J/Teams High On Sierra Regatta

(Huntington Lake, California)- The 60th High Sierras Regatta took place, as always, on one of the most remote and scenic venues on the west coast - Huntington Lake in the High Sierras of California. Hosted and run by Fresno Yacht Club volunteers, the regatta spans two weekends, the first on July 6-7 and the second on July 13-14.  The first weekend was made up of Centerboard Classes, with the second featuring mostly larger keelboats. The number of boats each weekend is limited by the US Forest Service, so entries are always on a first-come first-serve basis.

Over the past six decades, the High Sierra Regatta has had more than its fair share of Olympic gold medalists and National champions sailing in the event. The consistent winds, sunny days and beautiful scenery attract sailors from all over the country; sailing on fresh water in Central California's biggest lake regatta is hard to beat!

The first day of racing on Saturday saw 100+ keel boats on the water.  Imagine that many boats of wildly different speeds and sizes sharing a lake that is only 2.25 square miles long-- an anxiety attack mid-course is not in the cards if you want to sail well in this regatta! Like clockwork, the breeze built in time for the races to start at 10:55am, nearly the same time every day.

Competitors saw gusts up to 19 kts towards the top of the lake and lows of 6-8 kts towards the bottom. The wind was very puffy and shifty and it typically favored the south shore breeze. Boats that were able to stay in phase on the south shore and play most of the shifts made out over the boats playing the middle or the north shore.

On Sunday the wind was pretty similar to Saturday, very puffy and shifty, favoring the south shore again. With most boats short-tacking up the south shore and the breeze dissipating as you go up the lake, there was a lot of disturbed air. This was where "heroes became zeroes" and were shot out the back. The boats that could stay out of  disturbed air and avoid the holes along the shore were able to minimize their losses.  Some boats played it conservatively and found large, shifting breeze lanes going out across the lake in breeze.

PHRF B fleet saw the J/24 and J/22 do battle with a cast of Olson 25s and Merit 25s.  When all was said and done, Pat Bradley's J/24 OLD AND IN THE WAY took 2nd overall and Greg Greenlee's J/22 TEKEELA took third overall in class.

Bob Crooks J/80 WASAABI enjoyed their weekend on the lake and took 7th in PHRF A fleet.  They just nipped out classmate Jim Powell sailing his J/27 LEVITY, who took 8th in class.   Sailing photo credits- Eric Zamora- The Fresno Bee   For more High Sierras Regatta sailing information

J/22s & J/24s Love Rocky Mountain Highs!

(Dillon, Colorado)-  Billed as the world’s highest regatta at 9,017 ft above sea level, racing for the Dillon Open Regatta takes place on beautiful Dillon Reservoir in Dillon, Colorado, where sailors enjoy mostly sunny days and spectacular views of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains.  The regatta is hosted by the Dillon Yacht Club, the nation’s highest yacht club at 9,017 feet above sea level, located near the Continental Divide, a 70 mile drive west on I-70 from downtown Denver.

As Scott Spurlin from J/Boats Southwest once said, “It's been called the "Most dangerous Regatta in America", the "Highest Regatta in America", and the "Largest In-Land Lake Regatta West of the Mississippi". No matter what the claim-- the Dillon Open Regatta is a lot of fun!”

Think you're good at reading the wind? Lake Dillon would certainly test your skills! Mountains and valleys with rapidly changing weather again kept the tacticians on their toes this year!  With winds rolling down the steep mountain sides along the lakefront (or the occasional micro-burst blowing down vertically out of clear blue sky), the faster (and sometimes luckier) crews had a field day picking up windshifts and breeze lines to work themselves to the front of the fleet.

For well over 25 years, the J/24s from around the Midwest (as well as refugees from the heat in the Deep South) have made their annual migration to sail in the warm and friendly confines of Lake Dillon, nestled cozily in the Rocky Mountains.  Eight J/24 teams made the starting line this year.  It just so happened to be a good "vintage" year for the crew on Greg & Susan Johnson's PINOTAGE, posting three 1sts in their scoreline on their way to winning the J/24 class with a 5-1-3-1-1-2-3 record for 16 pts.  Alan Dille's crew on SEPTILLION made a valiant effort to remain in contention, but two 4ths in races 4 & 6 hurt their chances for a comeback.  Instead, SEPTILLION's 2-3-2-4-24.5-2 for 19.5 pts snagged them a second overall.  Taking two 1sts but not staying at all consistent was Frank Kelble's team on USA 1966, amassing a 1-5-4-5-4-1-4 for 24 pts to take third on the podium.  The balance of the top five was taken by Doug Pierini on COLD SMOKE in fourth and Stephen Bergman on EVENT HORIZON in fifth.

