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(Halifax, Nova Scotia)- The SAIL CANADA Women's Keelboat Championships
are held annually at member clubs. The venue rotates around the country and is
selected based on availability of a fleet of one design keelboats for use by
competitors. For 2013, the regatta was co-hosted by Bedford Basin Yacht
Club and the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. The three day Championship -
sailed in J/22s - saw forty women participate from Nova Scotia, British
Columbia, Ontario and Manitoba. From a historical perspective, it has been the
most successful Women's Canadian Keelboat championships held to date.
The
regatta saw many top women's teams from across Canada participate with everyone
having an equal chance at the overall championship due to the regatta
format. Everyone had a chance to sail different, equalized, boats each
day to make it fun and challenging for all whom participated.
The results were close after the first two days of racing in Herring Cove with
fabulous su
nny
days with fairly steady winds from the north 10-15 knots. At the time,
first place was Michele Cimon from NYC with 7.0 points, second was Cathy Shaw
from RNSYS 7.0 pts and third Karen Fowler from BBYC with 14 pts. Then, the
teams all looked forward to a Saturday evening celebration.
Saturday night was considered "THE NIGHT" for most teams. The famously fun "HOPPING
PENGUIN's" dance and celebration on the deck of the Royal
Nova Scotia 
Yacht
Squadron's deck was off the charts-- plus it was free!
Light breeze and sunny skies on Sunday saw the last of nine races with the top
three on the podium going to Cathy Shaw and team from RNSYS-- crowned as the
new Canadian Women's Champion, second place to Michele Cimon of Nepean Yacht
Club and third to Karen Fowler from BBYC. For sailing photos of the event by Sherri Christie check here!
Sail Canada Facebook J/22 page For more Sail Canada Women's National Championship sailing
information
(San Diego, CA)- Attention all J/Sailors, you're invited to J/Fest 2013, September 27 - 29 at San Diego Yacht Club! J/Fest boasts a long history of being one of the most fun and well attended regattas in SoCal, exclusively for J/Boats! The regatta is open to one design classes as well as a J/Boat PH fleet!
There are two Racing Venues for the fleets. One is inside San Diego Bay racing on some nice flat water-- for the J/22, J/24, J/70. J80 one-design fleets. On the outside sailing in the wide-open ocean off beautiful Point Loma are the J/105, J/109 and J/120 one-design fleets along with the J/PHRF fleets.
The schedule for the event includes the following:
Friday - "Just for Fun" race on the San Diego Bay, 4:00 start. Casual social event at SDYC
Saturday - 3 races, Awesome J/Fest Party Saturday evening at SDYC
Sunday - 2 races, prize giving party at SDYC
Get your crew together and join us on the water for two days of competitive and fun buoy racing plus on shore for the social festivities. Saturday evening the traditional J/Fest Party will be held with tons of awesome swag and giveaways from our sponsors, the prize giving will be held after racing on Sunday afternoon! With an anticipated attendance of over 60 boats, this is the one regatta you do not want to miss this year! For any questions, please contact Joanne O'Dea at email- joanne@jk3yachts.com or on phone # 619-347-9407. For more J/Fest SAN DIEGO registration and sailing information
(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
(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
(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
(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
(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
