ROO Wins J/24s, SENTIENT Wins J/105s(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)- This year the Etobicoke Yacht Club along the Toronto shoreline of Lake Ontario did a masterful job hosting the IRC Canadian Championships as well as the EYC Levels Regatta that included large J/24 and J/105 fleets.
Sailed over the August 25th and 26th weekend, the team on-board John McLeod's J/133 HOT WATER simply blew-away their IRC competition in IRC 0 Fleet, including the latest, greatest IRC speed machine, the newest McConaghy 38 CARBONADO sailed by Rob Butler (remember, they first sailed this boat in Key West Race Week 2012 to much acclaim and hype by the media). John's team also knocked off another radically-modified boat, the square-headed 1D35 GAME CHANGER that also sailed in this year's Key West event. In the end, it was a bit much for their competitors for the J/133 to win 5 of 6 races, taking a 2nd on the last race after a bit of early celebration!
In IRC 2 Fleet, the J/35 CRIME SCENE sailed by Stephen Trevitt sailed an impressive series for this 30+ year-old classic "J". CRIME SCENES record of 2-4-1-2-3-1 for 13 pts was good enough for a tie-breaker for first, but lost on most 2nds!
In the hot IRC 3 Fleet, the J/27 CURVED AIR sailed by Andrew Reim, fresh-off sailing the J/27 Canadians, managed to sail a solid 2-3-1-3-3-2 record for 14 pts to take home the 2nd place trophy.
The J/24s saw one team simply dominate the proceedings to take the overall win while others fought like mad for the balance of the top five. Simply walking off with the top trophy was Phil Williamson sailing his J/24 ROO to a magnificent performance with a 2-1-2-3-4-1-3 record for a total of 16 pts to win class by 13 pts. The battle as it turns out was for 2nd and 3rd. Peter Dixon sailed m2W well enough to win a tie-breaker with Brandon Lambert's WHIPLASH. Both had identical totals of 29 pts, but it was Peter winning with a 1-6-6-4-1-2-9 by virtue of having more firsts. Brandon's 7-2-4-6-2-4-4 came up on the short end of that stick. Matt Kenny's team on CLUSTER took 4th and Nick Jako's crew on TAZ finished 5th.
Perhaps
the tightest fleet competitively in the entire event were the J/105s.
There both familiar and new names in the top five overall. The battles
broke out into the top two vying for the lead with the next three boats
crossing swords to determine who'd get the last parry to take 3rd on the
podium. Remarkably, the lead was determined on a tie-breaker after
seven races! Close and tough racing, to boot. In the end, it was Mike
Chapman's SENTIENT that took the title with more 1sts to win the
tie-break. Mike's record of 2-1-1-5-3-8-1 for 21 pts bettered Peter
Hall's JAMAICA ME CRAZY with a 1-2-19-2-2-1-3 record. Third went to
Gavin Disney's team on THE USUAL SUSPECTS with a very consistent
scoreline of 4-5-3-4-4-3-4 for 27 pts. Just behind in 4th was the
Bullock, Farrand, Irving team on TRIDENT with a 5-7-4-1-6-2-5 tally for
30 pts. Top Canadian J/105 sailor Jim Rathbun (top 3 in J/105 NA's in
the past) sailing his well-traveled and fast HEY JUDE could manage a
only a fifth against this tough group with a 3-10-7-6-1-4-2 for 33 pts.
Sailing photo credits- John Crawley For more IRC Canadian Championship sailing information
