The Toms River Yacht Club junior sailor found the Manahawkin Bay conditions so agreeable Tuesday (25-30 knots), that he closed out the two-day, seven-race series in the championship Gold Fleet with three straight first-place finishes.

He was so solid, so consistent, that he had clinched the victory after six races and could have called it quits right there, but he sailed the seventh anyway and won that to finish 2-2-1-(4)-1-1-1 -- 8.

Tullo paced a 1-2-3 Toms River Yacht Club sweep. Patrick Curran was second with 3-9-(12)-2-2-2-2 -- 20 and Todd Hawkins was third with 4-(6)-4-1-3-6-3 -- 21.

Tullo, whose family lives in Staten Island and has a Mantoloking summer home, took the regatta lead after three races on Monday in light-air conditions. He opened the second day with a fourth-place finish he was allowed to drop before pulling away.

"After the second race the last day, I felt I was in control because it was heavy air and those were my conditions," said Tullo, 12, who will be entering the eighth grade at St. Ann's private school in Brooklyn, "I would have had to get two fifth places and the other kid (Hawkins) would have had to get two first places."

It closed out a magnificent summer for Tullo, who captured the Optimist North American Championship Aug. 5-13 at Acupulco, Mexico. He also won the Connecticut state championship July 14 at Madison, Conn.; the Lipton Cup July 15-16 outside Quincy, Mass., and the Falmouth (Mass.) Regatta July 22-23. He was fifth in the Optimist Mationals last month in Pensacola, Fla., despite winning six of the 12 races.

"I felt that I might do pretty well," said Tullo. "There were a lot of top sailors, but I had as good a shot as anybody."

Taking overall honors in the Silver Fleet was Ashley VanHorn of the Yacht Club of Stone Harbor, Cape May County.

Gold Fleet age-group winners were: T.J. Tullo (Blue), Curran (Red) and Jerry Tullo (White), T.J.'s brother, who was awarded the perpetual Weber Family Trophy.

Silver Fleet age-group winners were: Van Horn (Red), Marty Masterson (Blue) of Shore Acres Yacht Club, Brick (Blue), and Todd Gerkens (White) of Haven Beach Club, Beach Haven.

Complete results are available at www.webmaster.scyc-nj.org.