Article from the Providence Journal newspaper:

BARRINGTON -- Wherever they compete, Bill Brangiforte of Weymouth, Mass., and Ken Mockridge of Center Moriches, N.Y., usually go down to the wire.

So for those two, it came as no surprise yesterday that a tie-breaker was needed to determine that Brangiforte had won the Sunfish Northeast Regionals yesterday at the Barrington Yacht Club.

Each sailor had 20 points for their six best races, but Brangiforte had won two races to Mockridge's one.

"We always seem to wind up tied," said Mockridge, "and it isn't always first and second. We've been at the back of the fleet, too."

They had been one point apart after the first four races Saturday, raising the possibility they might go head-to-head in the final race to decide the championship.

But Derek Jackson of New York was in the picture, too.

"Derek won the first race today and that tightened everything up," Brangifrote said. "I think at that point he was leading. Kenny and I had had bad races and if we had another bad race, he (Jackson) would have had us."

But Brangiforte bounced back and won the second race yesterday and took a slim late. In the final race, he tried to stay close to Mockridge and did so successfully. "At one point, right at the finish, I thought he (Mockridge) had put enough boats between us to beat me on points," said Brangiforte.

By winning the event for the first time since 1993, Brangifrote qualified for next year's Sunfish World Championships.

It had been a light-air series throughout and that favored Jackson, the lightest of the three front-runners. But his last two races were his worst. Jackson had to count his eighth-place finish in the final race and that knocked him out of contention.

Jackson, Ken Charles of Manchester, Conn., and Ted Cremer from Long Island won prizes for finishing in the top five.

John Skrsypiec of Portsmouth, who said he hadn't raced any kind of a sailboat for five years, was the top Narragansett Bay sailor, finishing sixth overall, and Simon Stampe of Penfield, N.Y., was the top junior, finishing 10th overall.

Brangforte's father, Phil, of Quincy, Mass., won the sportsmanship prize. The light air didn't suit him, but he stuck it out for the entire series and finally beat a boat in the last race.

The Barrington Yacht Club will continue to host the Sunfish Northeast Regionals and next year the club will host the Sunfish North Americans.

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