(Houston, TX- October 23-25)- Kerry Klingler has been sailing J/80s for a number of years. Yet, despite the talent and the CV that might favor a "three-peat", Kerry was perhaps the least confident of the class leaders going into this year's J/80 North Americans. With six previous J/80 North American Champions in attendance, including a current J/22 International Class World Champion Terry Flynn, it was not readily apparent who would come out on top of the heap of such a talented group of sailors. As Terry said. "it was closest competition ever in NAs amongst the top 10....it could've gone either way."
The first day was perhaps the best for the fleet as it was a windy, puffy northerly gusting to twenty knots on Galveston Bay. It made for difficult conditions to stay consistently in the top five against the tough fleet of NA Champions. On the second day, there was no wind in the morning and the fleet had to wait for a light, shifty sea breeze to develop out of the southeast. By the third day of racing, a solid sea breeze filled in making for extremely tight, fun racing amongst everyone-- the very tight mark roundings had an enormous impact on race outcomes.
Prevailing through the smoke and fog of battle was Kerry Klingler and team again aboard their J/80 LIFTED with a 1-4-1-5-[13]-1-4-5 record for a total of 21 points. Hanging tough was Terry and David Flynn, finishing second with a 3-1-[8]-7-1-5-3-2 for 22 total points! Third overall was Glenn and Reese Darden sailing LE TIGRE to a 4-2-6-[10]-5-4-2-3 record for 26 points. Special mention must be made of Jay Lutz- the victim of an extraordinary accident at the J/80 Worlds in Santander, Spain. Now fully recovered, Jay "feels like new again" and sailed to a respectable fourth overall onboard the appropriately named PAINKILLER JANE with a 6-[9]-4-4-3-3-7-1 tally for 28 points.
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