(Chicago, IL)- The annual Tri-State regatta fell victim to the coronavirus in 2020, like many other events on the 2020 sailing calendar. Instead of the traditional Friday night 60+ mile race to St Joseph, Michigan, followed by a 30+ mile race to Michigan City, Indiana on Sunday, and finishing on Labor Day back in Chicago, the race was run in a single night! The renamed “Tri-State Fly-By”, hopefully the first and last of its kind, was a watered-down version of the original race- a 78.0 nm "triangle" around southern Lake Michigan. Starting in Chicago, the race took the fleet eastward across the lake to an Orange Tetrahedron set off New Buffalo Michigan, then to a Red Flashing Gong off of Burns Harbor, Indiana, and then back to the South side of Chicago.
At the 7:00 PM start, the weather was perfect, high 70’s on the lake, lake water in the 70’s with a west wind at 12 MPH. With a course of 100 degrees it was a spinnaker run to the first mark. The course was setting up to be perfect J/Boat conditions. Run, reach, and beat, may the best all-round boats win.
The nearly full moon came up and the wind continued to build. On our J/99 RAMBLER, by jibing on a few shifts, we were able to move into the lead in our section. The well-sailed J/35 FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER sailing right with us and a C&C 115 and a Swan 46 close behind. The wind continued to pick up, anticipating the next leg was looking like a beat, we changed to our #3 jib as we saw 18 kts of TWS on the instruments. The beautiful night and the run maybe lulled people into not changing headsails, because there were reports of some miserable crews. Maybe it was because they didn’t have J/Boats that made them miserable, who knows?
However, on the J/99 with our #3 jib, it was just a pleasant beat for the next 30+ miles winds ranging from 15 to 20 knots TWS. With 3 to 4-foot short chop, if you didn’t have foul weather gear on the rail, you got a bit wet, but for the conditions it was a dry beat. At the turning mark in Michigan the boats could fetch the finish line on port tack. That changed and it turned into a beat. The real fun for the night was the 10 to 15-degree wind oscillations and the fact that as you sailed to shore on starboard tack the wind lightened up every time. Basically, if the wind dropped to 14 knots, tack out for 30 minutes, get a 15-degree shift, and tack back in. As the sun came up behind us, the fleet made it to the Gong buoy off Burns Harbor, Indiana. The wind had come up and our un-calibrated instruments showed 20 knots TWS. What a ride on our J/99 RAMBLER, a fetch to the finish averaging 8 knots boat speed.
In fact, the race was a J/Boats dominated race, a great test of boats and crews. In any section that had a J/Boat entered, a J/Boat won!
PHRF 1 Class was won by the J/111 MOMENTUS owned by Kevin Saedi and Raman Yousefi. PHRF 2 Class had the J/99 RAMBLER, owned by Ben Wilson (his first race in the boat), comfortably take the class win. PHRF 3 Class had J's take 1st and 2nd- Judith & Ross McLean's J/105 ESPRIT d'ECOSSE and Andy Graff's J/88 EXILE, respectively.
The PHRF Doublehanded Class was a top five class sweep by J/Crews! Winning was John Kalanik's J/111 PURA VIDA, followed by four J/105s! Second was Mike Sheppard's FLYING PIG, third Mark Gannon's GANGBUSTERS, fourth Ralph Krauss' YUKON, and fifth Mike Hettel’s GLOBAL NOMADS. Seventh was Ron Otto's J/110 TAKEDOWN-2.
Finally, if that wasn't enough global domination over southern Lake Michigan, two singlehanded J/105 sailors swept the top of the podium in the PHRF Singlehanded Class! Winning was Brian Crabb's SEA-U and second was David Pierce's CAUGHT IN TRAFFIC!
That was the story on a class-by-class basis. Amazing performances and congratulations to all J/sailors for their sailing.
However, perhaps even more stunning were the overall results. Again, it was a J/Boats sweep of the top five! First overall was the J/111 PURA VIDA, 2nd the J/99 RAMBLER, 3rd the J/111 MOMENTUS, 4th the J/105 ESPRIT d'ECOSSE, 5th the J/105 FLYING PIG, and 9th the J/88 EXILE! Old, new and in between- - - total J/Boats domination, a rare performance in this day and age of knowledgeable, competitive sailors across most offshore fleets. For more Tri-State Fly-By Race sailing information.
