Not very often can anyone say they had a week where "everything they touched turned to gold." Last week, out on the waters off of Greenwich, CT, Ken Read, along with his crew, Scott Norris, University of RI Sailing Coach, and Karl Anderson, from Massachusetts, had just such a week. They took an early lead in the MasterCard International Etchells Worlds Championships, and never looked back. With 6 firsts, one second and one throw out race, for a total of eight points, they demolished the rest of the fleet. Read, who was the skipper on Team Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes in this year's race for the America's Cup, and who was in our area in 2001 for the Knickerbocker Cup (he placed fourth), said, "Every shift that we anticipated worked in our favor. We got good starts, really good starts, and we were just plain old fast." The team must be very good at reading those shifts for all week long the wind was quite variable. To put some perspective on his win, the second place winner had a score of 57, and Dennis Conner, who has won this event twice before (1991 and 1994) finished the week with a score of 118, giving him a seventh place overall. It seems fitting that the 95 teams from around the world - United States, England, Israel, Bermuda, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and China - came to Connecticut to race in this year's regatta, for the Etchells was designed by E.W. "Skip" Etchells, a yacht designer from Greenwich, CT. In 1965, Yachting Magazine sponsored a design competition based on the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU) specifications for a new three-man Olympic keelboat and Skip Etchells decided to design and build a contender for the trials set for fall of 1966 in Kiel, Germany. The result was Shillalah, which won eight out of ten races in the trials. Unable to make a decision on which boat to select for the Olympics, the judges called for another race to be held in 1967 in Travemunde, Germany. Shillalah, now with a fiberglass hull, and with Etchells at the helm again, won ten of thirteen races, and was one point out of winning an eleventh race, but for some reason the judges picked the Soling as the Olympic boat. Back home in Greenwich, the Shillalah was attracting attention, and soon Skip Etchells had an order for 12, which he built at his boat yard, Old Greenwich Boat Company. The company subsequently built the first 36 Etchells in the years between 1967-1969. In 1974, the IYRU formally recognized the Etchells as an international class, adopting the class rules, measurement form and rules pertaining to one-design control. Many consider the Etchells to be the most competitive keelboat design in the world, and it is used as a practice boat for most America's Cup teams. Dennis Conner has called the Etchells' class, "simply the world's best." There was an active Etchells fleet here in Manhasset Bay that got started in the mid to late 70's, after a fire destroyed the Resolute fleet. At one point, the fleet had 20 - 24 boats on the starting line, with names like Bruce McKeige, Randy Bartholomew, Bob Kirtland, Patrick Malloy and Douglas McKeige winning the Manhasset Bay Fleet Championship. Final standings of this year's Worlds: skipper, crew (total points): 1. Ken Read, Karl Anderson & Scott Norris, USA (8), 2. Jud Smith, H. Frazer & A. Wills, USA(57). 3. Cameron Miles, P. Smidmore & J. Mayjor, AUS (93). 4. Cameron Appleton, P. Merrington & P. Gudmunson, NZL (104), 5. Bill Lynn, T. Erskine & D. Sabin, USA (112), 6. Stuart Childerley, S. Russell & R. Marino GBR (118), 7. Dennis. Conner, P. Burton & T. Rey, USA (118), 8. Dirk Kneulman, D. Smithers & H. Lammens CAN (122). 9. Hans Fogh, R. Cheer & T. Fogh, CAN (126), and 10. Ched Proctor, B. Kinney & G. Stevens, USA (130). Randy Bartholomew, mentioned above, won this event in 1975.

The Manhasset Bay Sailing Foundation was founded in 1999 to promote the sport of sailing and make it more accessible to members of the community in Western Long Island Sound. For the past few seasons the Foundation has supported a Sailing Class at Schreiber HS, and will repeat this popular course next spring. This fall, the Foundation has provided boats and a coach for juniors who already sail and want to improve their skills. With the help of Bill Brakman, Secretary of the Foundation, and Jerry Morea, the Foundation's Treasurer, Gene D'Allessandro, the Head Instructor for the juniors at Manhasset Bay YC, and Colin Fitzpatrick, sailing instructor at Sea Cliff YC, have been coaching a group of juniors from four local high schools. Up to 15 juniors from Schreiber HS, Manhasset HS, Chaminade and Friends Academy are out on the water after school on Wednesdays and again on Sunday afternoons. They come out in rain or shine, wind or no wind, rig their boats, and practice, practice, practice. The group could attract more sailors, but "we need more boats", said Marissa Diaz, from Manhasset HS. Right now, they are sailing in 420s, Lasers and "anything we can get our hands on", according to David Lindenbaum, who attends from Schreiber. Both are working on getting a high school sailing team at their respective high schools so the group can compete as a team in Mid-Atlantic Sailing Associational (MASSA) regattas. For the time being, they will hone their skills twice a week, and be ready to compete when the approvals are granted. The juniors include: Louise Browning, Sarah Catancaro, Chessy Capone, Marissa Diaz, Sam Eichner, Brian Kutner, David Lindenbaum, Tommy Matesich, Serena McIntosh, Carrie Morea, James O'Hanlon, Danielle Powers, Katherine Rainone, Eli Schwartz, Nicholas Silbersack, Hilary Wool, Mike Zito.

Sailing World magazine has just published their list of the top sailing schools in the United States. The following rankings are from August 15 and were determined by Sailing Worlds' coaches panel: Michael Callahan, Georgetown; Ken Legler, Tufts; and Mike Segerblom, USC. The top sailing colleges for coed teams, the parentheses indicates previous rank, with four schools with no previous ranking: 1. Harvard (3), 2. Hobart/Wm Smith (5), 3. Hawaii (4), 4. Dartmouth (14), 5. Stanford (9), 6. USC (6), 7. Tufts (2), 8. St. Mary's (1), 9. Brown (11), 10. Georgetown (8), 11. Washington College (13), 12. Kings Point (7), 13. Charleston (12), 14. Old Dominion (16), 15. UC Irvine, 16. MIT, 17 Yale (17), 18 Connecticut College, 19. Navy (19) and 20. Eckerd. Top colleges for women's teams: 1. Hawaii (4), 2. Yale (8), 3. Tufts (7), 4. Dartmouth (9), 5. Old Dominion (3), 6. Harvard (6), 7. Georgetown (15), 8. Hobart/Wm Smith (5), 9. Brown (2), 10. Stanford, 11. UC Santa Barbara, 12. St. Mary's (1), 13. UC Irvine (14), 14. Charleston (10) and 15. USC.

Race results for the weekend of September 27-28 were not available by press deadline.