Snyder Dominates J/24s, Williams Repeats in J/105s
(April 25, 2010) - This year's Bermuda International Race Week was not without its dramas and extraordinary weather. With enormous fronts blowing across from the North American continent, sweeping across the North Atlantic, it seems that Bermuda fortunately only gets the "tail feathers" of most of them and not the brunt of the huge Lows whistling across to their North. Race Week this year had its fair share of light to moderate winds as well as partly cloudy, very blustery days blowing 20-30 knots plus. In the heavier conditions, it's interesting to see how well IODs, J/24s, J/105s, Lasers and what not handle the conditions. Some handle it better than others, some not so well. Every try hoisting a spinnaker in 30 knots with an inexperienced crew? Not recommended.
Enjoying, if not reveling, in the blustery conditions were the experienced crew aboard Allan Williams' J/105 NOT MINE, co-skippered with Glenn Astwood. For the fourth consecutive year, Williams' NOT MINE won the J/105 One-Design class at Race Week. However, for the first time Williams had a strong challenge from former Sunfish North American and World Champion Chuck Millican (back in the old days, remember?) sailing ELUSIVE into a tie-breaker with Williams' NOT MINE, but sadly losing on the tie-breaker to finish second. Jim MacDonald finished five points back from the leaders to finish third.The J/24s had a very eventful regatta this year. For starters, a bunch of "colonialists from America" showed up and stole the show. Scott Snyder from Colorado was the only international winner in all five classes. He and his crew from Colorado and New York took first place in the J/24 Class to win the "Wetty Gripper Trophy". Snyder got off to an amazing start with five firsts in the first five races. Then on Thursday he got a 2,4,3 score. He and his crew computed the possibilities of anyone beating them if they dropped two DNS 12 point scores, so they didn’t have to race on Friday to win first place. Snyder’s team had 14 points. Trevor Boyce also had two 12-point scores from earlier races in which he retired after finishing. With his dropped scores he moved back into second place with 18 points. Peter Rich finished third one point back with 19 points. The big event of the week was the death-roll, sinking (temporarily) of Tim Lynch's J/24 ERIN on the last leg of Race 5. ERIN was flying downwind under spinnaker in 30+ knots of wind on Bermuda’s Great Sound when she took a knockdown and stuck her mast in the water. Within hours, ERIN was floating again, and like a "Phoenix from the ashes," was ready to race the next day, ultimately finishing sixth in the closely fought J/24 class! For more sailing information, videos and photos of Bermuda Race Week.
