Southern Bay Race Week Report

(Hampton, VA)- True to form, the Hampton YC did not disappoint the enormous fleet of J/70s, J/24s, and J/PHRF teams during their very special start of summer event- the Southern Bay Race Week.  A number of fleets were near the exhilarating exhaustion point, having completed eleven races over the weekend!  Note to regatta PRO’s, tired sailors are a good thing, that means you’ve done your job good and no one can complain!

Winning the J/70s was Clarke McKinney’s ANTAGONIST, counting all top three races in their eleven race series to win with just 17 pts.  Taking second was Ron Thompson’s FOR SALE with a nearly identical record of top three places to take second place just one point back.  Close, those two were, eh??  Third was Mike Karn’s INCONCEIVABLE with 34 pts, a bit off the pace of the top two, however, having one helluva battle with the next two boats.  Fourth was Matt Braun’s E.L.E. with just 36 pts, and only two more points in arrears in fifth place was Jon Deutsch’s NO QUARTER with 38 pts total.

While their J/70 counterparts had stories within stories in their fleet, the J/24s saw a complete fleet domination by Ron Medlin’s BASH, counting only 1sts and 2nds to win with 12 pts total in 11 races!  Holy White-Wash, Batman!  Surviving the whiplash was Mike Veraldi’s QUICKY in second with 19 pts and Alan Bomar’s ROUNDABOUT (YES!) in third with 26 pts.

In the PHRF Handicap world, it was Craig Wright’s J/109 AFTERTHOUGHT that took second in PHRF A1 class.  In PHRF A2 division, Phil Briggs’ J/36 FEATHER sailed a consistent series to collect the bronze.  They were followed by Don DeLoatch’s J/105 SPECIAL K in sixth and Will Roberts’ J/36 REMEDY in seventh.

Perhaps the big story of the regatta was the awesome domination of PHRF B1 class by Ben Weeks & Michele Cochran’s J/29 RUMBLE, winning class with straight bullets for counters!  Third was Ryan McCrillis’ J/80 HAKA.

In the meantime, the wished for clean sweep of PHRF B2 by J/30s did not come to pass.  Nevertheless, two of them posted strong performances; Rusty Burshell’s COOL CHANGE took the silver while fellow J/30 owner Ben Ritger’s BLEW-J took fourth.

Last, it was Vernon Eberwine’s J/36 SEA STAR that also had a near clean sweep of her PHRF Non-Spin class, winning by just one point after a toss race. Great performances overall by J/teams in all divisions in Hampton!   For more Southern Bay Race Week sailing information