(Newport, RI)- The 2014 J/70 World Championship, presented by Helly
Hansen, was the largest inaugural World Championship of all the J
classes since 1977. 86 boats and 14 countries were represented and the
event was hosted by New York YC and staged at Sail Newport in the Fort
Adams Sailing facility. Twelve races were conducted over five days in
mostly moderate winds and big seas, challenging the top sailors from
around the world. Crowned as the inaugural J/70 World Champion was Tim Healy’s HELLY HANSEN team (Geoff Becker- tactician, Gordon Borges and Paul Abdullah) from Newport, Rhode Island. Winning the J/70 World Corinthian Championship and taking 5th Overall was Heather Gregg-Earl’s team on MUSE (Stu Johnstone- tactician, Joe Bardenheier and Stu Saffer), all New York YC members and Tufts University Jumbo sailor alumni. Silver Fleet Champion was Mark Ploch’s crew on SUGAR DADDY from American YC in Rye, New York.
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TEAM MUSE |
The NYYC RC, led by PRO Tom Duggan, started the fleet (43 boats per flight) in an 18-20 knot ENE breeze that moderated slightly over the subsequent two races. Between the strong breeze and the sea state – the swells did not subside until the tide change late in the day during the third and final race – competitors were given a healthy workout.
Ronning’s CATAPULT team led the fleet overall with only three points (three bullets!) over Healy’s HELLY HANSEN crew that posted a consistent 2-2-2 for six points. Said Healy after racing, “Everyone is willing to share ideas on how to sail the boats better and how we can make a stronger J/70 class. The competition is fierce but the focus for sure is to have fun racing and to make good friends along the way.”
Healy summed up the hurdles facing competitors racing in Newport for the championship. “The biggest challenge has been figuring out how to sail the boats in the open water of Rhode Island Sound. The current is difficult to figure out (I am not sure anyone has it figured out) and predicting the wind shifts is also difficult. In early September, we usually have good wind but it can come from just about any direction. Air temperatures can be anywhere from the high 50s to the low 80s.”
2013
BACARDI® Miami Sailing Week class champion Brian Keane of Weston,
Mass., at the helm of SAVASANA, was one point behind Healy, in third
overall, followed by Brazil’s Mauricio Santa Cruz on BRUSCHETTA with 15
points. Rounding out the top-five was San Francisco’s Jim Cunningham on
LIFTED with 16 points (current Etchells 22 National Champion).After the second day of racing, both Ronning’s CATAPULT and Healy’s HELLY HANSEN were tied on points overall. With 86 boats racing, the fleet had been divided into four color-coded groups for the first two days of competition. Each group sailed two races on Wednesday, which, when added to the three races sailed on the opening day, allowed each team to count the best four out of five to determine whether they will sail in either the gold or silver fleet starting Thursday.
Winning the final race of the day was Brazil’s Mauricio Santa Cruz on BRUSCHETTA, who stands fourth overall with 13 points after finishes of 5-[6]-4-3-1. Santa Cruz has only been racing the J/70 for a short time – in fact his first regatta was the J/70 North American Championship this past July in Rochester, where he placed fourth in a fleet of 71 boats. He is, however, a familiar face on the top of the podium, especially in the J/24 class in which he holds four world championship titles (2012, 2009, 2007 and 2006). He is racing in Newport for the first time since sailing a Tornado here during Olympic campaigns that resulted in his twice (2004, 2000) representing Brazil at the Olympic Games. That he was sailing the J/70 Worlds with a crew that he never previously raced with (all members of the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club) clearly does not slow him down.
Ronning’s
CATAPULT crew remained at the top of the overall standings after
sailing to a 1-1-1-4-[8] for seven points. His three-point lead over
Healy’s HELLY HANSEN was eroded Wednesday with Healy posting 2-2-2-1-[3]
to tie things up on points. Keane’s SAVASANA crew retained third
overall on finishes of 1-3-3-2-[11] for nine points, just four points
ahead of Santa Cruz. NEW WAVE’s Martie Kullman, of St. Petersburg,
Fla., rounded out the top-five with 17 points on finishes of
6-[24]-6-3-2.After two days of qualifiers, the fleet was split into Gold and Silver divisions, the former competing for the World Championship for three days- Thursday to Saturday. Day three was postponed ashore in the morning until a thunderstorm threat had lifted. The competitors were once again sent out to do battle on Rhode Island Sound. Under partly cloudy skies, with breeze ranging from 12-18 knots out of the southwest, competitors were tested by another day of swells and seaweed that did little to help their results.
