Marblehead NOOD Mecca for J/Sailors

Huge J/105, J/24, J/30 Fleet Turnouts
(Marblehead, MA)- With the Sperry Top-Sider Marblehead NOOD Regatta kicking off on Thursday and the J/105 North Americans coming in August, the racing scene on Boston's North Shore is heating up this summer.  By Sunday afternoon, the overall winner of the Marblehead NOOD gets the final invitation to November's Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship, during which the overall winners from all eight NOOD locations will race comfy, slow charter-boats equipped with monster blenders and ice-makers in the British Virgin Islands-- pre-equipped with recipes for "painkillers" and "mudslides"?

For many J/105 sailors, the Marblehead NOOD will serve as a tune up for the class's North American championship, which takes place at Eastern YC from August 10 to 14. "Our local fleet of 17 regular competitors will grow to 30 boats," says class representative Jack Attridge. "They're coming from as far away as California, Texas, and Canada.  The local J-105 fleet has attracted about 20 boats on a regular basis for recent NOOD regattas," continues Attridge. "It's a very competitive, owner-driver friendly fleet. The J/105 North American's committee, headed by Doug Morgan of STEEL AWAY III, has been very busy putting together a first-class event and the week promises to be fun and very competitive."

Doug Morgan and his father, Peter, are stalwarts of Marblehead's J/105 fleet. "For years, the J/105 fleet has been growing and attracting some of the best one-design sailors in this area," says the elder Morgan. "It's likely that the J/105 fleet will be the largest in the NOODS this year and probably the most competitive, since the early arrivers for the NAs are serious enough about their racing campaigns to come here two weeks early to race in the NOOD regatta to gain some local knowledge."

The Morgans and other members of Marblehead's J/105 Fleet No. 2 will be rolling out the red carpet for their guests over the next few weeks. "We're working hard to assure that the J/105 visitors for both regattas have a great experience in Marblehead," says Morgan. "It's one of the best one-design racing areas anywhere."

Certain to be amongst the leaders of the J/105s will be champions like Brian Keane on SAVASANA from Beverly YC, past Marblehead NOOD Champions Stew Neff and Henry Brauer on SCIMITAR from Eastern YC, Bernie Girod from Santa Barbara YC on ROCK & ROLL, Kevin Grainger on GUMPTION 3 from New York YC, Bill Zartler on SOLARIS from Houston YC, Joerg Esdorn on KINCSEM from American YC and Ken Colburn on GHOST from New York YC (after his recent Swan 42 Nationals win he will be further testing himself against the best J/105 one-design sailors in the world as part of his New York YC Invitational preparations).

In addition, two very large contingents of "classic" J-racers will be on hand to have some fun of their own.  Amongst them is a strong J/24 contingent.  Will be it Caroline Ross's LONDON CALLING leading the pack, or Greg William's GRACE UNDER PRESSURE taking the HIGH FIVE from Matt Herbster or John Denman's AIRODOODLE just limping along in the front of the pack?  Time will tell.

In the J/30s, it's pretty clear this group not only has fun, but they've also anted up the stakes with the inclusion of "The Fat Lady Sings" led by former SAIL magazine chief Eric Cressy aboard.  Should be an interesting class to watch, anything can happen with this crew-- it all depends on which crew "won the party" the night before!!  Thanks for contributions from Sailing World's Michael Lovett.  For more Marblehead NOOD sailing information.

  

Harris Wins J/22 Canadian Nationals

(Kingston, ONT, Canada)- This past weekend, the J/22 class had Kingston YC host their Canadian National Championship in Kingston, Ontario, site of the famous CORK Regatta held every August and also a past site of the Olympic Sailing games.  The venue is fantastic for sailing as the eastern end of Lake Ontario almost always generates a reliable southwest sea-breeze in the afternoon that can blow from 8 to 15 knots.  In addition, Kingston itself is great place to visit- it's a historic port, home to the world-renown Queen's University and has Fort Henry guarding the western approaches to the St Lawrence Seaway.

