J/70 Crushes Hot Rum Class 4

J/105 Flies To Class 3 Win
(San Diego, CA)- The last major San Diego YC racing event came to a close on the first day of December with the final of three races in the Hot Rum Series. The fleet of 130 boats in 6 classes enjoyed gorgeous sunny, warm "winter" sailing conditions on the 11.9 nm  pursuit race course located off the majestic Point Loma.

Race 1 was simple enough with nice sun and a great wind, and the usual inquisitions and opinions over ratings.  The conditions favored the smaller sport boats and the early finish line looked a little like a J/105 regatta. But you know what they say about the Hot Rum, one "nice day", one "light day".

And so, the fleet experienced "the light day" for Race 2.  Sunny, yes, but very light winds.  There was enough breeze (6+ knots) to whisk everyone out to the half-way mark in the Roads, but the wind evaporated from there. The larger boats, that have 50+ feet of mast and sail up in the air, managed to make enough breeze to ghost to the finish.  A last little puff of wind just before the 1600 deadline brought the front of the other five fleets to the finish, but in total, only 57 of the registered 130 boats finished.  Several boats received ratings adjustments that reduced their handicaps (estimated their speed faster) at the start of Race 2, and after a protest hearing, those boats were given redress (RDG) of a time credit for that race and their ratings were returned to those posted for Race 1. The redress did not change any of the results.

And the last part of the saying about the weather for the Hot Rum says "one stormy day".  But despite the low clouds and rain through the night, a really nice day popped out of the clouds around 10 am.  At noon, fluffy white clouds with 10+ knots of wind got the race going in perfect Hot Rum conditions.

In the "big boat" Class 1, the J/125s were having a tough time against the 60-70 footers with their sky-scraping masts.  On the second race, the big rigs had their day, all finishing at the lead of the class and overall.  Amongst the J/125s, the top boat was essentially determined on a three-way tie-breaker!  Jim Madden's STARK RAVING MAD had a 25-11-5 for 41 pts to be top dog amongst the 125s.  Second was Viggo Torbenson's TIMESHAVER with a 12-15-14 also for 41 pts!  Third was Tim Fuller's RESOLUTE with a 15-13-13 for 42 pts.

Class 2 was made up of J/109s, J/120s and J/124s.  Leading the J's home was John Laun's J/120 CAPER, getting 2nd in class with a 1-9-2 for 12 pts, nearly taking the entire event had they sailed a slightly better second race!  Second J/120 was Mike Hatch's J-ALMIGHTY with a 12-7-4 for 23 pts and third J/120 was Chuck Nichols' famous CC RIDER with a 5-11-11 for 27 pts.  Amongst the J/124s, Seth Hall's MARISOL was the leader with a 21-15-9 for 45 pts, beating classmate Tom Barker sailing his boat, GOOD CALL.  Top J/109 was Rex Butler's JD followed by the Pikin/ Carter/ Bush trio on GERONIMO and third 109 home was Daylen Teren's GREAT BALLS OF FIRE.

As usual, the J/105 fleet gave everyone enormous headaches in Class 3.  Taking both the Class and J/105 honors was Sharon and Dennis Case sailing WINGS to a 4-3-1 scoreline for just 8 pts.  Second 105 home was Dave Vieregg's TRIPLE PLAY with a 2-5-4 tally for 11 pts.  Third was the Dagostino/ Fisher duo on VIGGEN with a 3-9-3 for 15 pts.

Making their mark in Class 4 were four J/70s-- three of which were sailed by sailmaker teams on boats provided by Jeff Brown's JK3 Yachts.  After the dust had cleared, the top dog amongst the 70s was Bruce Cooper sailing J/70 ULLMAN to a record of 1-2-3 for 6 pts, winning the 70s, winning Class 4 and getting 20th overall!  Pretty good show for their first time out in the Hot Rum.  Second 70 was J/70 QUANTUM with a 3-10-12 for 25 pts and third was Hugh Bennett sailing J/70 #31 to a 14-10-7 for 31 pts.

