Massive Fleet of J/70s Duel to Finish(Stockton, CA)- The 24th annual Point Richmond to Stockton Race, aka the “Delta Ditch Run,” was held on May 31, 2014. One hundred fifty five boats started in San Francisco Bay, following the perilous 67nm route inland through the Delta to finish at the Stockton Sailing Club, just minutes from Interstate 5. Winning the entire event overall (for PHRF rated monohull boats) was none other than Mike Hopper’s “turbo’d” J/22 MAJIC DRAGON, taking 1st in Class Light 2E and First Overall in the whole fleet! They beat all the J/70s, all the famous Express 27s, Moore 24s and Santa Cruz 27s to the final finish line! Simply amazing.
In the J/70 fleet, it’s pretty obvious when you look at the RaceQs.com 3D replay of the boats, that there were many changes taking place as boats bobbed & weaved down the narrow, winding course. In the end, DFZ (Eric Kownacki & Tom Jenkins- Monterey Bay YC) won the class in an epic battle. Taking second was 1FA (Scott Sellers & Geoff McDonald- St Francis YC), holding the honors for being first “local” boat. Perhaps the surprise performance of the race came from CAKE (Scott & Leslie Deardorff- Santa Barbara YC), sailing the “ditch” for their first time and grabbing third! Fourth was ZERO TO 60 (Karl Pomeroy- Newport Harbor YC) and fifth was ECLIPSE (Mike Drammer, Shaun Hughes, Andrew Nunn- Santa Barbara YC). In the end, the “visiting” teams from Santa Barbara, Monterey and Newport Harbor YC’s put on an excellent performance for “out-of-towners”!
As for the other J’s, the J/120 SAETTA skippered by Ludovic Millin took 5th in Heavy 1A division, now that’s a “big boat” to do the ditch race! In their same class, the two J/105s took 6th and 7th, BREEZE (Kurt Jordan & Peter Campfield) and SEA ROOM (Ralph Wessel), respectively.
For you armchair-sailing fans, checkout the new race-tracking “app” RaceQs.com (works on Android or iOS devices). Here’s a complete 3D replay of the Delta Ditch Run- http://raceqs.com/regattas/SSC-delta-ditch-run. Totally cool stuff. For more Delta Ditch Run sailing information
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