J's Enjoy SW NOOD Detroit

J/120 CAPERS Wins Class

(Detroit, MI)- As usual, the Bayview Yacht Club did an extraordinary job to host yet another fun-loving Sperry Top-sider NOOD Regatta.  Can't argue with the fact that BYC members led by their perennial Commodore (well, kind-of) Frank Kern and his happy-go-lucky crew on the J/120 CARINTHIA put out the red carpet for all those who wish to participate in this annual event to have fun, enjoy the racing on that crazy body of water everyone knows as Lake St. Clair, just north of "Motown Detroit".  Remember, Detroit invented not just cars (some guy named Henry Ford, remember (?)), but hip-hop, trip-hop, funk, rap, soul, rhythm and blues, dance hop and just about all other forms of downbeat and upbeat music one can imagine.  Against that backdrop of musical innovation Frank's gang at BYC have done there own bit to keep the drumbeat rolling in the Detroit area to continue to have fun and grow the sport of sailing, welcoming one and all to their corner of the world with open arms.

This year's extravaganza had 154 boats show up from the four corners of the Great Lakes.  The J Crew were well represented with very good fleets of J/105s, J/120s, J/29s and J/35s showing up to lay their claim to some cool Sperry Top-sider gear and nice swag. 

The J/120s were well represented with seven boats enjoying some great one-design racing.  Kudos to Frank Kern and his CARINTHIA team for welcoming all competitors to yet another nice weekend of sailing.  In the end, Donald Hudak from MHYC was the winner on CAPERS.  Keeping Donald honest was David Sandlin on JHAWKER in second from Lake Shore Sailing Club.  Lying third was Marvin Ihnen from CSYC in his cleverly named IHNSANITY.

The seven boat J/105 fleet also had some good racing.  By winning the first race the rest of the fleet should've taken notice and run for cover, nevertheless Jim Sminchak's IT from LYC ran off with the first place prize.  Second was Don Harthorn's SNAKE OIL (wished he had some more of it?) from Lake Shore Sailing Club and third was Mark Symonds' PTERODACTYL. 

What seems to be a renaissance in the making are the passionate, enthusiastic and fun-loving J/29 owners around America.  Ira Perry took his J/29 SEEFEST across from the East Coast to the Detroit event on their truck and trailer to go have some great fun in this event.  Hailing from New Bedford YC in Massachusetts, Ira and his team were rewarded with a first overall in the J/29 class!  Giving them a run for the money was John Bullga/Amyot from LMYC racing BLITZ! in second place.  Brian Rice and his crew from Dalhousie YC were third sailing ROOSTER TALE.

The J/35s race as a class mixed up with a few other 35 footers.  What was cool was to see that the J/35 NIGHT TRAIN sailed by Chris Herriges from North Star Sail Club won over this very competitive fleet.

Despite all the fun and games, there was an unfortunate, fatal accident at BYC on Saturday night.  An automobile accident injured several sailors and resulted in the death of a fellow J sailor (most unfortunately, a member of Frank Kern's CARINTHIA crew)- Mike Badendieck.  It is with tremendous sorrow that we deliver this news and all those in the J/Family wish Mike's friends and family our deepest condolences, prayers and warmest wishes-- may the Good Lord Be With You All. Said a Tufts classmate of Stu Johnstone, BYC Commodore Bruce Burton, “We are deeply saddened by this accident that injured nine people and fatally injured a tenth person. Our first priority and thoughts are for Mike Badendieck’s family, who died from this accident. Our prayers go out to all of those who were injured and their families. Our hearts and prayers go out to them and to all Bayview members. This is a family club and a close group of friends. This is a tragedy and we are all in distress.”  For more Sperry Top-Sider SW NOOD Detroit sailing information.  Photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com
  

Black Seal J/Fun Fest

Mad Dogs Eat Everyone For Lunch

(Sag Harbor, NY- 5-6 June)- Breakwater YC in Sag Harbor, NY, way, way out on the end of Long Island played host to yet another fun-loving, easy-going, start for the summer sailing season for the eastern end of Long Island Sound.  A strong fleet of J/109s and J/105s competed for a case of Gosling's Black Seal Rum and other fun prizes.

In the J/109 one-design class, it was the MAD DOGS team with Adrian Begley as their alpha dog leading them to a 1-1-4-2-5 series to just win by one point over David Jannetti's able crew on JIBBER JABBER with a 3-4-1-6-1 record.  Just behind them only one point further back (no margin for error here!) was Jim Vos' crew on SKOOT.  Greg Ames and his team on GOSSIP were fourth and Donald Fillpelli on CAMINOS was fifth.

