Lammens wins Long Island Etchells

Former Finn Gold Cup winner takes victory in foggy waters

Hank Lammens wins International Etchells Long Island Sound Championship

Double Finn Gold Cup winner Hank Lammens and crew Hank Lammens, Sr. and Zarko Draganic won a hotly contested Long Island Sound Championship from '98 World Champion Dirk Kneulman, sailing with Jud Smith and Andy Tuthill and local favorites Steve Girling, Chris Johannessen and Marc Jacobi. The Championship was graciously hosted by the Milford Yacht Club, Milford, CT., over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of May with 34 boats competing.

The event got off to a slow start under a postponement due to dense fog and a fragile breeze, which was the result of a complex weather pattern surrounding Long Island Sound. Consequently, the first race of the regatta did not commence until the middle of the afternoon in a fickle easterly that appeared to be fighting gradient influences in order to become established. Girling, Lammens and Ched Proctor, sailing with Ben Kinney and Greg Stevens were the first to show halfway up the first beat, with Girling establishing a slim lead at the weather mark, with Proctor second and Lammens third. The leaders were able to extend on the first run, taking advantage of the last of the flooding tide, despite the flaky pressure. Peter Duncan, sailing with Tom Blackwell and Bill Barton made some early initial gains by working a lane inside the six leading boats, but the pressure finally returned for the leaders and both Girling and Lammens were able to consolidate into the leeward gate with a good lead. Girling chose the right gate to take advantage of building pressure and a nice shift to consolidate his lead. Lammens struggled out of the left gate, with Proctor close behind as the following pack split in search for pressure.

Girling held a comfortable lead to the weather mark and back to the leeward finish (with the pressure building and oscillating 40 degrees), whilst Proctor and Lammens fought for every inch into a photo finish. Lammens sneaked second, Proctor was third, Rob Hitchcock, Greg Heffler ad Jim Porter were fourth and Kneulman recovered to fifth.

With the breeze clearly establishing itself for a late afternoon pant, the light jibs were replaced by medium sails and the rigs were wound up to accommodate a nice twelve to fifteen knot Easterly. Despite a couple of recalled starts, the fleet finally got away with Duncan, Girling, Kerry Klingler and Bear Hovey all fighting hard for pin end position. Duncan won the pin, but was down speed whilst Girling powered over the top to lead the left pack, although the middle look good with six degrees of righty appearing immediately after the start. Girling and Duncan waited for the oscillation and were rewarded as the wind came back left. Lammens popped out from the middle and tacked 100 yards to leeward of Girling in order to lead back to the right in phase. Lammens, Girling and Duncan drove hard for the right in order to consolidate gains on the fleet and as they approached the lay-line, Lammens flipped, but was not laying, so Girling ducked to pick the lay-line. Duncan had held good pressure and squeezed in ahead of both at the weather mark with Kneulman close behind.

On the run Duncan and Girling broke to the left halfway down to take advantage of some great pressure and Kneulman soon followed, all went to the left gate. Lammens managed to hold onto some breeze on the right although he looked exposed at times. Duncan looked to be in control and tacked to consolidate back to the left, a third of the way up the second beat, leaving Girling and Kneulman to fight on the right for a while before both flipped back towards the middle taking advantage of a nice righty. Kneulman was perfectly positioned as the puff fanned the course and was able to cross Lammens and Duncan, before the oscillation flicked back left. Girling wasn't as fortunate and took all three transoms in order to stay clean on the inside of this last shift into the mark. At the windward mark it was Kneulman and Lammens overlapped, with Duncan and Girling line astern. Lammens had kite problems that slowed both he and Kneulman, whilst Duncan and Girling were able to complete quick hoists and get their bows down inside the leaders. Kneulman, Duncan and Girling gybed to port simultaneously, forcing Kneulman back onto Starboard as they extended in good pressure. Lammens and Kneulman came back as soon as their breeze was clear and were just ahead, with Girling making ground inside and Duncan getting squeezed in the middle and dropping out of contention. The teams surged up the Sound with Lammens to leeward and half a length ahead, Kneulman and Girling now even. The finish line was square, Girling was gaining all the time, but ran out of race track and Lammens took a deserved victory by a few feet from Girling, a few feet ahead of Kneulman, with Duncan fourth and Yourieff fifth. Race Officer Peter Reggio had pulled a rabbit out of the hat to squeeze in two races as the fleet happily returned to the club for a hearty dinner.

