Big J/29 & J/24 Fleets Scrum For Class Honors(Chester, Nova Scotia)- Every summer, several boats from the Northeast in America use the Marblehead-Halifax Race to extend their summer sailing adventures along the gorgeous bay and islands that dot the waters off Chester, Nova Scotia. In early August, the fog banks for the most part burn-off fast or are non-existent and the weather Gods certainly seem to smile on the hardy group of sailors who have grown to love Chester Race Week. This year, the fleet was again blessed with a few days of gorgeous weather.
In
the A2 PHRF fleet, Colin Mann's J/92 POOHSTICKS nearly pulled off a
race week win, but their 6-5 in the last two races dashed all chances of
winning the brass-ring this year. Instead, they had to settle for
third overall just three agonizing points away from the top of the
podium. Fourth in their class was the J/35 SUMROO skippered by Gary
Sullivan, seventh was the J/29 sailed by Jeremy Wood and eighth was the
J/35 J-HAWK sailed by Thane MacDonald.In the D1 PHRF fleet, the J/120 BRILLIANCE sailed brilliantly by Richard Calder managed a 1-1-3 tally to win with only five points! Other than a slow start, the J/111 BLAST skippered by Mark Surette won the last race to add to their earlier 5-7 to finish with 13 pts.
The most remarkable fleet growth has been the fractional J/29s and the J/24s. The J/24s had a great turnout with eight boats having great sailing around the bay and in the buoy races. Dale Robinson's team on SLAM IN 29 SECONDS sailed to six 1sts and two 2nds in nine race total to win by 3 pts. Second was Greg Burden's ADRENALINE RUSH with 13 pts. Kim Drisdelle's BLACKJACK was third, fourth was Ross Romney in RUSH HOUR and rounding out the top five was Brian Storey on MUFFIN.
The
twelve (yes- 12!) J/29s were a very colorful site on the water since
most all boats had colored spinnakers! Like their J/24 brotherhood, the
J/29s also had a top dog being the "alpha puppy" of the gang. Chris
MacDonald's crew on SCOTCH MIST IV had four 1sts in nine races to win
with 14 pts (including drop). Andrew Childs had the SILVER WOMAN team
rocking in most races and managed to also get two 1sts to place second
with 23 pts. Third was Andrew Orr's FEED ME with 33 pts, narrowly
beating out Scott and Matt Christie's COLMONELL in 4th place. Fifth was
Evan Petley-Jones driving SATISFACTION.Of special note was that long-time North Sails consultant and designer Andreas Josenhans was Regatta Chairman. Helping Chester YC put on a great show and helping out considerably on race management. Andreas also had many pearls of wisdom for the sailors, offering some of the extensive knowledge prior to and after each day's racing. In fact, here's a great YouTube video of some of Andreas' bits and bobs-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoZTYbr6xU0 More sailing news and results on Chester Race Week FB page
