O'Driscoll Earns Irish J/24 Title

(Dublin, Ireland)- An exhibition of how to win sailing races on the second day of the Irish J/24 Championships saw Flor O'Driscoll and his crew from the Royal St.George YC on HARD ON PORT deservedly win the national title by the impressive margin of 19 points at Howth Yacht Club near Dublin, venue for the 2011 J/24 European Championships.

Three bullets on day two, including one which required coming from behind to outfox former champion Stefan Hyde by the final leeward mark, was sufficient to give the pre-event favourite the championship. O'Driscoll's cause was certainly helped when overnight leader and defending champion Mickey McCaldin on MURDER PICTURE (LEYC) was one of five boats 'black-flagged' on the first race start after PRO David Lovegrove imposed the penalty following a couple of general recalls.

That effectively ended the Ulster crew's challenge and it was followed by two other poor results which ultimately dropped them to 6th overall. The black flag decision also had a significant impact on other overall results, with another Lough Erne entry, Diarmuid O'Donovan's SAYONARA jumping four places to earn the runners-up spot, thanks to two second places and an 8th. It was enough to edge past clubmate and J/24 Class President Robin Eagleson who wasn't as effective as on the first day but did more enough to justify 3rd overall and also first in the silver fleet for the older boats.

The 17-boat fleet, one of the biggest J/24 fleets in recent years, augurs well for the J/24 Europeans at Howth next year, with around eight nations already confirming their intention to compete.  Final results were HARD ON PORT first with a regatta dominating 13 points, followed by O'Dononvan's SAYONARA with 32 points and Robin Eagleson's LUDER TOO in third with 34 points.  Just off the pace by a tack or two was Fergus O'Kelly's JIBBERISH in fourth with 35 points and incredibly only one more point back was Andrew Mannion's JEB STUART with 36 points in fifth.   Could've bet more than a few points of Guinness on that one as to who was the luckiest Irishman of the bunch, eh?!  Great regatta to all...watch out to all those arriving next year for the Euro's!    Sailing Photo Credits- FotoSail    For more Irish J/24 Nationals sailing information.

  

Storck Family Wins J/80 North Americans

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(Marion, MA)- Vene, vidi, vici.  Five strong.  The Jackson Five they're not, but they sure put on quite a show.  The Storck family team again prevailed as J/80 North American Champions with a dramatic finish over a very strong fleet that saw competitors from Canada as well as from far-away places like Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan! It was an extraordinary event hosted by Beverly Yacht Club and superbly run by PRO Sam Vineyard.  Three great days of sailing, thirteen races and in wind conditions that varied considerably, providing a tremendous test for all forty-four teams.  And, it certainly proved to be an excellent "training" event for all teams participating in the J/80 Worlds happening in Newport, RI in early October.  Perhaps what was most remarkable about the quality and depth of the fleet was the fact that EIGHT different boats won over the course of thirteen races!  Boats were loaded with talent with National, North American, World Champions, college All-Americans and College Sailors Of The Year spread across the top fifteen boats.

The fleet was blessed with blustery N-NW winds on Friday.  Upwards of thirty degree shifts swept across the course varying in intensity from 5 to 18 knots...nowhere near what was forecast for the day (less).  With a course laid out across the easternmost portions of Buzzards Bay, the starting line was set just shy of the Cape Cod Canal shipping channel and weather mark set in the general vicinity of Converse Point. It was clear the Storck's (Dad- John III, sons John Jr and Eric, daughter Katie and Kayla Johnson) threw down the gauntlet early and were not to be denied, winning the first race in their well-known boat RUMOR, followed by Glenn Darden of Fort Worth Boat Club in second sailing LE TIGRE, Jay Lutz/ Gary Kamins from California YC sailing FIRED UP in third and Jeff Johnstone from Ida Lewis YC racing LITTLE FEAT into fourth.  This race proved to be a premonition of things to come, as three of the top four in the race took the top three overall!  The fleet continued to be treated with great racing conditions all day and PRO "Sam the Man" Vineyard simply told any competitor that inquired, "we're racing all day".  He wasn't kidding, managing to pull off five races by 5pm... a fun but exhausting 9+ hours of sailing!  In addition to the teams mentioned above, one of the better performances of the day was turned in by Ben Schwartz from New York YC, sailing his LUCKY FROG to a 5-8-8-3-6 record to be amongst the early regatta leaders.  Everyone else seemed to have one throw-out race already accounted for on the first day!

