider were soon at the top, and had a fine duel all the way around, never seeming to be more than a boat's length apart. Farther back, positions changed wildly on each leg. Lippincott eventually won by a narrow margin over Stearns, with Skip Etchells coming from far back to take third.
The afternoon encounter was the lightest of the week. Starting with a fair breeze, by the first mark the doldrums set in, but unevenly. Some would have air, others nothing, and quite a few boats had a crack at the lead. At one point midway in the process Circus held what seemed to be a half leg lead, only to be caught at the next mark. Those following the first dozen boats had it even worse: they had to beat to almost every mark. After a mad last leg, Mirage found a puff at the finish and coasted across a boat's length ahead of the ever present Glider, while Etchells and Gentzlinger repeated their morning positions of third and fourth.
It was in the lively 12 to 14 knot southerly of the fourth race that Etchells and Stearns shook off their closest competitors and, by finishing second and fourth respectively, set the stage for what was virtually a two-boat finale. Bert Williams found the day to his liking and showed his transom to the rest. The fact that the bulk of the fleet finished nearly overlapped demonstrated the close ness of the boats under fair and even conditions.
The wind-up was a corker. A northerly of perhaps six to eight knots with fading inclinations caused a much more thrilling finish than the score indicated. Stearns and Etchells, being 15 and 12 points ahead of the next boat, sailed their own race; but Stearns seemed to know when to come back to the fold to avoid being had. In another part of the forest, Mirage and Circus were fighting for what they thought was series third. But coming down the last run to the finish, although Stearns had the series in the bag, Etchells had gone out into left field trying to escape Glider's cover. After the first four or five boats crossed the line, a long awaited shift to the south-east arrived, and Stearns just sneaked across the line ahead of a mass of boats coming down on a new slant. Pete Bennett finished the race far in the lead. Mirage's second squeaked her into series second also, with Howard Lippincott a close third. Glider's eleventh place was, of course, more than adequate for the Silver Star.
None of us who were at Milford will forget the wind-up dinner following the series, nor for that matter, the hospitality, and good times during the week. It could be said that we enjoyed ourselves, if not wisely, only too well.
Results
1960 NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - MILFORD, CT Place No. Name Skipper Crew Fleet Daily Places Pts. 1 4241 Glider Richard Stearns Lynn Williams WH 4 2 2 4 11 182 2 3944 Fantasy E. Chester Peet Frank McConnell WLIS 1 8 1 20 2 173 3 4259 Circus Howie LippincottAsa Colson ER 2 1 10 13 7 172 4 4125 Shandon E. W. Etchells Richard Sears CLIS 7 3 3 2 29 161 5 4112 Flamingo II Paul Woodbury Richard Hovey CA 3 9 13 11 8 161 6 4250 Mavourneen III Hartwell Moore Russell Brooks HB 10 24 8 7 4 152 7 4132 Whistler George Voss Gordon Hale CLE 12 7 5 10 20 151 8 4281 Cygnet Owen Torrey Jr Wallace Ross GSB 17 6 18 15 3 146 9 4040 Desiree Herbert Hild D. O'Sullivan ERF 20 15 11 6 12 141 10 3913 Lindoya C. W. Lyon Jr Frank Lyon AH 8 10 9 18 21 139 11 3458 Blue Chip David Gaillard Georg Szemes CB 9 14 28 5 15 134 12 3858 Ingenue George Thomas Chas. Simpson CLE 5 16 14 16 22 132 13 4275 Vengeance III W. Gentzlinger Bill Blackman HB 32 4 4 29 6 130 14 4293 Kathleen Herb Williams Robert Halperin WH 29 18 20 1 10 127 15 425X Fierce R. Lippimcott Walter Flynn WJ 13 27 23 19 13 120 16 3340 Kismet Mead Batchdor Buzz Worthen Mid 19 19 33 12 14 108 17 3713 Esprit Jack Streeton Frank Hogg ES 23 21 dsq 8 5 107 18 3982 Tackless John Goddard Clif Banthin CA 14 29 17 23 16 106 19 4256 Fugitive John McLean Thomas Dodin ERF 15 26 15 25 18 106 20 3648 Chuckle Harold Halsted Lawrence Cox MorB 22 13 25 3 wdr 101 21 4109 Chula Lawrence Severs Van Sickle SLE 18 25 16 33 17 96 22 4072 Tantrum Samuel S. Beard Louis Orr GSB 24 31 22 9 23 96 23 3453 Chance Florus Black John Folz GL 16 20 31 24 19 95 24 3949 Flambeau II Miles P. Wynn Eric Nelson MS 21 12 37 35 9 91 25 3310 Pixie Chas. O'Connell Robert Berra RB 26 28 6 26 28 91 26 4280 Tranquil Pete Bennett Alan Lechner JP dsq 22 12 dnf 1 88 27 4222 Gale Harry Nye William Moore SLM 28 5 26 22 wdr 83 28 4252 Agony III Rbt Seidelmann Lashley Nelson BB 34 11 19 21 dnf 79 29 3339 Caber Richard Gordon Wallace Sigler Mid 6 27 21 32 wdr 78 30 4100 Conflict Daniel Hubers Stephen Fulton NCB 36 30 7 34 26 72 31 4159 Wolf Robert Wilson Wm. Johnson BB 25 36 32 14 30 68 32 3891 Scalded Cat Francis Dolan Conal Foley BH 30 23 24 28 32 68 33 3926 Loon James Brickwll Mimi Dubois WLIS 11 32 dsq 31 27 63 34 3743 En Garde II Cal F. Hadden Rbt. Matthews BSL 35 37 27 17 wdr 48 35 4230 Southern Cross Eugene Pilot Lance Oberg BB 37 34 30 27 31 46 36 4038 Bittersweet Richard Taylor Jerry Donovan BH 38 33 34 30 25 45 37 3422 Scimitar John Slack Peter Cook CLIS 33 39 29 40 24 39 38 3800 Tumbleweed William Mulvey Bill Allen SL 31 38 36 36 34 30 39 3893 Dolphin Emerson Raymond Robert Cameron WH 27 35 38 dnf dns 23 40 3958 Cygni Richard Mulvey Morton Orlov SL 39 40 35 37 33 23
