Monday, December 11, 2017

J/70s Sweep SDYC Hot Rum Series Class!

J/70 sailing and winning San Diego YC Hot Rum Series (San Diego, CA)- Originated in 1957, the annual Sinnhoffer Hot Rum Series completed its three race schedule (Nov. 4, 18, Dec. 2) under sunny skies and light to moderate winds in San Diego, CA. With a pursuit start and an 11.9 nm random leg course for the 140 teams, the course setup again favored the big boats powering through the fleet of smaller boats that had started in much lighter winds.

J/125 sailing San Diego YC Hot Rum seriesThe J/125s had a rough go of it this year in PHRF 1 class.  In the end, they ended up separated by three points, with Viggo Torbensen’s TIMESHAVER edging out Mark Surber’s DERIVATIVE, taking 7th and 8th in class, respectively.  Both boats had solid finishes, mostly top ten, but not enough to overcome the big tall rigs of the TP52’s and larger boats.

PHRF Class 2 was shaping up to be quite a pitched battle between two J/120s and the famous America’s Cup helmsman- Dennis Conner on his appropriately named MENACE.  Going into the last race, the J/120s were 1st and 3rd but could not hold on to those positions.  In a light air reaching drag race, the J/120s were a little out-classed.  John Laun’s CAPER finished on the podium in 3rd place while his friend Chuck Nichols on CC RIDER settled for 4th place.

J/105 Blink sailing Hot Rum SeriesUsually the domain of the J/105 class, PHRF 3 Class saw a strong performance from Dagfish’s VIGGEN to take home the silver with all top five scores.  Then, Scheel’s SUN PUFFIN took 7th, Rick Goebel’s SANITY posted a DNC-2-2 to crush the last two races but was only good enough for the 8th spot. Howell’s fun-loving holiday-trimmed BLINK took 9th and Sanford’s CREATIVE placed 11th.

The big winners in PHRF Class 4 were the trio of J/70s.  Winning on a tie-breaker at 10 pts each was Fabian Gomez-Ibarra’s VAGAZO, getting the short end of that stick was Wyman’s NUNUHUNU.  Then, only one point back was Dave Vieregg’s SOGGY DOLLAR.

Finally, in PHRF 5 class, The Case’s sailed one of San Diego YC’s J/22s called ZO ZO to 4th place.
For more San Diego YC Hot Rum Series sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.