By the second day, the fleet continued to see a northerly gradient wind flow with N-NE winds forecasts up to 15 knots at midday and diminishing to 5 kts.. very atypical for Buzzards Bay, more renowned for its powerful San Francisco Bay-like sea breezes than for multi-day northerlies.  How wrong those computer weather models were again!  By the start of the first race the winds were gusting well in excess of 15 knots from the Northeast and for the rest of the day winds blew in excess of 23 knots at times, creating some carnage on the race course with torn spinnakers, blown up spinnaker poles, bent stanchions and bruised egos. But for most, a blast to sail downwind as the 80s simply took off on fast planing angles.  At this point, the early regatta leaders began taking their steps to cement their positions atop the leader board.  Like the first day, the left side of the course continued to pay most of the time because of the geography (instead of Converse Point, this time it was Butler Point).  The Storck's RUMOR managed to avoid the one BAD race and sailed to a 9-8-7-2-8 score for the day; Darden's LE TIGRE really did have a tiger by the tail and got the day's best tally at 7-2-3-1-4; and Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT sailed nearly as well with a very consistent 4-6-5-4-5 record.  Sailing strongly on this day was New York YC's Henry Brauer and Will Welles on RASCAL, making their bid for a phoenix-like comeback with a 3-4-6-8-10 score, but had to take a DSQ for their 6th.

Sunday dawned with lots of low-level flying clouds with high-level cirrus layered above and another not so promising forecast with winds pegged to be in the 5-13 knot range from the NE and diminishing during the day.  Following the same theme of wrong forecasts as the previous two days, the fleet was treated to another excellent day of sailing with NE-ENE winds in the 8-17 knot range.  With the course setup so the windward mark was in the general vicinity of Bird Island south of Butler Point, one might have guessed that sailing off into the Cape Cod Canal shipping channel with favorable current in the morning races might help.  It didn't.  The first two races still saw a strong play to the left side of the course.  Not until the last leg of the last race did the "giant right-hand" shift kick in as all models kept forecasting to favor those who could see the black puff rolling across the Bay from Cape Cod.  With the regatta on the line, it was clear the top five boats were very aware of their placement relative to one another.  Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT drew first blood, opening the first two races with a 1-2 followed by Scott Young's and Terry Flynn's QUANTUM RACING Team from Austin YC (TX) with a 5-3 and Chip Johns' CAVITICA from host Beverly YC with a 3-5.   The Storck's started the day slowly, getting themselves in trouble with a 16-6 while Darden started with an 8-7.  The result of these finishes were that Darden's LE TIGRE could win the regatta if they could press Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT below 20th in the last race and simply hope that the Storck's RUMOR wouldn't get anything higher than a 2nd--- for the most part a pretty good bet.  Darden succeeded in preventing Johnstone from getting a 20th or better but he could do nothing but watch the Storck's sail an incredibly dramatic race to win the last one, the biggest one, to take the regatta, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat right at the finish line!  Nearly six boats all crossed the line in less fifteen seconds for the final race!  At the end, the top three were the Storck's RUMOR, Darden's LE TIGRE and Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT.  Fourth was Scott Young/ Terry Flynn's QUANTUM RACING and fifth was Kerry Klingler and Robert Miller's LIFTED.

