Newcomers to the Italia Yachts family made a splash on the Annapolis racing scene with their new IY9.98 Sport. 'Das Boot 3.0', a continued program by Jay & Cindy Muller from their past winning yachts including their last 'Das Boot', a Beneteau First 40.7. If you've ever raced the Chicago to Mackinac Race then you're sure to have seen them! The Muller's settled on ordering an Italia 9.98 after considering several other modern designs and chose the 9.98 because of its build quality and proven world championship-winning history.
Accompanied by their daughter Cate Muller-Terhune with husband and North Sails sailmaker Allan Terhune plus the regular crew from the past boat, they set out to show Annapolis what they could do. Their first two regattas were back to back; Leukemia Cup, an 8-mile pursuit race; and Annapolis Labor Day Regatta, multiple windward/leeward races. A good opportunity to play with different settings and conditions.
Das Boot proved triumphant, taking first in class at Leukemia Cup and first in class in the Labor Day Regatta after a tiebreaker. The results at the Labor Day Regatta added another special award, the City of Annapolis Trophy which is awarded to the boat that wins its class, and for that class to have the smallest average time difference between 1st and 5th places for all races scored for that class. In the NASS Lighthouse Race 'Das Boot 3.0' competed well yet again, being 3rd across the line in the 17-boat PHRF A2 class.
The Capital-Gazette, a local Annapolis newspaper, presented an article written by veteran sailing report Bill Wagner which can be found here.