J/122 & 124 Top Class at NYYC Annual

J/122 RAGTIME, skippered by J Boats’ president Jeff Johnstone and the new J/124 WAR BRIDE sailed by Pete Dupont, sailed to a 1-2 overall in IRC 4 at New York Yacht Club’s 153rd Annual Regatta June 9-10. Both boats excelled in the generally light and shifty conditions that prevailed on Rhode Island Sound. Acceleration out of the tacks, keeping pace through an awkward chop, and pointing the boat in the right direction were the keys to staying ahead of the pack. The J/105 class had the best one-design turnout, and the series came down to the final race. Class veteran Brian Keane of Beverly, MA aboard SAVASANA took the bullet and the overall victory, finishing ahead of Phil & Wendy Lotz on INDEFATIGIBLE and Ken Colburn on GHOST. The northeast J fleets head next to Block Island Race Week. This will also continue the J/122’s string of debut events, only this time with three sisterships competing for IRC honors. NYYC results...

J/120 Class Crowns NA Champion

California Yacht Club is no stranger to big events, and their annual June classic, Cal Race Week, certainly lived up to expectation in 2007. A well-honed event that’s designed around the afternoon seabreeze (Noon starts), Cal Race Week featured three racing circles for 130 boats and CYC managed five races over the two day event June 2-3. Headlining the J fleets was the J/120 Class, hosting their 10th North American Championship. In a tightly fought series, Chuck Nichols of San Diego Yacht Club aboard CC RIDER emerged victorious over Peter Zarcades on MELTEMI and John Laun of CAPER.

Division 2 looked like J-central with the J/80, J/105 and J/109 classes all competing. The J/105 class saw an excellent out-of-town turnout (30% of the boats came from San Diego), and local CYC sailor Jeff Janov on INVISIBLE captured race week honors by edging out San Diegan Rick Goebel of SANITY. Reigning J/109 Midwinter Champion, Gary Mozer, and his crew aboard CURRENT OBSESSION took J/109 class honors on the strength of five top 3 finishes, while John Steen of San Diego aboard UNDERDOG, topped the J/80 fleet.

Other notable performances include a nearly clean sweep of the FAST 40 fleet (four 1sts in 5 races) by THE DOC, a J/145 skippered by Dr. Laura Schlessinger, and a victory in PHRF C by Susan Taylor on the J/24 TAKE FIVE. Results

Sprit Fest Regatta 2007 - Sag Harbor

35 J/Boats turned out for the inaugural Sprit Fest Regatta held June 2-3rd at the Breakwater Yacht Club, Sag Harbor, NY. The event originated as the J/80 Long Island Championship and was this year expanded to include the J/80, J/105, and J/109 owners. Each class sailed one-design for a championship trophy including the J/80 Long Island Championship, the J/105 Fleet 24 Championship and the J/109 East Coast Championship. A total of five races took place just off the bluffs of Sag Harbor on Noyack Bay. With rain in the forecast, the fleet was treated to blue skies with temperatures in the low 80s and winds blowing 6-12 knots through-out the day Saturday. After the first three races the competition was quite close in all classes. Saturday night festivities included a BBQ at the club with great food, fun people, and video of racing action.

Sunday brought gray skies and 8-12 knot conditions. Early in the day two races were sailed and then, with the remnants of a tropical storm system threatening, the RC called it a day and led the fleet back to port. At the awards presentation after a 5 race/one throw-out weekend Steve Tedeschi’s Tastes Like Chicken claimed the J/109 East Coast Championship hardware with 11 points. David Betts, Instant Karma won the J/105 Fleet 24 Championship trophy with a near perfect 5 points and Blake Fleetwood with USA 352 defended his J/80 Long Island Championship title with a low point score of 13. After the awards everyone departed but will not soon forget this fun weekend of sailing. A special thanks to David Jannetti, to Breakwater YC and to all the volunteers, competitors and sponsors… results.

J/120 Wins Charleston-Bermuda Race

Charleston, South Carolina — EmOcean, a J/120, recently won Overall Honors in 2007 Charleston to Bermuda Race. This 777-mile race began on May 18th with eight tall ships and hundreds of spectators looking on, and ended with a convivial evening of awards at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Saturday, May 26th. This year, overall honors were awarded to a skipper and crew who performed superbly—young Will Hanckel and his friends on board his father’s J/120 EmOcean. En route, they dealt deftly with a variety of conditions that ran the gamut from 25 to 30-knot northeasterly winds and confused, 10-foot seas, to light zephyrs and moderate swells. Hanckel is no stranger to victory, but those trophies are usually associated with around the-buoys contests, and until the last couple of years, his wins were limited to events staged in one-design dinghies. As Sutherland Madeiros, the Mayor of Hamilton, and Gregory W. Slayton U.S. Consul General stood by, along with all the dapperly attired flag officers of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Hanckel and his crew also received a large crystal bowl as the winners of the J/Boats Trophy for the best performing J/Boat in the fleet. All in all, not bad for a crew with no C2B veterans on its roster. Complete story.

J/133 & J/122 Post RORC Wins

The Cervantes Trophy Race, a 115nm race from Cowes to Le Havre and back, is the 3rd event on the RORC 2007 racing schedule and this year greeted the fleet with mostly medium to light conditions except for at the end when the small boats finished in a freshening breeze. Charles Ivill’s J/133 JB 3 won the 15 boat IRC 0 class earning them the Thalassa Cup with Martin Richmond-Coggan’s J/133 Jump finishing in second place.