Special thanks to BYC Commodore Chip Johns and to Karen Manning, the regatta chair, and her team of volunteers for delivering a fantastic regatta.  As usual, the Beverly Yacht Club were terrific hosts, great volunteers and had amazing support from the local Marion community. The racing was excellent, with great courses and the pace of the racing kept everyone on their toes with little time to waste between each races.  Barden's Boat Yard also chipped in, and deserves special "thanks", for providing all the hauling/ launching for all J/80s for the event, including having an entire team of crane operators, bobcat drivers for moving trailers and cherry pickers for picking masts on Sunday (their day off!)-- now that's service with a smile!   For more J/80 North Americans Sailing information.    Sailing Photo Credits- Spectrum Photo/ Fran Grenon

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Team RUSH J/109 Take Larchmont NOOD Overall

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RUSH Wins J/109 East Coast Championships

(Larchmont, NY)- Some regattas just get a bad rap. It only a takes a drifter or two before a place gets an undue reputation for being a no-wind racetrack. Fair enough for Long Island Sound in the summertime, where the old-timers say it just doesn’t blow like it did back in the day--something to do with all the development on nearby “Lawng Island.”   However, there was no idle time this weekend in Larchmont. For the final event of the 2010 Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta series, 70-something entries in nine classes sailed two race-packed days: one with brilliant sunshine and mind-bending windshifts, and one with a 20-knot easterly pushing in big swells and steep chop. There was plenty of current, too. Just to make things interesting.

While the lighter winds and shifts of Saturday rewarded those with their collective heads out of the boat, Sunday was all about speed through the waves, and finding the stronger winds. Many competitors reported the left side of the course as the place to be early in the day, but the right side came into its own toward the end. The middle, more than few unhappy crews told me, was not the place to be. But, isn’t that always the case?

Even with the rougher conditions, which will usually separate the cream, there was plenty of tight-pack racing and battles for points.   The sixteen boat J/105 fleet were mixing it up as usual, and when it was all said and done, Joerg Esdorn’s KINCSEM, eeked out the class win again with a single point to spare over Kevin Grainger’s GUMPTION. KINCSEM's win wasn’t pretty, but it’s solid proof that consistency is no easy accomplishment in the J/105 class, no matter how long you’ve been at the helm-- their record was 4-1-2-2-11-5 for 25 points.  GUMPTION sailed to a 7-5-1-9-2-2 for 26 points.  Third was the New England Circuit winner, Damian Emery's ECLIPSE with a 1-8-7-1-3-7 for 27 points, just two points off first!

The J/109 entourage were sailing their East Coast Championship at the Larchmont NOOD, and with 2009 overall winner, Rick Lyall’s STORM from Annapolis YC, in attendance, we figured it was going to be a full-spirited battle among the top-three boats in this eight-boat fleet. But that was before the close of business on Saturday, when Bill Sweetster’s RUSH sailed into Larchmont Harbor with three bullets notched on the results sheet. They followed form Sunday, winning the first race, and finishing second in the other two to secure the class win, and the overall regatta title-- their record was 1-1-1-1-2-2 for 8 points! The “overall,” of course, earns them a berth at the Caribbean NOOD Championship in November where they’ll take on winning teams from the other eight NOOD Regattas.  As fast as team RUSH appeared on the water, they were even quicker once they hit the dock--— off they rushed to catch flights back to their hometown Annapolis, unaware they’d won.  Second was Rick Lyall's STORM from Cedar Point YC with a 4-4-2-2-1-4 record for 17 points.  Adrian Begley's MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN from Atlantic Highlands YC was third with a 6-7-4-3-3-1 record for 24 points.

  

J Sailors Dominate NYYC Invite Cup Qualifiers

J Sailors and friends dominate the U.S. Qualifying Series for New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup.  Surprised?  

The regatta saw Eastern Yacht Club's team, skippered by Bill Lynn (Marblehead, Mass.) and crewed by his son, Peter Lynn, and Rick Myers (both Marblehead) and Alden Reid (Bedford, Mass), besting 24 other prominent U.S. YC's for the right to compete in this coming year's New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup.  During the first two days of racing on Narragansett Bay, in which 24 of the nation’s foremost yacht clubs were split equally into fleets designated Red or Blue, the competitors sailed half of each day’s races in either NYYC’s Sonars or Sail Newport’s J/22s.

