Saturday, October 13, 2012

J/105 SoCal & NA's Preview

J/105s sailing off San Diego, CA- one-design sailboats (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!

J/105 sailboat owner- Dennis ConnerWhile 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