NEW J/111 One-Design Class Debuts(Annapolis, MD)- While the Sperry Topsider crew can't guarantee awesome sailing, they certainly can make sure the sailors are happy with their togs and clogs and make life ashore festive and fun. With a forecast of light to moderate winds for Thursday/ Friday out of the south and a weak front switching the winds into the northerly quadrants at a robust 4-7 knots for Saturday/ Sunday, the PRO's will be on their toes to get some decent sailing in for the madding crowds. How many teams will be in attendance? With nearly 200 boats registered, there will be over 1,100+ J sailors crewing on 141 J's (that's 72% of the fleet!).
The J One-Design fleets are all well-represented and are broken down into five J/111s, a dozen J/109s, aye-teen J/105s, ocho J/35s, move J/30s, thirty-four J/80s, nineteen J/24s and thirty-six J/22s. In fact, it's quite a significant turn-out of the 35 foot J-Designs- J/35s from the 80s, J/105s from the 90s and the new J/111s.
On that score, the J/111 fleet is shaping up to be a good test of how crews adopt to the flatter, choppier, shiftier waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Three of the 111 teams all sailed in Charleston, having to cope with massive easterly swells from an offshore storm in NW to NE winds, making for a rolly-polly ride upwind and downwind. Past champion VELOCITY sailed by Marty Roesch will surely be on the comeback trail and CRW Champion RAGIN led by Bob Moran and 3rd place finisher Henry Brauer on FLEETWING will be challenging for the top of the pack. With those three as a benchmark, it will be interesting to see how quickly the other two boats, Jim Whited's BAD CAT and Anthony Culotta's CUORE DI LEONE fair against some of their well-practiced compatriots.
With three dozen teams showing up on the starting line, the J/22s continue to demonstrate that a bit of chutzpah, fun and camaraderie go a long way for long-term fleet success. There are many familiar faces in this crowd as well as some new ones. The event may yet turn into another donnybrook between the Rochester crowd versus the Annapolis gang. Leading the Rochester crew will be Chris Doyle on THE JUG 41 and Vic Snyder on MO'MONEY. The local Naptown crews are pretty formidable, amongst them will be Jeff Todd on HOT TODDY, Al Terhune on DAZZLER, Sandy Adzick on HOT TICKET and Todd Hiller on LEADING EDGE, just to name a few.
After nearly 35 years of racing, you'd think the J/24 teams would have an established pecking order amongst the top teams. NOT! As has been atypical of many top international one-design classes, the J/24 is so easy to pick up fast by good sailors that just about anyone can be competitive in a short period of time. Same holds true now as it did back in 1977. However, octogenarian Tony Parker on the storied BANGOR PACKET XXX is the local Maine/DC boy who's been keeping all the latest boys and girls in check. After all, many a J/24 World Champion has crossed swords with Tony and lost-- he's still sharp as a tack after all those years of "ultimate fighting" in the J/24 class. Making sure they learned a thing or two and hope to stay in front of Tony are recent J/24 World Champ Tim Healey on 11TH HOUR RACING from Newport, Robby Brown from St Pete on USA 799, Travis Odenbach on HONEY BADGER and Pete Kassal on SPACEMAN SPIFF.
An excellent turnout of thirty-four J/80s re-affirms their class strength after good fleets at Key West, Bacardi Sailing Week and Charleston Race Week-- all events on the J/80 Winter Circuit. J/80 sailors are having a lot of fun racing their fast, closely-matched A-sail boats. Teams that could be factors are changing as some teams improve their capabilities on boat-speed, boat-handling and tactics. Showing great improvements recently has been Kristen Robinson and team aboard ANGRY CHAMELEON. Others in the hunt will include Andy Burton on GROMIT from Newport, Chris Chadwick's CHURCH KEY, Bruno Pasquinelli's TIAMO, Mike Sudofsky's BOB DYLAN, Ramzi Bannura's STACKED DECK, Will Crump & Tom Klok's R80, Brian Keane's SAVASANA and Erik Storck's NA Champion RUMOR.
The J/30 sailors continue to enjoy the first cruiser-racer ever built by the J/Boats Team. And, many "classics" of this genre abound. These teams have a scream, no doubt about it. So, making any predictions about an outcome are certainly beyond the comprehension of even the J/30 sailors themselves. Has something to do with rum, beer, sun, fun and varying degrees of that combination over three days of sailing. So, working on past performance, we can at least look for Pam Morri's BUMP, Ron Anderson's INSATIABLE, George Watson's AVITA and Bob Rutsch & Mike Costello's BEPOP to be hunting around the front of the pack most times this weekend.
The eighteen boat J/105 fleet will be as competitive as ever. Chesapeake locals such as Peter McChesney on the now famous MYSTERY MACHINE, Chris & Carolyn Groobey on JAVA, Andrew Kennedy on BAT IV, Bob Reeves on A-TRAIN, the Gitchell's on TENACIOUS and Jack Biddle on RUM PUPPY will certainly be factors in the top five. Toss in top three J/105 NA's sailor Jim Rathbun on HEY JUDE from Toronto, ONT, Canada and some US Naval Academy Sailing Team college sailors and you're certain to see a running gun battle taking place on the waters just off Easton's Point.
J/35 sailors continue to enjoy one of the most successful 35 footers ever built as racer-cruisers. Love the boat names, some of the old classics and some new variations. T-BONE, AUNT JEAN, DAKOTA GIRL, BAD COMPANY, MEDICINE MAN, REBEL YELL. Hell, might as well be at a Harley Davidson reunion in the Badlands of North Dakota, don't ya think? Free tattoos go with this gang (although the J/30 guys might argue this point). And, they love it, working those grinders on the massive kevlar/carbon genoas and monster masthead spinnakers to go faster and faster. Cool boat. Cooler crews. Predictions here? None. Teams change, teams get hungover. Bless'em all, they will certainly have fun and one may guess it would be a dead heat with their J/30 friends for the highest "fun quotient" amongst the J/Clan.
At a dozen strong, the J/109s have amongst their fleet three past J/109 North American Champions in the form of Bill Sweetser's RUSH (the Local) versus Rick Lyall's STORM (the Outsider- just a Long Island Sound guy), all contending with that silver fox from Buzzards Bay/Cape, Ted Herlihy on GUT FEELING (the Foreigner- so far East the Earth ends in a cliff). In the end, way too hard to call this one with some many other strong teams tossed into the mix. For more Sperry Topsider Sailing World NOOD Annapolis sailing information