Said Lynn of the regatta: "There's so many good sailors here it's ridiculous. If you miss one shift you lose five boats, and you look around and all of a sudden you're in 11th and there are 12 boats. It's really close racing. There’s so many good sailors here it’s ridiculous. If you miss one shift you lose five boats, and you look around and all of a sudden you’re in 11th and there are 12 boats. It’s really close racing.

Lynn also noted that, "Winning is not the objective. Not losing is the objective."  But win he did after six races on the final day in which Eastern Yacht Club placed no worse than fourth to end the series with 40 points.

"It was a nice day of sailing, pretty shifty," said Lynn shortly before the awards presentation at Harbour Court, the NYYC Clubhouse. "We were tied for first going into the day, and we didn’t blow it more than anything else. We stayed consistent, stayed in the top-five. Our goal for the week was to just qualify the club."

Annapolis Yacht Club was second overall in the Gold fleet standings with 50 points. Skipper Peter McChesney, with Shane Zwingleberg and Scott Snyder (all Annapolis) as crew, was a fan of the conditions that had stymied some teams.  "The current was good for us when it was strong at the starting line because we had good starts. On the Chesapeake we’re used to current and some of the lake people [competing here] are not. We were up on the line, and other people were getting pushed back. It was helpful for us."  McChesney felt that it would not be an easy feat to be one of the U.S. teams that qualify because there were so many great sailors participating.  "Our mantra was ‘first is third and third is first’ for this regatta. We’re very pumped to be where we are. The competition is fantastic. Racing is extremely tight, and the whole philosophy of the regatta is fantastic. It’s an honor to come to this regatta," he concluded.

Taking third place in the Gold fleet standings with 67 points was the team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club skippered by Payson Infelise (Newport Beach, Calif.). "It’s tough out there," Infelise said at the end of the final day of the event. With Chris Raab (Long Beach, Calif.) and Reid Vitarelli (Newport Beach) crewing, Newport Harbor won the first race of the day and struggled a bit before closing the series with another win.  "I had a little trouble getting off the starting line today which was uncharacteristic of me, but we pulled through with some good tactics and boat handling and were able to pull off top-three and that’s what we’re here for. We were thrown out of race 10, which we had won, after we crossed a buoy line next to the Naval War College. Unfortunately we weren’t really paying attention at the time. We were all racing to get to the right hand side ‘cause that was definitely favored to get out of the current and that’s the way it turned out."

Although Infelise had sailed Sonars at NYYC during a championship in 2007, he was surprised by the current. "The last time I sailed here it wasn’t as big a factor. But it’s definitely tough racing out there, definitely a tough competition. Most of my sailing has been as the middle/tactician, so driving is kind of new to me; I think we surprised some people."

The event consumed its fair share of internet bandwidth over its four-day run. Newport Harbor Yacht Club kept fans at home up-to-date via Twitter (NHYCsail), while Fishing Bay Yacht Club posted regular updates to their Facebook page, Kattack followed the racing in real time, and Brad Dellenbaugh, NYYC’s sailing director, posted regular updates to the event blog from the race course.

The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup U.S. Qualifying Series is sponsored by Sperry Top-Sider and Jaguar North America, with the support of Sailing World, Shumway Marine, J/Boats and Team One Newport.
For more NYYC Invite Series sailing information.
http://nyyc.org/2010USICQualifying/

  

Dave Ullman- The Interview

A lengthy and distinguished career has afforded Dave Ullman formidable insight into both the art and business of sailing.  As a direct result of his many achievements, Dave has a genuine interest in ensuring that future generations have access to the experiences and learnings of the past.  "Ullie" as he's affectionately known by close friends, has known the J family since 1972 sailing in 470s. By 1977, the introduction of the J/24 meant that it was simply another fractionally-rigged, keelboat version of the 470 to Ullie.  Experience in "fracs" led to an early jump for Ullman Sails in leading the J/24 class down the path of simply faster sails.  While Ullie simply knows the co-founders of J/Boats as Bob and Rod, he and Peter Harken know Bob's next generation as simply "the goddamn kids" (more on that story some other day...includes notables like Peter Barret and current Tufts University President Larry Bacow and MIT colleague Alan Spoon).  Here's the rest of the story in Sail-World

