Rosebud/Team DYT, the Farr-designed STP65, sailed by owner Roger Sturgeon of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has won the 2009 US-IRC Gulf Stream Series (GSS) Trophy. The award will be presented next summer at the New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex, which will also host the 2010 Rolex US-IRC National Championship from July 21-24.
“The US-IRC Gulf Stream Series is a fantastic way to judge sailboats on a level playing field,” said Sturgeon. “There were plenty of different inshore and offshore races that we could enter to qualify for the series, and the comprehensive ratings system allowed for boats to be ranked against each other in an extremely fair manner. Rosebud/Team DYT is optimized for all-around racing, not just downwind or upwind, and this series is a true test of all racing conditions. The GSS scoring formula is complicated enough that we didn’t know if we actually won the series. It is an honor we proudly accept, and we challenge others to campaign their way to the top next year.”
On the way to winning the fourth annual US-IRC GSS, Rosebud/Team DYT logged some impressive finishes. It finished first in the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race, Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race, Ft. Lauderdale to Charleston Race and Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex. It also finished second in the Acura Key West Race Week and the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex before going to Europe where its successful season there ended with a fallen rig in rough conditions at the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
Finishing second overall for the 2009 US-IRC GSS series was Privateer, a Cookson 50 owned and skippered by Ron O’Hanley (Ipswich, Mass.). The boat finished first at the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race and Block Island Race Week, second in the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race, Acura Key West Race Week and New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, and third at the Ida Lewis Distance Race.
“US-IRC is delighted to have had two excellent programs at the top of this year’s GSS,” said US-IRC President John Brim, who won the series in 2008. “The wide range of events these two boats entered in 2009 show the great diversity of the Gulf Stream Series, and we are looking forward to an exciting and expanded series for 2010.”
Brim explained that 19 events will make up the 2010 GSS (an increase of three events over last year), with events running as far north as Newport, R.I., and this year stretching deeper into the Caribbean to include the second running of the RORC’s Caribbean 600.
2010 US-IRC Gulf Stream Series Announced
The US-IRC Gulf Stream Series (GSS), America’s only year-long racing series that spans the entire East Coast of the U.S.A. and Caribbean islands, returns for its fifth annual running in 2010 with an expanded list of events that starts with the 2009 Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race (January 13) and ends with the Storm Trysail Club IRC East Coast Championship (October 29-31).
The 2010 series will follow the format of the 2009 series with a few minor differences.
• Yachts will be entered in the series automatically when they compete in their first series event. All yachts that qualify by sailing the required number of long distance, medium distance and regatta events will be scored for the series.
• The races and regattas will be divided into three groups as they have been in the past. To qualify for the series a boat must participate in the required number of events from Group 1 – Buoy Races (5 required), Group 2- Medium Distance Races (2 required) and Group 3 – Long Distance Races (1 required).
• The Groups are:
Group 1 – Buoy Races (5 events required)
Key West Race Week, January 13, 2010
Miami Grand Prix, March 4-7, 2010
International Rolex Regatta, March 26-28, 2010
Charleston Race Week, April 8-11, 2010
American Yacht Club Spring Series, April/May 2010
New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta presented by Rolex, June 11-13, 2010
New York Yacht Club Race Week by at Newport presented Rolex/Rolex US-IRC National Championship, July 21-24, 2010
US-IRC Long Island Sound Championship, September 18-19, 2010
American Yacht Club Fall Series, September, 2010
Storm Trysail Club IRC East Coast Championship, October 29-31, 2010
Group 2 – Medium Distance Races (2 events required)
Ft. Lauderdale to Key West Race, January 13, 2010
Miami to Nassau Race, November, 2010
Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race, May 21, 2010
Around Long Island Regatta, July 29, 2010
Ida Lewis Distance Race, August 20, 2010
Stamford Vineyard Race, September 3, 2010
Group 3 – Long Distance Races (1 event required)
Ft. Lauderdale to Charleston Race, March 31, 2010
Newport to Bermuda Race, June 18, 2010
Royal Ocean Racing Club Caribbean 600, February 2, 2010