MACATAWA, MICHIGAN (October 8, 2023) – After four days of intense racing on Lake Michigan, Charlie Welsh and Scott Rasmussen narrowly clinched the 2023 U.S. Adult Sailing Championship in a triple tiebreak with second place finshers, Doug Clark and Tim Desmond. The Mallory Trophy was contested October 4-8 in VXOnes at Macatawa Bay Yacht Club. The top two teams finished on 19 points, with Stanley Hassinger rounding out the podium in third with 24 points.
“It feels really great to win the Mallory Trophy, I thought the regatta and competition over the last week has been really high caliber,” said Welsh. “The host yacht club and sponsors did a great job with the event. Conditions were very dynamic, so we had to make a lot of adjustments during racing to stay in touch with the course and the fleet. I’ve got to thank my crew, Scott; he was super critical in getting us around the racecourse and keeping us plugged in. Without him this wouldn’t have been possible.”
The championship saw stormy conditions, with one day cancelled due to high winds and weather. On Thursday, sailors got rained on while sailing in 8-12 knot breeze and 2-3 foot waves out on Lake Michigan, completing 4 races. On Friday, storms held off long enough to allow the race committee to get three races in the books on Lake Macatawa, the inside racecourse option. Racing was cancelled on Saturday due to gale force winds and 6-8 foot waves on Lake Michigan mixed with rainsqualls. Sunday saw the fleet back out on the big lake in 8-10 knots and a challenging sea state completing Race 8 before a breakdown delayed the start of Race 9. After the delay, the fleet got off the line in lighter breeze which died to under 4 knots then increased to over 25 sustained as a pop-up squall caused the race to be abandoned, marking the end of the regatta.
“MBYC was an excellent host with excellent on water racing and off water hospitality,” said Betsy Alison, US Sailing’s Adult Director. “Rich Reichelsdorfer as PRO did an excellent job of setting great courses in challenging conditions enabling the sailors to experience great sailing in the VXOnes.”
Noted as one of US Sailing’s most coveted Adult Championships, the Mallory Trophy began as a men’s event in 1952 and transitioned to an open event in 1993. While youth and women had national, ladder-system championships for a quarter century, it was not until 1952 that a similar championship for men eighteen years and older was established during Robert N. Bavier, Jr.’s tenure as Executive Director of NAYRU.
Teams from around the country were invited to apply to the championship through US Sailing’s Regional Sailing Associations (RSAs). Seven teams from six of US Sailing’s Regional Sailing Associations participated in the championship.
US Sailing would like to thank host club Macatawa Bay Yacht Club and sponsors Gill Marine and Goslings Rum for their support of the event.
Photos: https://usst.photoshelter.com/galleries/C0000bX_HFSPjZTo/2023-U-S-Adult-Championship
Scores: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=15991