"So then. Let's actually start with his significant and distinguished past. Dave was born and raised in Newport Beach, California. He came from a sailing family, where his induction to the water was certainly dramatic. ‘Dad was very adversary; we went to Catalina Island a lot, which was 20 miles away, nearly every other weekend. He had a Pram dinghy and when I was about three years old, he would tie a line on the Pram and send me off sailing out the back of the family vessel. When it was lunchtime, he'd pull me in. That's how I learned to sail', was how Dave described it.

This wasn't enough to turn Dave off the sport. On the contrary, clearly it actually engulfed him. ‘I started racing when I was six. There was an adult group who sailed boats called Balboa dinghies. They were like an early version Sabot with one sheet of eight-foot plywood as the main part. They asked me if I'd race with them, to which I said, ‘Sure'. At six years of age, most of the other kids around weren't sailing at all', he said.

The local junior racing program ensued from there and when he was around 14 years of age, Dave got serious with the International Snipe class. Now as a result of that, the first of his international campaigns had been born. ‘It seemed like it was something I could do. I did a lot of surfing at the time, too."  Read more about "Ullie's" experience here.
  

Storck Family Wins J/80 North Americans

(Marion, MA)- Vene, vidi, vici.  Five strong.  The Jackson Five they're not, but they sure put on quite a show.  The Storck family team again prevailed as J/80 North American Champions with a dramatic finish over a very strong fleet that saw competitors from Canada as well as from far-away places like Denmark, Hong Kong and Japan! It was an extraordinary event hosted by Beverly Yacht Club and superbly run by PRO Sam Vineyard.  Three great days of sailing, thirteen races and in wind conditions that varied considerably, providing a tremendous test for all forty-four teams.  And, it certainly proved to be an excellent "training" event for all teams participating in the J/80 Worlds happening in Newport, RI in early October.  Perhaps what was most remarkable about the quality and depth of the fleet was the fact that EIGHT different boats won over the course of thirteen races!  Boats were loaded with talent with National, North American, World Champions, college All-Americans and College Sailors Of The Year spread across the top fifteen boats.

The fleet was blessed with blustery N-NW winds on Friday.  Upwards of thirty degree shifts swept across the course varying in intensity from 5 to 18 knots...nowhere near what was forecast for the day (less).  With a course laid out across the easternmost portions of Buzzards Bay, the starting line was set just shy of the Cape Cod Canal shipping channel and weather mark set in the general vicinity of Converse Point. It was clear the Storck's (Dad- John III, sons John Jr and Eric, daughter Katie and Kayla Johnson) threw down the gauntlet early and were not to be denied, winning the first race in their well-known boat RUMOR, followed by Glenn Darden of Fort Worth Boat Club in second sailing LE TIGRE, Jay Lutz/ Gary Kamins from California YC sailing FIRED UP in third and Jeff Johnstone from Ida Lewis YC racing LITTLE FEAT into fourth.  This race proved to be a premonition of things to come, as three of the top four in the race took the top three overall!  The fleet continued to be treated with great racing conditions all day and PRO "Sam the Man" Vineyard simply told any competitor that inquired, "we're racing all day".  He wasn't kidding, managing to pull off five races by 5pm... a fun but exhausting 9+ hours of sailing!  In addition to the teams mentioned above, one of the better performances of the day was turned in by Ben Schwartz from New York YC, sailing his LUCKY FROG to a 5-8-8-3-6 record to be amongst the early regatta leaders.  Everyone else seemed to have one throw-out race already accounted for on the first day!