Class 5 had several of the J/Classics sailing.  Getting third overall was Mark Clements' J/24 BRIGADOON with a 4-3-6 record for 13 pts.  Finishing behind them was the J/22 GOOD ONE! sailed by Shala Lawrence and the J/24 IRIE sailed by Jeremy Miller.

Many thanks to Mount Gay Rum and San Diego Yacht Club and the Race Committee for their support of this hallmark event.  Mark you calendars now for next year's Hot Rum (Nov. 9, 23, Dec. 7)!  Sailing photo credits- Bob Betancourt and Bronny Daniels/ JOY Sailing.   For more San Diego YC Hot Rum sailing information

San Diego & Santa Barbara Epic Opening Days

J/105's Smoke the Fleets
(California, USA)- The tradition has been a long-standing one for yacht clubs around the world to have an "opening day", symbolic of the start of a new year, a new sailing season, re-affirmation of belonging to the "local tribe", participating in various "tribal rites of passage" with lots of pomp, circumstance, dressy stuff and good-natured bantering fueled for the most part by good food, drink and friends.

Nowhere is the tradition more laid-back than it is on the West Coast of America.  After all, watching sunsets on the beach is a right of passage, as is surfing to Hawaii on massively fast "sleds", and blasting down the Cal/Mex coastline to some destination called La Paz, Ensenada, Cabo or PV.  This year, two of those opening days were in for a treat, atypical conditions that challenged the best of the best in San Diego and Santa Barbara.

San Diego YC's opening day was an eye-opener.  "Fresh to frightening" or "epic" may have been adjectives assigned to massive chop, 18-30 knot winds and a bit thrill ride of for some.  Of course, the J/105 teams were simply licking their chops, knowing their erstwhile competitors might be doing the wrong kind of "pole dance" as they spun around in broaches all day long!  The SDYC opening day event is an incredibly fun "pursuit race", where slowest start first and fastest last.  In fact, J/22s started first and TP 52s were last!

After the fleet crashed and bashed, surfed and broached their way home, it was the J/105s that swept the fleet- WINGS (Dennis & Sharon Case) that finished first, followed by AIRBOSS and TRIPLE PLAY in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.  As was commented by one of their crew- " Surfing and planing on the downwind leg and having control in the beats were the keys to success and how much fun was THAT!"  Awesome stuff.

On the Santa Barbara YC opening day side of things, their classic "WNW" breeze blew in fresh and fast making for a spectacular afternoon of sailing.  With J/105s, J/29, J/92, J/100, J/145, J/22 and J/24s all making a go of it, it was the J/105s that had a spectacular showing.  Leading the fleet home were SHORT SKIRT followed by Ken Kieding's new ADVANCE (the old ROCK'N'ROLL) and ESCAPADE.

For more SDYC (http://www.sdyc.org) and SBYC (http://www.sbyc.org) sailing information.

Blustery Stone Cup Regatta

J/120 DESDEMONA and J/105 JAM SESSION Win

(San Francisco, CA)- Under grey skies and blustery winds the St. Francis Yacht Club's Stone Cup event was held this past weekend of May 15-16. The racing was tight in each of the J one-design divisions.  Typical San Francisco Bay weather greeted the Stone Cup sailors for two days of racing hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club. The Marine Layer that had been missing all year showed its presence over the weekend ensuring the fleets would have plenty of wind for racing. With a strong flood tide providing flat water, at least flat by San Francisco standards, and 15-25 mph of wind from the first gun, each day of racing would have been perfect it wasn't so darn cold!

