Ft. Walton Yacht Club, Ft. Walton, FL

October 27, 2017

After a light-air Day Two that saw only one race completed, Friday’s Day Three of the Beacon Group Viper 640 North American Championship found the wind gods smiling on the sailors. Winds from the southeast averaged in the mid-teens for most of the day with the fourth and final race of the day seeing gusts approaching 25 knots.

After nine races, Tom Loutrel has held onto his Day Two lead with another solid performance scoring 4-4-3-3. So far in the Championship, Loutrel, from Charleston, SC, sailing with John Bowden and Karl Schutte, has finished in the top four for eight of nine races…a remarkably consistent scoreline. Loutrel now holds an eight point lead over Marcus Eagan (Mississippi’s Bay Waveland Yacht Club sailing with his brother Andrew and Jackson Benvenutti) who moved into second with finishes of 3-2-5-1. Brad Boston is still standing in third finishing 6-1-2-2. Boston, from Sarnia, ON, is sailing with Lee Shuckerow and Dave Shriner. In fourth is last year’s NAs Champ  Zeke Horowitz (Annapolis, MD, sailing with Ian Coleman and Luke Lawrence) with a ZFP penalty offsetting his winning two of today’s  races and finishing fourth in the final race.

The Championship wraps-up tomorrow and the breeze is forecast to be “sporty” again. The folks at Ft. Walton Yacht Club, led by Deb and Craig Wilusz, have rolled out the red carpet for the sailors and everyone continues to have a typically great Viper regatta experience.

Petey Crawford Photos at https://www.facebook.com/Viper640NorthAmericanChampionships/

Results at https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=2996