Friday, June 1, 2018

J/Crews Sweep Santa Barbara Hardway Race

J/125 Warrior sailing off Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)- The Nineteenth Annual Island Series just completed the first of the three race series- The Hardway Race on May 19th.  Santa Barbara YC in Santa Barbara, CA and Pierpont Bay YC in Ventura, CA hosted the event.  This year the fleet did not go around Santa Cruz Island and instead the fleet was sent down the “Coastwise Spinnaker Course”- from the start line off Santa Barbara, leave Anacapa Island to port, leave the R2 Ventura entrance buoy to starboard, and finish in the Ventura Harbor entrance channel- a 47 nm course length.

In the two Coastwise PHRF spinnaker divisions, J/Crews simply crushed the fleet, finding the fast-reaching conditions offshore in the big Pacific Ocean swells rolling down the Santa Barbara Channel much to their liking.

In the seven-boat PHRF A class, the J/teams swept the podium.  Winning was Bernie Girod’s J/111 ROCK & ROLL, followed by Kenny Kieding’s J/111 ARGO 3, and Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s J/125 WARRIOR in third.

PHRF B had an eight-boat class that was topped by Mike Leary’s J/30 PANGEA, winning by over 10 minutes on corrected time.  Third was Nick Nidzienko’s J/24 YOUNG FOOLS, fifth was Doug Steick’s J/100 JIB & TONIC, 6th Vincente Saborio’s J/24 PI, and 7th another J/100, George Brown’s SKOOKUM.  For more Hardway Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.