Nichols J/120 CC RIDER Wins! Big J's Sweep PHRF2!
(San Diego, CA- May 1-2) – Ninety-seven keelboats and over 700 sailors participated in San Diego Yacht Club's Yachting Cup this weekend. The J Fleet was well represented with 37 boats competing (38% of the fleet) spread across the one-design and PHRF classes. The winner of the Yachting Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the most competitive fleet, went to Chuck Nichols and his J/120 team on CC RIDER. Said Nichols, "It was a difficult weekend because we rarely have a southerly on sunny days and we had it both days. The only way to win is with outstanding crew work and that’s what we have."Racing in the J one-design fleets was so close that it was commonplace to have overlapped boats cross the finish line throughout the weekend in which sailors experienced the Catalina eddy. Cold air coming down from the north deflects north of LA and hooks back into the San Diego area as a southerly. It wasn't until well into Sunday’s racing that the wind started to shift right as a light haze burned off. Said Jim Dorsey of the J/105 WINGS, "It was a chamber of commerce weekend."
The big boats on the West Ocean Course off of Point Loma and the J/120's and J/105's competitors on the "Roads course" off of Coronado experienced an 10-12 knot SSW, a large swell, sunshine, temperatures in the low 60’s throughout the weekend. Even rail meat had an important job this weekend – spotting kelp.J/80's and the smaller PHRF boats sailed in the flat waters of the South Bay. Said longtime J/80 fleet champion Curt Johnson, who steered his J/80 AVET to a very close regatta victory; "We had excellent conditions on the South Bay. Yesterday (Saturday) it was all left and today (Sunday) it kept going right. I like the waves outside, but my crew loves the flat water. We had really close racing among the top three boats," he emphasized, "within inches."
On the "Big Boat course", the big J's took a clean sweep of PHRF2. Tom Holthus' J/145 BAD PAK continues on a roll, winning PHRF2 with a 2-2-1-1-2 record for 8 points over Fuller's J/125 RESOLUTE in second with 11 points and Mark Surber's DERIVATIVE in third with 14 points.
On the "Roads Course", Chuck Nichols' CC RIDER was low point in the 9-boat J/120 fleet on Saturday and Sunday. CC RIDER's victory in the most competitive fleet earned the team the 2010 Yachting Cup. John Snook's JIM and Peter Zarcades' MELTEMI were second and third overall. They were tied on points with 16.
The 15-boat J/105 fleet comprises the largest one-design fleet participating in Yachting Cup. Most of the fleet is from San Diego and they take no prisoners when they play. Three different boats won races during the regatta and Doug and Pam Werner's JAVELIN came out on top with 11 points. Everyone worked hard throughout the weekend and Hurlburt/Driscoll's BLOW BOAT moved into a solid second on Sunday. Rick Goebel's SANITY, Dennis and Sharon Case's WINGS and Gary Mozer's CURRENT OBSESSION2 finished 3rd, 4th and 5th with only four points separating them.Over on the South Bay Course were the J/80s. Curt Johnson's AVET won with a strong, consistent 1-2-2-1-1 record for 7 points. Said J-World's Jeff Brown, whose team finished second overall, "Sailing on the flat water in the South Bay is fantastic. We have three J-World boats here and it is a lot of fun. We had very competitive sailing with second and third place finishes within boat lengths of one another." Bob Hayward and his crew on BLUE JAY were third in the regatta.
Finally, in the PHRF 4 division, Larry Leveille's J/29 Rush Street was third, with the last race determining their chances for a silver on the podium. Another J/29, Greg Raines' MAC 5 finished fifth. For more San Diego Yachting Cup sailing information
