Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Doran Smokes J/24 Great Lakes Championship

J/24 sailboats rounding a mark (Sandusky, OH)- A good turnout of eleven J/24s participated in the 2018 J/24 Great Lakes Championship, hosted by the Sandusky Sailing Club, and sailed on the choppy, puffy waters of Lake Erie.  What may be the most entertaining aspect of this particular regatta were the usual “off-the-wall” and quite goofy names that are attributed to various boats in the fleet.  The winning boat was called OSWEGO NY (no kidding), then others were FUGUE STATE, FOR SALE: $5000 (seriously?), NO B.S., HALL PASS, SUICIDE BLONDE, ORANGE WHIP, GREEN HORNET, and WIND MONKEY(?).  Too amusing for words.

At the end of five races over two days in a one-throwout series, it was Tom Doran’s OSWEGO NY team that quite literally ran the table and smoked the fleet with four straight bullets, dropping a second, for a total of 4 pts net.  Kevin O’Brien’s FUGUE STATE had mostly seconds, winning the last race, dropping a 3rd, to take the silver with 7 pts net.  Rounding out the podium was a tie-breaker on 15 pts net each, believe it or not. On countback, the bronze went to Ryan Lashaway’s FOR SALE: $5000 (does he really want to sell it?).  Losing the battle was Park McRitchie’s NO B.S.  Rounding out the top five was Mike Palmer’s BOOYAH, taking that position based on yet another tie-breaker at 19 pts net each.  For more J/24 Great Lakes Championship sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.