Sunday dawned equally misty, but with the sun making an earlier appearance, the fleet was soon out of postponement and into race mode. The sea breeze quickly built to a healthy eight knots, but as start time rolled around, it became less stable in both strength and direction. After a recalled start, Reggio went for the ZFP and the fleet got away with a few teams penalized. Robbie Doyle sailing with Tyler Doyle and Andrew Wills won the pin and were able to dominate from the left, Lammens, Duncan, Glenn Morrison, sailing with Don Dowd and Ben Cesare and Kneulman were also in the hunt, whilst Girling attempted to recover from a poor start. At the weather mark it was Doyle (for this race, Tyler was enjoying the stick time), Morrison and a pack that included Lammens, Kneulman, Duncan, Hitchcock, Hugh Jones, sailing with Sam Barron-Fox and Tucker Edmondson. Girling and Proctor were also back in contention.

The run was very difficult with fickle pressure and a strong cross-current that meant a lot of time sailing on Starboard gybe and real problems if you were rolled and forced to gybe away. Doyle, looking lonely so far out in front but he was able to consolidate as the chasing pack sailed wider angles to protect their air. At the leeward mark it was Doyle, Morrison, Lammens, Kneulman and Girling although the beat was looking even more fickle than the run. Middle left paid, the right got hosed and the left came back a little to late right at the top of the beat. Behind Doyle and Morrison, Andy Giglia sailing with Sandy Weil and John Corwin were quietly putting a good race together, whilst Kneulman was ahead of Lammens and Girling dropped back to the fringe of the top ten. The wind had started to move left, and Peter Reggio had the leeward finish set up deep on the Connecticut shore. Timing became a critical component and Doyle was nearly hosed as the breeze moved ahead, placing him outside the shift with a terrible angle to gybe back toward the fleet had had worked down inside him. Doyle recovered for a convincing victory, Kneulman nailed second and Giglia scored an excellent third, whilst Lammens fought off a pack of four around him to take fourth with Morrison fifth. Girling crossed in eighth to allow a Canadian one-two in the overall results.

	Helm	From	R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Hank Lammens	CAN	2	1	4	7
2	Dirk Kneulman	CAN	5	3	2	10
3	Steve Girling	Fleet 9	1	2	8	11
4	Ched Proctor	Fleet 24	3	10	6	19
5	Robert Hitchcock	Fleet 4	4	8	11	23
6	Robert Doyle	Fleet 4	21	7	1	29
7	Ian Evans	Fleet 15	9	12	9	30
8	Glenn Morrison	Fleet 1	14	13	5	32
9	Peter Duncan	Fleet 1	6	4	23	33
10	Kerry Klingler	Fleet 1	7	9	18	34
11	Kenneth A. Schmidt	Fleet 28	10	14	12	36
12	T. Yourieff & R. Bodden	Fleet 30	13	5	20	38
13	Bear Hovey	Fleet 9	23	6	10	39
14	James Callahan	Fleet 1	11	21	17	49
15	Andrew Giglia	Fleet 1	29	18	3	50
16	Hugh Jones	Fleet 9	25	11	16	52
17	Tim Keyworth	Fleet 24	19	20	13	52
18	Jonathan Nye	Fleet 9	8	17	29\ZPG	54
19	David Smalley	Fleet 1	26	16	14	56
20	Simon Williams	Fleet 9	20	27	15	62
21	Bruce Kuryla & Greg Geiger	Fleet 30	18	24	21	63
22	Wade Edwards	Fleet 4	22	35\OCS	7	64
23	Allan Gray	Fleet CAN2	17	23	26	66
24	Mark Luckes	Fleet 4	12	29	27	68
25	Ralph Hertz	Fleet 8	24	26	19	69
26	John Amendola	Fleet 24	15	22	35\DNF	72
27	Jeremy Wurmfeld	Fleet 1	16	25	35\DNF	76
28	Kurt Winkelmann	Fleet 8	31	15	35\DNF	81
29	Drew Shea	Fleet 1	28	19	35\DNF	82
30	Dennis Carriere	Fleet 24	30	28	25	83
31	Lloyd Bankson	Fleet 9	27	35\OCS	24	86
32	Tom Yale	Fleet 30	32	30	28	90
33	Karen Thomas	Fleet 9	33	31	29	93
34	Robert Allardice	Fleet 24	35\DNS	35\DNS	35\DNS	105