J/122 SKYE, J/35 CHAS and J/29 TFWB RELENTLESS Finish 1-2-3!(Chicago, IL- July 19-21)- The J/Team does it again. Proof positive that J's are easy to sail boats and that all types of sailors can race them competitively, from women to couples to kids (OSTAR) to experienced offshore veterans.
This year's 101st running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac was a real challenge with lots of sail changes and a burning need to maintain apparent wind angle to get good boat speed. In these types of conditions, J's shine as being easy boats to sail and keep the "edge" on competitors. This is particularly important for sailing singlehanded or short-handed. The less stress put on the crew, the better the overall performance since better decisions are generally made over the course of a long race.
This year's sixteen boats in the Doublehanded Division were all competitively sailed. It is a testimony to the preparation not only of themselves as sailors, but of the boats, too, that the top three boats in the Doublehanded Division in the Chicago-Mac were all J's. Most interestingly, they were of all vintages, too, from some of the oldest to the newest. Bill Zeiler and Richie Stearns won on their J/122 SKYE. Remarkably, SKYE won Section 3 in last year's Chicago-Mac with a full crew!
The second boat in the Doublehanded division was the J/35 CHAS, sailed by Jeff Roney and Chris Wells from Thunder Bay YC, Ontario, Canada. They double-handed their delivery down from Lake Ontario, across Lake Huron and all the way down Lake Michigan!! What a remarkable team to have essentially "practiced" for over 1,000 miles prior to the start of the Chicago-Mac Race! Talk about determination! Congratulations to Jeff and Chris, especially to be rewarded for their perseverance.
Perhaps the long-time loyalist award must go to George and Kim Petritz sailing into third place their J/29 called TFWB RELENTLESS. They hail from Grand Traverse Yacht Club and Beulah, MI. For more info.
