(Stockholm, Sweden)- The J/80s in Sweden have just started to get their
summer going this past weekend. It’s well understood that living that
far north in Scandinavia the sailing season is rather abbreviated, but
much loved for many reasons! By June 21st, not too far away, it’s the
Mid-Summer Celebration in Scandinavia and many sailing regattas abound
that enable you to sail for 24 hours in pure sunlight (or at least in
sunset to sunrise conditions) for most of the time. Quite spectacular
for those who have not experienced 24 hour sunlight. The J/80s are well on their way in their 2014 sailing season, having counted the Lidingo-Runt, Viggan-Open and two races in their season series so far. Recently, the first J/80 endagarsregatta was sailed in “propaganda weather” with good winds and great racing. The fleet enjoyed six races in just over four hours! It was tight racing at its best, with few boat lengths distinguished between the boats after two laps.
The
winner was Johannes Bergh’s HAPPY, with Pontus Tornlund’s HEAVY DUTY in
second and third was Lars Bellerhed’s MK-PRODUKTER. MK are training
hard for the upcoming J/80 European Championships being sailed in
Barcelona, Spain.In the second endagarsregatta on June 1st, the J/80s had another good weekend of racing. Again, Bergh’s HAPPY won the regatta. There was little wind at the beginning and three races are completed rapidly, before the sea breeze came and the track was moved to Fällström.
After the first two races, MK-PRODUKTER led the regatta in the light winds. But, when the sea breeze came in and the wind increased, it was good to have maximum weight to windward. Despite this kept MK finished second in the regatta. The winner was Happy, third was Tyra and four Parbleu.
With no more races planned before the summer holidays, the class will schedule several one-day fall events. Here are the current rankings: HAPPY in first with a perfect 100 points, followed by MK-PRODUKTER in second with 88 pts and HEAVY DUTY in third with 63 pts. For more Sweden J/80 sailing information
|