By the second day, the fleet continued to see a northerly gradient wind flow with N-NE winds forecasts up to 15 knots at midday and diminishing to 5 kts... very atypical for Buzzards Bay, more renowned for its powerful San Francisco Bay-like sea breezes than for multi-day northerlies.  How wrong those computer weather models were again!  By the start of the first race the winds were gusting well in excess of 15 knots from the Northeast and for the rest of the day winds blew in excess of 23 knots at times, creating some carnage on the race course with torn spinnakers, blown up spinnaker poles, bent stanchions and bruised egos. But for most, a blast to sail downwind as the 80s simply took off on fast planing angles.  At this point, the early regatta leaders began taking their steps to cement their positions atop the leader board.  Like the first day, the left side of the course continued to pay most of the time because of the geography (instead of Converse Point, this time it was Butler Point).  The Storck's RUMOR managed to avoid the one BAD race and sailed to a 9-8-7-2-8 score for the day; Darden's LE TIGRE really did have a tiger by the tail and got the day's best tally at 7-2-3-1-4; and Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT sailed nearly as well with a very consistent 4-6-5-4-5 record.  Sailing strongly on this day was New York YC's Henry Brauer and Will Welles on RASCAL, making their bid for a phoenix-like comeback with a 3-4-6-8-10 score, but had to take a DSQ for their 6th.

Sunday dawned with lots of low-level flying clouds with high-level cirrus layered above and another not so promising forecast with winds pegged to be in the 5-13 knot range from the NE and diminishing during the day.  Following the same theme of wrong forecasts as the previous two days, the fleet was treated to another excellent day of sailing with NE-ENE winds in the 8-17 knot range.  With the course setup so the windward mark was in the general vicinity of Bird Island south of Butler Point, one might have guessed that sailing off into the Cape Cod Canal shipping channel with favorable current in the morning races might help.  It didn't.  The first two races still saw a strong play to the left side of the course.  Not until the last leg of the last race did the "giant right-hand" shift kick in as all models kept forecasting to favor those who could see the black puff rolling across the Bay from Cape Cod.  With the regatta on the line, it was clear the top five boats were very aware of their placement relative to one another.  Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT drew first blood, opening the first two races with a 1-2 followed by Scott Young's and Terry Flynn's QUANTUM RACING Team from Austin YC (TX) with a 5-3 and Chip Johns' CAVITICA from host Beverly YC with a 3-5.   The Storck's started the day slowly, getting themselves in trouble with a 16-6 while Darden started with an 8-7.  The result of these finishes were that Darden's LE TIGRE could win the regatta if they could press Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT below 20th in the last race and simply hope that the Storck's RUMOR wouldn't get anything higher than a 2nd--- for the most part a pretty good bet.  Darden succeeded in preventing Johnstone from getting a 20th or better but he could do nothing but watch the Storck's sail an incredibly dramatic race to win the last one, the biggest one, to take the regatta, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat right at the finish line!  Nearly six boats all crossed the line in less fifteen seconds for the final race!  At the end, the top three were the Storck's RUMOR (pictured below), Darden's LE TIGRE and Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT.  Fourth was Scott Young/ Terry Flynn's QUANTUM RACING and fifth was Kerry Klingler and Robert Miller's LIFTED.

Special thanks to BYC Commodore Chip Johns and to Karen Manning, the regatta chair, and her team of volunteers for delivering a fantastic regatta.  As usual, the Beverly Yacht Club were terrific hosts, great volunteers and had amazing support from the local Marion community. The racing was excellent, with great courses and the pace of the racing kept everyone on their toes with little time to waste between each races.  Barden's Boat Yard also chipped in, and deserves special "thanks", for providing all the hauling/ launching for all J/80s for the event, including having an entire team of crane operators, bobcat drivers for moving trailers and cherry pickers for picking masts on Sunday (their day off!)-- now that's service with a smile! 

