J/105 Wins New England Solo/Twin

(Newport, RI)- Nelson Weiderman and Jim Heagney won Class 1 of the New England Solo Twin aboard their J/105 KIMA, defeating 11 other boats in their class including two other J/105s, DARK & STORMY (winner in 2009) sailed by owner Michael LaChance and Eric Irwin and JADED, sailed by Joe Cooper and Emmet Todd.

The double-handed race took the entrants 94.1 miles around Block Island's R4, to Nomans Island's R2, to the Racon off Newport and finished at Castle Hill Light.

The predictions were for light wind, but the wind kicked up and held throughout the night.  The second place boat finished just 37 seconds behind on corrected time and boats were still overlapped at the second mark after sailing 62 miles.  The race started at noon on Friday July 30 and finished in the early hours of Saturday morning off Castle Hill....too bad the Newport Jazz Festival and the James Montgomery Band weren't the welcoming reception!

For more New England Solo/Twin Sailing information and results.
  

J/105 Youngstown Level Regatta

(Youngstown, NY)- The Youngstown (NY) Level Regatta fielded a fleet of 177 boats including six J/105s. After seven races, Peter Hall racing JAMAICA ME CRAZY won with 11 points, followed by Stuart Kilpatrick on PLANET B (14 points), and Terry Michaelson on THE USUAL SUSPECTS (21 points). Hall finished all races in the top three, including four bullets.
  

Frank Kern's J/120 CARINTHIA Blog

* Frank Kern's J/120 CARINTHIA keeps an on-going blog of their sailing experiences and regattas.  After seeing them win the Chicago-Mackinac Race the week before, it's clear why they have enjoyed a lot of fun sailing with one another over the years-- they have fun and make sure those around them are also having fun.  Kudo's to Frank and the gang for making "sailing fun" and always reaching out to the kids in their Bayview YC youth program, family and friends to bring them along.  Enjoy reading some of CARINTHIA's blogs over the years since 2000!
  

111 Triple Threat

(Newport, RI)- The J/111 is ready to blast out of the starting blocks on three continents (Americas, Europe and Asia).  The J/111 speedster can count on dozens of passionate J aficionados around the world to tear up the track leaving nothing but steaming bubbles in its flat wake.  The J/111 launches this weekend and will undergo its commissioning and sailing trials next week.  Congratulations to the CCF Composites team (pictured here) for producing a beautiful, fair hull; a functional, well-laid out deck and cockpit; and a gorgeous, well-fitted, interior.  The schedule for demo sails is rapidly filling up.  Please make sure to contact your J/Dealer now to jump aboard for a thrilling ride on Narragansett Bay during August and September.   For more J/111 sailing information
  

Cowes Week Preview

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Since 1826 Cowes Week has played a key part in the British sporting summer calendar and is one of the UK’s longest running and most successful sporting events. It now stages up to 40 daily races for over 1,000 boats and is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world.

Cowes Week is a fusion of many exciting elements, with its great mix of competitive sailing and social activities. The 8,500 competitors range from Olympic and world class professionals to weekend sailors.  In excess of 100,000 spectators come to watch the sailing, enjoy the parties and live entertainment, and to experience the unique atmosphere. It is genuinely a one-of-a-kind event!

This Saturday the largest sailing regatta of its kind, Cowes Week, kicks off for its 184th year. Again, J's will have a strong showing, led this year by a competitive contingent in IRC 1 Class with the J/125 STRAIT DEALER sailed by David Franks and a fleet of J/133s, including Julian James' JERONIMO, Ian Dewhirst' JUMP, Yves Grosjean's JIVARO from France, Herman Bergshaven's SOLNESS III and Fiona and Malcom Thorpes' KING LOUIE.

IRC 2 Class has a lone J/133, Angus Bates' ASSARAIN IV, who will have to contend with a very tenacious group of J/122s, including David Hunt's JACOB'S LADDER, David Richards' JOLLY, Robin Myerscough's MINT JULEP, Ian Matthews' champion JINJA and Rodolphe Marchais' JOLLY JOKER from France.

