New York Yacht Club

Jeff Siegal Wins the 2013 Etchells North Americans

NEWPORT, R.I. – Three perfect days of sailing gave Etchells sailors at the class’s 2013 North American Championship, which was hosted by the New York Yacht Club, a favorable preview of what the 2014 World Championship could look like in a year’s time. The sun shone, the wind blew, and the race committee cranked out eight long races. Jeff Siegal (Portsmouth, R.I.) won the regatta by a narrow margin, just four points separating the top three boats.

“The conditions were fantastic,” said Siegal, a member of the host club. “It was a lot of work because for a good amount of the races it was either really windy or really light, and both were tough. And the fleet was outstanding so you had to work every second of the race.”Siegal’s regatta started on a down note when he was caught on the wrong side of a wind shift and finished 13th in the opening race. But he and his team–Jeff Madrigali, Willem van Waay, and Sarah Callahan–quickly found their rhythm, scoring a first and two seconds in the next three races to move back into contention.

“We’ve sailed our boat a lot, this is our eighth year,” said Siegal. “We know how to tune it really well, so we had really good speed, particularly upwind.”
Down the stretch Siegal and his team faced stiff competition from Canadian native Hank Lammens (Norwalk, Conn.), a two-time Finn class world champion, and West Coast sailor Bruce Golison (Rossmoor, Calif.). But consistent sailing kept Siegal ahead of the pack. Peter Duncan (Rye, N.Y.), who finished second in the 2013 Etchells World Championship in Italy earlier this month, was fourth, while two-time Olympian Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) finished fifth. Siegal, who has previously won the class’s national championship and the prestigious Jaguar Cup series, said it was his biggest win in Etchells class competition.

Like many of the sailors competing in the North Americans, Siegal will return next summer for the class’s world championship, which will be hosted by the New York Yacht Club and Sail Newport, June 19 to 28, 2014. Getting to know the peculiarities of a venue can be as vital as becoming familiar with the boat, and the North Americans provided sailors with a great opportunity to research the conditions while competing against some top competition.

“I don’t have that much experience in the waves, particularly combined with the light air, so for me it was critical,” said Siegal. “We also did the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex last weekend. There are some people who have a huge amount of experience here, the guys from the West Coast have all that experience sailing in waves in San Diego. A lot of people here have been sailing these boats for 30 years. I’ve only been sailing them for eight. For us, it was a had-to-do kind of thing.”

Final Results
2013 Etchells North American Championships (32 boats)
1. USA1296, USA1296, Jeffrey Siegal – 13, 2, 1, 2, 8, 3, 4, 9, [13] ; 29
2. CAN 1396, CAN1396, Hank Lammens – 5, 1, 6, 3, 12, 1, 9, 7, [12] ; 32
3. Midlife Crisis, USA1285, Bruce Golison – 1, 9, 4, 8, 3, 8, 8, 1, [9] ; 33
4. Raging Rooster, USA1266, Peter Duncan – 6, 4, 14, 10, 7, 5, 5, 6, [14] ; 43
5. USA 1248, USA1248, Stuart McNay – 3, 7, 12, 14, 19, 4, 2, 3, [19] ; 45