Sailing Photo Credits- Spectrum Photo/ Fran Grenon (BTW, some amazing shots!)
http://www.spectrumphotofg.com/

For more J/80 North Americans Sailing information.
http://www.j80buzzardsbay.com/2010/index.php

J/122 Best 40+ Record In 2010

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(Newport, RI)- FLYING JENNY VI she was.  And flying on WINGS and a prayer she was, too.  And while SKYE was not to be denied, nor was the noble and famous CHRISTOPHER DRAGON taking off into wild blue yonder without collecting some gold and silverware along the way, too. Are TEAMWORK and PARTNERSHIP emblematic of teams like the Yankees and Red Sox knocking it out of the park? PUGWASH applying Einstein-like out-of-the-box thinking and cleaning house?  What's the common denominator?  All J/122s sailing in the summer of 2010...continuing to win in all conditions, all weather, from fully crewed teams to double-handed pioneers.  Let the force be with you.  Can something so comfortable, elegant and gorgeous really win that much? You can count on it.

Collectively, some of these J/122s sailed their one-design North Americans together, won by the WINGS gang. FJ VI won the Great Lakes IRC Champs, the Bayview-Mac, the Chicago-Mac and the Harbor Springs Regatta- not just the magic "three-peat" some Chicago basketball player once announced, but the more incredible "four-peat" all in one season!  PUGWASH walked off with class wins in the Astor Cup and Queens Cup as well as Squadron Runs in the fabled New York YC's Annual Cruise in Maine.  TEAMWORK sprinted away with the Ft. Lauderdale-Key West Race.  PARTNERSHIP blew away all competitors in the Stamford-Vineyard Race.  CHRIS DRAGON simply dominated the US IRC National Championship in her class.  Not to be outdone by FJ VI, the remarkable SKYE walked off with a three-peat of the Chicago-Mac Race, this year as Double-Handed Overall Winners- a feat unequalled by ANY boat EVER in the history of this most infamous race covering the length of Lake Michigan.  For more information on sailing the luxurious J/122

  

J/80 North Americans Preview

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(Newport, RI)- This coming weekend the creme'de'la'creme of the J/80 fleet in North America will be competing for honors as not only NA Champion but as a top contender for this year's J/80 Worlds being held in October in Newport, RI.

The top Americans include past World and North American Champions like Terry Flynn and Scott Young sailing 655 from Austin, TX; Jay Lutz and Gary Kamins sailing FIRED UP from Houston, TX; recent J/80 Midwinter Champion Glenn Darden racing LE TIGRE from Ft Worth, TX; Kerry Klingler sailing LIFTED from Larchmont, NY; and John Storck, Jr and family sailing RUMOR from Newport, RI.  Thrown into this mix are two recent class converts, past J/105 North American Champions Brian Keane sailing SAVASANA from Weston, MA and Bruce Stone/Nicole Breault racing PHANTOM from San Francisco, CA. 

Local New England representatives include Ida Lewis Yacht Club members Jeff Johnstone sailing LITTLE FEAT (current Buzzards Bay Champion) and Peter McCarthy on EAGLE and from New York Yacht Club are members Chris Bulger sailing GOOSE; Will and Marie Crump racing GULDFAXE; Ben Schwartz on LUCKY FROG; Henry Brauer and Stuart Johnstone sailing RASCAL; and Henry deGroot skippering WIRED.

For more J/80 North Americans Sailing information

Sailing Photo Credits- Jesus Renedo

  

J/Boats and Key West Race Week

The Longstanding Tradition Is Thriving!

Whether it’s One Design, PHRF or IRC, J/Boats entries are always big news at Key West Race Week. J/105s and J/80s turn out in strong numbers and the competition is outstanding. It’s not unusual to have a J/Boat winning Boat of the Day, Boat of the Week, and/or PHRF Boat of the Week.  2011 will be no exception and looks to be another banner year. J/80s are well on their way to a 20-boat class at this early date. The J/105s are up to a dozen+ already.  With four J/95s already committing, there will likely be separate sub-class scoring and trophies.

Keep up with the plans and projections on class pages on the event web site: for the J/80s click here, for the J/105s click here.   Premiere Racing updates each class’ special page with entry news and class specific planning details.

Plan to escape the chill of winter and head to Key West in January. Race dates are January 17 – 21, 2011. Take advantage of the early entry discount ($100 off paid entries submitted by October 1), and other savings on the social fees, and the Truman Waterfront Property (Navy Basin). We’ll look forward to seeing you there! J/Boats has been a Key West Industry Partner since the beginning of the program in 2002.