IRC 5 Class will have the new J/97s racing, including Mike & Jamie Holme's JIKA JIKA, Grant Gordon's FEVER and Jim Dick's JACKAROO.

In the one-design world, there will be large, competitive classes of J/109s, J/105s and J/80s.  With 35 boats entered, the J/109s will have all the usual suspects and cast of characters showing up including some new teams to stir the pot.  The British Police will be racing against the RAF Red Arrows! Who wins that protest, the military or the "bobbies"?  Many previous winners of J/109 Europeans and UK Championships are in attendance as well as a host of teams practicing for the Rolex Commodore's Cup.  The J/109s are the largest offshore one-design keelboat class at Cowes Week, proving yet again, like their "cross-pond" friends sailing in the American Great Lakes and East Coast, that the J/109 is not only fun to race, but a very popular and enjoyable family boat, too.

The J/80s will have a 19 boat class led by some of the class leaders, such as Thor Askeland's ELLE S'APPELLE, Jon Cooper's OI! and Simon Ling skippering Team Spitfire's SPITFIRE.

For the J/92s, eight boats have entered in what promises to be close-quarters racing amongst the leaders.  Based on Warsash Spring Series results, it will be interesting to see who gets the best of who on the capricious Solent waters between JAMMIN, J'RONIMO, NEILSON REDEYE and JUST IN TIME.  For more Cowes Week sailing information.
  

J's @ Southampton Boatshow

(Southampton, England)-  From September 10th to 19th, Key Yachting/ J-UK will be exhibiting at Southampton Boat Show on marina berths 343 to 347. Most importantly, for those who wish to have a high-performance boat that can sail in just 3.5 feet of water, the J/95 will be on the "Try A Boat" docks.  J/UK will also be exhibiting the J/97, the J/80 and the J/122. Please contact Becci Eplett for a personal tour- becci@keyyachting.com  For more J/UK boatshow information.
  

J/122s Dominate Chicago-Mackinac Race

Three-Peat For SKYE, FLYING JENNY VI Romps Again

(Chicago, IL)- The Chicago Yacht Club's Race to Mackinac (aka 'The Mac') is unquestionably the world's pre-eminent freshwater distance race. Boats travel from near and far (this year's globe-trotting award goes to BEAU GESTE, a well-campaigned Farr 80 hailing from Hong Kong) for this storied race, which just completed its 102nd running.  With a dramatic starting line off of downtown Chicago, its Gothic-inspired architecture and soaring skyline providing the backdrop, to the race's decidedly bucolic finish at lovely Mackinac Island, a place where cars are banned, horses and bikes rule the roost and fudge is the local currency. The Mac is full-on sailing for its 333 miles.

"This was a fantastic race with our second largest fleet, and every kind of sailing imaginable -- calms with flies to 25 knots on the nose," summed up Greg Freeman, Mackinac Committee Chair. "These conditions rewarded well rounded boats that were well sailed," said Ron White, Chief Measurer. "The physical conditions were also spectacular. We saw a full moonrise with a simultaneous sunset in the Manitous."

In a demanding, challenging race, it took well-sailed boats that could sail easily in a wide variety of wind and wave conditions to win- indeed, weather that was well-suited to J's of all sizes in all classes.  There was an impressive line-up of J's sailing the race, 69 of 355 boats, nearly 20% of the fleet and certainly the largest single brand participating as a whole.  The range of J's included the new J/97 HIT GIRL to the offshore speedsters like the J/145s MAIN STREET and VORTICES. In between were highly competitive fleets of J/105s, J/109s and J/120s pushing one another hard for every last boat-length.  Tossed into the mix fighting for every inch against their stablemates were J/30s, J/35s, J/122s, J/130s, a J/124, J/125, J/44 and J/92.