A competitive fleet of J/22s assembled for the start of racing Saturday morning.  The day started off with light breeze and, ultimately, the wind picked up around 4 pm from the southwest (the classic sea-breeze), enabling the J/22s to complete four races for the day in a great sailing breeze.

Sunday morning started off significantly better with a steady 10-15 knot breeze from the southwest. The J/22’s finished the day with three races, making it a seven race series. Ron Harris, Pete Amos and John Marten, from Hudson, Quebec, were crowned the 2011 J/22 Canadian National Champions, coming in first place four out of the seven races. Gordon McIlquham, Mary Ann Turcke, Emily McIlquham and Meredith Megarry, of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club placed second, and David Doyle, Mark McLean and Lindsay McMurray also of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, came in third.    Sailing photo credits- Geoff Webster- PhotoOne Gallery     For more J/22 Canadian Nationals Sailing information

  

Love Wins J/22 Ontario Champs

(Toronto, ONT, Canada)- The 2011 J/22 Ontario Championships were held at National Yacht Club during the Toronto Area Hospice Regatta.  The TAHR is a one-design regatta to benefit Perram House, one of the few true hospice facilities in Toronto.  As part of the National Hospice Regatta Alliance, there is a chance that the regatta winner will be invited to the Hospice National Championship.

Clearly, it was a tennis-like 6-Love game for the team on STAMPEDE sailed by Jeff Love- winning with 4 firsts and 2 seconds to win by five points after six races.  Second was Stephen Jones sailing THE BOAT, starting out strongly with 2 firsts, then ending up with a 2-3-4-2 to finish with 13 points.  Third was Paul Davignon's THREE'S COMPANY with a 5-8-4-2-2-4 for 25 points.

For more J/22 Ontario Championships sailing information.

  

IYAC Newport Cup- Saturday, July 2nd- J/80s and all!

(Newport, RI)- Come on down and join us all for the IYAC's annual Newport Cup.  A mad-dash around one of the world's more beautiful and challenging "Around Island Races"- Jamestown/ Conanicut Island in the middle of picturesque Narragansett Bay.

So far, looks like several J's will be sailing including J/22s, J/24s, J/105s and a fleet of J/80s.

Everyone and anything that floats is welcome, just make sure you have some kind of verifiable PHRF number that PHRF-NB knows about.  Last year a Shields just lost out to the mighty 90 ft RAMBLER by mere minutes for the overall Newport Cup Trophy.  Dust off the old sails, clean the bottom, fill-up the cooler and head down to the IYAC at 536 Thames St. for the 8:30 AM Skipper's Meeting on Saturday, July 2nd.  First start is 1100 hours!


The IYAC Newport Cup NOR is attached here as a PDF file.

  

J/22s Love North Sea Regatta

(The Hague, The Netherlands)- Popular with the German and Netherlands J/22 teams and highlight of the summer sailing season is the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta.  It's a huge event and popular with one-design sailors throughout Europe.  Boats range from Lasers and 420s and 49ers to Tornados and F-18s to large IRC offshore racer-cruisers.

The J/22s showed up in force with sixteen boats participating this year in reasonably nice sailing conditions.  This year there was a dominating performance registered by Ron Veraar on NDED 1450.  Ron's team simply sailed away from the competition after getting two early bad races, a 6th and an OCS in race 3.  Nevertheless, Veraar ended up with a nine race record of 2-6-ocs-1-2-1-1-1-2 for 10 pts (two toss races).  Second was Eelco Blok,  although winning after the first day of racing, sailed a very consistent series with a 1-ocs-1-4-1-2-2-3-6 for 14 pts.   Third was Menno Bron who lost a tie-breaker with Blok, sailing to a 5-1-2-2-3-3-3-2-1 for 14 pts, without toss races, Menno easily had won the regatta due to getting no OCS's and having to only toss a 5th and a 3rd!    For more J/22 Delta-Lloyd North Sea Regatta sailing information

  

J/80 and J/22 Grand Prix Ecole Navale

(Presque Ile de Crozon, France)- The French Navy and The Naval Academy has always been intimately linked to the world of sailing in France. In fact, sailing is one of the pillars of the training offered by the School and the Navy is a partner in offshore racing for many years in charge of rescue operations.  In 2002, The Naval Academy decided to host a premiere one-design keelboat regatta to further support offshore one-design sportboat sailing and showcase the sport to the public and Navy personnel.  This year, the Academy welcomed over 1,000 sailors that were sailing over 200 boats.  The event has now achieved enough notoriety that the President of the French Sailing Federation (FFV), Jean-Pierre Champion, has decided to entrust the organization of the Championship of France Monotype to the Ecole Navale for another two years.

