LI sailors finish strong in ocean race

Two of the three sailboats with Long Islanders aboard crossed the finish line in the Transatlantic Race 2011 on Friday. The remaining craft is expected to finish by Sunday.

The boats completing the 3,423-mile competition from Newport, R.I., to southwest England on Friday were the 65-foot U.S. Merchant Marine Academy yacht Vanquish, with a crew of young sailors that includes Huntington Bay's Kaity Storck, and the 40-foot Dragon, with a crew of two including East Northport's Rob Windsor.

As of Friday, three of 30 boats were still sailing, including the 42-foot Jacqueline IV, owned by Rob Forman of Bay Shore.

The first finisher, Rambler 100, crossed last Sunday after 6 days, 22 hours and 8 minutes. Vanquish was in the same Class One for the fastest yachts, under a speed handicapping system called IRC. Vanquish had a time of 11 days, 9 hours and 25 minutes. After handicaps for differences in boat speed were counted, Rambler 100 was in second place after PUMA mars mastro. Vanquish was the fifth of six boats in the class and sixth overall in the fleet.

Dragon was one of two entries in the IRC Class Four of smaller boats. It finished second in its class in 15 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes and remained in second place in the class with the corrected time. It was 15th overall in the fleet.

Concise 2, skippered by Ned Collier-Wakefield of Oxford, England, won the battle of the Class 40s over Dragon, owned and co-skippered by Mike Hennessy of Mystic, Conn., by crossing the finish line just 29 minutes ahead.

The boats left Newport in three staggered starts with the goal of having them arrive in England in proximity. The last two yachts, Jacqueline IV and Sasha, were averaging about 8 mph in light winds.