(East Tawas, MI)- “In a testament to how great a boat the J/22 is and how even they are across their lifespan, the oldest active boat in Tawas Bay J/22 Fleet #44 dominated the racing in 2019. HOGTIDE is Hull #121 and is owned by Father/Son duo Dennis and Matt Princing.
Dennis will turn 83 this December and still can be found sailing on her. Matt, his second favorite son, has crewed her up with different people each week, but they kept consistent scores to win the season championship. Dennis’s wife Nancy, who just turned 84, is the current Commodore of Tawas Bay Yacht Club and this caps off a pretty great year for Dennis and Nancy.
This season we were able to get 19 races in which saw us lose 2 race dates due to weather and use one makeup date. We had multiple kids sailing with Izzy, Hannah and Jenna logging the most boat time and we had plenty of new comers joining us for multiple dates like Brenna, Teresa, Brooklyn…. We even had an appearance by the Carroll family with Derek, Riley, Jacoby and Tristan sailing the fleet boat on two occasions!
The weather was strange; with early season being cold. Then, we got a nice six-week pattern to the middle of the summer and then right into fall by mid-August. Most sailing was done in the sunshine, with only a few raindrops hitting us this year, and no real breezy days. In fact, I would say most sailing was only two-up this year.
The final day saw three races in 8-10 knots of breeze from almost due south. It seems left early was a good place to be, but upper right proved advantageous once or twice. Port tack was tough going into the chop and starboard tack seemed easy. Downwind was all about riding a puff and staying in them. Racing was very good and very close and that speaks volumes to how the fleet is growing in their skills.
When the dust cleared, it was USA 121, HOGTIDE taking the season championship. Congrats to them and all the sailors who got to sail on the J/22’s this season!” Thanks for this contribution from Chris Princing. Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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