Friday, November 8, 2013

J/105s Delirious @ Seattle Grand Prix Regatta

J/145 sailing Seattle Grand PrixJ/109 TANTIVY Tops PHRF IV Class
(Seattle, WA)- One of the regattas many sailors look forward to in the Seattle area is the season-ending Seattle Grand Prix hosted by Seattle YC on Puget Sound.  A great turnout was anticipated for this year’s event and, sure enough, with a strong one-design fleet of J/105s combined with a good J/Team turnout in the PHRF Time-on-time handicap fleet.

J/105 sailing under spinnaker- Seattle Grand PrixThe fall event has often been characterized by nuclear wind conditions with massive Lows blowing onshore from the chilly Gulf of Alaska combined with massive sheets of rain blowing horizontally through every gap in one’s foul-weather gear and practically drowning the boat in water.  However, this year’s event was characterized by epic conditions for at least one of the days, blowing 20-25 kts and sunny with puffy white clouds scudding across the horizon.

J/105 Seattle Grand Prix winner- DeliriumRelishing the conditions was John Tenneson’s J/145 JEDI, scoring a 1-2-2-5-6-2 for 12 pts net to secure second place in PHRF Class I.  In PHRF Class IV, Stu Brunell’s J/109 TANTIVY took class honors with a 1-3-2-1-1-4 for 8 pts net to win their class comfortably.  Sixth in class was the J/33 CORVO sailed by Tom Kerr.  In PHRF Class VI the J/70 DA SPENCER sailed by Mike Pitt managed to sail better every race to grab 4th in their class.  Sixth was Bill McKinno’s J/80 SKYE ROCKET.

In the J/105 one-design class, Jerry Diercks DELIRIUM sailed a most excellent series to post a 2-1-1-3-1-4 for 8 pts net to nearly sweep their class.  Taking second was Erik Kirsten’s JUBILEE with a 3-2-2-2-3-4 for 12 pts net for a safe runner-up position.  Third was Lorenzo Migliorini’s ALLEGRO VIVACE with a 5-3-3-5-2-1 for 14 pts net.  Rounding out the top five were Jim Geros’s LAST TANGO in 4th and Stephen Summers’s LIFE IS GOOD in 5th.  For more Seattle Grand Prix regatta sailing information