J/Boats News is a digest of worldwide events, regattas, and news for sailing enthusiasts and members of our J Community. Contributions regarding your racing, cruising or human interest stories on-board J's are welcome- please send to "editor@jboats.com".
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
More Fun Sailing on Lake Erie!
Here’s a report from the fun-loving sailing family- the Langolf’s from Cleveland, Ohio:
“Fresh off a 3rd Place finish in the Bayview Mackinac Race, the Langolf family crew got our J/34 IOR boat called KNEE DEEP off the trailer and back in the water. Now, it was time to coordinate our next adventures.
We put the mast back up, dialed in the rig to our settings and coordinated with the crew to see how we could tackle the end of summer. In a five-week span, we were full-on weekend warriors. We took 4 kids (and 3 wives!) on their first overnight race (drifter!) aboard KNEE DEEP (taking 3rd). We cleaned up the boat by sunrise and fired up the diesel for a Sunday Funday Race in the Bay, victory again!
The next weekend was a wild ride in six-foot waves and #3 jib to a top-five finish at the annual Labor Day pursuit race; the 20 mile delivery home was even more fun.
The family then packed up the gear and headed east the following weekend to race with our friends on the J/105 FALL LINE. Winning the overall Cleveland Cup on Saturday, we also helped the FALL LINE team win the J/105 Boat of the Year on Lake Erie. We had a convincing J/105 class win around the buoys on Sunday. Better yet, the race was in the books before kick-off for the Cleveland Browns NFL football game!
The next weekend, the regatta was canceled due to weather. However, that didn't stop us! We loaded five kids on our boat and took two other families sailing for the day.
J/Boat September ended at the J/24 District Championships. Our family chaired the regatta and we jumped aboard BOOYAH! to take a second-place finish. We had two great days of racing in Sandusky Bay (host for the 2022 J/24 North Americans). Amusingly enough, most of our KNEE DEEP crew were dispersed among the top 5 boats!
Now, it’s time for a couple of October sails to the famous Cedar Point Amusement Park; over a half-dozen of the world’s largest and fastest roller-coasters are on the island. Let's hope the kid's lifejackets fit over their Halloween costumes.” Thanks for this contribution from father Brett Langolf.