The Dillon Open has also bee quite popular with the J/22 class, this year fielding the largest one-design fleet in the regatta with twelve participants.  Sailing fast out of the starting blocks on the first day was Mike Kline's NAUTI-MOOSE, taking a 1-1-2-1 to never relinquish the lead for the rest of the regatta.  However, victory clearly did not come easy for this team.  After what appeared to have been premature celebrations taking place on Saturday night, the "Nauti-Boys" on NAUTI-MOOSE could only muster a 6-5-2 on the last day to barely hang onto their lead to take class honors!  David Baker's UP FOR AIR started slowly but closed the regatta with a 1-1-4 to take second overall.  Third was Robin Jackson & Kristin Zagray's BIG BUTT BOAT, closing with a 3-2-1 to show rapid improvement in the standings to take the silverware for third.  Fourth was Stan Strathman's SCREAMIN J and the "long-distance award" goes to fifth place finisher Richard Hallagan from Canandaigua YC on New York's Canandaigua Lake.   Sailing photo credits- Greg Schertz   For more Dillon Open Regatta sailing information

J/22 Worlds Update

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(Newport, RI)- Fifty-four teams from the U.S, Canada, South Africa and the Cayman Islands have already signed up to be a part of history at the 30th Anniversary J/22 World Championship, presented by Fidelity Investments this October 1st to 5th in Newport, Rhode Island. Registration is open until September 15, but the early deadline is August 14 to save $125.

So far, many of the top teams in the J/22 World are competing.  Think you could have some fun learning from some of  the world's best sailors in the world's second largest one-design offshore keelboat class (behind the J/24)??  The current roster includes the usual suspects of top teams from the Annapolis and Rochester fleets as well as some top dogs from Texas.  Spice it up with good teams from Cayman Islands, South Africa and nearly half dozen from Canada and you have a tremendously fun, competitive event.

The American teams will have past World Champion Terry Flynn leading the Texas contingent that also includes top sailor Mark Foster- a University of Texas All-American and 470 class ace.  The Annapolis gang includes Todd Hiller, Allan Terhune, Jeff Todd, Brad Julian, all of whom have won regional or national events.  From Rochester's fabled fleet are the Doyle boys- Chris and Kevin.  The Pennsylvania pair include Sandy Adzick and Kurt Swanson.  The Canadians are fielding teams from Quebec and Ontario, including Trevor Collins, David Godin, Johan Koppernaes, Jeff Love and Ron Harris.  Shellee Nel is sailing from South Africa and the top Cayman Islands team is led by Mike Farrington.  For more J/22 World Championship sailing information

Menzner Crushes Travemunde J/22 German Open

(Travemunde, Germany)- The 124th Travemunde Woche was a perfect rehearsal for the big anniversary in 2014, when the Travemunde Woche celebrates its 125th year. This year's event had ten fantastic days of sailing with great weather and lots of sun. The newly installed SAP Sail Cube, which enabled the public to watch the sailing action "live on-line", was an enormous asset this year.  Plus, the newly built seating facilities, which were provided by the town of Lübeck, turned the beach promenade into a real sailing theatre.  Dierk Faust, the Chairman of Travemunde Woche for the Lübeck Yacht Club said,  “Whereas the wind conditions created a few difficulties for us here and there, the onshore entertainment was fantastic.”

Enjoying every minute of the onshore festivities and excellent race management offshore were the seventeen J/22s participating in the German Open, hosted by Lubeck YC's Travemunde Week team.  Taking top honors was Martin Menzner's German crew that included Frank Lichte and Christian Drews, their six 1sts in eight races was a blitzkrieg of the J/22 competition.  Second was Reiner Brockherhoff's French team of Christoph Declerque and Charles Micahux with 16 pts.  With five 2nds, Frank Lammerskitten's German team of Sven Harder and Martin Hinrichsen could've finished second overall were it not for their inconsistent three 5ths they had to account for in their overall scoreline, settling for third place instead.  The rest of the top five included Svend Hartog's German team (Dirk Fischer, Anne Westfehling, Stefanie Schweder) in fourth and Nico van der Kolk's Netherlands team (Stephan Peulen and Julius Jansen) finishing fifth.

