Friday, September 15, 2017

J/88s & J/111s Dominate Chicago Bi-State

J/88 sailing offshore Fast Ride for J/105 Class!
(Chicago, IL)- The Bi-State and the Tri-State is a multi-leg offshore race held over Labor Day Weekend on the southern parts of Lake Michigan. Chicago to St. Joseph, MI is the first leg of the race. More than 100 boats departed Friday evening for a fast sprint of 50.5 NM across the lake, most boats finishing early Saturday morning.

For most, Saturday was a day of rest in St. Joseph with the Annual Beach Volleyball Tournament and live entertainment at the St. Joseph River YC. Then, on Sunday morning, racers chose whether to continue to Michigan City, IN as part of the traditional Tri-State or head back to Chicago for the Bi-State leg of the race.  Most chose the latter based on the forecasted light winds down the Michigan shoreline.

The first leg of the event saw 104 boats starting, 24 of them J/teams from across the spectrum (about 23% of all entries).  The J/105s raced as a one-design class, with eight crews vying for control.  Winning the leg across was Mike Hettel’s GLOBAL NOMADS.  Then, on the Bi-State leg back to Chicago, Kris Reichert’s ANGRY SLOTH won.  As a result, the combined scores saw Hettel’s GLOBAL NOMADS win with a 1-3 for 4 pt, followed by a rare three-way tie for 2nd place!  Winning that on countback was Reichert’s ANGRY SLOTH with a 5-1 for 6 pts. Third went to ESPRIT D’ECOSSE (Judith & Ross McLean) with a 4-2 for 6 pts and fourth position went to SEALAKR (Clark Pellet) with a 2-4 for 6 pts.

The rough and tumble seventeen-boat PHRF 4 handicap class had a quartet of J/88’s dueling for class honors.  Amongst the J/88s, taking first was EXILE (Andy Graff) with a 2-1 for 3 pts.  Second was SLOT MACHINE (Boyd Jarrell) with a 4-3 for 7 pts, winning the tie-breaker based on “who-beat-who-last” over RAMBLER (Ben Wilson) with a 3-4 for 7 pts.  Rounding out the J/88s in 4th place was HOKEY SMOKE (Rich Stearns) with an 8-2 for 10 pts.

With eighteen boats, the PHRF 2 class was the largest in the event.  In short, J’s took 3 of the top 4 spots in the Bi-State event.  Winning easily was the J/111 PURA VIDA (John Kalanik) with a 1-2 for 3 pts.  Third in class was the J/111 WARLOCK (Tom Dickson) with a 6-1 for 7 pts and sitting in 4th was the J/120 JAHAZI (Frank Giampoli) with a 5-4 for 9 pts.

Finally, in PHRF 1 class, carrying the J/banner all alone was Tom Papoutsis’ J/133 RENEGADE, sailing in a class with an eclectic mixture of much larger offshore racing machines- like an Andrews 77 and a TP52! In the end, they took a commendable 4th place in the Bi-State with a 5-4 for 9 pts.

Find all the YachtScoring information here
Chicago to St Joe- https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=4306
St Joe to Michigan City- https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=4333
St Joe to Chicago- https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=4332
Michigan City to Chicago- https://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=4334
For more Columbia YC Bi-State & Tri-State Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.