Marblehead Junior Race Week finishes final day

It was a beautiful sunny day on the third and final day of Marblehead Junior Race Week at Pleon Yacht Club in Marblehead, with northwest winds blowing 12 to 15 miles per hour. More than 300 sailors representing 28 clubs from throughout New England headed out to find sometimes gusty conditions that made for competitive racing and several shakeups on the leaderboard.
In the 40-boat 420 Championship fleet, Joseph Chomyn and Parker Swanson from Harraseeket Yacht Club held on to take first overall, with Rowan Byrne and Gillian Winn of Manchester Sailing Association in second. The upset came in the battle for third, in which Grant Adam and Gavin Dowley of Pleon Yacht Club capitalized on the four races sailed to post solid numbers and leapfrog over several other teams to make it onto the podium.
Hingham Yacht Club teams prevailed to take all top five spots in the 40-boat 420 Green fleet. Ben Monnich and Grace Taylor led the fleet with 18 points going into Wednesday and remained consistent with all top-10 finishes to take first place. Michael Hill and Morgan Langerhagen triumphed over Kaylee Hill and Sydney Langerhagen to move into second overall while Francis Cundari and Tyler Buckeridge recovered to move up from fourth to third overall. Timothy Nerich and Collin Murphy of the Nahant Sailing Program finished sixth.
There were some heartbreakers on the 70-boat Opti Championship line as the gusty northwesterly wind challenged some of the division leaders. Despite six first-place finishes out of 12 races, Grace Gear from Agamenticus Yacht Club couldn’t hold onto first in the 19-boat Opti Champ Red Division after going into the last race tied with Hayden Van Alstine from Portland Yacht Club. Van Alstine edged Gear out by just two points to take first overall in the Red Division and the Opti Championship Fleet overall. Magdelaina Putnam from Pleon Yacht Club slipped from first to third. Putnam and Gear finished second and third overall, respectively, for the Optimist Championship Fleet.
Niall Kearney of Pleon Yacht Club jumped from fourth to first to win the division by three points over Benjamin Trotsky from Sandy Bay Yacht Club, who ended up third. Eliza Dunn from Hingham Yacht Club led by four points coming into the day, but fell to fifth. Leopold Seuss of Pleon Yacht Club brought his A-game for Day Three to solidify his Opti Champ White Division win and place fourth overall in the Opti Championship fleet. Sean McCaffrey from Quannapowitt Yacht Club and William Decker from Hingham Yacht Club held their relative positions to finish second and third, respectively, in the White Division.
In the 26-boat Opti Green Even Division, Reid Hamilton from Eastern Yacht Club won on the tiebreaker to take first with 20 points, while Charlie Pingree from Pleon Yacht Club finished second. Ashley Hoguet of Pleon led going into Wednesday but the close battle ended with her in third, just two points out of first.
In the 34-boat Odd Division, Jamie Gabbay from Annisquam Yacht Club edged out Jack Wieman from Manchester Sailing Association by just one point to take the win. Jack Homa held on to finish third.
Caleb Robinson from Sail Maine held onto first place in the 17-boat Laser Radial fleet to take first overall by 12 points over Reid Shanabrook from Pleon Yacht Club. William Bedford from Pleon Yacht Club finished third.
Mason Cheney was the bullet man in the 5-boat Laser 4.7 fleet consisting of all Pleon Yacht Club sailors. Mason won 10 out of 12 races. Nils Skaane finished second and Mason’s sister Morgan finished third overall.
Marblehead Junior Race Week is hosted by Pleon Yacht Club in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the oldest junior yacht club in the United States.