The weather was the star on Day Three of the 2024 ORC World Championship held at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. A rather gloomy forecast of a 6- to 8-knot easterly blossomed into 10 to 12 knots and what many locals called some of the best conditions of the season. These ideal conditions prompted prompted Principal Race Officer Tom Duggan to call for three windward-leeward races for all classes on course areas set outside Narragansett Bay, east of Brenton Reef.
The scoreline of the current leaders—Victor Wild’s TP 52 Fox 2.0 (above) in Class 0, Gwen Fragomen’s Botin 44 Interlodge IV in Class A and Marcin Sutkowski’s Grand Soleil 44P Wind Whisper 44—may imply they had easy pickings on the racecourse, but Fox tactician Andy Horton said this was far from the truth.
“We went into today with the idea of sticking to the basics and staying away from trouble,” he said. “For the most part we achieved this, but we still needed all we had to get the margins needed to win these races. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work we put in this season to learn our boat and get the most out of every element: set up, sails, trimming, teamwork and positioning.
“And, in a sense, this has been a four-year project to get here. Victor built this boat with the vision of participating in the 2020 Worlds planned for here but cancelled due to Covid, so we do have a long view of this. Fortunately, it came together today in a really great day of sailing.”
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