The J's had an impressive showing.  Winning 3 of 5 major trophies for the race! A feat unequaled by any major sailboat brand in the history of the Chicago-Mac Race.  As they say, "veni, vedi, vici"- they came, they saw, they conquered.  The only two J/122s sailing in this year's "Mac" trounced all comers, from the maxi 80 BEAU GESTE to last year's IRC National Champion, the 52 foot VINCITORE.  In fact, J/122s have won their division in "the Mac Races" five-for-five times!  Fresh off winning not just the IRC C Class in the Bayview Mackinac Race, but first in class in the IRC Great Lakes Championship was David Askew's J/122 FLYING JENNY VI (Annapolis, MD), winning both their section as well as the Mackinac Cup trophy (overall winner) over 152 Boats.  In fact, J’s took 15 of the top 33 slots (45%) overall!

Coming back for a very rare "three-peat" was the J/122 SKYE, duplicating their Mac Double-handed Race win last year, it extended their streak to a third win in a row (having won class/fleet the previous year with a full crew).  Richie Stearns and Bill Zeiler (Wilmette, IL) sailed fast, made few mistakes and won by hours over their tough double-handed competition. Interestingly, of 13 Boats racing in the Double-handed division, J’s took 5 of top 10 (50%) overall!  In fact, SKYE sailing doublehanded would have finished 10th on corrected time behind her J/122 sistership among the 152 boats in the fully crewed Mackinac Cup.

The third major trophy winner was Mike Stewart's (Muskegon, MI) J/110 LADY K, winning the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy over 137 Boats overall and winning Section 7 class. In fact, in this division as well, J’s took 12 of the top 30 slots (40%) overall!  Quite a remarkable demonstration of the importance of designing easy-to-sail, easy-to-handle sailboats that can excel in all conditions on all points of sail.

In the other handicap divisions, the two J/145s reveled in the conditions and sailed well to get 4th and 5th in Section 1/ Mac Cup with Chris Saxton's VORTICES (Plymouth, MI) beating past Mac Race winner Bill Schanen's MAIN STREET (Port Washington, WI).  Tom and Beth Ann Papoutsis (Winnetka, IL) sailed their J/133 RENEGADE to Section 2/ Mac Cup class win, beating a slew of custom racers and the hard-charging  group of Farr 40s and also getting 6th overall!  Mitch Padnos' J/124 SUFFICIENT REASON (Holland, MI), finished second in class to Askew's J/122 FLYING JENNY VI and was 4th overall!  In the Section 6/ Chicago-Mac "J/35" division, Bruce Metcalf's BOZOS CIRCUS (Burr Ridge, IL) led all J/35s, getting 2nd in class.  Following them in 3rd was Bill Newman's AFTERSHOCK (Muskegon, MI) and 5th was Tim Kent and Dana Felton's NEMESIS (Elm Grove, WI).  In Section 8/ Chicago-Mac division, the new J/97 HIT GIRL sailed by first-time Mac racer Paul Stahlberg and Dana Underwood finished second and was 14th overall!  Good show for a "virgin" Mac sailor!  In Section 9/ Chicago-Mac division, the J/30 FALCON sailed by Greg and Stephanie Moll finished third.

Rounding out the top ten in the Doublehanded Division, Brendon Docherty's J/105 OCH! was fourth, George and Kimberly Petirtz's J/29 TFWB RELENTLESS was fifth, John Hoskin's J/30 MADCAP was seventh, and Anton Devcic's J/105 ADRIA was tenth.

The J/105s had a very competitive fleet, with only 3 minutes separating the leaders.  Winning the J/105s was Mark Nichols (Lake City, MN) on CERTARE.  Second was Clark Pellett (Chicago, IL) sailing SEALARK.  And, third was Tomas Petkus' (Chicago, IL) VYTIS.  

With nearly a similar sized fleet, the J/109s with fourteen boats had an incredibly competitive race once the third "parking lot" compressed the top seven boats abeam of Beaver Island in the middle of the Manitous late Sunday night, early Monday morning.  After ghosting by early race leader VALOR (sailed by previous year's Overall Mac Winners George Miz, Peter Dreher and Mark Hatfield), Len Siegal and Don Cameron sailed LUCKY DUBIE 2 to a well-deserved, hard-fought win.  After a gybing duel in Grey's Reef Passage slowed down both VALOR and MERENGUE, Jim Murray's CALLISTO slipped by to finish second.  Third and fourth, respectively, were Jack Dau's and David Southwell's MERENGUE followed by VALOR. 