Philippe Delaporte, owner of J/122 Pen Azen, topped the 25 boat class in IRC 1 taking home the Noryema VII Cup. He sent along this brief report:

“Cervantes trophy was a great race for us. The course was 115 miles long. After 2 hours of racing going to windward out of the Solent we were among Class O and super O, TP 52 and Farr 52 ahead of Farr 45, DK 46 & Ker 46. The wind was 11 knots. Then while crossing the Channel, the wind shifted and decreased to 2 knots during the afternoon. During the evening it went back to 5-6 knots and Pen Azen crossed the line at 3 o'clock in the morning. At that time we were hoping for an overall IRC win but the wind increased to 10 and later 15 knots and so the small classes finished very fast… frustrating us from the overall victory.”

Other notable J/Boat finishes were Nick Martin & Mike West each sailing their J/105s in the Two-Handed division and finishing 2nd & 3rd for the race. results

Attention All J/42 Owners…

Join us for the 2007 Marblehead to Halifax Race - Starts on July 8 - This is the legendary race from Marblehead, MA to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Currently there are 122 total entries! We would like as many J/42's to enter so that we can have our own fleet start like we had for the Newport-Bermuda race last year. It was our very own fleet start line and scoring....we had it all to ourselves. Racing against boats that were all the same type was much more enjoyable than regular handicap racing… So let's see if we can get a great turnout for the fleet again - this time for the Marblehead to Halifax Race starting July 8. The Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead is sponsoring the race and registration is now open so signup on the Marblehead to Halifax website today... J/42 Class site

2007 Spring One-Design Newsletters

J/105 and J/109 Class Association activity is happening on a weekly basis these days across the USA and in Europe. Already several US events have taken place including the recent American Spring Regatta on the East coast, the Yachting Cup in San Diego, J/Fest San Francisco, Puget Sound Spring Regatta, NOOD Regattas in St. Pete & San Diego, Charleston Race Week, Key West and more. The 2007 spring newsletters have just recently been sent to class members and we’ve included links to online .pdf versions here. There’s good information here for all J/105 & J/109 owners detailing recent class activity, 2007 regatta schedules, articles, tuning tips, contact info etc... click on one of the above & have a look…

J/122s Win @ American Spring Regatta

American Yacht Club in Rye, NY kicked off the '07 Long Island Sound sailing season with it's annual Spring Regatta sailed over two weekends. In the debut of the J/122 in the USA, Andrew Weiss, steering his new Christopher Dragon, and Jim Johnstone from J/Boats, sailing Ragtime, turned more than a few heads as they dominated IRC div 6 finishing 1, 2 and together winning 7 of the 8 races in the series. J/133s also had a very strong showing in IRC div 4 with Tom Carroll's Sirensong placing 2nd & Ron Richman's Antidote finishing 3rd for the event.

On the J/one design circles it was Jeffrey Willis at the top of the 8 boat J/44 class, the Peregrin crew winning the J/120s, Adrian Begley's Mad Dogs staying in front of Rick Lyall's surging Storm in the 11 boat J/109 fleet, and Jay Lurie's Revelation taking the tie breaker and first prize over Joerg Esdorn & Kinscem for the 17 boat J/105 fleet... results

J/122 Wins Obelix Trophy Regatta

Didier le Moal, J Europe Executive Director has lead the brand new J 122 to an undisputed victory in the Obelix Trophy held in Benodet over April 28-30. The new 40 footer unveiled in December at the Paris Boat Show and exhibited at the London Boat Show in January of this year, combines elegance and efficiency at sea. Coming after a remarkabale 3rd place at the Spi Ouest-France, this new success once again underlines J's ability to offer fast, fun and an easy to sail yachts.
"3 victories and one second place gave us a large margin over the runner up" says a jubilant Le Moal. "The Spi was our very first race on board "J Lance 4" and we needed a little time to adjust. We're very pleased with the way the J 122 behaves and handles all kinds of sea situations. Our crew is a mix of seasoned sailors and young yachtsmen all strongly motivated. That made for a winning recipe." ... results

New J/122 Debuts at Spi Ouest

Two J/122s were recently launched in France to compete in the 2007 Spi Ouest Regatta, sailed off of La Trinite, France on Easter weekend. This highlight event is limited to 700 entries and this year included a class record 80 boat J/80 fleet as well as a J/105 class start, in addition to the debut of the new J/122.

Didier Le Moal’s J-LANCE 4 and Phillipe Delaporte’s sparkling dark blue ATLANTIS sailed against a 46 boat class that included X-40s, the new X-41, IMX 40s, First 40.7s, Grand Soleil 40s, a custom Mills 39, a new Archambault 40 racing version, a Corby 40, Dufour 40, IMX 45s, Dehler 44 and many others. The J/122s finished 3rd and 4th in class overall with only two larger professionally sailed boats ahead in the standings. Many were impressed to see the J/122 in or close to the lead at the first weather mark in several of the races in this large 46 boat fleet.

“As this was our first competitive regatta we tamed our expectations and focused primarily on learning how best to sail and trim the boat for the conditions of each day. After placing second in race 1 and the other J/122 winning we were very excited. Looking back now with the event completed, we are delighted to have finished within the top boats of this competitive class,” said Le Moal. “The J/122 has proven to be a competitive, elegant and simple to sail boat with a forgiving and light touch on the helm and a complete cruising interior. She has performed beyond our expectations and we look forward to many more fun regattas.” Even the winning skipper of the IRC class Gery Trentesaux took notice and complimented Didier Le Moal and the J/122 for a successful debut. complete results