(Youngstown, NY)- The inaugural J/88 Great Lakes Championship took place
last weekend concurrent with the CanAm Challenge Regatta hosed by
Youngstown YC in Youngstown, New York. The 88s enjoyed excellent
competition over the weekend and the regatta PRO managed to knock out
five races for the fleet. On the first day of racing, it was evident the fleet had a two-tiered competition going on. Leading after the first day by one point was Joe Pawlowski’s CRAZY EIGHTS with a 1-2-1 record for 4 pts. Just behind was Jim Egloff’s SEAWEED with a 2-1-2 for 5 pts. Then, the next three boats kept trading places with one another in very tight racing with Richard Lohr’s NIGHT OWL leading this trio followed by Joe O’Brien’s SQUIRMY and John Frank’s RUMBLE BEE.
Sunday’s racing saw even more jumbling of the fleet in the two races that were sailed. While the SEAWEED crew finally got it all together and produced two bullets in a row to win the regatta with just 7 pts, behind them other teams were quick learners on extracting more boatspeed as well as sailing better tactics. In the fourth race, CRAZY EIGHTS was 2nd followed by SQUIRMY in 3rd. Then, in the last race, NIGHT OWL was 2nd and CRAZY EIGHTS took 3rd.
On an overall basis, with SEAWEED’s Jim Egloff declared the first J/88 Great Lakes Champion, second was Pawlowski’s CRAZY EIGHTS and taking third was Lohr’s NIGHT OWL.
All five 88 owners were “pumped up” about sailing one-design against each other and are already making plans for the future. In fact, they are now working on getting more boats for the 2015 Key West Race Week that runs from January 18-23 (www.premiere-racing.com). For more J/88 Great Lakes Championship sailing information. Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com For more J/88 family speedster sailing information
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