Tied on points to start the day, Ronning’s CATAPULT and Healy’s HELLY HANSEN, the story looked to be a replay of the previous days when Ronning finished 1-2 to Healy’s 2-1 in the first two races. However, Healy went on to win the third race of the day while Ronning used his drop race on a 14th-place finish. Healy’s HELLY HANSEN was now the overall standings leader with 11 points, while Ronning sat in second overall with 18 points.
“The NYYC RC was watching a line of thunderstorms that dissipated as they got closer and actually passed to the north of us, so they just were on the safe side,” said Healy of the morning’s postponement. “With the breeze expected to be good in the afternoon they didn’t have a problem with waiting a little bit and we ended up getting three really good races in, so it worked out. It probably maxed out around 15-16, so it was in the range of 12-16 knots from the SSW.”
With
the sea state factoring in again, Healy believed the swells with
cross-chop on top were giving the fleet more of a workout than they
might have anticipated. “Upwind it was really choppy. The boats are only
23 feet, so the key is to keep the momentum up and keep powering
through the waves. If you can do that and keep the boat moving then you
can extend a little bit and have good speed. The problem is you really
can’t escape hitting bad waves. You’re going to pound a wave whether you
like it or not every once in a while and then getting the boat back up
to speed as fast as possible is a big deal. There also was a lot of
seaweed out there and steering around the clumps of seaweed and making
sure to keep your keel and rudder clear of it was also a big deal.
Downwind it was perfect surfing conditions so working hard and getting
the whole team to work together to catch waves really made a big
difference, too. Not only catching a wave but staying on it helps
downwind and made an enormous difference in speed.”For the penultimate day of racing, the NYYC PRO Tom Duggan elected to go north into Narragansett Bay. It was a tough choice, but with few options left for the fleet— one of the reasons the large fleet was split into groups of 45 boats. A 90 boat start line in the Bay is impossible, but it could be done with a 45 boat start. Given that option, the NYYC RC worked to get the competitors racing before the northerly breeze died. In roughly 10 knots of breeze, two races – one each for the gold and silver fleets – were run before the breeze ultimately ran out.
It was a complete change of pace for the competitors who had faced big breeze and rough seas for the first three days of the series; picking the correct side of the course and factoring in the ebb tide was the key to doing well.
For series leader, Healy’s lone race would become his drop as he picked up a 13th-place finish (and that was after a huge comeback on the second windward leg after being deep in the upper 20s at mark two in the race). Despite crossing the finish behind his closest rival, Ronning’s CATAPULT in 10th place, Healy retained the lead position heading into the final day. Healy’s lead over Ronning (14 points vs 28) was not insurmountable for Ronning, in light of an earlier start for the final day and the Race Committee’s plan to get in three races.
Keane’s SAVASANA was the winner of the lone gold fleet race, which helped to slightly close his points gap on the leaders. With 41 points, Keane had also improved his margin over Kullman’s NEW WAVE, who had 55 points and was fourth overall.
After
a meteoric ascent from 24th into 5th overall in the standings on
Thursday’s Championship Gold Fleet races (with a 5-4-3 score), 2013 J/70
North American Champion Heather Gregg-Earl’s MUSE kept the momentum
going with a second-place finish in Friday’s race. MUSE now retained
the fifth spot on 60 points and continued as the top Corinthian team in
the series.“We’re pretty happy about our position considering the talent in the fleet,” said Gregg-Earl. “We are super excited about where we are in the standings so far; it’s a really deep talent pool and to be in the top-15 in the regatta was our goal and, luckily, we’re achieving that so far.”