The J/120s again had a strong class showing with nine boats from both the Chicago and Detroit fleets.  This time, the Detroit boys showed their colleagues how to get it done.  Class leader Frank Kern from Detroit sailed hard and fast in the difficult conditions to win aboard his highly traveled J/120 CARINTHIA (pictured above).  Bill Bresser's green FLYIN IRISH was second and David Sandin's JAY HAWKER was third.  For more Chicago-Mackinac Race Sailing information.
  

Coors Light Island Double

J/133 JAMMY DODGER Leads Fleet Home

(Southampton, England)- It's 30 years since Neil Cox of Solent Rigging organised the first Double Handed racing at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. Since then the series has continued without a break and grown in popularity.  And, it has to be one of the most challenging of the famous "around island" races anywhere in the world, especially shorthanded.

The tides for this year's Coors light Island Double were more suited to the east-about circumnavigation of the Island instead of the more usual west-about course - If only the boats had enough wind to get over the line. The forecast, and the actual conditions were very light but the Race Committee made the right call by getting the boats away, some of whom were swept OCS by the tide. The fleet of over 100 boats flying spinnakers of all descriptions made a great sight as they ran, slowly, down towards the forts in the bright morning sunshine.

All tactics were used to get down to Bembridge with some boats following the mainland shore and taking a long, wide sweep east and others hugging the Island shore and sometimes getting caught in wind holes from where they watched others further north overtake them.

Once at Bembbridge the very light wind slowly picked up but immediately became so flukey that it was hard to know which sail to hoist or which tack to take. Eventually the conditions settled down with the earlier boats taking full advantage of the favourable tide to make the Needles in two tacks. The later boats were robbed of that option and had to take the inshore route but at least then found the tide in their favour in the Needles Channel.

The western Solent delivered winds that hadn't appeared on any of Friday's forecasts and strengthened the nearer the boats got to the finish where the Race Committee were on station to the south-east of Williams Shipping buoy, setting a line that was a near straight run from Sconce. From there the main question then became, if we raise the kite will we get it down again? The hardy souls that took that risk had an exhilarating, surfing run to line.

Here is Neil Martin's and Deb Fish's report from the J/133 JAMMY DODGER:  "With just over an hour of flood tide left, the race committee sent the fleet East down the Solent for a clockwise circumnavigation. Neil got us a good start at the Squadron end of the line, where we could stem the lighter tide until it was time to turn for the line. Seconds before the start we hoisted the light runner and set off in the forecast light NWly winds. We gybed all down the Solent, generally staying away from the lighter winds on the Island shore and gybing between mid channel and the mainland. The patchy wind became a bit steadier and we found ourselves leading the fleet by some margin by the time we reached the forts. We crept inside No Mans Land fort, deep inshore to get out of the foul tide, and the wind died before shifting dramatically. Fortunately the fleet of Redwings racing off Bembridge allowed Neil to anticipate the new wind, and we soon had the kite down and were beating to Bembridge Ledge.

The wind soon shifted to the SW and built to 17 knots, and we tacked along the middle of the course to Dunnose, trying to keep out of the bays and in the stronger tide, but stay right in anticipation of the wind veering. (At least, we think it was stronger tide - having tossed Winning Tides overboard in the spinnaker drop at Bembridge, we were relying on the tide atlases in the Almanac...) By St Cats the wind had veered and we could just lay the Needles on port tack. Visibility was amazing - halfway between St Cats and the Needles, both looked just a couple of miles away, and we could see Anvil Point and Portland Bill really clearly. The sea had built with wind over tide, so I was in for a soaking on the bow to clip the spinnaker on. I managed to cut my finger, covering the deck with blood - unbelievable how such a tiny cut can cause so much mess. We passed the wreck, bore away and hoisted the kite in 20 knots of breeze. Gybing the light runner on the J133 down the Needles Channel then the Solent double-handed was hard work, with the boat on the edge, but we managed to avoid wraps and stay in control somehow. We still led the fleet around the Needles, but the two multihulls that had been drawing ever closer finally overtook us in the Needles channel.

