Sailed over the first weekend of Larchmont Race Week, July 11-12, nine Viper crews contended with face masks, social distancing, and light, fickle Long Island Sound winds. In the end, however, it was the host Club’s Matt Kaplan and Harry Koeppel sitting atop the leader board and taking the win with a scoreline of 3-1-2-2. On the opening day, the light southwesterly wind that (at first) made the right side of the course look favorable proved to be a loss leader. Matt and Harry bailed out and went left on the first leg and were able to climb back into the hunt among the boats on the left. From there out it was a crap shoot to pick a side, look for pressure and, if possible, stay in phase.
Matt, a 2019 All-American from Bowdoin, and Harry, All-American Honorable Mention from Boston College in 2017, sailed with Brendan O’Leary as their third. The three were clearly the youngest crew on the water and showed how their dinghy experiences in college translated to the Viper. Matt and Harry will be sailing with Mike Puleo this year and were fortunate enough to have been loaned Mike’s boat for the ACCs.
In second for the ACCs and the overall winner of the Viper 640 Class for the two-weekend Larchmont Race Week was Larchmont’s David Owen sailing with Simon Kartstoft Jenson, Pat Slattery and David’s younger son Thomas. David and crew was only two points off the lead for the ACCs and ended the two weekends with four firsts, two seconds and a sixth in the first race as the throw out.
Doug Reynolds David Owen’s GHOST PANDA (left) with Nick DuBois, Pete Krow, and Bertrand Amezcua (right) who finished second at Larchmont Race Week.
ACC Scores:
Position, Boat #, Skipper(s), R1, R2, R3, R4, Total
1, USA 253, Harry Koeppel / Matt Kaplan, 3, 1, 2, 2, 8
2, USA 222, David Owen, 6, 2, 1, 1, 10
3, USA 175, Nick DuBois / Pete Krow, 1, 5, 3, 4, 13
4, USA 293, William Graves, 5, 3, 4, 3, 15
5, USA 121, Joseph Healey, 2, 7, 5, 6, 20
6, USA 159, Peter Bauer, 4, 8, 7, 5, 24
7, USA 95, Brian McCloskey, 9, 4, 9, 8, 30
8, USA 50, Patrick Robinson, 8, 9, 8, 7, 32
9, USA 182, Paul Andrepont, 7, 6, 6, 12, 31
