Team TARHEEL Wins J/24 Midwinters

(Tampa, FL)- It was not to be.  Racing the last two days, that is.  No chance for the top five to fight it out for top honors at this years J/24 Midwinters sailed on Tampa Bay;  the final two days of the four day Midwinter event were cancelled due to no wind.  As a result, the Davis Island YC in Tampa, FL, host to the Twenty-seven boats that participated in the Midwinters, did an admirable job in getting off six good races on Thursday and Friday.  As a result, Peter Bream from Jacksonville, FL racing TEAM TARHEEL won the J/24 Midwinter Championship with just 7 points, counting three first and two seconds in his score after six races. Getting silver on the podium was Pan Am Games Trials Gold Medallist John Mollicone sailing the "green" boat, 11th HOUR RACING/ SAILORS FOR THE SEA with 13 points.  Third overall was Rossi Milev on ORANGE BLOSSOM/ CLEAN AIR, another "green" boat.  Fourth was class veteran and wise man, Tony Parker sailed the "never-say-die-cause-we-will-catch-you" BANGOR PACKET from Washington, DC with 30 points.  Fifth was Robby Brown on USA 799 with 35 points.

The racing was tight in sailing conditions that ranged from 5 to 12 knots in the two days the fleet did race.  The usually aggressive starting line maneuvering got some boats in trouble while others took advantage and gained solid positions on the first upwind legs to carve out better fleet positions.  In these conditions, lanes upwind on the first leg were critical for clear air and boat speed.  Aggressive tactics downwind often bunched up the fleet at the leeward mark, creating very tight, contentious mark roundings-- permitting some boats to swing past a half-dozen boats or more and jump higher in the race standings.   For more J/24 Midwinter sailing  results  

SPOONY TACTICS Wins J/24 St Pete NOODs

A Heart-warming Wedding Present Goes Big and Dominates!!
(St. Petersburg, FL- Feb 20th)- Todd and Genoa Fedyszyn on SPOONY TACTICS edged out Mike Ingham's FAWN LIEBOWITZ and Travis Odenbach's WATERLINE SYSTEMS to win the 20-boat J/24 division at Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD, the largest fleet at the regatta by a country mile!  As a result, the Fedyszyn's also earned overall honors over the 86 boat, 9 class event, which includes an invitation to compete in the Sperry Top-Sider Caribbean NOOD Championship in the British Virgin Islands this November.  Cool!

Todd and Genoa Fedyszyn received their J/24 SPOONY TACTICS as a wedding present from her parents. "It's a good boat," she says. "It might not be pretty, but it's fast."

Like many wedding presents, however, the Fedyszyn's doesn't get used all that much. Both husband and wife coach sailing for St. Petersburg YC's junior program; they spend most weekends attending the sailing aspirations of others. One regatta they never miss—not for the past six years, at least—is the Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD. "With our schedules, this is the one event we set aside in advance," says Todd Fedyszyn. "We look forward to it every year. You can bet we'll be here next year."

As is so often the case, the key to victory was consistency on the starting line. In the ultra-competitive J/24 class, many of the pre-regatta favorites found their score lines mired in alphabet soup after incurring OCS penalties. "We were able to avoid being over early," says Fedyszyn. "One of our biggest problems in the past was our starts were either unbelievable or second-row. This year, three of our four starts were great, and even the one that wasn't, we were able to tack away early and get right, which was our plan.

"We were actually a little more aggressive with our starts than we've been in the past," continues Fedyszyn. "We used to always start in the middle of the line. This year, we were either within two boats of the boat end, or two boats of the pin. We just took a stab at the favored end. Having sailed against [local J/24 ace] Robby Brown in the past few years, that seemed to be where he was getting us. So we were a little more aggressive this year, and it paid off."

The SPOONY TACTICS crew—which also includes trimmer Doug Weekly and tactician Eric Bardes—has a fairly democratic approach to onboard communication. Information flows to Todd Fedyszyn, the skipper, from the bow on back. "Having worked together over the years, we respect each other," says Genoa Fedyszyn, who handles foredeck duties. "There isn't the sense that someone's opinion is better than someone else's."  "We like to make decisions as a team," adds her husband. "There's not just one decision maker. Everyone's input is welcome. We don't like decisions to be one person's. Of course, sometimes it doesn't end up that way."

