J/Eclipse @ Charleston

(Charleston, South Carolina)- Despite light to moderate breeze and a noticeable lack of bikini weather, the 20th Anniversary of Sperry Charleston Race Week proved that CRW is not only here to stay, but that it is one of the most important regattas for sailing in America.  It’s not just the fact that so many serious racers gather here every year; the event seems to attract just about everyone in the sailing industry, and Randy Draftz and CORA are constantly chasing ways to make CRW more modern, more progressive and more fun.  Notably, Draftz and crew have worked hard to attract more one-design and offshore J sailors; the effort has paid enormous dividends over time.  Celebrating the 20 year milestone were 150 J’s sailing in multiple fleets (52% of the total!)- J/22s, J/24s, J/70s, J/80s, J/88s and J/111s as one-designs and J/122s, J/29s, J/30s, J/35 and others in PHRF handicap.

Sailing conditions were variable light to medium strength throughout the regatta with current direction and strength a dominating tactical factor when starting, calling lay lines and timing your turn at crowded mark roundings.  Weather was “on-off soggy” on Friday, improved with warmth and sun on Saturday after a long postponement, and surprised on the upside without any thunderstorms during Sunday’s racing until buckets poured down in the final minutes of the awards ceremony.

With an early start time Sunday, a moderate but consistent breeze from the Southeast, and a ripping tide pouring out of Charleston Harbor, overall victory and podium finishes were up for grabs through most of the fleets. Unlike Saturday, an early breeze meant three short, intense races in some classes and two in others, allowing a few teams to sew up runaway victories and a few more to make late runs to the top of the leaderboard in the quest for 20th Anniversary silver.

Charleston is immensely proud of its local university sailing team, and College of Charleston Sailing Team Captain Chase Shaw showed why in the J/22 Class. Shaw and his CofC crew on LOS TRES BIGOTES reveled in the fast outgoing tide on Sunday, grabbing two bullets and holding off a late charge from US Sailing President Tom Hubbell aboard AIR FORCE ONE.  Hubbell said he’d never had an easier time entering a regatta.  “You call up the College, they charter the boat to you, you jump in a plane, show up on the dock, and go race one-design at Charleston Race Week.  Could it be any easier?” said Hubbell, whose team finished just 3 points behind Shaw.  The J/22 Class also featured the Warrior Sailing Team, entirely crewed and helmed by wounded and disabled military veteran and managed by Charleston professional sailor Ben Poucher.  “Sailing with these guys against a fully able-bodied fleet was something we’d been relishing, and watching them put everything they have into it was pretty awesome,” said Poucher.  The Warriors grabbed 8th out of 9th entries.  “It was a victory in every way,” Poucher said.

14 year old Kyle Gamble and MY SHARONA shocked the until-then very tight J/111 fleet with three bullets on Sunday, giving them the easy win despite a hard week.  “We just sailed clean and fast and it’s great to have days like that,” said Gamble, whose father George steers their Pensacola-based boat.  A tie-breaker determined the balance of the podium in this tight class, with Marty Roesch’s VELOCITY taking 2nd and Rob Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF taking the bronze.  Fourth in class was Gary Weisberg’s HEAT WAVE and fifth was Doug Curtiss’ WICKED 2.0.

On the same course, the J/88s also had a donnybrook of a duel taking place between Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION and Rob & Sandy Butler’s TOUCH2PLAY RACING.  In some respects, it was a complete replay of their “mano-a-mano” battle that took place at the J/88 Midwinters in Key West.  This time the roles were flip-flopped.  Butler’s team started off winning the regatta after the first two days with three 1sts and two 2nds.  However, on Sunday Vogel’s DEVIATION crew was doubly determined to overcome their deficit.  Sunday proved to be their curtain call, posting a 1-4-1 to win on a tie-breaker over TOUCH2PLAY at 11 pts each!  Hanging in for a good showing for third position overall was Joe & Jeff Pawlowski’s EASY EIGHTS.

The lone Mexican entry in the regatta, the J/70 FLOJITO Y COOPERANDO earned their first Charleston Race Week win with a runaway performance in the stacked 83-boat J/70 Class. But it still wasn’t an easy day for them, despite their dominance. “With the black flag up and the current pushing us over the line, starting was nerve racking,” said tactician Bill Hardesty, one of the most successful American one-design sailors of the decade. “We started in the second row a couple of times, and luckily we had the speed to work our way forward.”

