Doyle Crowned J/22 World Champion

(Travemunde, Germany)- The setting for the 2015 J/22 Worlds could not have been nicer for this popular little J class.  Over time, the Worlds have been hosted in Europe, the USA and South Africa.  This year, the German J/22 Class and Lubecker YC (Chairman Andrea Varner Tümmler) threw out the red carpet treatment for all and ensured the Travemunde Week sailing organizers and the primary sponsors MARINEPOOL and SAP SAILING ANALYTICS provided “first-class” treatment for all, both onshore and on-the-water.  To say the least, the organizers provided all that in “spades” and then some.  No one came away from their experience in Travemunde and could say, after 14 races sailed in the highly competitive 44 boat fleet, that they were not exhausted- be that from the epic social program ashore or the amazing sailing on the water.

Demonstrating why they’ve been a top crew for the past few years in world-class J/22 competitions, Chris Doyle and his American team of Chris Stessing and Phil Wehrheim simply dominated the event, posting only top 10 scores, winning four races and closing the regatta with 47 pts, just a 3.65 average in 13 races!  Nevertheless, the regatta was far closer than the actual numbers, as Jean-Michel Lautier’s crew from the Netherlands (Peter Jensen and Giuseppe D’Aquino) were never far off the pace. Here is what took place for the first four days.

 
Day One
Tuesday, the first racing day, welcomed the participants with heavy rain on the way to the race course but after a while the sun was breaking through. However, cockpits and crews still got really wet due to increasing wind.  The Black flag was required to get the 45 boats going on the first race, perfect sailing!

During the day, the wind was still increasing and waves of 1.5m were leading to rough conditions for the second race. It was a real fight for all crews, especially for the lightweight crews – but downwind was the great fun of the day for most everyone!!  But, it was not for all the crews, because the fleet saw the first spinnaker poles cracking and spinnakers blown up!  Yikes!!

Lining up at the starting line for the third race, the wind was still increasing and readings showed up to 30 knots, leading the race committee to send the boats back to the harbour.

Seeing 43 J’s tacking back into the harbour with those wind conditions was a real spectacle for the visitors at the shore line. The only disadvantage of the day was, that more than 30 boats got a penalty for crossing another race course on the way back.  At the close of the racing day, the J/22 Class evening BBQ was at the beautiful garden of the 5-star Hotel Columbia.  

Day Two
The second racing day was showing a completely different side of the Baltic Sea; no wind and the first start had to be delayed for 2 hours. Once again the black flag had to be pulled to get the boats on the course.

We managed having 4 races in tricky conditions with heavy wind shifts – wind between 5 to 10 knots. More than once the leading teams have seen the whole spinnaker field from a new angle – from behind!

Leading after 6 races was the American team with helmsman Chris Doyle sitting on 10 points; followed in second by Jean-Michel Lautier from the Netherlands with 13 points; and third is Martin Menzner from Germany with 15 points (one of THE most famous German Olympic and World Champion sailors).

A perfect sailing day with lots of sunshine that was perfectly finished with excellent German beer being served on the jetty, sponsored by the Lübecker Yacht Club and the J/22 Dutch class association.

Day Three
Thursday morning started once again with a two hour delay but at 11:30, the 10-12 knots wind appeared and the J’s left the harbor going immediately to race course “FOXTROT”.

A good seabreeze wind from 320 led to very good race conditions for the first race and we (GER 1562) finished fifth ahead of Chris Doyle after a niche downwind battle – our best result so far. During the second race the wind shifts and decreasing wind were once again leading to “tricky conditions”.  Chris Doyle (USA), who was leading the Worlds at the second day of racing slipped to second overall. Jean-Michel Lautier (NED) had taken over the lead with Martin Menzner (GER) sitting in third overall.

However, there was bad luck for Menzner, who was blocked by a day-sailor at the pin end side of the starting line; his protest for redress was rejected.

At the conclusion of the day’s racing a special event was held- the so called “Trave-Race”.  The Trave-Race doesn’t count for the Worlds but is a perfect event to present the J/22 to the sponsors and visitors.  Life, moderation, coolness, and the location were perfect to promote sailing and the J/22 Class.

The Trave-Race takes place on the Trave River directly in front of thousands of visitors. 12 boats have been nominated, the best from each nation participating at the J/22 Worlds, the best of last year’s ranking of each nation participating at the J/22 Worlds, and the remaining places filled up with the best of each nation, according to the J/22 Worlds ranking after the second race.  Plus, a wild card for the oldest and youngest team!!  If that doesn’t make sense, don’t worry, the spectacle more than made up for it!  Three short distance races of six boats are sailed - the best three out of the semifinal make it to the final.

The Trave is a narrow channel of approximately 200 to 300 meters width at the entrance where the race takes place, so that the visitors are almost able to grab the boats.  The light wind blowing down the channel allows three perfect races – Reiner Brockerhoff, the German helmsman with his French Crew Christophe Declercq and Charles Michaux (FRA 1444) finished first, just before Ernst Tschentscher, who at age the 81(!) is the oldest skipper at the J/22 Worlds!  This once again shows the great potential of the J22; from young student crews to the age of 81– it’s fun sailing J/22 and a great community around the world! But, that was just the first round of sailing.

In the end, the Trave-Race Finalists saw Jean-Michel Lautier (NED) take first, followed by the American Chris Doyle (USA) in 2nd and Mike Farrington from the Cayman Islands in 3rd. The day ended with a sunset BBQ at the Lübecker Yacht Club and many a tall tale was told over giant 16oz steins of the world’s best German beer.

Day Four
Prophetically enough, the Trave-Race was a harbinger of how the Worlds would play out for the top boats.  While Doyle won with relative ease, demonstrating speed, smarts and minimizing mistakes, the balance of the field in the top five were in a very close fight for the podium.

Taking the silver was Lautier’s Dutch crew with 66 pts net, the best result for a Netherlands crew in the J/22 Worlds in a long, long time.  Similarly, the bronze goes to the French crew of Reiner Brockerhoff (with team mates Christophe DeClercq and Charles Michaux) with 70 pts net, also the best French result in the J/22 class in the last decade.  Not surprisingly, after a few setbacks, one of Germany’s top sailors, Martin Menzner and his crew of Christian Drews and Frank Lichte took 4th place with 78 pts.  Lying in 5th place was one of the Caribbean’s best sailors, Mike Farrington from the Cayman Islands, with 98 pts, with his CISC crew of Kristine Verner, Peter Unger and Karin McGrath.   For more J/22 World Championship sailing information