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

J/70s Love Hot Rum Race #1

J/105 Masters Crush Fleet, J/120 Wins Too!(San Diego, CA)- This past weekend marked the first of the infamous three weekend series of "pursuit" races sailed off San Diego's Point Loma.  An annual fall right of passage in the southernmost part of California, over 120 boats participated in near picture perfect conditions with winds blowing from the NNW at 10-15 kts.  As the little, slower rating boats took off in sunny, breezy conditions on a long starboard tack reach out the Pt Loma shipping channel on a SW course to the first mark under spinnakers, you could practically hear the J/Teams smacking their chops knowing the first two legs would be fast spinnaker reaches before the long beat home to Pt Loma with a quick port tack reach home to the finish line just off Shelter Island.

Leading the entire fleet home were the J/105s, most of whom were participating in the J/105 Masters Regatta. First boat home sailing an amazing race was Bruce Munro's team from St Francis YC, however, as they finished they discovered they were OCS'd by the RC.  As a result, the first official finisher was John Andron's team, also from StFYC; they were followed by the famous yacht designer Ron Holland from Ireland in 2nd; local hero, World Star champion and SDYC benefactor Malin Burnham finished in 3rd; fourth was yet another famous sailmaker, World Soling Champion, Hans Fogh from Denmark and Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and in 6th was local champion Rick Goebel on SANITY.

Class 2 was won by John Laun's J/120 CAPER with fellow J/120 sailor Chuck Nichols sailing his famous CC RIDER in 5th. Peter Zarcades J/120 MELTEMI ended up 9th.

Class 4 saw the debut of the J/70s.  And, what a debut it was with the group of four J/70s having a very close start and taking off in the first giant puff like a Navy F-18 getting shot off the catapult on an aircraft carrier!  Taking off with foam hissing in their wake, the J/70s quickly overhauled all their competitors in front of them.  In the end, the J/70s took 1st and 3rd.  Leading them home was J/70 ULLMAN SAILS in 1st with the J/70 QUANTUM SAILS team taking 3rd.  The J/70 NORTH SAILS team was 2nd across the line but suffered a similar fate as their J/105 counterparts (the Munro team) by having to take an OCS.  For more Hot Rum Series 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.

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
  

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

J's Enjoy Gorgeous Sailing At Charleston Race Week

J Sailors Love Southern Hospitality!

(Charleston, SC- Apr 9-11)- After the first two days at 2010 Charleston Race Week brought winds of up to 20 knots, the final day of racing eased up to just 8-12 knots of warm wind blowing across the harbor. For the 184 teams competing, not a frown was seen on the hundreds of faces at the awards ceremony on Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina's sandy beach. "The city, the weather and the event organizers couldn't have presented this town any better," said local sailing coach Ryan Hamm, whose J/24 PIGS FLY TOO finished in 6th place. "The competition is stiff, and it's great to see so many sailors learn to love Charleston.

Chilly temperatures greeted the record fleet of racing sailboats on Friday. Braving 55 degree-morning temperatures and a wind-chill driven by the 20-knot breeze made the racing "a serious adrenalin rush", as competitor Peter Crawford put it. Temperatures reached the 70s by noon, providing picture perfect sailing conditions to start race week off with a bang. "I don't know if conditions could be any more perfect than today," said Christof Wieland, who traveled all the way from Germany to compete in his second Charleston Race Week.  By Saturday morning, more nice wind, warm sun and waves graced Charleston with picture-perfect conditions. For the second straight day, winds up to 20 knots propelled the J fleets across all four courses.  Sunday dawned with a big change to the previous two extreme sailing days, with just 8 - 12 knots of warm wind blowing across the harbor.

The J/80s had a tough twenty boat fleet, with many serious North American and Worlds contenders vying for the top spots.  After the smoke cleared, past World Champion Kerry Klingler skippering LIFTED just beat out the Roger/Welan team sailing B-TEAM on a tie-breaker, each finishing with 22 points, taking seven first places of the ten races between them.  Key West Race Week winners Glenn Darden and Reese Hillard finished third in LE TIGRE, fourth was Bruno Pasquinelli on TIAMO and fifth was Henry Brauer and Will Welles on RASCAL.

The seventeen boat strong J/24 fleet had a great turnout for this event and they certainly enjoyed the breezy conditions racing inside Charleston Harbor.  Chip Till on MURDER INCORPORATED managed to hang onto the lead on the last day to win by one point over Joe McDonald on REX.  Chris Jankowski finished third.  The top three were a tough bunch, garnering all ten first places distributed amongst them!

The J/105s had a small but highly competitive class of six boats.  The top three were trading off the fleet lead all three days, race to race.  At the end of their scrum, Jackson Benvenutti's LITTLE BOOTY prevailed on yet another tie-breaker over veteran J/105 campaigner, Damian Emery and the beautiful flag blue hulled ECLIPSE.  Bill Zartler and crew aboard SOLARIS sailed great on the last day, getting two bullets, but not enough to take on the fleet leaders, finishing just three points back in third. Like the J/24s, this tough bunch took all eight firsts places in the regatta.

In the first ever IRC fleet at this race week, the J/122 TEAMWORK that won last year's handicap class sailed nicely to finish third overall.  Seemingly, the crazy currents, tide lines and wave conditions conspired to favor the larger boats, the winner was a custom IRC RP52 called VINCITORRE with straight firsts.

In PHRF A, Will Hanckel's J/120 EMOCEAN sailed the offshore course, finishing just one point out of first.  On the last day, a soul-satisfying 2-1 got them into the hunt, but not enough to win the event, having to settle for second place.  In PHRF B, Willy Schwenzfeier's J/35 ARROW had fun sailing to a fourth overall.  In PHRF D, the three masthead J/29s were having a ball racing against each other.  At the end, Jim Mackevich's FOR SAIL beat out perennial Key West Race Week participant (and often winner) Steve Thurston's MIGHTY PUFFIN from Rhode Island.  Miles Martschink's MONGO didn't sail the first day but still managed a fourth in fleet.   For more regatta/ sailing information on Charleston Race Week.