The J/105s saw Wayne Morse on ROXANNE win with a 1-1-2-1-2 record over Bruce Tait's BUCKAROO with a 2-2-4-2-1 score.  Lying third was Sedgwick Ward's MAMBO.  For more Sprit Fest Regatta sailing information.
  

Genny Tulloch on Sailing J/22s in Santa Maria Cup

Genny Tulloch Reports:  "The Boat U.S. Santa Maria Cup finished up yesterday, with a typical shifty and puffy Annapolis day giving us a very intense and long day of racing, where we finished second overall after going 2-3 against #2 world ranked Claire Leroy in the finals. Sailing with me was a brand new team, with Molly Carapiet on main, Katie Pettibone on Jib/spinnaker trim, and Jenn Chamberlin on the bow.   We worked on our communication throughout the double round robin, and were seeded fourth against top seed Sally Barkow for the semis.   We went 1-1 Friday night, tying it up. Saturday morning we lost initially then won the last two races against Sally to finish 3-2 in the semis, leading us to meet Claire Leroy in the finals, as she had defeated Anna Tunnicliffe's team in her semis.  Both the semis and finals we went to the maximum five races, so at the end of the day we were joking that we’d gotten our money’s worth with the most of races we possibly could have done.

The racing was difficult with big shifts and pressure differences throughout the day and across the course, and a lot of the wins were determined by who had the better start headed to the first shift.  But with the directional swings and pressure changes the pre-starts were very interesting and calling laylines and time to the start were big stresses and very important for winning the start headed the right way. Claire won the first race, we won the second, then the third was a very close fight.  To read on about the racing and see more great pictures from the event, check out my website http://www.getsailing.org.

I’d especially like to thank my teammates this week for doing an excellent job, our housing hosts Dick and Phyllis for taking care of us, our regatta hosts Nancy and Phil for keeping us entertained (and well-fed!), and the club and all of the volunteers for putting on an excellent event.  I also would like to thank USSTAG for their support.  Next up for me is the Kiel Week World Cup event in Germany; I leave on Tuesday for training in the Elliotts in Chicago then straight to Germany."
  

Anna Tunnicliffe- On Sailing J/22s in Santa Maria Cup

Anna Tunnifcliffe Reports:  "The final day of racing concluded today at the BoatUS Santa Maria Cup and Team Tunnicliffe came home with a bronze medal after winning the petit-finals 2-0 over Sally Barkow.  The finals were fought between Genny Tulloch and France's Claire Leroy. Claire came out on top after defeating Genny 3-2 to defend her title from last year.

The day started hot again, but with a bit more cloud cover which meant that we weren't going to get a sea breeze, but were going to sail in the gradient breeze. The 5-9 kt breeze was off the land so it made for very puffy and shifty conditions. In addition to that, the usual Annapolis boating traffic was out, resulting in a lot of challenging chop.
We began the day finishing up the semi's against Claire. Claire sailed the first race very well and won the race easily. In the second race, we were leading the race, but then got caught down speed on the second upwind leg and she managed to sail around us. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't move on, but psyched ourselves up for the petit-finals against Sally.

The first race of the petit finals was close and exciting. We led around the top mark by about one boat length and gybed early. She extended on port tack and then gybed later in the leg. We hit some chop a little bit harder than she did and she managed to use that opportunity to pass us. But coming into the leeward mark, we managed to get just inside her and rounded ahead. We had to tack immediately around the mark to avoid fouling her, but tacked back soon after so as not to split too far from her. We both sailed on starboard tack for a fair ways, heading towards pressure. This time, Sally hit the waves harder than we did, and it gave us an opportunity to advance a couple of boat lengths ahead and hold on until the finish. In the second race, we managed to get our bow into the breeze just before her off the line and controlled the side of the course with the breeze the whole race. We had a huge lead around the top mark and extended on the downwind leg. On the second upwind leg, she caught up a bit as we sailed a little out of the pressure, but it wasn't enough to pass us and we went on to win the series 2-0.

We are happy with our overall result at the event. We were using this regatta as a training event for our team. Our next couple of events are in Elliots but since our next major event is the World Championships coming up in September in Sonars, we don't have that many events to practice with 4 people. In addition to that training, we also tried some new moves that we don't normally do: we wanted to see how they would work and get a feel for them. We had a great coach working with us during the event, Dave Dellenbaugh, who helped us out a lot between races and in the evenings. You can check the final results at the regatta website.

Our next event is in Kiel, Germany which starts on the 18th. First though, we have a couple of days at home before heading to Chicago Match Race Center to do some training before we head over to Germany for the event.

We have a lot of thank you's to give out for this event, but specifically we would like to thank Frieda and Jim Wildey for housing us. We would also like to thank all of the volunteers at Eastport YC who help at, and for supporting the event. We would also like to thank Harry at Annapolis Sailing Fitness and Boatyard Bar and Grill for their support of our team during this event.

