SAILING : A Little Comfort Works for Berry

The International Measurement System for handicapping sailboats is about as clear as the theory of relativity, but Lewis Berry loves it for two reasons.

It’s faster and more comfortable than the all-out racing boat he used to have.

Berry, representing Balboa Yacht Club, sailed his month-old Andrews 43, It’s OK, to first place in the IMS-A class of Long Beach Race Week Friday through Sunday, logging four firsts and a second in the five races.

But what pleased him most was sailing the course faster than most of the International Offshore Rule (IOR) boats, which were built primarily for racing, whereas IMS boats are dual-purpose boats.

Berry had an IOR boat, a Reichel/Pugh 42 also named It’s OK, whose sails and hardware he switched to the boat Alan Andrews of Long Beach designed for him.

A similar boat, Don Hughes’ Quintessence, won the IOR-A class for the fourth year in a row, edging the Valicelli 50 of Oscar Krinsky and Neil Baker by a quarter-point.

In the one-design classes, Stan Yocum’s Juice in the J-35s and the Mark Folkman-Tom Collier Moustache in Olson 30s were winners.