Conscious of stemming the strong tide in the middle of the Solent, we gybed in to the mainland shore, but I had failed to notice the shallow waters further along our gybe out on the small screen on the hand-held chart plotter and we held our breath as the depth decreased to 0.0m and we touched the bottom with full main and spinnaker up doing 10 knots. Mercifully we got through the shallow patch and out of the other side.

The final drama was finding the finish buoy just upwind of the Bramble bank and getting the kite down quickly (listening at the race committee's urgent calls to one of the following boats to beware the Bramble bank!)."

Besides winning elapsed time overall, JAMMY DODGER also managed to finish fourth in Class 1 on corrected time behind the two well-sailed J/109s.  Finishing second was the J/109 JAGERBOMB sailed by the team of Paul and Mark Griffiths, just missing first place by 52 seconds on corrected time!  Ouch, now how many places were there on the race you could make up 52 seconds?  Just off their pace was the J/109 JANGADA TOO, well-sailed by the team of Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt to get third in class.  Finishing ninth was the OSTAR class winner (and nearly overall), the J/122 JBELLINO, ably sailed by experienced offshore sailing veteran Rob Craigie with Charles Allen as part of his team.  For more Island Double sailing information.  Sailing Photo Credit- Paul Wyeth
  

J/122 2nd In RORC Channel Race

(Cowes, England)- This year's Channel Race was blessed with good breeze around the 130 mile course with sunshine during the day and warm air temperature at night.  Missing the overall win and IRC One class win by just under three minutes on corrected time was Neil Kipling's J/122 JOOPSTER. Next on their agenda will be a mixture of inshore and offshore races for the Rolex Commodores' Cup.  For more RORC Channel Race sailing information
  

Marblehead SW NOOD Regatta

STEELAWAY Wins J/105s

(Marblehead, MA)- The three clubs in Marblehead Harbor (Boston, Corinthian and Eastern) combined to put on yet another good event on their notoriously fickle summer sailing conditions.  While two good days of racing provided great competition, the last day proved to be a burn-out-- too much sun and no wind.  Nevertheless, the Sperry Topsider Marblehead NOOD event was lots of fun, especially because the local clubs roll-out the red carpet and ensure that all competitors in all fleets enjoy their social festivities after the racing.

On the “Outside Line”, the race committee attempted a J/105 start on Sunday in the early stages of the sea breeze but had to abandon mid-way through, leaving the standings as they were on Saturday. The no-race day left Peter and Doug Morgan’s J/105 STEELAWAY as the class winner over twenty-two other J/105s, a finish they were perfectly happy to take after having won four straight NOOD regattas before failing to do so last year.  “It’s good to be back,” says Doug Morgan. “These were not typical conditions this week, and local knowledge really helped. We are very fortunate to win, but the truth is we’ve got a great crew with five great guys that have sailed together now for a long time.”  Finishing second was Fred DeNapoli's ALLEGRO SIMPLICITA, just edging out by one point Kevin Colcord's CERCES CUP team for third. 

In the J/30s, Luke Buxton's EVELYN won with four firsts and a second, dominating their class.  Ken Deyett's JEROBOAM was second with four seconds and a first.  Third was John McArthur's SMILES.  The J/30 class are warming up for their J/30 North American Championship coming up later this summer.

J/24s as usual had a very competitive class with fourteen boats dueling it out with some of the top sailors in the J/24 class.  In the end, Tim Healy's WATERLINE SYSTEMS managed to pull off just three firsts and undoubtedly would've had more had they not been OCS's in the first race, winning by three points.  Second winning on a tie-breaker was John Denman sailing AIRODOODLE, they started off strongly with a 1-2-3 record, but fell off the cliff later in the series.  In third losing the tie-breaker was John Surguy sailing VANISHING ACT.

There was some interesting video shot at the event, you can check some of them out at the YouTube links below.
- A J/24 and Sonar sail into each other?
- J/30s at a breezy gybe mark.
- The J/105 Dark Horse celebrates winning a race.