Mercedes J/22 North Americans

Fisher Wins Again!

(Buffalo, NY)- This past weekend, over 50 teams from across the United States and Canada sailed on the waters of Lake Erie in the Mercedes-Benz 2010  J/22 North American Championship, hosted by the Buffalo Yacht Club in Buffalo, NY.  In the end, J/22 class leader Greg Fisher from Annapolis, MD again proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he's one of North America's most versatile one-design class sailors.  Greg and his team of Jeff Eiber, Jo Ann Fisher and Martha Fisher, on their J/22 Team WHAT KINDA GONE finished the event with 30 points over five races.  It certainly didn't start out that way for Greg and crew.  On the first day, they were in a three-way battle for second. 

Chris Doyle of Kenmore, NY dominated day one.  Team SOLID LAYER finished the day with just 12 points over four races. A three-way battle ensued for the next spots between Todd Hiller, Greg Fisher and Jim Barnash (28 points). Competitors experienced winds starting around 12 knots, building to 15-20 with large waves.  Todd Hiller kicked off the event by winning race one, followed by Canadian Champion Gordon McIlquham and David McBrier. In race two, Terry Flynn took the top spot, trailed by Chris Doyle and Greg Fisher. Chris Doyle had a strong showing in race three, besting John Loe in second and Fisher in third. In the day's final race, Flynn returned to the first position, followed by Fisher and Kevin Doyle.

By the last day Sunday the tables had turned on the top three completely, looking nothing like the first day of sailing.  No racing was completed on the final day of the regatta due to a lack of consistent winds. After a rare score of 20 in the first race of the event, Fisher tallied two third-place finishes and two second-place finishes. Following Fisher in the silver position is Jim Barnash with 35 points, then Rochester favorite Chris Doyle with 36.  For more J/22 North American sailing and results information.  Sailing Photo Credits- Tim Wilkes Photography.
  

J/Fests Southwest and West!

Coming up soon are two excellent J/Fest events that are taking place on the West Coast and in Texas.  For starters, the J/Fest Newport Beach is the western version being held from September 16-19th in Newport Beach, CA and hosted by Balboa Yacht Club (http://www.balboayachtclub.com). 

For the Texas "hoe-down" version, be sure to attend the J/Fest Southwest being held for the first time on October 16-17 in Galveston Bay and hosted by the Lakewood Yacht Club.  As LYC Race Committee Chairman Dwight Bengtson explained, “J/Fest Regattas have been held for over 25 years in such venues as Annapolis, Newport Beach, CA; New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle.  This will be a great opportunity for Lakewood to promote and support a national caliber event.” One design fleets slated for the J/Fest Regatta include J/22, J/24, J/29, J/80, J/105 and the J/109.  All J/Boats are welcome to race in the PHRF classes and in the J/Cruise class.  Any J/Boat is eligible to participate and the regatta organizers intend to offer several exciting formats for the non One Design racers. To learn more detail about registering for the J/Fest Southwest, please check the home page of Lakewood Yacht Club.
  

Mercedes J/22 North Americans

(Buffalo, NY)- This week, more than 60 teams from across the United States and Canada will compete August 18-22 on the waters of Lake Erie in the Mercedes-Benz of Buffalo 2010  J/22 North American Championship, hosted by the Buffalo Yacht Club in  Buffalo, NY.  The event, which is attracting J/22 racing boats from as far away as Texas, Louisiana, Michigan and Quebec, is part of the Buffalo Yacht  Club's sesquicentennial anniversary celebration.   For more J/22 North American sailing and results information.  Sailng Photo Credit- Tim Wilkes
  

Dillon Open Regatta- World's Highest Regatta

J/22s, J/24s, J/80s Need Oxygen Masks?

(Dillon, Co)- On the first weekend of August, the Dillon Yacht Club again hosted the world's highest regatta at 9,017 ft above sea level.  Racing was held on beautiful Lake Dillon in Dillon, Colorado (a town about 70 miles west of Denver high-up in the Rocky Mountains) where the sailors enjoyed sunny days, insanely shifty, puffy winds (vertical micro-bursts?) and spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains ringing this spectacular lake.

Participating in this years regatta were one-design fleets of J/22s, J/24s and J/80s, with a total of 25 J's participating-- a huge turnout for such rarified air!

In the J/22s, Bill Darling sailed his CAMP ROBBER to six firsts, dominating the eleven boat J/22 fleet and winning by 12.5 points.  Second was David Baker sailing the appropriately named UP FOR AIR (remember, they are sailing over a mile high in the air!), sailing to a 3-3-2-4.5-3-3 record for 18.5 points.  Third was Lyn Nicks on WALK OF SHAME (who as the inspiration for that name?) with a 2-4-4-2-5-4 tally for 21 points.  The J/22s had a great time and it's wonderful to see the fleet continue to grow.