On Sunday, the SPOONY TACTICS brain trust had some difficult decisions to make. "That dying easterly breeze is hard to understand," says Todd Fedyszyn. "We see those conditions a lot, but they're hard to read. It's hard to know whether to go right or left, especially with the current switching mid race."

Although he's been sailing on Tampa Bay for years, Bardes was at a loss when confronting Sunday's sputtering winds. "Local knowledge? Not today," he says. "It was tough. We took some risks looking for fresh air, and they paid off."  It was risky business maintaining a consistent scoreline in St. Petersburg, and when they're kicking back in the Caribbean this fall, the SPOONY TACTICS gang will be thanking their lucky stars. Contributed by by Michael Lovett at Sailing World.  Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.    Full Sperry Topsider Sailing World NOOD St Petersburg report and sailing results  

Good Times on J/24s in St. Pete

Youngest Team Sailing J/24 RUSH
(St. Petersburg, FL)- For the youngest team competing at the 2011 Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD, it's all gravy.  Noah Blacker has a catch phrase. Or, at least, he had one on Day 1 of the 2011 Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD.  "Good times," says the teenage skipper of the J/24 RUSH. "For us, it's all about having a good time and racing against some really good sailors."

Blacker and crew—Addison Hackstaff, Alexandria Church, Martin Hood, Hayden Grant, Liam McCarthy—are products of the St. Petersburg YC's junior-sailing program. "We all sail Lasers and 420s for our high schools," says Blacker. "We sail against each other a lot, but when we sail together, it's just all fun. We have the music going— good times.

"It's funny," continues Blacker. "Our coach gets mad at us because we'd all rather go to a J/24 regatta. I mean, we love sailing Lasers, but they're so solitary. When we get to sail together, it's more fun. There's jokes going around, and we all kind of play off each other."

Two years ago, Blacker convinced his father, Michael—who's sailing this weekend on the J/24 HOT WHEELS—to trade in the family's 30-foot racer-cruiser for the 24-foot one-design. "At first, we just wanted to throw a crew together and see what we could do," says the younger Blacker. "This year, we wanted to be a bit more competitive.  As dinghy sailors, we practice a lot, and [compared to keelboat sailors] we probably get out on the water on a more consistent basis. We wanted to show that dinghy sailors can be competitive in keelboats."

In two races on Friday afternoon, this team of dinghy sailors showed some respectable keelboat chops, posting a 14-4 in a 20-boat fleet that includes such hotshot skippers as former national and North American champion Mike Ingham. "The first race was rough," says Blacker. "We don't start in the J/24 too often, and they don't start like a Laser, by any means. We got shut out, and had a second-row start.

"The second race, everything went well for us," he continues. "We came off the start, knew our plan, and when it came down to it, the stars aligned and we had the ability to execute. We got to go where we wanted to and tack on our own shifts. We were a little disappointed that we didn't hold on to the lead we had going around the first windward mark, but none of us holds it against each other for making the wrong call. Hey, we're just trying to have a good time."  Contributed by by Michael Lovett at Sailing World.   Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.    Full Sperry Topsider Sailing World NOOD St Petersburg report and sailing results  

God's Fireworks Blitz SCYA Midwinters

J/109 ELECTRA Zaps Fleet
(Los Angeles, CA)- The 82nd SCYA Midwinter Regatta had its fair share of drama this past weekend.  A massive storm system rolled across southern California Saturday bringing with it God's lightning show and waterspouts nearby.  That meant the race committee abandoned racing Saturday afternoon when a waterspout was sighted and an electrical storm with heavy rain crashed across the harbor.

There were more than 600 boats competing along the Southern California coast with entrants coming from as far east as Arizona. Alamitos Bay YC alone had 59 boats in nine classes, enjoying brilliant sunshine on what someone described as "a chamber of commerce day," although the wind never topped 7 knots and thermometers flirted with 60 degrees---balmy by current U.S. weather patterns.  Other than, of course, Midwest-like tornado's, water spouts, epic light shows in the sky and driving, torrential rain.  Fun, eh?

As for racing action, on Saturday the breeze of 5-8 knots bounced back and forth making it tough for the teams to find fastest way around course. After only two of three scheduled races, the line squall roared across the race area, forcing abandonment of racing.  "On Saturday we had 40 degree wind shifts," said one competitor, "and it was all we could do to keep up with the shifts. Sunday was much more steady. We went left all day long and it was a pretty good day to be going left!"  Sunday had more wind with 8-12 knots throughout the day and the seas had calmed down allowing the boats to focus more on racing each other rather than the weather.

