July 21, 2002: Bishop Claims Class Crown For Fourth Time

NEWPORT, RI, JULY 21, 2002–Three-time class champion Jim Bishop from Jamestown, RI, added another notch to his belt today, winning the final and deciding race of the J/44 Class North American Championships, part of New York Yacht Club’s Race Week presented by Rolex.

Sailing under sunny skies in a light, shifty southwesterly breeze off Newport RI, Bishop and his regular crew on the J/44 Gold Digger knew they had to win the seventh and final race in the three-day series. Going into today’s race there was only a one-quarter point spread between the top three boats in the big cruiser/racer one design class.

Bishop was tied on points with Jimmie Sundstrom’s Stampede from Rye, NY, while Bill Ketcham’s Maxine from Greenwich, CT was just one quarter of a point back in third place after the sixth race on Saturday afternoon. All of the three were positioned to win the critical seventh race and claim the championship crown.

Gold Digger grabbed the lead today right at the starting gun, following a one-hour wait for wind and an earlier aborted start due to a wind shift. The breeze was out of the southwest at about seven knots.

"Jim came out of the blocks with a great start in the middle of the line, found some breeze and got his nose out in front," said Ketcham. "He and his crew sailed beautifully. They tacked, picked up some more breeze and never looked back."

Bishop had a similar story. "We were really motoring," he said. "It was very close at the start with all the boats on the line but we had a good clean start and found some great boat speed. We had a four boat-length lead at the weather mark and we were able to stay in front for the next three legs to the finish."

Sundstrom agreed. "Jim had a little more boat speed at the start and that was the end of the game," he said. "We were chasing him for the rest of the day. He had to make a mistake at that point. We tried really hard. We tried tacking duels and we tried gybing duels but he covered every move we made. He sailed a good race."

At the end of the first run, Scott Dinhofer’s Brown-Eyed Girl was in third place, closely followed by Ketcham in Maxine. Ketcham’s foredeck crew had a problem with the spinnaker takedown and dropped to last place but were able to claw their way back to fourth again over the last two legs.

"It took some pressure off us," Sundstrom said. "It was pretty much over at that point. Without Bill pressing us, it gave us a little more room to try and wear Jim Bishop and his crew down, in terms of tacking duels, but he made no mistakes."

The three day championship series was raced in a variety of conditions. On Friday the J/44s sailed on Rhode Island Sound outside Narragansett Bay in foggy, northeasterly conditions and a breeze that never got over ten knots. Hazy half-mile visibility closed down for the last race of the day, leaving boats trusting to their instruments and searching intently for turning marks in dense fog.

Maxine led on points after two races but it was Bishop’s Gold Digger which prevailed on the third race, ending the day with a victory and a narrow margin of one quarter of a point over Ketcham’s Maxine.

Dinhofer who was 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. He was third overall at the end of the first day’s racing. Sundstrom who won the championships in 1996 and 1997 with his Stampede could do no better than fourth place overall.

The passage overnight of a cold front delivered cool northerlies and gray skies with breezes from 12 to 15 knots on Saturday. The J/44s raced on the north end of Narragansett Bay, north of Conanicut Island.

The strongest performance on Saturday came from Sundstrom and his crew who pulled back from their fourth place and a six and a half point deficit to win two races and finish second in the third to challenge Bishop for the lead.

"It was very tight out there," said Sundstrom. Explaining Stampede’s strong comeback, he added: "We were a little rusty on Friday. We worked on a lot of little things and it all came together. It was a dog fight out there but our crew work was superb and our tactics were perfect."

After two races on Saturday, Ketcham was points leader for the second time in the series, but he forfeited the position after dropping to fifth in the final race of the day while Sundstrom continued to improve.

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.

Results, North American Championships – July 19-21,2002:

1. Jim Bishop, Gold Digger, Jamestown, RI, (1-4-1-2-5-3-1), 16.25
2. Stampede, Jimmie Sundstrom, Rye, NY, (4-3-5-1-1-2-2), 17.25
3. Maxine, Bill Ketcham, Greenwich, CT, (3-1-2-3-2-5-4), 19.75
4. Brown-Eyed Girl, Scott Dinhofer, Chappaqua, NY, (2-2-6-6-4-1-3), 23.75
5. Vamp, Lennie Sitar, Holmdel, NJ, (5-6-3-4-3-4-5), 30.00
6. Spirit, Jerry Ellstein, Centerport, NY, (7-5-4-7-7-6-7), 43.00
7. Runaway, Larry Glenn, Locust Valley, NY, (6-7-8-5-6-7-6), 45.00