For more Key West Race Week sailing information

J/122 Repeats Stamford-Vineyard Race

J/122 PARTNERSHIP Flies In Big Seas/ Big Breeze

(Stamford, CT)- The 76th running of the Vineyard Race historically takes place on Labor Day weekend. It is a classic American yachting event hosted by Stamford Yacht Club (Stamford, CT), taking the fleet on a 238-mile course stretching through Long Island Sound, past Block Island, and on to the light tower at the entrance to Buzzard's Bay before returning to the finish in Stamford Harbor. Interest in the 2010 race was high, with 85 entries confirmed, way up from 50 entries two years ago.

And then came Hurricane Earl with reports of 50 foot seas offshore, Category 3 status with winds up to 150 mph, enormous storm surge due to its 940 mb low pressure and hitting the Northeast coast at high tide.  It all sounded a bit like a Hollywood death and destruction movie rolling up the eastern seaboard, mayhem and chaos left spinning in its wake.  As a result, the Race Committee studied the weather projections and by late Wednesday postponed the Friday noon start until 10:00 on Saturday.  It was a good move.  By the early hours of Saturday the storm was over Nova Scotia going out to sea.

The 2010 Vineyard Race provided serious thrills this year, with big seas and breeze in the 20 to 30+ kt range. J/Boats dominated the winner’s circle, with first place finishes in 5 divisions, including PHRF-3, IRC-Doublehanded, IRC-30, IRC-40 and IRC-45.

In the IRC-30 Class John Towers sailed his J/37 RIPPLE to a class a win and commented that the boat “performed better than I would have ever imagined.  She was able to handle winds up to 37 knots with the spinnaker up. Our speed downwind was routinely in the 10-13 knot range and exceeded 17 knots on one wave. The win was particularly enjoyable because the crew is such a great group of guys who get along quite well.”  Just behind him in third overall was Mark Perry and Lawrence McGrath sailing their J/35 BLUE MOUSE.

In the IRC-35 Class, Jeff Warren's J/109 ARIEL sailed the course well, stayed out of trouble and managed to get a fifth in class.

In the IRC-40 class, J’s took the first 3 positions, with David and Mary-Ellen Tortorello's J/122 PARTNERSHIP in first place- repeating their win the previous year.  The victory for the 122 proves again how successful a design the 122 can be in IRC racing. The 122 also beat most of the next division (IRC-45, starting 10 minutes later) across the line boat-for-boat! We’re happy to see the J/122 flourishing as both a one design class and an extremely competitive boat in IRC-40.  Other J's did well in the same class, Joe Healey's J/120 SOULMATE finished second and Rick Oricchio's J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE getting a third, rounding out a clean sweep for J's in the IRC-40 class.  George Shaws' J/122 TUMBLEWEED finished fifth.

For the IRC-45 class, Len Sitar's J/44 VAMP simply walked away from their competition to win their class quite handily. Tom Carroll's J/133 SIREN SONG hung in to get a respectable fifth place.

In the IRC Double-handed division, the J/35 PALADIN raced by Jason Richter continued their winning ways after winning the Double-handed division in this year's Bermuda Race.  Not surprising that this robust classic sailboat could take on the big seas and big breeze both upwind and downwind and prevail over their competitors.  Hewitt Gaynor's J/120 MIREILLE sailed a strong race to get third overall in this division.  Andrew Berdon's J/109 STRIDER also had a good race, finishing fourth.

David Spence's J/105 SYNERGY sailed the Seaflower Reef Course in PHRF 2 and placed second.

Finally, Todd Aven's J/92 THIN MAN prevailed on the Cornfield Point course, repeating their 2008 win in that division. Not only were they able to prevail in challenging conditions, but they got some great onboard video along the way!  For more Stamford-Vineyard Race sailing information

For some fun, you might enjoy watching the J/92s Stamford Vineyard Race YouTube video.