J/105's Smoke the Fleets(California, USA)- The tradition has been a long-standing one for yacht clubs around the world to have an "opening day", symbolic of the start of a new year, a new sailing season, re-affirmation of belonging to the "local tribe", participating in various "tribal rites of passage" with lots of pomp, circumstance, dressy stuff and good-natured bantering fueled for the most part by good food, drink and friends.
Nowhere is the tradition more laid-back than it is on the West Coast of America. After all, watching sunsets on the beach is a right of passage, as is surfing to Hawaii on massively fast "sleds", and blasting down the Cal/Mex coastline to some destination called La Paz, Ensenada, Cabo or PV. This year, two of those opening days were in for a treat, atypical conditions that challenged the best of the best in San Diego and Santa Barbara.
San
Diego YC's opening day was an eye-opener. "Fresh to frightening" or
"epic" may have been adjectives assigned to massive chop, 18-30 knot
winds and a bit thrill ride of for some. Of course, the J/105 teams
were simply licking their chops, knowing their erstwhile competitors
might be doing the wrong kind of "pole dance" as they spun around in
broaches all day long! The SDYC opening day event is an incredibly fun
"pursuit race", where slowest start first and fastest last. In fact,
J/22s started first and TP 52s were last! After the fleet crashed and bashed, surfed and broached their way home, it was the J/105s that swept the fleet- WINGS (Dennis & Sharon Case) that finished first, followed by AIRBOSS and TRIPLE PLAY in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. As was commented by one of their crew- " Surfing and planing on the downwind leg and having control in the beats were the keys to success and how much fun was THAT!" Awesome stuff.
On the Santa Barbara YC opening day side of things, their classic "WNW" breeze blew in fresh and fast making for a spectacular afternoon of sailing. With J/105s, J/29, J/92, J/100, J/145, J/22 and J/24s all making a go of it, it was the J/105s that had a spectacular showing. Leading the fleet home were SHORT SKIRT followed by Ken Kieding's new ADVANCE (the old ROCK'N'ROLL) and ESCAPADE.
For more SDYC (http://www.sdyc.org) and SBYC (http://www.sbyc.org) sailing information.
