(Lakewood, TX)- The 10th annual edition of the J/Fest Southwest Regatta will feature many of the exciting and fun events that J/Sailors have enjoyed over the past decade. This year’s event will feature live music, a shrimp boil dinner, free beer, spectator boats (for family and friends), and lots of J/Sailors having a lot of fun! Hosting the event at their expansive facilities on Galveston Bay is the incredibly accommodating Lakewood Yacht Club. Participating are one-design fleets of J/22s, J/24s, J/70s and an ORC handicap class.
For the thirteen-boat J/70 fleet, the regatta serves as a 2020 J/70 Worlds qualifier that will be held in Marina del Rey, CA at California Yacht Club. Despite the relatively small size of the fleet, it is bursting with talent from many top southwest sailing teams. Watch for these teams to be factors on the leaderboard; such as Doug Strebel’s BLACK RIVER RACING, Mallory & Andrew Loe’s DIME from Seattle, WA, Glenn Darden’s HOSS, Forbes Durdin’s MOJITO, Bruno Pasquinelli’s STAMPEDE, Mark Masur’s TWO FEATHERS, Al Poindexter’s USA 241, and Jay Lutz & Doug Strebel’s ZOUNDS. Fun and games for that fleet!
The eleven-boat J/24 fleet also features a number of leading crews in the southwest. Chief amongst them is Jack Franco’s 3 BALL JT, plus Stu Juengst’s VANG GO, Andrew Theismann’s YOUNG’UNS, and Gerald Rademaker’s YIKES!
The fourteen-boat J/22 fleet has a number of amusing teams participating. Who’s on first in this fleet? Who knows. But, it could be Casey Lambert’s BLACKBURN MARINE RACING, Jeff Jones’ GAS STATION SUSHI, Dan Pletsch’s SKETCHY, Gary Thies’ STUDENT DRIVER, or Kevin Orff’s TROUBLEMAKER. Wow, sounds like a bunch of refugees from the local mental asylum… anyone want to race against that crazy crew? For sure, they will have a lot of fun.
The J/105s have seven teams participating from around Galveston Bay. Based on their performance at the recent J/105 North American Championship, there is no question the outright favorite has to be Ken Horne’s FINAL FINAL team (the infamous boat with class illegal “no windows”). Who will challenge them? Perhaps John Barnett’s PESTO, Brad Robbins’ RUMPUS, Dennis Kokkinis’ SPITFIRE, or Albert Shannon’s WIKI WIKI V.
In the J/ORC Division are six teams that will be pointing their bows across the starting line. Those teams include the brand new J/99 USA 007 (another Agent 99!), Albrecht Goethe’s J/46 HAMBURG II, Andy Wescoat’s J/109 HARM’S WAY, J.D. Hills’ J/122 SECOND STAR, Jim Demarest’s J/46 SODALIS III, and George Cushing’s J/92 77. Included in this group is Richard Bell’s J/97E VESPER. For more J/Fest Southwest sailing information