A Jubilee J/Fest Northwest

J/105 Wins Top Performance Award

(Seattle, WA- Jun 19-20)- A gathering of 30 J's including one-design fleets for J/109s, J/35s, J/105s and J/30s enjoyed eight races over two days of competition in the waters off Shilshole Bay Marina, sponsored by Seattle J-Boats dealer Sailboats Northwest, with Corinthian Yacht Club running the racing and hosting post-race parties.

For the J/109 class, the Dack/ Nordquist team sailed J/TRIPPER to a 1-1-3-1-2-1-2-1 record for twelves points.   The Greene team on IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL finished second with a 2-4-1-4-1-4-1-2 record and third was Woodfield's SHADA with a 3-3-5-3-5-3-3-3 tally.

The J/35s were won by the Whitfield/ Chatham team on JABIRU.  Second was White sailing GRACE E and third was the Ellingsen's BERGEN VIKING.

Erik Kirsten's team sailing JUBILEE were not only winners of the J/105 class, but got Top Performance Award for best regatta in biggest fleet at the event.  Second was Petersen racing LAST TANGO and third was Pinkham's USAWI.

The J/30s had a nice turnout with the Gardner/ Adair team winning with seven firsts on ROUNDER.  Battling for second and third were CELEBRATION and OUTLAW. At the end of their epic battle for J/30 supremacy in the greater NW, the Storm/ Gossett team racing OUTLAW just lost out in the last two races to Bottles' CELEBRATION.

The PHRF handicap fleet had quite a mix of boats and a donnybrook of a fight for the silver/ bronze positions on the podium.  No matter what anyone could do, the Moynihan/ Conway team raced WINGS to a dominant first place getting eight straight firsts!  Playing "tourists"/ bridesmaids to this amazing performance were Daniel's TOURIST and Sawyer's FEARFUL SYMMETRY.  Finishing in a tie with twenty-one points each, the tie-breaker went in favor of TOURIST with FEARFUL SYMMETRY finishing third- with an average of 2.5 each!

In the photo is the crew of CYC member Erik Kristen's J/105 Jubilee. From left are Joel Thornton, Jeff McLean, Matt Tookey, Bruce Sherman and Kristen. Kristen's wife, Steph, and children Mary and Tom sailed on Saturday.   For more J/Fest Northwest sailing information
  

J's Shine at Cal Race Week

ELEKTRA Zaps J/109 Class

(Los Angeles, CA)- California Yacht Club plays host to one of the longest running race weeks on the West Coast and attracts, in particular, good one-design fleets from greater southern California.  The J/80s, J/105s and J/109s all had fun sailing around-the-cans with excellent courses set by CYC's PROs.

Tom Brott's ELEKTRA truly did zap the J/109 fleet, sailing to an extraordinarily consistent score of 1-2-2-1-1 to win their class by four points.  Chris Mewes sailed SHADOWFAX to second with a 3-1-3-2-2 tally followed by Bryce Benjamin in PERSISTENCE  with a 2-5-1-3-3 record.

Gary Mozer's CURRENT OBSESSION 2 literally dominated the J/105 class winning with four firsts and not sailing the last race.  Second Steve and Lucy Howell sailing BLINK! into second with a 2-3-2-2-1 score.  Third overall was ROCK & ROLL, sailed by Don Poppe.

The J/80s also had a dominant performance from Curt Johnson racing AVET to four firsts and a 6th place.  The Mullen/ Witt team sailed an remarkably consistent score of 2-2-2-3-2 to grab second and third was Jeff Friedman's FIRED UP.

In the handicap fleets, Susan Taylor won PHRF4 division in her J/24 and Fred Cottrell finished second in the Sportboat division with his J/33 TIGGER.   For more Cal Race week sailing information.     Photo Credits- Sam Haythorn Photography
  

Leroy Defends BoatUS Santa Maria Cup

France's Leading Lady Graceful & Dominant

Annapolis, MD (June 5, 2010) - Close racing on-board precisely matched J/22s in hot, shifty wind conditions through the final contests of the semi-final and five-match final rounds in the 20th annual BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup international women's match-racing regatta produced a similar result to last year, with the French team skippered by Claire Leroy topping San Franciscan Genny Tulloch and her team 3-2 to retain Leroy's title as champion for another year.

In the semi-final pairings, which were all tied up at the end of Friday's racing, Tulloch and her crew, including Molly Carapiet, Katie Pettibone, and Jen Chamberlin, outfought Sally Barkow and her crew this morning, going on to win the series 3-2, while Leroy made short work of Floridian Anna Tunnicliffe and her team in just two more races to earn the spot to race Tulloch and defend her title.

The final series was a nail-biter, with Tulloch coming from behind in the second race to beat Leroy, and solidly in the lead throughout to win the fourth race, but Leroy and her team, including Elodie Bertrand, Marie Riou, and Claire Pruvot, were able to hold the challengers off for a second straight year and win the other three.  In the Petit-Final, Anna Tunnicliffe beat Sally Barkow 2-0.    For more Santa Maria Cup sailing and regatta information
  

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
  

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/22 Champion Greg Fisher- T2P.TV Interview

Greg Fisher on T2P.TV!  Check out this nice interview with Greg - perhaps one of one-design sailing's most gracious Champions.  Greg Fisher has spent a lifetime sailing one designs and along the way has won 21 championship events in 7 different classes (including Lightning and J/22 World Championships)-- a remarkable achievement in and of itself.  But, if you know Greg, what's more important to him is his untiring love for the sport and people in it, helping anyone who cares to ask, and often those who don't need to ask since he helps you anyways!  View Greg Fisher's T2P.TV interview.