The J/24s are one of Lake Dillon's oldest one-design keelboat fleets, having been formed back in the late 70s with luminaries like ski-boot legend Denny Hanson racing avidly over the years.  Still hanging tough and having a wonderful time sailing Dillon's crazed wind patterns were ten boats from around the Rocky Mountain states.  This year, Greg Johnson sailed PINOTAGE to a pretty convincing win with a 4-1-1-1-2-1 record for 10 points, nine points clear of second place.  Jill Nelson (you go girls!!) was second sailing FLY MO'Js with a 1-2-5-2-5-4 score for 19 points.  Third was Matt Weiler on SHOOTING STAR, starting out slow but finishing with a flourish, getting a 7-4-2-5-1-2 tally for 21 points.

The J/80s are beginning to build their class on the lake and this year saw four boats entered.  In the end, Kurt Vanderwall traded off 1sts and 2nds with David Leavenworth to determine the regatta leader.  After the smoke cleared, it was Kurt's HENDRIX that took it with 5 firsts and a second over David's HARMATTAN with five seconds and a first.   For more Dillon Open Sailing information.
  

J/22 Travemunder Woch Regatta

JABBADABBADOO Wins The Party!

(Travemunder, Germany)- in the first weekend of August, the J/22 German class hosted their renowned Travemunder Woche Party--- er, sailing regatta.  Here's an amusing story from Team JABBADABBADOO that hail from the Netherlands J/22 fleet, daring to venture across the border, trailer their boat after the J/22 Worlds to parts unknown up north where different tribes of J/22 sailors lurk, awaiting in the shallows to launch an ambush on unsuspecting sailors who haven't cracked a smile in weeks (if not years!).  Here's JABBADABBADOO's report-

"From all the German J/22 sailors, we had heard that we had to go to the Travemunder Woche to party and sail this huge event. So nicely convinced by them, we packed our JABBADABBADOO! and went to Germany!

We even convinced our favorite German sailor to join us (and even more important) to train us- "Welcome on board of the JABBADABBADOO Mssr. Falko! And training we needed, from rigging to trimming to maneuvers.

The first day brought wind, a lot of wind-- our cowboy attitude in hoisting the spinnaker was instantly punished-- we broached big-time, and we went swimming (a complete Stan and half a Nadine), "J down for the count", we're in the water, but Falko was already at the spinnaker halyard, rescuing us, our J/22 and keeping our third place in the race! Lessons learned-- release the spinnaker, don't panic, and enjoy the ride, the J will be up in 20 seconds!

With a third and a ninth place we were completely happy with that day, having already exceeded all our expectations. Time to celebrate with all the other J sailors on board the beautiful four-masted ship PASSAT and later for cocktails and music to the Travemunder Party (all promises proved true-- it is an excellent place to sail AND to party)!

Two more days ahead and we started the second day again with more wind than predicted (but thankfully a bit less than the day before). After a 5th place (involving some more swimming crew-members) we went on with a steep learning curve, leading to an incredible (for us) second and first place in our J/22.

We celebrated this in all forms at the end of this day with a BBQ organised by the class association (yummmy, such nice Bratwurste) and well deserved German beer!

The third racing day brought no wind and we could just enjoy the sail (and tow back).

It was such a great weekend, a superb party, a fantastic sail and even more important great company on our boat, but also on shore with all the other J/22 sailors!

And we know that we have so much to "thank" Falko who coached us perfectly and proved to us that our boat can be fast and point! The race results were great, but the learning curve thanks to Falko's training was much more important to us. Thank you!"  Most respectfully, Team JABBADABBADOO- Nadine Fritz, Audrey Paterson, Stan Heltzel und Falko Braun- pictured here.  Team website- http://jabbadabbadoo.eu/   For more Travemunde Woch Regatta sailing information.
  

McIlquham Wins J22 Canadians

(Port Credit, Ontario)- Port Credit Yacht Club put on a great 2010 Canadian Championship regatta from July 10 – 11. Despite fairly light wind, the Race Committee did a fantastic job and were able to get seven races off. 

Newcomers to the fleet, Gord Mcilquham, his wife Maryann Turcke, and their 2 daughters, Emily and JJ, showed us all how it’s done, walking off with the trophy sailing PRUDENCE to a solid 6-3-1-1-2-3-2 record for eighteen points.  It was pretty clear they were learning the ropes as they went along, starting out slowly but finishing with a flourish!  Second just five points back was Travis Odenbach sailing INSTIGATOR sailing to a 7-2-2-2-8-1-1 record, nearly pulling off the Championship themselves excepting a "hairball" fifth race where they got in trouble and dropped off their regatta winning pace.  Third was American Kevin Doyle sailing  MO'MONEY.

The Canadian J/22 fleet continues to grow on Lake Ontario.  Join them and have some fun! A few new boats showed up this year: the winning boat PRUDENCE from Royal Canadian YC, Jerry Wendt from Niagara YC, SPACEBALL from Nepean (Marg Hurley) and ECLIPSE from BHYC (Brian Young). Thanks to EVERYONE for coming out!  For more J/22 Canadian Championship sailing info.