Dozens of J's Ready to Roll(San Diego, CA)- The first weekend of the four weekend infamous Hot Rum Series, hosted by San Diego YC, started up last weekend in typical San Diego conditions, although with a few wrinkles thrown in on the race course to throw a few locals into confusion. There's a large turnout of J's for the event, with a J/24, J/27, J/29, J/30, J/32, J/35, J/80, J/111, J/124, J/145, two J/125s, eleven J/105s, three J/109s, and seven J/120s.
In Class I, featuring twenty boats rating from -114 to 21 PHRF, there's a 135 second differential from top to bottom in the class- offshore 70 foot sleds down to Farr 40s. Thrown into the mix are the J/145 and J/125s. The J/125 RESOLUTE sailed by Tim Fuller managed a 5th. The J/145 BAD PAK sailed by Tom Holthus and Pittman/ Engles' J/125 WARRIOR both got OCS's to start off the series a bit slow.
In Class II, it's a closely fought group of thirty-eight boats, ranging from 27 to 69 PHRF. Thrown into this mix are the J/120s, J/111, J/109 and J/124. The J/120s sailed by Chuck Nichols on CC RIDER and Peter Zarcades on MELTEMI sailed well to get 2nd and 3rd, respectively, followed by Jeff Brown on the J/111 getting 5th.
Class III is simply dominated by the 35 foot J's with the J/105s and J/35s taking the top nine of the top 11 spots. Leading the way home were three J/105s, Steve and Lucy Howell's BLINK!, then Bill Logan's PHOLLY, then Rick Goebel's SANITY to sweep the top three spots.
The smaller offshore boats were having fun in Class IV, with the J/80, J/27 and J/32 fighting it out with an eclectic group of boats. John Steen's UNDERDOG managed to claw there way back into 5th for the first race, the other guys got buried and never made it back into contention.
The stalwarts of the J range, the J/24 and J/30 were battling in Class V for all the gold. Robert Noe's J/30 MAD HATTER got a fourth while one of the J/24s hung in there for sixth, Jasson Hemmi from SWYC. For more San Diego YC Hot Rum Series sailing info.