(Canandaigua, NY)- The 26th Annual J-Daze Regatta was held at
Canandaigua Yacht Club on Canandaigua Lake, one of upstate New York’s
Finger Lakes over the weekend of May 3rd and 4th. Happily for the 26
J/24 teams competing, the dismal weather that was forecast never really
materialized. Saturday was cloudy and cool with a moderate SW breeze.
PRO Jonathan Gorbold and his race committee ran three races before the
wind became light and unstable. The breeze finally settled in from the
south and the fourth race was started.After sailing everyone headed up the hill to the club for food, refreshments, live music, Tequila tasting, and of course the very popular Kentucky Derby pool. Lots of gifts donated by our sponsors were also raffled off.
Sunday
morning dawned with a stiff west wind gusting into the mid 20’s. The
puffs would come down over the hills to the west, hit the water and fan
out in all directions, causing many auto-tacks and broaches. The strong
teams reveled in the condition, planing downwind at high speed. For the
rest of us it was a challenge just to get the boat around the course,
although 17 boats managed to complete all three races on Sunday.In the end consistency paid off for Travis Odenbach and his team on HONEYBADGER. They kept all their finishes in the top 6 and only won one race in the seven race series, winning first overall by a comfortable margin of 12 pts! Top J/24 sailor Mike Ingham took second place with a “chutes & ladders” scoreline of 5-1-12-7-2-3-2 for 32 pts. Lying third was Aidan Glackin’s MENTAL FLOSS with 36 pts. Rounding out the top five were GEKKO in fourth, the long-distance traveling team from Japan led by Tokuma Takesue. Had they not taken a DSQ in race #2, they were easy contenders for winning the event (apparently they made amends by washing dishes and serving dinner!). Fifth was Tom Doran’s OZ from Oswego YC.
Canandaigua Yacht Club is a member owned sailing club situated at on the west side of Canandaigua Lake close to the north end of the lake. It is situated in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State— a great place to go sailing in the spring! For more J-DAZE J/24 Regatta sailing information
|