Visitors on shore were provided with a fine festival covering 80 thousand square metres with everything that makes life enjoyable. “A total of 200 stand operators of all sizes and with varied and very different offers made the TW a very successful event in Travemünde. Practically everyone was represented from young to old. The Holsten Beach Area had wonderful programmes for older generations, especially the ensemble with the SAP Sail Cube and the Pilot Stage for near-shore race viewing. "The international cuisine on offer to all the spectators, such as “Pfaffenglück” or organic burgers, as well as Italian delicacies, were very well received,” said Uwe Bergman at the end of the event. “We didn’t reach the one million mark of visitors because of the sweltering heat during the second half-– many people preferred to say on the beach!”   Sailing photo credits- Bilder von Christian Beeck   For more Travemunde Woche J/22 sailing information

J/Teams Enjoy Youngstown Level Regatta XL

(Youngstown, NY)- 181 boats raced on five circles in the 40th and Final Youngstown Level Regatta on the weekend of July 27-28.  For most of its history the Level has been the largest weekend keelboat regatta on Lake Ontario, at one time hitting a monstrous 466 boats!   Those were the days of 50 boat J/24 fleets and one design starts for most of the J designs popular at the time.  Since then things had settled down to a more manageable size but the Level still held a prominent place on the calendar for most racers within hundreds of miles.  Youngstown Yacht Club finally decided 40 years was enough and the organizers and volunteers deserved a break, so this was the last Level, to be replaced next year with a new event with details to be announced this fall.

Sailors did not want to miss out on the fun of the final event so attendance was up by almost 40 boats over 2012.  Conditions were generally favorable, light to moderate with the exception of a brief squall that came in Saturday afternoon that curtailed racing for the day.  Various J models were entered in 9 of the 26 divisions, and the largest division in the event was the J70 class with 17 boats.  In IRC 0 Bob Hesse and crew aboard the J111 Lake Effect lost the tie-breaker for first place, settling for second as they had done in Key West in January.  They have been dominating local PHRF racing this summer.  Stephen Trevitt in Crime Scene won the J35 class by two points over Mark DePaul in Remarkable.  In PHRF 1 the four J109s took the top four places, with Robert Eckersley's Blue Streak finishing ahead of Ed Werner in Moccasin and Murray Gainer in Lively.  Mark Bowman's J29 FROB Untamed was second in PHRF 3 and second and third places in PHRF 4 were taken by Mike Seitz in his J27 Northern Seitz over Dan Mather's very successful J30 Crusader.  The PHRF 7 division was made up of J22s and J24s, with Jack Doyle in his J22 winning over the J24s of Kevin McAuley and Tom Raes.  In non spinnaker racing Doug Clarke's J35C Rogue Wave was second in M&J 1.

The headline J70 fleet enjoyed their first major one design event on Lake Ontario with boats coming from Newport, the Chesapeake, Lake Erie, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ontario, Indiana, Florida and various NY ports.  In addition several borrowed boats were helmed by out of town sailors, including past J105 NA Champ Rolf Kaiser of San Francisco and long time J24 skipper Mark Pincus of Florida.  Competition was stiff with 5 different boats taking bullets over the 8 race series.  In the end Kerry Klinger edged out Marty Kullman by taking the final race, with Kris Werner finishing third.  This was Kris's first taste of real action in his new J70 and he had J24 hotshot Rossi Milev aboard to help him get up to speed.

The regatta was judged to be a terrific success with many fond memories being shared and praise was lavished on the volunteers for their years of hard work.  Everyone wants to know what YYC has our our sleeve for 2014 but we aren't quite ready to announce the sequel just yet. Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes @ TimWilkes.com.    For more Youngstown Level Regatta sailing information

J/Teams Love Bacardi Newport Regatta

J/70 CATAPULT, J/24 HELLY HANSEN, J/22 JULIAN ASSOCIATES Winners
(Newport, RI)- As has been the tradition for years, the Sail Newport team led by Brad Read and a select group of PRO's provided excellent race management over the course of the two-day Bacardi Newport Regatta to ensure most classes had four good races.

