July 19, 2002: Gold Digger Ekes Out Narrow Lead in North Americans

NEWPORT, RI, JULY 19, 2002 – Jim Bishop’s local boat Gold Digger enjoys a narrow margin of one quarter of a point after a slow, frustrating and foggy day of racing at the opening day of the North American Championships of the J/44 Class, part of New York Yacht Club’s Race Week presented by Rolex.

Bishop, from Jamestown, RI, sails under the burgees of that town’s Conanicut Yacht Club and the American Yacht Club in Rye, NY. A three-time winner of the class championship for the big cruiser/racer one designs, he nevertheless faces tough competition from other proven winners in the class.

Pressing Gold Digger hard for first place, Bill Ketcham, from Greenwich, CT, aboard Maxine recorded a third, a first and a second to tie up second place, just one quarter of a point away from the leader.

Returning 2001 champion Scott Dinhofer who is defending the North American Championship he won last year with his Brown Eyed Girl started the day strongly with two second places but dropped to fifth in the foggy third race. Dinhofer, from Chappaqua, NY, and the Indian Harbor Yacht Club was placed third overall at the end of the first day’s racing.

Jimmie Sundstrom, from Rye, NY, and the American Yacht Club took first place in 1996 and 1997 with his Stampede but could do no better than fourth place overall.

As racing got under way this morning, the boats were sailing in a six knot southeasterly breeze fanning through a foggy gray fishbowl with barely half a mile of visibility. If the conditions were mediocre, they were only going to get worse, with the breeze dropping away to almost nothing for the end of the second race. The breeze came back but brought dense fog for the third race of the day.

Gold Digger showed the way on the first leg of the opening race, with Bill Ketcham’s Maxine, from Greenwich, CT and Stampede all battling with Gold Digger to take over first place. Gold Digger got her break on the final leg, according to tactician Jim Bishop, Jr., when Brown Eyed Girl dropped her close cover. Bishop’s boat crossed the line in first place, just five to ten feet ahead of Dinhofer’s.

Maxine chose a lonely course in the second race, breaking from the pack and getting the benefit of a windshift that that guaranteed her first place after the wind went light in the latter stages of the race. Brown Eyed Girl logged another second place. That put Ketcham in the lead after two races, with Dinhofer second and Bishop third with only one point separating the three boats.

In the third race, sailing in more breeze and dense fog, Gold Digger relied on her navigation instruments to find the weather mark and ultimate victory as other boats in the class overstood.

They may be the oldest one design class racing in Newport this week but the J/44s enjoy close racing because of strict one-design standards that include a common, pooled inventory of racing sails owned by the class. At each regatta, owners draw for these sails, which are maintained by the class director, Tom Castiglione, and which are regularly updated in bulk purchases of 16 identical units.