Gregg-Earl was sailing with Joe Bardenheier (Boston), Stu Johnstone (Newport, R.I.) and Stu Saffer (New York, N.Y.). All four are not only alumni of Tufts University Sailing Team (Medford, Mass.), but also members of New York Yacht Club and it was through NYYC’s Team Racing program that the four came together. “We are all friends and having a great time sailing together,” said Gregg-Earl, explaining that they’ve been able to keep a Corinthian team and still do well.
In the silver fleet, Puerto Rico’s Marco Teixidor, on CACHONDO, moved up from third to first overall with 104 points after finishing fifth in today’s lone race for that fleet. Following CACHONDO was a three-way tie on points – 106 – between Mark Ploch of the Bronx, N.Y., on SUGAR DADDY, Newport’s Blake and Lud Kimbrough on NOSTALGIA, and Geoffrey Pierini of Rumson, N.J. on SURGE.
For the final day, the NYYC RC brought the fleet back out to Rhode Island Sound where three races were run in 8-17 knots of breeze from the ENE. It was tricky day of sailing. The wind was flicking back and forth from the NE to East with tremendous variations in velocity and enormous wind streaks on one side of the course or the other.
Winning the first race of the day was Ronning’s CATAPULT. With Healy’s HELLY HANSEN crossing the line in fourth, Ronning was able to chip away at the deficit and, in race two, the margin was further cut to seven points when Ronning finished fourth and Healy finished eighth. However, in the final race, won by Keane’s SAVASANA, Healy crossed the line in second with Ronning back in sixth, earning Healy’s HELLY HANSEN team the championship title on 28 points to Ronning’s 39. Keane retained third overall with 61 points, while Florida’s Kullman, on NEW WAVE, and Boston’s Heather Gregg-Earl, on MUSE, were tied, respectively for fourth and fifth, on 83 points. Gregg-Earl and the crew on MUSE were also the World Corinthian Champions.
“It was a fun week,” said Healy. “The nice part is there was wind the whole time; we enjoyed that, but because there’s wind you have to work hard and at this point everybody is tired but also excited at the same time.” This was Healy’s third world championship title as he adds the J/70 title to two he has won in the J/24 class (2013, 2010).
Healy continued to say, “The key to doing well is time spent in the boat. From day one when Jeff Johnstone called and said ‘we have the first two boats ready to go, are you interested in doing some sea trials?’ I jumped on it. As soon as I sailed the boats I knew the class was going to be huge. I think it’s the simplicity of it. Anybody who grew up sailing dinghies or got into small keelboat sailing can go down and look at a J/70 and say ‘I get it.’ They can look at the rig and see that it’s simple, and how the spinnaker works and how the main works, the deck layout is totally simple and clean and it’s easy to handle. The boat performs really well upwind; downwind it’s exciting and it’s planing. It’s got just about everything for the typical sailor looking for a fast one-design boat that’s easy to sail. And it performs well. The younger sailors can handle it and sail it, same for older sailors and it’s a good fit for women’s teams also.”
The youngest competitor on the race course was 13-year old Julian Sudofsky of Marion, Mass., who missed a week of eighth grade at Old Rochester Regional to race with his father Mike Sudofsky on CARLOS. The young sailor was not simply enjoying a week off from school; as a veteran in the J/70 class he has twice raced in Key West Race Week, along with events in Annapolis and Cedar Point. “Even though we didn’t do too well, we had so much fun because everyone was top competitors,” said Sudofsky who handles the bow on CARLOS. “I just got to see Tim Healy, and Brian Keane is also my neighbor,” he added.
From
their patriotic hats to their colorful spinnaker, one team garnering
lots of attention on the course was Team RAFBF Spitfire from Great
Britain, captained by Simon Ling of Burford.“Team Spitfire was formed about six years ago,” explained Ling. “We’re made up of serving, ex-serving members of the Royal Air Force and a couple of civilians as well. We basically look to sail as competitively as possible but also to promote the RAF charity: the RAF Benevolent Fund. The name Spitfire comes from the iconic airplane that was built in the south where we sail in The Solent, and it seemed the perfect name for an RAF team.”