The 16 boat J/105 class was missing local scratch boat GOOD TIMIN' but the competition was still fierce in this hotly contested one design class. Three different boats each won one of the four races held, but it was Adam Spiegel's JAM SESSION that came out on top. Bruce Stone's ARBITRAGE took second and Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK took third. Each of these two boats also won races individually with BLACKHAWK winning race 2 and 4 and ARBITRAGE winning race three. Simmons probably has a story to tell about his 10th place finish in race one. With a 10-1-3-1 scoring line something dramatic happened, gone shrimping?

In the 40ft J/120 class DESDEMONA owned by John Wimer took the victory while MR. MAGOO helmed by Steve Madeira from Northeast Harbor, ME took second. The podium was rounded out by DAYENU in third but only by the narrowest of margins did the Donald Payan boat miss second place. It went down to the last race in which MR MAGOO took the bullet and put two boats between himself and DAYENU (fourth) and even then it went to a tiebreaker with MR MAGOO taking second by virtue of that low score first place finish.  For more St. FYC Stone Cup sailing information     Photo credits- H20Shots.com/ Erik Simonson  

Huge J Fleet @ SW NOOD Annapolis

(Annapolis, MD)- Looks like it will be a stellar turn-out for this weekend's SW NOOD Regatta sailing on Chesapeake Bay. 210+ boats to enjoy a sunny, bright weekend in the 80s and warm southerlies-- at least that's the forecast from Meteo Norteamericano-- one hopes NOAA Marine meteorologists have got it right for once.  The J Fleet is enormous with 117+ boats attending (nearly 60% of the entire NOOD fleet) and representatives from across the spectrum of one-design classes and coming from all points of the compass across the Eastern seaboard- from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (our ice hockey mad friends from way up North) down to Houston, TX (our Tex-Mex bronco-busting cow hands from the real South) and from Boston, MA (that sport crazy town renowned for the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics- what else is there?) out to Chicago, IL (another sport crazy town).  Here's a class-by-class report and some of the leaders to watch for this weekend.
The eight boat J/109 One-Design class will have class champions Rick Lyall and Bill Sweetser vying for honors in this closely fought fleet.  Rick's J/109 STORM is dashing south from winning the first day sailing at American YC Spring Series to participate in the first event of the J/109 East Coast Championship.  And, rumor has it Bill Sweetser's RUSH is ready to rock-n-roll.  Should be an interesting match up that sets the standard for the rest of the J/109 season series!

The J/105 One-Design class has twenty-five boats showing up along with some past class champions.  Amongst them will be teams like Jack Biddle's RUM PUPPY, Andrew Kennedy's BAT IV racing with Drake Johnstone as tactician, Jim Rathbun sailing HEY JUDE who finished third in the 2009 North American Championship, Bob Reeves on A-TRAIN, Carl and Scott Gitchell on TENACIOUS and Travis Weisleder on LUCKY DOG.  All these boats are well-sailed and any one of these boats are capable of winning or getting podium finishes.

With thirty-five boats, the J/80 One-Design class is by far the biggest at the regatta.  The J/80s are racing the fourth event in the 2010 USA Tour that leads up to the Worlds in Newport.  A strong Texas contingent is showing up, including past World Champion Terry Flynn on B-TEAM, class leaders Jay Lutz and Gary Kamins on FIRED UP, and Bruno Pasquinelli.  The Massachusetts teams from around Boston/Buzzards Bay are fielding some remarkably strong crews, including past J/105 North American and Key West Champion Brian Keane racing SAVASANA, past J/105 New England Champion and Sonar Champion Henry Brauer who has Stuart Johnstone aboard as tactician sailing RASCAL and Henry de Groot on WIRED.  The locals from Annapolis who expect to give everyone a serious run for the money include Ken Mangano's MANGO, Brian Robinson's ANGRY CHAMELEON, Aaron Galvin's WILLY T and Chris Johnson's DRAGONFLY.

In the J/22s, twenty-two boats will include a strong local contingent comprised of the current J/22 Midwinter and World Champion Greg Fisher racing WHAT KINDA GONE and Jeff Todd on HOT TODDY going up against some of the Rochester gang such as Chris Doyle on SOLID LAYER and Travis Odenbach on INSTIGATOR.

