12 Metre World Championship: Serious Tight Racing, CHALLENGE XII and COLUMBIA Become Two-Time World Champions
Newport Rhode Island USA (August 6, 2023) – After participating in a morning parade around Newport Harbor that was punctuated by cannon salutes from yacht clubs and other prime waterfront viewing spots, ten historic 12 Metres moved on to Rhode Island Sound for Saturday’s final race of the 12 Metre World Championship. To be named the World Champions at the end of the day, Jack LeFort’s (Winter Park, Fla./Jamestown, R.I.) Challenge XII (KA-10) had merely to finish better than fifth among Modern Division’s five entries if Takashi Okura’s Japanese entry Freedom (US-30), close behind in the standings, were to win. The day prior, Kevin Hegarty/Anthony Chiurco’s (Newport, R.I./Princeton, N.J.) Columbia (US-16) already had mathematically sewn up the nine-race series in the five-boat Traditional/Vintage Division.