This year, eight nationalities were represented, giving an international dimension to the Grand Prix with teams from: France, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Slovenija, Oman and New Zealand. Alistair Moore, coach of the Sail Oman Team said, "This is the first time the Youth Racing School of Oman Sail were able to implement their learning in an international regatta.  It was a great test of their skills!"

With forty-five boats attending, the largest and most prominent class of the regatta, the J/80 competition ended after 10 races were sailed in fantastic 10 to 20 knot winds to determine "Le Champion of France Monotype".  The winning team aboard INTERFACE CONCEPT 2 sailed a strong series, Morgan Riou leading his team to a 4-13-1-7-1-2-3-3-3-1 series for 25 pts (including toss).  Second with a much more inconsistent scoreline was Maxime Rousseaux sailing GRAND OUEST ETIQUETTES to a 3-8-27-2-3-1-20-5-2-6 record for 50 pts.  Third was Sebastien Metivier skippering CCVS CHERBOURG to a 8-7-1-1-2-22-5-1-4-12 for 61 pts.  Fourth was Christine Briand, second women helm at the regatta behind Maxime, skippering J'ILE DE RE to a 14-4-2-13-ocs-9-6-2-11-15 for 76 pts.  Fifth was Lionel Conort sailing MARINE BREST 1, showing moments of brilliance, scoring 11-12-5-9-20-8-1-17-14-4 for 81 pts.

The J/22s saw eight teams participating to determine the "monotype champion" also over the course of ten races like their J/80 counterparts.  The winner was not clear even after seven races! In fact, it was a closely fought event for the top four contenders.  Nevertheless, the cream does ultimately rise to the top, sailing a remarkably consistent series was Patrick Huet racing EUROPEAN HOMES to a solid score of 3-1-3-2-4-3-4-1-2-4 to finish with 23 pts (including toss).  Second was Reinhold Gross from the strong German J/22 fleet, sailing JAMAICAS KRONJUWEL- 22 CARATS to a 1-2-5-1-6-5-1-6-4-1 for 26 pts, the only boat to score four firsts!  Third was Clair Pouteau sailing SOFFE to a 5-3-1-3-2-6-7-3-1-5 record for 29 pts.
Sailing Photo Credits:  Pierrick Contin : pierrick.contin@wanadoo.fr    Jacques Vapillon : photo@vapillon.com     For more Grand Prix Ecole Navale sailing information

  

Nicole Bastet Wins Canadian Women's Sailing J/22s

Nicole Bastet win's Canadian Women's Championship- perhaps following in the great family sailing tradition that includes renowned Canadian yachtsman, Evert Bastet, Nicole showed the girls in Canada how to sail J/22s fast and with fewer mistake than most to squeak out a win for Hudson Yacht Club despite lots of drama going on behind her for the next three spots.  Hosted by Hudson Yacht Club (near Montreal, Quebec) and sailed in J/22 One-Designs, the top teams that sailed this year's Women's Keelboat National Championship in J/22s were also looking forward to attending this fall's Rolex Women's World Championship sailed in J/22s at Rochester, NY.  In a rather dramatic turn-around, Nicole Bastet won despite having two bad races on the first day, starting off with a 1-9-8, then closing with three firsts to win by two points!  Her drama was nowhere near what was experienced by the next three boats, fighting hard to beat one another going into the last day.  When the dust and scores were settled, Marg Hurley from NSC sailed a consistent a 4-5-1-5-2-2 for 14 pts to win on a tie-breaker over Melodie Gummer with a 3-2-2-4-3-4.  The top teams are already looking forward to their trip to Rochester to hopefully win the Rolex!   For more Canadian Women's Keelboat sailing information