Wins J/22 Jack Rabbit Regatta(Canandaigua, NY)- Every year, the J/22 class on Canandaigua Lake race one of the great season opener regattas in the Northeast, the "Jack Rabbit" regatta, hosted by Canandaigua YC. Many J/22s around the northeastern part of America include the Jack Rabbit part of their early season training, hopping into their trucks and making the annual migration in late spring to one of the prettiest lakes in northern New York state. For the most part, the weather conditions are pretty well dictated by passing frontal systems, so nestled into some pretty mountain valleys, the lake sailors often have to contend with capricious breezes flowing off the mountain ridges and around the various bays. Sailing can be spectacular, particularly if a strong NW'er front rolls through, kicking up white caps against the spectacular backdrop of lush, vibrant green mountain sides exploding with a rainbow of colors with all the spring flowers. Besides the sailing, the evening entertainment is notoriously good (e.g. excellent!).
This year, Saturday was like a July Day-- with no wind. However, the company was good with great entertainment. For New Yorkers, the cool thing is that the Preakness horse race was taking place, providing the excitement of the day with three happy winners. Wildly popular amongst the crowd was the familiar refrain "I'll Have Another", the standard request for many fun-loving sailors who haven't had enough liquid refreshments on the race course, but made even more appropriate by the fact the winning horse's name was (drum roll, please) --- I'LL HAVE ANOTHER! Too funny.
After the evening's entertainment closed down, the twenty-four J/22 teams were prepared to go racing in just about anything Mother Nature would throw at them on Sunday. The race committee was able to squeeze in two races with diminishing winds late Sunday morning. In the end, Chris Doyle's team on THE JUG 41 hung in there to take a 1-2 and win with 3 pts. Second was Mark & Cory Sertl's LUCY with a 3-1 for 4 pts. Third was Victor Snyder on MO'MONEY, fourth was John Goller and fifth was Trevor Collins sailing ALTERNATIVE GIRLFRIEND.
A special "Thanks" go out to their Canadian friends who visited them for the first time and had a long drive-- "please come back by", as they say with a Southern-drawl. For more J/22 Jack Rabbit Regatta sailing information
