Tuesday, August 19, 2014

WARPED PERCEPTION Tops J/27 North Americans

J/27 sailing off Oakville, Ontario (Oakville, Ontario, Canada)- The Oakville Yacht Squadron hosted 15 boats for this year's J27 North Americans.  The event was the 3rd consecutive year that the OYS has hosted the event and this year also marked the 30th anniversary of the boat's introduction and domination of the 1984 MORC Internationals as commemorated in this year's t-Shirt.

Absent from this year's event were the 2012 (“Northern Seitz”)  & 2013 (“SuperG”) Champions so it was certain that a new champion would be crowned.  To do so they would need to master the notoriously fickle & light winds that can be common at the Western End of Lake Ontario during the dog days of summer.  And dog days they were...hot, sunny and winds never exceeding 6 knots for the duration of the event; conditions that would favour the local boats with the most experience in both light air and fleet racing (OYS has 8 boats locally).

Due to an exemplary race committee, 3 races were run on Day 1 resulting in "Messing About" in sole possession of 1st place with "Curved  Air" 2nd tied with "Warped Perception" 3rd both 1 point adrift of the leader.

J/27s sailing with spinnakers at North AmericansDay 2 - not much different but definitely moving day with threats from Newcomer "Tenacious" (ne "Mind Bleach") racing in their first regatta and making her presence known by taking one of 2 bullets she would eventually score.  Also making a charge "Seamma" with two 2nds in the two races that day.  In the end however it was "Warped Perception" with a 1, 3 combination on the day leapfrogging into 1st, bumping both "Messing About" and "Curved Air" to 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Day 3 saw a bit more air; enough to get in 4 races.  Strongest boat on the day  was "Curved Air" trying to close the 2 point gap to "Messing About" in 2nd and "Warped Perception" a further 4 points ahead in first.  In the end 3 points was all that could be erased and "Warped Perception" held on to 1st with "Curved Air" 2nd and "Messing About" 3rd.  As a testament to the ferocity of competition, the last two races saw the top three boats finish 1, 2, 3  within a boat length of one another.  Full results can be found here.
For more J/27 North Americans sailing information