Great Sailing Action @ Cal Race Week

(Marina del Rey, CA)- As their signature event of the summer sailing season, California Yacht Club's Cal Race Week managed to provide the passionate and enthusiastic sailors with two good days of racing and from 5 to 6 races per fleet. For the assembled masses of J/sailors, that meant great racing for the J/24, J/70, and J/109 one-design classes.

Dominating the fourteen-boat J/70 fleet was Bruce Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS (as past J/70 West Coast Champion); Bruce had mentioned that it was going to be great practice for the 2020 J/70 World Championship that will be held in Long Beach, CA. If the Midlifer’s record of four bullets in six races is any indication of how serious Golison is taking his “pre-Worlds” practice, watch out!  Joining them on the podium was Terry Layton’s TERREAWAY from San Francisco in second and Jeff Janov’s MINOR THREAT from the host Cal YC in third.  Rounding out the top five were Jim Cunningham’s LIFTED and Jim Murrell’s HUCKLEBERRY in 4th and 5th, respectively.

In the J/24 class, Deke Klatt’s JADED left no stone unturned in their somewhat dominant performance in the series, counting just first places to win the class.  Second was Susan Taylor’s TAKE FIVE, one of the top woman sailors on the west coast. Then, holding onto the bronze was Claudia Gottstein’s WITHIN REACH, another emerging, talented woman sailor.

There was yet another dominant performance in the J/109 class, with Heinz Butner’s RAPTOR from Long Beach YC winning four races enroute to taking the class title.  Second was Peter Nelson’s SPRAY from host California YC and third was taken by Jack Mayer’s ZEPHYR from Del Rey YC.

Doing some serious damage to their competitors in the PHRF handicap world were three J fanatics. In PHRF C Class, David Boatner’s J/35 RIVAL (a past overall winner of the event!) posted straight bullets to win by a country furlong.

However, things were not so clear-cut in PHRF D Class. Jon Haney’s J/105 JOYRIDE ended up winning class on a tie-breaker at 15 pts each. Then, just one point back to take the bronze was Lenny Gordon’s J/92 SUNSHINE.   Sailing photo credits- Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing  For more Cal Race Week sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.