We would like to thank our sponsors Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their support."   Sail Hard,  Anna/ Team Tunnicliffe/  http://www.teamtunnicliffe.com
  

J/122s Sweep STC Block Island Race

(Larchmont, NY- May 31)- In a race where choosing sides is key, the teams aboard the three J/122s in IRC40 Class rolled "sevens" on their dice twice, ran the table and hauled off all the silverware! The 186 nautical mile race began Friday afternoon, May 28, and sent the J/122s and ninety-five other one-design, IRC and PHRF boats off on a course from Stamford, Conn. (where host Stamford Yacht Club is located), down Long Island Sound, clockwise around Block Island (R.I.), and back.   Choosing Plum Gut over an equally notorious passage called “The Race” on the way to Block Island and then again coming back, proved critical to winners in every class.  Plum Gut and The Race are 60 miles away from the start, and there is a 20-minute current change between the two (the Race starts earlier).  “If you are hitting that gate close to the change,” said Race Chairman Ray Redniss, “you have to make a quick choice, and it also depends on the conditions and whether you want to sail on the southern or the northern side of Long Island Sound.”  The Race Committee was forced to postpone the start due to light breezes and that was a worry. “You can start in a lighter air if the tide is taking you down the sound, but when it isn’t, if you delay too long, you run out of tide,” said Redniss.  As it was, most classes started in a 5-6 knot westerly, which built to 10 knots for the larger boats that started last.  And indeed, some boats had to retire when the wind dropped to zero and they could not make headway through the foul tide at The Gut and The Race.

In IRC40 class, the J/122s dominated with a 1-2-3 overall.  Leading the pack was David and Mary Ellen Torterello's PARTNERSHIP, a highly experienced team with thousands of offshore racing miles under their belts.  Second was an equally strong family team led by Andrew Weiss skippering CHRISTOPHER DRAGON just 4 minutes behind.  And, finishing third another 20 minutes back were Mike Bruno and Jim Callahan skippering WINGS.

The J/120s were 2nd and 3rd in the IRC Double-handed division.  Hewitt Gaynor skippered MIRELLE to second, just 50 seconds out of first place!  A bit of a nail-biter for Hewitt and team...can you imagine where you gain and lose a minute in a 186 nm race?  Finishing 19 minutes behind was Gardner Grant on ALIBI.  Nine of the sixteen entrants were J sailors, testimony to the fact that J's are easy to sail short-handed by a wide variety of sailors...quite a remarkable turnout!  Two J/46s sailed, Nathan Owen's SEABISCUIT finished 5th, just 45 seconds behind STC double-handed sailor extraordinaire, Rich du Moulin.

The IRC35 class had three J/109s racing, won by Hong Kong sailor Mike Sleightholme racing APSARA. Colin McGranahan's J/130 DRAGONFLY finished third in IRC45 just ahead of Tom Carroll's well-campaigned J/133 SIREN SONG.  For more information on sailing the STC Block Island Race and race results.
  

J/109 BLUR wins Big Boat Challenge

(Kerteminde, Denmark- May 22-23)- Every year the Danish offshore sailing community gather together to host the "Big Boat Challenge" on Kerteminde Bay, off Copenhagen, Denmark. For those of you who have not been to Kerteminde, it's cozy little town on northern Funen and you sail on a large bay. They had reserved the entire port for the regatta and had incredibly high level of service consistently.

The "BBC" is an invitation event for 50 of the most active big boat teams in Northern Europe. For many of the competitors from Denmark, Norway, Germany and Sweden this is the first big event of the season, as well as kickoff for the new Baltic Open IRC series.

Two days of sailing were planned with five windward-leeward races.  However, Saturday's races were cancelled as a thick fog made racing impossible.  But Sunday was a completely different story, the conditions were perfect, with sunshine and a northwesterly wind blowing 18-22 knots.  Many crews were anxious to get going, as evidenced by the fact that most classes had general recalls and several teams got black flags in races 2 and 3.

After three races the Swedish team on J/109 BLUR won the IRC 2 class, narrowly beating Jesper Bank and his newly designed Faurby 396 Sport by only 17 seconds in the last race.  For BLUR this was actually their third victory in just two weeks.  Earlier victories include (i) handily winning class in the Helly Hansen Skagen Race (a 100 mile offshore race off Oslo, Norway) by 50 minutes corrected time to the next boat and (ii) winning both class and overall in the local Oset Race in the Swedish archipelago.  Said Peter Gustafsson, skipper of BLUR, "it sure was a great start to our 2010 season, winning both inshore- and offshore races in three different countries and in three different handicap rules".

