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2009 Great Lakes IRC Champion Crowded at Port Huron Yacht Club

Port Huron, MI - On a perfect summer weekend in the beautiful Blue Waters of Lake Huron sixteen boats competed for the right to lay claim to the title of 2009 Great Lakes IRC Champion. The Championship consisted of four one mile windward / leeward style races on Saturday and a 17 mile distance race on Sunday. After the five extremely competitive races were completed Val Saph and the crew aboard Rowdy were declared the overall Champions.

"It is a huge honor to be first overall especially against the quality of competition that this event attracted," said Saph. "The IRC rating system seemed to work well all weekend with each race coming down to literally seconds." Saph also acknowledged that his yacht is successful due to the preparation, maintenance and on the water crew work of his team. "We try to keep the boat fast. The bottom is exceptional, the sails are in great condition, our crew all works hard to keep the boat in good shape and our on the water tactics and crew work was fantastic all weekend."

This was the second big race weekend in a row for the Port Huron Yacht Club as it was also host to the Lake Huron International Regatta the weekend prior. The Chairman for both events Nick Ward was very happy with how the racing went all weekend long. "With the excellent job by PRO Tim Rumptz, the Race Committee and the amazing weather condition we had a wonderful weekend of sailing," said Ward. "The competition that occurred between these well sailed boats was second to none."

The event was broken up into three classes. In the IRC A Class Burden IV skippered by Todd Jones won three of the five races to outdistance itself from a tough field. Pendragon skippered by John Trost and Greg Thomas took second and Ed Shumaker sailed Gratiot Beach to a third.

Val Saph and the crew of "Rowdy" 2009 Great Lakes US-IRC Champions

The IRC B class saw extremely tight racing through all five races. The first race of the regatta was an indicator of how close the racing would be as only five second separated Rowdy, Rum skippered by Nick Ward and Greg Kinney and Steelin' Gold skippered by Bill White and Bill Mosher. Rowdy was able to take the class with a strong race on Sunday to finish the regatta.

In the IRC C class it came down to a showdown between Rebel skippered by Jim Bowen and Chuck Williams and Baron skippered by Terry Stuck. Rebel was able to win the Sunday distance race by five seconds vaulting them to the prestigious victory.

US -IRC Executive Director Luiz Kahl was very happy with the outcome of the regatta. "Port Huron Yacht Club did a great job running the races and hosting this event," said Kahl. "I couldn't be happier with how competitive the fleet was and the conditions that Mother Nature provided were fantastic."

When thinking about the possibilities of bringing the event back to Port Huron next season Kahl seemed very optimistic. "It would be great to run the event in Port Huron again next season," Kahl said. "Knowing that the Bayview Port Huron to Mackinac Race will be sailed first next season the goal will be to attract more boats to the Blue Water Area for this event."

Complete results are available at: www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=254

Media Contact: Commodore Tyson Connolly
tconnolly11@yahoo.com; 586-630-6173

Interested in using IRC?

Owners and Organizing Authorities wishing to adopt IRC for their events should contact US-IRC Executive Director Luiz E. Kahl for help with the process luiz@us-irc.org.

The US SAILING Offshore office administers the IRC rule in the US. Yacht owners should contact Eric Baittinger at irc@ussailing.org for help with certificate application or with rating questions.

For all US-IRC latest news, events and seminars check out the US-IRC web site at www.us-irc.org and go racing with us.