Hot Racing for J/105s, J/111s and J/120s(San Francisco, CA)- The St Francis YC played host to the Phyllis Kleinman Swiftsure Regatta last weekend for fleets of J/105s, J/111s and J/120s. Not surprisingly, the San Francisco Bay conditions delivered in spades with the StFYC PRO able to run five races on the western end of the Bay between Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge- a.k.a. “the city front course.”
Perhaps the most surprising element of this year’s event was the fact that despite tremendous parity between the top teams in all three J classes, it was a set of new (or re-invented) players that simply dominated their fleets. Almost as if on cue, the top boats all managed to avoid bad races in the no-throw-out series.
While
many of the usual suspects in San Francisco’s famous J/105 fleet
populated the top five, it was Jeff Litfin’s MOJO team that experienced a
resurgence of speed and smarts for the weekend. Yes, they truly got
their “mojo” going with an amazing record of 4-1-6-1-1 for 13 pts,
winning by the enormous margin (for the J/105 class, that is) of 12
pts! In a distant second place and fighting hard to stay there was one
of the class leaders, Bruce Stone’s ARBITRAGE. In a four-boat fight for
the top five, ARBITRAGE hung on by a whisker to post a 2-2-5-11-5 for
25 pts. Just two points behind them was the trio of Steve, Paul and
Gregg Kent on PERSEVERANCE with 27 pts. The rest of the top five
included Ryan Simmons’ every-present BLACKHAWK in 4th and Doug Bailey’s
AKULA in 5th.
The
J/111 class on SF Bay was in for a bit of a shocker. Winning their
first major regatta in a thoroughly convincing fashion was Peter
Wagner’s SKELETON KEY. Sure is hard to beat five straight bullets for a
mere 5 pts! Equally convincing in their consistency was a newcomer to
the J/111 class, the San Diegan team on PERSEVERANCE skippered by Bennet
Greenwald; their 5-2-2-2-3 was good enough for 14 pts and second
overall. Dick Swanson’s BAD DOG sailed fast and consistent to snare a
2-5-4-4-4 scorecard for 19 pts and third place. Lying 4th was Nessrin
Basoz’s SWIFT NESS and 5th was Dorian McKelvy’s MADMEN.Like the 105s and 111s, the J/120s had a relatively “new” team at the top of the podium after the fog of war cleared on Sunday. With an amazing 1-2-1-1-3 for just 8 pts, David Halliwill’s PEREGRINE team was ecstatic with their win, one of the more dominating performances in the J/120 class in quite some time. Second was Steve Madeira’s MR MAGOO with a more “normal” class score of 4-1-2-4-1 for 12 pts, such is the closeness of the fleet. Third was Barry Lewis’ CHANCE with 14 pts. Sailing photo credits- Chris Ray. For more St FYC Swiftsure Regatta sailing information
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