Photo of crew to right:  in the top row: Anders Ryberg (floater), Peter Gustafsson (helmsman), David Jackson (foredeck). Bottom row: Patrick Moon Skjold (tail), Mattias Bodlund (mast), Fredrik Roos (trim), Magnus Hammer City (keyboards), Mathias Lindeborg (large) and Pete Pedersen (tactics).  For more photos and video and the sailing chronicles of the J/109 BLUR.
Big Boat Challenge- http://www.blur.se/2010/05/25/big-boat-challenge-2010/
Helly Hansen Skagen Race- http://www.blur.se/2010/05/14/helly-hansen-skagen-race-2010/
  

J/160 AVANTE Cruising Across Pacific- Susan Grun Reports

AVANTE, the J/160 owned and sailed by Susan Grun has recently resurfaced!  In fact, Susan was with Stephen and Cyndy Everett in Puerto Vallarta before both boats took off across the wild azure blue Pacific in search of extraordinary sailing experiences and seeing another part of the world many have not seen.  A recent report from Susan- "Internet access has been far worse or slower than we expected.  The last time we had any sort of connection was in the Galapagos -- weeks ago.  We sailed the 3000nm passage to the Marquesas making spectacular time.  We traveled thru the Marquesas for 3 weeks and loved them.  We are now in the strange low island world of the Tuomotos.

The blog just published is a tale of our touring thru the Galapagos.  The Passage will soon follow.  The First Mate and The Captain are doing well and having a grand time.  What an experience! Cheers, Sue"  Pretty cool if you ask me.  :) 

Read more about Susan Grun's Great Adventures Sailing and Cruising!
  

J/160 SALACIA- Sailing Across Pacific- Cruise Update

SALACIA, the J/160 cruising sailboat owned by Stephen and Cyndy Everett, have embarked on their life long dream of sailing from San Diego (USA) to Brisbane (Australia), island hopping and cruising across the nearly 6,000 mile expanse known as the Pacific Ocean.  They started initially from San Diego and headed down to Puerto Vallarta by racing in the Puerto Vallarta Race earlier this year.  They left PV in March and are now headed across the wild blue yonder.  There have been some amusing anecdotes and experiences recently!  Check out SALACIA's on-going blog about their cruising and sailing adventures across the Pacific.
  

J/160 JAM Sailing in Swiftsure Race- Early Report

David Schmidt, a yachting journalist in the Pacific Northwest was recently asked to sail on the J/160 JAM in the Swiftsure Race.  Here's an early report of that experience:  “Hey David, do you want to drive?” I glance up from a sodden perch on the rail of JAM, John McPhail’s well-rigged and well-sailed J/160, as we pound into stiff westerly winds and square waves six to eight-feet (did I mention square?) about two hours into the start of the 2010 Swiftsure International Yacht Race. This is only my second race aboard JAM, my first of any distance or importance, and I practically jump for the wheel.  At the helm, I see that this is sink or swim: The seas are a cross-hatched mess of wind-against-tide, punctuated by tidal rips and boiling, evil-looking upwellings that threaten to destroy boat speed. It’s impossible to predict wave patterns, if there are any patterns at all in this mess, so I simply drive for speed, doing my damndest to keep from plunging the bow, doing my damndest to keep from falling off the backside of a wave. The boat feels balanced, powerful, under a number three blade and a single deep reef in the big main.  Balanced . . Powerful . . Controlled is a different story."   Read more about David's J/160 Swiftsure sailing experience on Kimball Livington's most excellent blog
  

J/95 Inaugural Sail- Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland

Peter Bangerter from Switzerland recently sailed with a new J/95 owner on Lake Geneva in pretty hair-raising conditions- 20-25 knots, gusting to 30 knots, rain, clouds and cold.  Nevertheless, Blaise, the new owner was undeterred, in fact, he LOVES the J/95!  Here is Blaises' note to Peter about their sail:

"Peter-

I would like to thank you for your good advices and the follow-up. The first lake-trial of the J/95 was beyond my expectations.  Yesterday, May 30, 2010, the wind was blowing strongly and it was raining but I had to try this boat for the first time.  It's just unbelievable!  You were right, the boat gives an enormous safety feeling and goes straight with Beaufort Force 6, like a train, you may even think you have an autopilot as the wheel doesn't move!  The speed is stunning , 8-11 knots on average with a maximum of 12.3 knots, this only with the main sail and the jib!!! This boat is just incredible and who doesn't try it will not believe it. I would like to write this few words to tell you that J/95 should be the boat for family as well as for the thrill of speed, it runs as well in calm weather as it does in strong winds.  I like to tell that you are a great professional who know what he is talking about and everybody can buy with you in full confidence.

Thanks again and see you for the next steps.

Best regards,
Blaise"