(San Diego, CA)- This year's J/105 Fall Series of regattas promises to
be an epic one for the J/105 class, in particular in southern California
and for its famous host, the San Diego YC. Starting off with this
weekend's event running from October 12th to 14th, the J/105 Southern
California Championship serves to be the "warm-up" event for the "big
kahuna" the following week, the J/105 North Americans being sailed from
October 17th to 21st. After a fortnight's break in the action, the
J/105 class again reconvenes to host a "who's who" of famous America's
Cup, Star Class, Olympic Class and other champions inn the Masters
Regatta on November 1st to 4th. Thereafter, the famous Sir Thomas
Lipton Cup will be the grand finale for the J/105s in SoCal with a dozen
yacht clubs invited, including several notable "newcomers" like
Southern YC and New York YC joining the famous California clubs that
have sailed over the past few decades.This weekend starts the festivities and a month's worth of hot sailing action along San Diego's gorgeous city-front and offshore ocean course off Point Loma. The forecast for the next five days looks like someone ran it through a photocopy machine-- 70s in the day, 60s at night, sunny, with winds West at 8-12 knots! Can't imagine why many of the US Navy's Admirals and other flag officers have retired in the region over the course of time-- they should know! After all, having traveled the world on America's battle-wagons they ought to know where the good weather is!
While
the fleet is nowhere near the record set in Annapolis of 73 boats, the
SoCal version with 25 J/105s will more than make up for the smaller
sized fleet with incredibly competitive racing. Remember, California
sailors have won the North Americans in other parts of the world well
over a half-dozen times in recent years-- not a bad record. Many of
those sailors will be participating in this year's two events, the SoCal
Champs and the NA's. Perhaps top billing must go to America's "Best
Sailor"- Dennis Conner, according to the recent US Sailing/ Sailing
World competition run this past year. Dennis is no stranger to racing
one-designs fast, especially various J/Boats over the course of time--
J/24s, J/105s and J/120s. Having purchased his friend Lowell North's
J/105 #3 called PHOLLY, Dennis has renamed her DC's PHOLLY and plans to
be near the front of the fleet. Other locals from SDYC giving DC some
heat will be his "neighbor" Dennis & Sharon Case on WINGS, that
"other DC" guy. The WINGS team have upgraded their overall program and
have recently been at the top of the pack in recent events. Fellow club
members, including Commodore Chuck Driscoll and Tom Hurlburt will be
sailing BLOWBOAT. You may recall that Chuck is also a J/120 SoCal
Champion in recent years. Other SDYC contenders, almost too numerous to
mention, might include Rick Bergmann's ZUNI BEAR, Rick Goebel's SANITY,
Steve Howell's BLINK!, and Jon Dekker's AIR BOSS.In terms of the out-of-town contenders, two J/105 North American champions from San Francisco will be participating, including Bruce Stone's ARBITRAGE crew and Tom Coates/ Chris Perkin's MASQUERADE team. Recent Farr 40 champion, John Demourkas from Santa Barbara YC, will be sailing with his fast GROOVERDERCI team. Gary Mozer from Long Beach YC will be racing CURRENT OBSESSION 2. Finally, the "Long Distance Award" surely must go to JB Bednar and team on STINGER, hailing from Lakewood YC in Houston, Texas. The racing promises to be close and fun! For more J/105 championship sailing information
