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Letters

September 2011

Sweet Stuff

I was stunned when I received the framed Editor’s Pick award from Rhode Island Monthly naming La Maison de Coco best chocolate shop. I didn’t want another day to go by without reaching out and telling you how profoundly blessed I feel to have been given such an honor. Thank you for making this happen. A bientôt.

MICHELE DELUCA-VERLEY
NEWPORT

Sails to Remember

Your magazine states [Current, June] that the June 2011 J Class regatta would mark the first time that Js have raced in the United States since 1937. This is incorrect.

Beginning in September of 1989, my company, J Class Management, inaugurated a multi-year, multi-regatta, match racing series between the two J Class yachts Endeavour and Shamrock V.

The first regatta in the J Class Management Return of the Legends Regatta series was a three-race event in Newport’s Narragansett Bay. The boats were skippered by Ted Turner and Gary Jobson. There were more than 3,000 spectator vessels in the bay, and
a crowd of more than 10,000 watched from shore.

In 1989, Gary Jobson and Ted Turner skippered the boats in a regatta in Manhattan with at least 100,000 spectators watching from the Hudson River shore. In 1990, J Class Management ran four J Class regattas: in Annapolis, Maryland, with skippers Buddy Melges and Gary Jobson, the Js berthed at the U.S. Naval Academy during commencement celebrations, and the Blue Angels flew over and even between the masts of the Js; in Boston, with skippers Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, the Js berthed alongside Old Ironsides, and all air traffic at Logan Airport stopped when the Js went in and out of the harbor; in Marblehead, with skippers Gary Jobson and David Vietor; and in Newport, with skippers Gary Jobson and Ted Hood.
 
J Class Management ran these regattas to the highest competitive standards. The Js were measured and handicapped using the IMS system, in which the Js were hauled out of the water and the hulls electronically measured at 1,800 measurement points, 900 on each side. All sails were also measured by an official measurer, and the boats were inclined to discover their righting moments. The resulting handicaps were applied to the races. The courses, starts and results were overseen by New York Yacht Club Race Committee members and by international judges.

ELIZABETH MEYER
FOUNDER, INTERNATIONAL YACHT
RESTORATION SCHOOL
PRESIDENT, J CLASS MANAGEMENT
NEWPORT