Friday, April 13, 2018

TEAM TARHEEL Crushes Easter J/24 Regatta

J/24 Easter Regatta (Columbia, SC)- Sailed in J/24s since 1987, THE Easter Regatta has been one of the world’s most popular and enduring J/24 events. This year, no one was disappointed by the first-class, red carpet treatment rolled out by the always-fabulous host- the Columbia Sailing Club. As always, everyone appreciated the awesome Bath House at the beach and camping area, especially the campers! The “never-leave-the-club option” was just freakin-awesome, said many! The club offers FREE camping (first-come, first-served), meals every day, and parties GALORE!! The beautiful peninsula and gorgeous beach provided that unparalleled camping experience that everyone that sails the Easter J/24 Regatta have come to know and love.

Looking forward to that amazing Southern hospitality were nineteen J/24s from across the universe.  What no one expected was a “schooling” put on by one of the J/24 class veterans.  Who knew!? This early in the season to be smoking white hot, lights out, shake my booty at everyone all weekend long??

J/24 sailing Easter Regatta on Lake Murray, SCSure enough, that’s what can happen sometimes. Paul Abdullah’s TEAM TARHEEL won the regatta with five 1sts and three 2nds in 9 races to win with just 11 pts!  Yikes.  Wow, just slap us across our collectives faces why don’t ya! Simply put, it was a beat down no one saw coming.  Perhaps, we can get a story for next week’s J/News on how Abdullah pulled it all off!?

Behind the TARHEEL team, it was pretty rough sledding for most as it was a combo of getting off the starts, hitting shifts, moving sails up and down at the corners of the race track, like all the stuff that matters and can kill you if it don’t go right.  In that category was second place finisher, Steve Shaw’s ULLMAN SAILS, closing the deal with 28 pts.  Only four points back to take third was James Howard’s CLASSIC with 32 pts total.  Rounding out the top five was Chris Stone’s VELOCIDAD with 37 pts in fourth and Ron Medlin’s BASH with 44 pts in fifth position.  Follow J/24 Easter Regatta on Facebook here   For more J/24 Easter Regatta sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.