(Chicago, IL)- Because of the rather challenging weather conditions in
the season-opening regatta on the Chicago lakefront, the Columbia YC’s
COLORS Regatta, the sailors were happy to get in even a handful of races
by the end of the long weekend. There were a number of notable
performances by some of the top J/Teams participating in the event.The half-dozen J/88s were simply eclipsed by Andy & Sarah Graff’s EXILE, a result of their winter season series down in St Petersburg, FL and sailing Charleston Race Week. Starting off with a 3rd, the EXILE crew turned on the jets and closed with four bullets to win quite handily. Second was John & Jordan Leahey’s DUTCH and third was Ben Marden’s BANTER.
The J/105 class saw Jon Weglarz’s THE ASYLUM simply blitzkrieg their fleet with all bullets to take an easy class win. Similarly, following in their footsteps in every race for all deuces was Gyt Petkus’ VYTIS to earn the silver. Third was a new face in the crowd, Judith & Ross McLean’s ESPRIT d’ECOSSE.
The surprising big winner in the J/109 class was a reunification of a former top team, George Miz and friends on SMEE AGAIN, posting three bullets to win by a country mile. Second was Jim Murray’s CALLISTO and third was Keith Eickenberg’s BLACKFIN.
With seven-boats, nothing ever comes easy in the J/111 class, as all boats are well-sailed and are highly competitive. The winner was determined on a tie-breaker at 6 pts each between Rich Witzel’s ROWDY and the duo of Mayer/ Henderson on KASHMIR. Both teams posted identical scores of 1-1-2-2, but ROWDY won the last race, so won the countback! Third was John Kalanik’s PURA VIDA with a 4-4-3-3 tally for 14 pts.
In the PHRF 1 Class, Ben Lumpkin’s J/112E took 4th with Frank Giampoli’s J/120 JAHAZI in 5th and Arne Fliflet’s J/120 MAZAL TOV in 6th.
In the PHRF Singlehanded Class, two J/105s sailing nearly smoked their fleet. Winning was Brian Crabb’s SEA-U, with Mark Gannon’s GANGBUSTERS taking the silver. For more SKYWAY COLORS Regatta sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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