Monday, September 7, 2020

Tri-State Fly-By Race Preview

J/111 sailing offshore on Great Lakes
(Chicago, IL)- In days past, the traditional Labor Day Weekend Tri-State Race (a 3-day event) would start in Chicago, head over to Michigan across the southern parts of Lake Michigan, stay overnight, then race down to Indiana, stay overnight and party-hardy again, the race home to Chicago. However, due to all kinds of multi-state guidelines on pandemic guidelines, the race is now simply a long-distance triangle race. Starting in Chicago, over to the St Joseph, MI harbor entrance buoy (a fly-by), down to Michigan City, IN harbor entrance buoy (another fly-by), then back to Chicago.  What is surprising is the strong interest in the race, especially by the double-handed and singlehanded entries.

In the PHRF Double class, four J/105s are participating; including Mike Sheppard's notorious FLYING PIG, Mark Gannon's GANGBUSTERS, Mike Hettel's GLOBAL NOMADS, and Ralph Krauss's YUKON. Joining them is John Kalanik's J/111 PURA VIDA and Ron Otto's J/110 TAKEDOWN 2. In the Singlehanded class are duel J/105s (David Pierce's CAUGHT IN TRAFFIC and Brian Crabb's SEA-U).

In PHRF SPIN 3 class is Andy Graff's race-winning J/88 EXILE along with Judith & Ross McLean's J/105 ESPRIT d'ECOSSE. Sailing PHRF SPIN 2 class is the J/99 RAMBLER along with Mitch Weisman's J/105 FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER. PHRF Spin 1 Cass features two J/111s (Boyd Jarrell's HEADROOM and Kevin Saedi & Raman Yousefi's MOMENTOUS) and Tom Papoutsis's J/133 RENEGADE.  For more Tri-State Fly-By Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.