For the fifteen J/24s sailing, local legend Tony Parker on BANGOR PACKET (remember him leading the J/24 Worlds for a day or so?) will be leading the charge and still teaching some of the kids new tricks on how to get around the race track like the crafty old fox that he is.

The J/30s and J/35s are each eleven boats strong! That's a terrific turn-out for these two classes and familiar names like BIG KAHUNA, CHAOS, REBEL YELL, MEDICINE MAN, BAD COMPANY, AUNT JEAN, MAGGIE, BAD GIRL will be mixing it up with everyone for bragging rights in these perennial one-design classes.   More news soon.  You can follow the action at Sailing World's site.  

J/Fest West 2010

Stormy, Grey Weather Thrashes the Bay

(San Francisco, CA)- The fleet of J's that gathered together for this year's J/Fest were greeted by stormier than normal weather and with breeze directions that were nowhere near the norm for San Francisco Bay.  Here's an account of what it was like to race in the J/105 fleet from the winner, Bruce Stone sailing his boat ARBITRAGE- "It rained and was cold and gusty, up to 25 knots, out of the southeast, so they put the starting line between Harding Rock Buoy near Angel Island and Alcatraz, and ran us to the south near Aquatic Park, a routing I have never done before, across the shipping lanes and across the tide...and the wind near the shore was in the 8-11 range so setting the rig tension was tricky.  Needless to say it was our kind of cockamamie race. We had a good start, duked it out with 4-5 boats who also sailed well, and ultimately won the race. It rained quite hard toward the finish, the front went through and they sent us home.  The wind died after we hit the dock!"  Photo Credit- Erik Simonson/ h2oshots.com

In the 22 boat strong J/105s it was a donnybrook as usual for the top five sailors.  Who won was determined by the finish of the last "cockamamie" race with St. Francis YC's ARBITRAGE avoiding a bad race and just beating Tiburon's Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK, getting a first to Scooter's ninth.  Bruce's team on ARBITRAGE won with a 1-6-3-1 1 tally, beating by four points Scooter Simmons sailing BLACKHAWK with a 4-1-1-9 record. Lying third was Phil Laby and Rick Pipkin's RACER-X from Alameda just two points back....again with a mathematical chance to win in the last race despite their 9th place in the third race.  Photo Credit- Erik Simonson/ h2oshots.com

The J/120 class also saw spirited competition with eight boats.  Racing with several "ringers" from the New England area was Northeast Harbor's Steve Madeira on MR MAGOO, winning by just two points over Harry Lewis' team on CHANCE from San Francisco (see the J/Calendar photo of them!).  Both boats had nearly identical records, MAGOO with a 1-3-1-1 record and CHANCE with 3-1-2-2!  Just off these two boats blistering pace was Don Payan's DAYENU from San Francisco with a 2-4-5-3 score to capture third on the podium with fourteen points.

The J/24s had a blast as usual amongst the seven boats.  Berkeley's Mike Whitfieldon aboard TMC RACING won with a strong 1-1-2-1 record, winning by five points over Darren Cummings' DOWNTOWN UPROAR from Treasure Island with a 2-2-3-3 score to garner second place and Don Taylor's ON BELAY from Brickyard Cove finishing with 4-4-1-2 to get third overall. 

The J Handicap fleet had six boats.  The winner was definitely not determined until the closing minutes of their last race.  The J/22 called CHEESEBURGER became the giant-killer in this fleet.  The CHEESEBURGER gang led by Peter Lane from Paradise Cay won on a squeaker, and a tie-breaker, over Trig Liljestrand of Belvedere Cove on RAGTIME, the super-fast J/90- a downwind flyer in most conditions.  Third was Cam Lewis of Monterey, CA sailing his J/22 TRINITY.  Share For more J/Fest sailing information