J/111 Great Lakes Championship Preview
(Chicago, IL)- From Friday, August 10, through Sunday, August 12, 2018, the Chicago Yacht Club will host the 27th annual Verve Cup Offshore Regatta. This event will feature three days of offshore buoy racing and a separate one-day distance race. Annually, this event hosts over 100 yachts ranging in size from 25 to 70 feet, and carry crews from 4 to 20 racers. During this regatta, the Chicago Yacht Club looks forward to welcoming more than 2,000 racers, family members and friends to its award-winning lakefront Monroe Station Clubhouse.
For this three-day regatta, boats will sail either in a handicap section or in a one-design section. Brag flags and prizes will be awarded to the top finishers in each section. The overall winner in what is determined to be the most competitive section by formula will be awarded the perpetual Verve Cup Trophy. The Verve Cup trophy dates back to 1893 and is the Chicago Yacht Club’s oldest trophy.
Likewise, for the Saturday, August 11, 2018, Distance Race, brag flags and prizes will be awarded to the top finishers in each of the four handicap sections, and the first place winner in the fleet determined by handicap will be awarded the 8 Mile Buoy Trophy.
The nine-boat J/105 class includes most leading local teams, like Clark Pellett’s SEALARK (winner of combined J/105 NAs & J/105 Chicago-Mac Race trophy), Vanessa Gates’ STRIKING, Jon Weglarz’s THE ASYLUM and Gyt Petkus’ VYTIS.
The five-boat J/109 class has Jim Murray’s CALLISTO (Mac Race winner), Peter Priede’s FULL TILT, Bob Evans’ GOAT RODEO (2017 Mac Race winner), and Jack & Jim Tolliver’s VANDA III (also a Mac Race winner); this will be a very tough fleet considering the number of boats racing.
Sailing the 2018 J/111 Great Lakes Championship are eleven boats from across the country. Current J/111 World Champion- Peter Wagner’s SKELETON KEY- will be vying for class honors against the top local boats. The winner of the Ugotta Regatta- KASHMIR- hopes to maintain their winning streak in around-the-cans racing. However, both boats know there are several spoilers in this fast fleet; such as John Kalanik’s PURA VIDA, Rich Witzel’s ROWDY, Dan Kitchens’ SKULL CRACKER, Brad Faber’s UTAH, and Tom Dickson’s WARLOCK.
In the ORR Distance Race division in Saturday, there are two J/crews participating- Frank Giampoli’s J/120 JAHAZI and Rick Stage’s J/35 ALPHA PUPPY. Sailing photo credits- Paul Todd/ Outside Images. For more Verve Cup Offshore sailing information