Also in the J/70s, Jud and Lindsay Smith on Africa stole a brilliant penultimate race win, setting up a final battle with Eivind Astrup and his Norwegian team on NORWEGIAN STEAM.  Smith found himself stuck in traffic on a crowded port-tack layline; while Astrup judged the speedy ebb current perfectly, sweeping around the final mark in first place and extending to the victory.  “It all came together at the right time, and now that we know the currents, we’ll come back as locals,” joked the skipper – just before singing “Happy Birthday” in Norwegian to celebrate Race Week’s 20th.

Congratulations to Gannon Troutman, the truly gifted 12 year old skipper of the 4th place J/70 PIED PIPER who received the Dynasty Award including a new set of Opti Sails from Quantum Sails at the prize giving!  That’s an impressive showing to add to an equally remarkable 5th place at the J/70 Midwinters in Key West!  Fifth was Joel Ronning’s CATAPULT from Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota.

The winner of the J/70 Corinthians Class was Rob Britts on HOT MESS from Tampa, Florida. He was followed by Blake & Lud Kimbrough’s NOSTALGIA in second and Tim Molony’s JOUST in third.

The twenty-one boat J/24 class had a tight podium with local racer Scott McCormack (Mt. Pleasant, SC) and his GIGGITY playing the ebb perfectly today to jump ahead by one point on the last race over favorite Tony Parker aboard BANGOR PACKET from Annapolis, Maryland. Mike Marshall’s PIPE DREAM from Jamestown, Rhode Island was only four points out of second place with a very steady score line.  The top five was completed by Aidan Glackin’s MENTAL FLOSS in 4th and Jay Adams’ BLIND DATE in 5th.

After firing off four bullets in the first five races, it was pretty clear that Clarke McKinney’s crew on the J/80 USA 788 were not to be denied the gold by the end of the regatta.  In fact, McKinney’s worst race was a 3rd and took their win by 7 pts over Gary Panariello’s COURAGEOUS.  Taking third was Ken Mangano’s MANGO-mon!

In the world of PHRF handicap racing, there were offshore buoy races taking place at the same time as “pursuit-style” racing was happening inside Charleston Harbor.  Offshore, it was the mighty J/122 TEAMWORK that again won her PHRF A class led by Robin Team from North Carolina.  Third in their class was Paul Milo’s J/122 ORION.  In PHRF B class, the J/35 ARROW sailed by Willy Schwenzfeier grabbed fourth overall.  Then in PHRF C class, the winner for the third year in a row was regatta sponsor GILL Clothing- skipper David Pritchard from Atlanta, Georgia aboard his J/92 AMIGOS.  Not far behind him in third was Steve Thurston’s J/29 MIGHTY PUFFIN from Newport, Rhode Island and in fourth place was a good showing by the J/27 AUDACIOUS skippered by Robert Key.

The PHRF Pursuit racing Spinnaker Division saw the College of Charleston’s J/36 SOLE take second place and just one point off their pace was Bill Hanckel’s J/120 EMOCEAN- both teams were local Charleston boats.  Bob Musor’s J/130 SCEPTRE glided home in seventh overall.  The PHRF Non-spinnaker Division saw Mark Swata’s J/30 LAS BRISAS snag sixth for the weekend.

After top-secret calculations to determine the winners in the most competitive classes in the regatta, Randy Draftz announced that Robin Team and his family-crewed J/122 TEAMWORK had won the historic and beautiful Palmetto Cup for the top PHRF performance of the regatta.  It marks an incredible 3rd overall win in Charleston, something the Teams say they want to try to add their name to the perpetual trophy again next year.

Hank Stewart, the PRO on the most populous racing circle – the 83-boat J/70 course – was relieved and pleased at the end of the day. “I’ve never worked with the fleet split system that we used here (to orchestrate the large number of boats in this class), but it worked really well. I think the tight competition proves it works,” he said.  Stuart says his volunteers and Race Week staff provided terrific support for the Race Committee, but emphasized that he “gives a lot of credit to the competitors. I think across all the classes at the event, the sailors were very gracious, particularly in showing such patience on Saturday when we had that lengthy postponement. And, at least on our course, it was worth the wait because we had two of the best contests of the event that day.”   Sailing Video coverage here.   For more Charleston Race Week sailing information