(Tampa, FL)- Fifty-three J/70 teams from the USA, Canada, and the Cayman
Islands traveled to Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, Florida for the
first weekend of the 2017-2018 Quantum J/70 Winter Series. Brisk weather
made its way south with the passage of a cold front on Friday night,
bringing breeze into the high 20s on Saturday, but backing off some on
Sunday. In all, seven races were completed, much to the delight of the
very competitive, closely fought fleet.
In
the end, Brian Keane’s SAVASANA team from Buzzards Bay, MA handily took
the victory at 13 net points including two bullets and were the only
team in the entire regatta that had all single-digit finishes; in fact,
after tossing a 9th place, had all top four finishes as counters! Darby
Smith’s AFRICA team from St Petersburg, FL and Marblehead, MA placed
second with 35 points after tossing a 38th in race 6. Just two points
back was Bruno Pasquinelli’s STAMPEDE from Forth Worth, TX, securing
third place with 37 points after tossing out a 5th race DSQ. Rounding
out the top five were Peter Cunningham’s POWERPLAY RACING from the
Cayman Islands and Oivind Lorentzen’s NINE from New York, finishing 4th
and 5th, respectively. 
There
was a strong turnout for the Corinthians Division, with twenty-one of
the fifty-three teams participating. Winning by a comfortable margin
was Andrew & Mallory Loe’s DIME with 78 pts net. Then, Sarah Renz’s
BERTEAU GROUP from Chicago, IL is making a habit of being the
bridesmaid, again taking second place (like she did in the J/70 North
Americans earlier this year) with a total of 92 pts net. Rounding out
the podium was Frank McNamara’s CHINOOK with 109 pts net. Each Friday of the Series, SAIL22 and North U are combining forces for the “Porch Series”. This weekend featured a dock talk discussing boat setup and tuning, followed by on-the-water coaching with North U’s Chuck Allen, Will Welles, and Tim Healy. Practice races were run by J/World, with a debrief immediately after sailing with North U and J/World. A big “thank you” to regatta sponsor MarkSetBot for providing their innovative “auto-locating” GPS-based robotic mark (learn more here- http://www.marksetbot.com).
Racing continues at Davis Island Yacht Club on January 5-7 and February 9-11. For more Quantum J/70 Winter Series sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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