* Triple-crown of World Sailing taken by J/24 Sailors? Maybe. Ed Baird just won the Audi TP52 World Championship on QUANTUM RACING. If Ken Read wins the Volvo Ocean Race on the VOR 70s with his PUMA MAR MOSTRO and Terry Hutchinson
wins the America's Cup 34 with ARTEMIS RACING, it can legitimately be
said that one-design J/Racing is "where it's at". After all, all three
are past J/24 World Champions. Go figure. Many champions in many other
classes compete against them, but still, it just seems the J/22, J/24
and J/80 World Champions continue to dominate offshore, too. Fastnet,
Transpac, Trans-Atlantic, Chicago-Mac, Bermuda, Rolex Middle Sea, RORC
600, just to name a few. And, in many other classes. Lessons learned?
Here's an "off-the-wall" idea-- sail a J/24 in the East Coast
Championship on Halloween Weekend in Annapolis, then sail the J/24
"Open" Worlds in Rochester, NY in 2012, then graduate to dominate the
planet. Won't be the first, nor last time this will happen. :)Anyhow, back to what just happened. Off that picturesque little town called Porto Cervo, Italy, good'ole Ed Baird showed he's still got some "MoJo" left in him and showed that winning an America's Cup with ALINGHI was no fluke. Continuing QUANTUM RACING's near total domination of the TP52 World Circuit, Ed and crew picked up their third title in four years of sailing. Not bad, really. They added to Worlds wins in 2008 in Lanzarote and defended the title they won last year Valencia. Emerging with a four points margin over Germany's CONTAINER, the American flagged QUANTUM team complete the same "double" as they did in 2008, winning both the Audi MedCup Circuit title as well as the World Championship. Congratulations Ed, I'm sure Lisa and the boys want you back home in St Pete to cook some food for those fast-growing boys!! What's so ironic about all this? One of the original "architects" of the TP52 circuit and one its "chief cheerleaders" was none other than North Sail's Ken Read! And, Quantum Sail's Terry Hutchinson won the Audi TP52 Circuit twice before! Wonders never cease. For more Audi TP52 MedCup/ World Championship sailing information
