(San Francisco, CA)- It was picture perfect weather on San Francisco Bay
for J/Fest, with mild winds gaining steadily through the day. Even the
tides were kind, allowing rusty crews a chance to remember and practice
their skills without paying too heavily before the racing season kicks
into full swing. Thirty one J/Teams participated in this year's
J/Fest, with twenty J/105s, five J/120s and six J/24s.
Like
their counterparts way across the continental divide in Charleston, the
San Francisco J/24 crews had a serious three-way battle for first
place. Perhaps it was more of a rugby scrum than anything else. The
regatta winner was determined on a tie-breaker while third place was
only one point back! Talk about suffering a bit of anxiety on the
race-track. Settling the score by virtue of having more firsts was
Darren Cumming's DOWNTOWN UPROAR, starting well and hanging tough to
earn a 1-2-3-1-3 record for 10 pts. Losing the tie-break and finishing
second was Luther Strayer on LITTLE WING with a 2-3-2-2-1 tally also for
10 pts. The only other double race-winner was Rich Jepsen's RAIL TO
RAIL, gathering a 4-1-1-3-2 tally for 11 pts. Fun, tough competition
amongst those J/24 crews.
The
J/120s also saw a hard fought series amongst the top three with just
three points separating the teams. In the end, Barry Lewis' CHANCE
sailed consistently to garner a 4-1-3-1-2 record for 11 pts. John Wimer
on DESDEMONA sailed fast, but not fast and smart enough, to collect a
2-3-4-3-1 score for 13 pts. Were it not for a third race scoring
penalty, Steve Madeira's MR MAGOO may have had a better shot at 1st or
2nd. Instead, the "mean green fighting machine" that is the "MAGOO"
managed a 1-4-scp(4)-2-3 for 14 pts to round out the podium.
The
J/105s had a great turnout with a highly competitive fleet of twenty
boats. There were some familiar names again at the top of the fleet.
This time, it was Jeff Litfin and John Case on MOJO that simply had this
weekend completely dialed-in and walked off with first place. MOJO's
2-4-2-4-2 record was blindingly consistent, winning no races, but
sailing fast and conservatively smart to with with only 14 pts, 7 pts
clear of the fleet. Second was 2011 Rolex Big Boat Series Winner
Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK, winning two races but having a tough time
in the other three (7-6-6) to hang on to second place with 21 pts.
Third was another Rolex Big Boat Series winner, Bruce Stone on
ARBITRAGE, starting slowly then improving over the course of the
weekend, scoring a 9-5-3-6-1 for a 24 pts total. Bruce's team just
edged out Adam Spiegel's team on JAM SESSION on a tie-breaker, Adam's
team accumulated a 5-10-4-2-3 for 24 pts to finish fourth. Fifth was
Tom Kennelly's WONDER, sailing one of their best regattas in J/105s so
far.
Sailing Photo Credits by Chris Ray For more
J/Fest San Francisco sailing information