As the largest fleet in the regatta, remarkable considering it's "the new kid on the block", the J/70s managed to put twenty-two boats on the line for a highly competitive and fun event. Perhaps most importantly, the fleet has demonstrated that newcomers to the fleet can be quite competitive against earlier season "veterans" and sail quite well.  Following on earlier season success, Joel Ronning's CATAPULT team from Lake Minnetonka, MN sailed well with a 1-7-7-1 series for 16 pts to just beat out Bruno Pasquinelli's STAMPEDE team that sported a 9-4-2-2 scoreline for 17 pts-- it all came down to who-beat-who in the last race.  Taking third was Bennet Greenwald with a 4-1-6-10 tally for 21 pts-- fresh off wins on the Pacific Coast at Cal Race Week and Long Beach Race Week.  Dave Franzel's SPRING sailed a solid series, capturing a consistent 6-8-5-4 for 23 pts for fourth and lying fifth was newcomers TOUCH 2 PLAY sailed by Martin Kullman with a 5-6-1-12 record for 24 pts (nearly pulling off an overall win in their first try were it not for the last race "bomber" race!).

For the sixteen J/24s, it was a double-whammy, a District 2 Championship World's Qualifier and US Adult Sailing Championship Qualifier. And, to no one's surprise, it was Tim Healy that ran the table with straight firsts on HELLY HANSEN to take the J/24 title.  Fresh from sailing over in Europe was Mike Ingham (world-traveler man!), taking the second spot with a 5-2-2-2 record for an easy second place.  Sailing yet another BANGOR PACKET was Tony Parker taking third.  Fourth was Steve Kirkpatrick on BUCKSHOT and fifth was Mike Marshall on PIPE DREAM.

Nine J/22s sailed gaining good practice for the upcoming J/22 Worlds sailing in Newport in October 2013. And, what a practice it was!  For THREE teams all ended up tied at 9 pts each for first place!  How often does that happen?  Never heard of it before in decades of sailing.  Surprising some of the teams was the excellent performance by Brad Julian and crew on JULIAN ASSOCIATES, winning with a 4-2-2-1 record based on having most 1sts and 2nds.  Second on the tie-break was Chris Doyle's JUG 4 1 with a 3-3-1-2 tally and third on the tie-break was Jim Bernash with a 2-1-3-3 record-- losing the tie-break because of last race placing!  How cool is that?!  CLose racing and fun for all.  Fourth was Dave Godin and fifth was FJ Ritt.  For more Bacardi Newport Sailing information

Bacardi Newport Preview

(Newport, RI)- What has become a right of passage for New England summer sailors is the annual pilgrimage to Newport to sail what many consider one of America's best run regattas-- the Bacardi Newport Regatta.  Hosting nineteen one-design classes is never easy, but the management team of PRO's led by Brad Read always manage to make it happen no matter what cards the weather God's have thrown down on the table.  So far, the prognosticators indicate this year's event taking place from July 12th to 14th may end up with some classic Newport sea-breeze conditions.

The J/70's are "the new kid on the block" and as the world's fastest growing sportboat class is fielding a fleet of twenty competitors.  And, there's no doubt it will be quite a competitive affair with several top teams participating from the winter/ spring events like Key West, Charleston, St Pete and Annapolis.  Look for some of these teams to be in the top five, including James Allsopp's MOXIE, Joel Ronning's CATAPULT, Bennet Greenwald's PERSEVERANCE, Dave Franzel's SPRING, Blake Kimbrough's NOSTALGIA, Joe Bardenheier's MUSE, Bruno Pasquinelli's STAMPEDE and Jud Smith's Marblehead team.

For the sixteen J/24s, it' a double-whammy, a District 2 Championship World's Qualifier and US Adult Sailing Championship Qualifier.  As a result, Tim Healy is leaping back into the J/24s sailing HELLY HANSEN.  They will be challenged by arch nemesis Travis Odenbach on HONEY BADGER, Steve Wood on TASMANIAN DEVIL, Frank McNamara on ZOT, Ian Scott on CRACK OF NOON and Aidan Glackin on MENTAL FLOSS.

Nine J/22s will be racing and for many it may prove to be good practice for the upcoming J/22 Worlds sailing in Newport in October 2013.  Expect to see amongst the top boats champion J/22 sailor Chris Doyle sailing JUG 4 1, Brad Julian skippering JULIAN ASSOCIATES, Lowell Thomas on CHAOS and Matt Dunbar on WHARF RAT.  For more Bacardi Newport Sailing information