Having done the UK national circuit, this was the first time Team RAFBF had been overseas with the boat. “It was absolutely fabulous. What can you not enjoy about Newport?,” said Ling. “It’s my first time here, we’ve all fallen in love with the place; the race organization has been second to none, the racing has been fabulous and we’re really pleased with our result (12th overall and second Corinthian team).”
Ling as owner/helm switched to the J/70 last year after three years in the J/80. “It’s been a fabulous boat; we love it,” said Ling ticking off the attributes of the J/70: “The class has taken off, it’s new, there are 90 boats here at the first worlds, its great fun to sail, they’re demanding to sail, and they put a smile on your face. What’s not to like about that?”
Seeing 86 teams, representing 14 nations, on the starting line for any sailing event is significant. For those 86 teams to be contesting the first-ever world championship of the J/70 class is a testament to the popularity of the boat that was introduced just over two years ago, and even more notable was the mix of sailing royalty that was peppered throughout the fleet including: 2008 Finn Olympic Silver Medalist Zach Railey of Clearwater, Fla., 2004 Tornado Olympic Silver Medalist John Lovell of New Orleans, California’s 1996 Soling Olympic Bronze Medalist Jeff Madrigali, 2013 America’s Cup winning strategist and 2012 Laser Olympic Gold Medalist Tom Slingsby of Australia, 2011 Lightning Pan Am Games Silver Medalists Jody Lutz of Brick, N.J., and brother Jay Lutz of Houston, who is also a four-time world champion in the J/80 and Lightning classes, 1984 Windsurfing Olympic Silver Medalist Scott Steele of Annapolis, Olympian and two-time Star World Champion Phil Trinter of Richmond, Va., 2013 Star World Champion John MacCausland of Cherry Hill, N.J., 2001 Sonar World Champion Mark Ploch of The Bronx, N.Y., and 2007 Snipe World Champion Tomas Hornos of Boston.
Kalle Coster and Annemieke Bes, both of whom represented The Netherlands three times at the Olympic Games were in the fleet, as was Vermont’s 2012 Olympian Trevor Moore, along with New York’s Cory Sertl and Jody Starck, both of whom have won the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Award multiple times. Top-ranked USA #1 match racers Taylor Canfield and Stephanie Roble, 2005 J/24 World Champion Anthony Kotoun and Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Eric Doyle were all onboard as was 2006 Audi Etchells 22 World Champion Jud Smith of Marblehead, 2013 J/22 World Champion Allan Terhune of Arnold, Md., and 2014 J/24 US National Champion Will Welles of Portsmouth, R.I.
In the World Championship Corinthian Division, Heather Gregg-Earl's MUSE team comfortably won the division with 83 total points. Taking second was Peter McChesny's Annapolis, MD team on TROUBLE, completing the series with 151 pts. Third was Simon Ling's crew on Team RAFBF SPITFIRE from Great Britain sitting on 167 pts, fourth was Martin Johnsson's AQUAHOLIKS with 173 pts and fifth was Jim Cunningham's LIFTED crew with 190 pts. Also of note, Heather was named the "Top Woman Skipper" award, the first recipient of the Helen C Johnstone Memorial Award for the J/70 World Championship.
The Silver Fleet was won by Mark Ploch on SUGAR DADDY after finishes of 3-1-3 allowed him to edge out Puerto Rico’s Marco Teixidor, on CACHONDO, with 113 points versus 121. Taking third overall was Geoff Pierini on SURGE.
Finally, thanks to all the sponsors and supporters of the first J/70 Worlds! Most especially, to HELLY HANSEN along with NORTH SAILS, Harken, Marlow, Southern Spars, Triad Trailers, Newport Storm, Performance Sail Tools/ Seadek, and Torqeedo! In addition, kudos to Tom Duggan, Beth Duggan, Brad Dellenbaugh, Ned Jones, Kendra Muenter, Brad Read and other volunteers that made it all happen from NYYC, J/Boats and Sail Newport. That 86 boats went through rigorous measurement including boat weight, rudder & keel, hull check, deck equipment, sails, etc in just two days was quite a feat. The measurement team included ISAF International measurers and an ISAF Technical Committee Member— it was an unprecedented effort with most boats passing through measurement in 12-15 minutes! Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images For more J/70 World Championship sailing information.
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