Monday, May 21, 2018

J/70 TANGAROA Wins Yachting Cup Overall!

J/70 Tangaroa- winners Yachting Cup San Diego (San Diego, CA)- Seventy-nine teams competed in ten fleets in the 2018 Yachting Cup, held May 5-6 in San Diego, CA. David Hochart’s J/70 team on TANGAROA won the final race to secure their class victory and get recognized as the overall event winner.

Hosted by the San Diego YC, the 2018 Yachting Cup was held from May 4th to 6th off the promontory of Point Loma and in the South Bay southeast of the city of San Diego. The Yachting Cup is one of SDYC’s signature events.  The principal one-design classes in the regatta were J/70s, J/105s, and J/120s. In addition, there were PHRF Offshore handicap classes.

J/70 sailing Yachting Cup San DiegoThe J/70s had a dozen boats racing, with seven races sailed over the two days. Winning was Hochart’s TANGAROA with three bullets in their scoreline and a total of 16 pts next.  Second was Chris Snow’s COOL STORY BRO with 19 pts and third was Jay Janov’s MINOR THREAT with 23 pts.  Rounding out the top five were Curt Johnson’s AVET 2.01 and Jim Murrell’s HUCKLEBERRY in 4th and 5th, respectively.

Nine teams sailed in the challenging J/105 fleet.  While generally a very close battle for the podium, it was anything but this year.  Somehow, Stew Cannon’s crew on J-OK found the “whup-ass” button and hit it hard every race, posting three bullets and tossing a 4th to win with just 12 pts net, 6 pts clear of last year’s winner- Rick Goebel & Donica Ryder’s SANITY.  Third was the duo of Hurlburt & Driscoll on JUICED, J/105s sailing Yachting Cup San Diegolike SANITY, throwing out a last race DSQ to secure their position.  Rounding out the top five were Rich Bergmann’s ZUNI BEAR in 4th and Steve & Lucy Howell’s BLNIK in 5th.

Perhaps the most crushing performance came in the very competitive J/120 fleet.  Talk about a “schooling”, John Laun’s CAPER crew truly achieved one of the most amazing performances ever in the class, winning with all 1sts and having to throw out a 1st to win with only 5 pts! In the meantime, it seems everyone else conceded the win to CAPER while the next three boats spent the weekend trading body blows every race. In the end, second place for three boats was determined by a one point spread and a tie-breaker! It was so tight that it came down to the last race and the last run home to the finish line to determine who-beat-who! Rudolph Hasl’s HASL FEE finished with a 3rd to close with 14 pts total, enough to secure the silver.  However, Chuck Nichol’s CC RIDER crew must certainly feel the pain, as in the last race they dropped from a certain 2nd place to third after posting a 5th in the final race.  That created a tie-breaker on 15 pts each between CC RIDER and Ernie Pennell’s MAD MEN, with Nichol’s taking 3rd on the countback.

In PHRF C Division, it was David Boatner’s J/35 RIVAL that placed 2nd, while Geoff Davis’ J/35 ZFORCE took 4th place- a great show for the venerable J/35 in sunny SD! Sailing photo credits- Bronny Daniels/ JOYSAILING.com  For more Yachting Cup sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.