(Houston, Texas)- After a second place at the USA J/24 Nationals in
Seattle, WA just a fortnight earlier, Welles’ BOGUS team took the North
American Championship crown for the third time in as many years! Yo,
dude! Up there next to LeBron and Mikey of NBA fame! Focus. Focus.
Five-peat!!For the third consecutive year, Will Welles holds the title of J/24 North American Champion. With crew Jeff Linton, Chris Morgan, Monica Morgan and Erik Rexford, TEAM BOGUS bested 28 other J/24s at the Championship hosted by Houston Yacht Club in Texas from May 26-28.
Mike Ingham's NAUTALYTICS entered the final day with a shot at the victory, however they lodged a 12-3 compared to Welles' 7-2, leaving Ingham and crew in the silver position with 31 points. Welles finished with 22 pts. Despite a bullet in the tenth and final contest, Travis Odenbach's HONEYBADGER settled for third, just one point behind Ingham.
Over the three-day regatta, all races were completed on schedule each day in solid breeze. Welles relished the conditions, especially on Saturday, May 27 when they had four firsts, saying, "We really had the boat dialed in to the conditions, getting off the line with good speed at the upper end of the genoa in short chop."
Welles
summarized that going into Sunday with a three-point advantage on
Ingham, he wanted BOGUS to focus on its own destiny. "If an opportunity
presented itself to win, we would go for it, but we just made sure to
hang around the competition while we did our own thing." Here is how it
all went down in the world of J/24s 40 years hence!!Day One
On Galveston Bay, 12-18 knots of breeze allowed four races. Odenbach collected the early advantage with scores of 4,3,3,2 for 12 points. The Japanese team SIESTA, led by Nobuyuki Imai, held second place with 18 points. The opening contest saw Patricio Sly's MUY MUY Muy in the top spot, while Imai took line honors in race two. Ingham won the remaining two races.
Day Two
Welles went four for four in winds at 12-18 knots. Able to discard an OCS from race 1 left him a scoreline of 4,2,3,1,1,1,1 for 13 points. Ingham, also dropping an OCS from race 1, moved up to second with a solid day including three runner-up finishes. A sixth in the day's final contest, paired with Welles perfect afternoon, prevented him from taking the overall lead. Odenbach dropped to third with 22 points.
Day Three
In winds at 6-8 knots building to 10-14, the day's race winners were James Freedman's Miss Conduct and Odenbach. Brendan Feeney, the first recipient of the Kelly Holmes-Moon J/24 Scholarship Boat, crewed on Aidan Glackin's Mental Floss.
Beyond the top three teams, the balance of the top five was Imai’s Japanese crew on SIESTA in 4th and Carter White’s SEA BAGS SAILING TEAM in 5th. For more J/24 North American Championship sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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