Friday, September 12, 2014

J/80 North Americans Preview

J/80 one-design sailboats- sailing off start(Annapolis, MD)- This coming weekend, the Annapolis YC will be hosting the 2014 J/80 North Americans on the Chesapeake Bay, from September 10th to 14th.  An excellent turn-out of thirty-two boats are registered that includes many of the class’s top teams in the past few years, past Key West Midwinter, North American and World Champions.  The teams are looking forward to the long weekend of sailing as excellent practice and build-up to the J/80 World Championship that will be hosted by Eastport YC later in the end of September.

Leading the way amongst the locals should be the team of Will & Marie Crump & Thomas Klok sailing “WHO’s HEIDI?” from the local Annapolis YC. As most recent J/80 North American Champions, they’re hoping to be in the running for the upcoming Worlds, too.  Another strong local contender should be Mike Hobson’s crew on MELTEMI from Eastport YC as well as John White on USA 1162.

Challenging the local Annapolis hotshots will be a rogue’s roost of J/80 championship teams.  A number of them happen to be from the wild, wild west of Texas.  Terry Flynn’s QUANTUM RACING from Houston, TX should be amongst one of the top teams as well as Fort Worth Boat Club’s Glenn Darden on LE TIGRE.  Fellow Galveston Bay Cruising Association sailor, Alan Parsons’ PARSONS PROJECT team, has always been a strong one-design crew, so watch out for them in the next few days.

Other teams surely to factor into the overall leaderboard could be Les Beckwith’s FKA crew from New Hampshire, Ken Mangano’s renowned MANGO team from local Eastport YC and their colleagues, Chris & Liz Chadwick’s team on CHURCH KEY.   For more J/80 North Americans sailing information