New Orleans, LA- Lightning in the morning and lack of wind in the afternoon canceled racing Monday in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Viper 640 World Championships hosted by Southern Yacht Club. But by Tuesday morning the breeze filled in just enough for the 34 boats entered in the event to finish one race before the wind shut down again for the day.
Local sailor Jackson Benvenutti won the day’s only race, with Ricky Welch of Long Beach, MS in second and Mark Zagol of Pawcatuck, CT in third.
Benvenutti is a two-time collegiate All-American sailor who was part of the team that won the 2019 Viper 640 Worlds. He won the 2022 Viper 640 North Americans in Gulfport and two weeks later won the 2022 US Sailing Adult Championship. He sailed in only the last event of the SYC Viper Winter Series March 4-5 but won that weekend decisively.
Benvenutti’s team in the Worlds included Christopher Alexander on the bow and Andrew Eagan trimming. Eagan has been part of the team on Southern Yacht Club’s two victories in the prestigious New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup in 2017 and 2021.
Finishing second was Ricky Welch, who won the Viper Winter Series out of Southern Yacht Club sailed in four separate events from December, 2022 through early March, 2023 as a tune-up for the World Championships. Welch, 22, a native of Long Beach, MS, won the 2018 Laser Radial Class Nationals against 40 boats, placed third in the 2018 US Youth Championships and won the 2022 RS Aero North Americans.
Welch sailed with Matthew Dupuy and Mason Ryan as crew.
Rounding out the top three was Mark Zagol of Pawcatuck, CT, sailing with Drew Buttner and Timothy Desmond. Zagol won the 2021 Viper North Americans in Darien, CT sailing with the same team. He was a three-time All-American at Old Dominion University and was inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl Viper World Championship has drawn 34 entries from Canada, Jamaica, India and 14 U.S. states from California to Maine to compete for the top prize in one of the most competitive sailboat classes in the world.
The Viper 640 is a two-to-four-person, high-performance sport boat about 21 feet long.
The 640 is strict one-design with no changes permitted to the boat as supplied by the class approved builder. The only option is sails, supplied by class approved sailmakers and strictly controlled through class rules.
“Sailing has been a proud piece of the Sugar Bowl tradition from the beginning, getting its start even before the first Sugar Bowl Football Classic,” said Committee President Richard Briede. “We’re so pleased and excited to expand on that tradition by sponsoring this year’s Viper World Championships on Lake Pontchartrain.”
Text Credits: Allstate Sugar Bowl Viper 640 World Championship 2023
Photo Credits: Allstate Sugar Bowl Viper 640 World Championship 2023
Video Credits: ICARUS Sports
