The 36-boat fleet of Viper 640s, sailing out of Kingston (ON) Yacht Club and CORK/Sail Kingston in the waters where Lake Ontario meets the St. Lawrence, had a looooooooong day on the water for Day 3 of the 2018 Viper 640 North American Championship. The wind returned to the south and built from the low teens for the day’s first of five races to the high teens with puffs up to 23 knots. “Puffs? There were some pretty big ones!” noted Jackson Benvenutti who is crewing for Zeke Horowitz and sitting in second place. As the breeze built, the ideal flat water with breeze went away as the chop built, rewarding those who could skillfully manage the waves.

When the exhausted sailors returned to shore, everyone agreed that four races would have been just enough…but that the fifth race was epic. Breeze, shifts, exciting mark roundings: everything that makes Viper sailing, well, Viper sailing.

Going into the day, five-time NA Champ Brad Boston had a comfortable lead over former World Champion Zeke Horowitz. Zeke had hoped to close the gap between second and first, but that was not to be. Boston only won the final race today. However, his scoreline including the first four heats (2-2-3-2-1) gives Boston 24 total points (tossing a 7) versus Horowitz’s 46-point total after a 4-1-2-6-5 day…which is not at all shabby in this highly competitive fleet. Brad commented, “We’ve just been having a lot of fun and trying to sail as cleanly as we can. Luckily, we’ve been going fast enough to create really good choices on the race course. The conditions were very challenging starting at the lighter side of hiking only to have the seas get very choppy putting another element into it. Main out, jib out, bow down higher target numbers – just trying to get through the water fast.”

Will Zeke be able to overcome a 22-point differential on tomorrow’s final day? Will Geoff and Mary Ewenson continue to be Terminally Pretty in third place? Will Justin Scott’s MAMBO KINGS finally learn to dance its way out of fourth? Will Jay Rhame, Peter & Rachel Beardsley recover from their final race mishap and show Justin Scott that GREAT SCOTT! (with a Scott Bakula face imprinted on the spinnaker) can take over fourth place? You’ll have to tune in tomorrow at this time and see for yourself. Or, go to Yacht Scoring for all the results.

BTW, nobody here is having any fun.  NOT!!!