After the dust settled on the course area, John Snooks J/120 JIM from Long Beach YC finished third in PHRF A Class.  And, following on his earlier season success, Tom Brott's J/109 ELECTRA from Seal Beach YC sailed to a hard-fought second overall in PHRF B Class while Scott McDaniels' J/105 OFF THE PORCH was fourth in class.

In the J/80 one-design class, Curt Johnson on AVET showed their transom to the fleet most of the time, finishing first with a 2-1-1-1 record for 5 points.  Second was Peter Arpesella's BLUE JAY with a 1-2-2-3 record for 8 points.  Coming into the bronze position on the podium was Jerry Kaye on MisQue with a 3-3-3-2 record for 11 points.  For more SCYA Midwinters sailing information- http://www.abyc.org  or http://www.lbyc.org and see some more sailing photos here- Sailing Photo credits- Dennis St. Onge aka- DA Woody  

J/24 Australia's February "HIT THE MARK"

On the News-stands Now! (Sydney, Australia, Feb 16th)- Editor Doug McGregor comes up with some beauties, but this time in addition to his own quick wit, he has the dulcet tongue of Ron Thomson on the Thommo Cup to aid his story telling. Hugo tells it like it was at Geelong this year, J24 Victoria launches a new Facebook page and a very Sanguine Jack Crawford is about to tie a not very nautical knot. Five pages of great J/24 Fleet reading! Download it here.  

Terry Hutchinson Racing Fast Cats

* Past J/24 World Champion and College Sailor of the Year, Terry Hutchinson, is killing it in the "stadium" format at the Extreme 40 series off Muscat, Oman, his first major multihull series and first for Team Artemis.  After the first two days of open water courses, Wednesday was the first day of short course ‘stadium’ racing for the 11-boat Extreme 40 fleet, with their course positioned along the shore in front of the spectators and VIPs. The new team led by Terry Hutchinson and his crew on Artemis Racing had an exceptional day, posting a score line of 2-1-2-1-1 in the five races to elevate them from fifth overall yesterday to second place overall.

“We had a brilliant day on the water today, there were a lot of people on the shore line - close enough to hear them cheering on the finish line. I have never experienced something like that before. It was a first!” said  Hutchinson. “The stadium racing format delivered everything it promised - short and intense races right in front of the spectators. When you have a good day you love it, when you have a bad day you hate it, and we absolutely loved it today!”

Artemis crew Morgan Trubovich explained further:  “The story of the day was that Terry was on fire. With such short races it was critical that you had a good start and a good first beat. We did that every time. Start after start we were right on the start line, at full speed, going in the right direction.”

Moral of the story?  Simple.  Start out with dinghies, go college sailing to "learn how to sail" tactically, then jump into J/24s (or J/22s and J/80s) to learn how to apply the secret ingredients of speed, tactics and strategy! They're all inexpensive, FUN boats to sail with strong, competitive fleets worldwide. Next stop?  Extreme 40s, America's Cup or Volvo Ocean Race-- the world's your oyster! :)   

J/24 Sailors Dominating RORC Caribbean 600

There seemed to be a small reunion of champion J/24 alumni racing in the RORC Caribbean 600 before the start of the race off English Harbour, Antigua.  RORC Chief Eddie Warden-Owen was on hand to manage the event, a former J/24 European and U.K. Champion.  Ken Read, former J/24 World Champ (many times) and College Sailor of the Year was sailing with a former J/24 owner, George David on the colossally fast 100 footer- RAMBLER 100- the "new J/100"??.

Amongst the J/24 cognoscenti was Cam Lewis (left) doing tactics/ speed on the awesomely cool looking hot orange Gunboat PHAEDO (built by brother Peter Johnstone).  Also in the hunt for top awards was Andy Beadsworth and Simon Rogers sailing on the Rogers 82 AEGIR built by Carbon Ocean- both Andy and Simon are former J/24 UK Champions.  At the end of the day, all these J/24 sailors powered up and guided some of the fastest boats around the 600 nm circuit.

Kenny and George (right) won overall line honors and set a new record for the 600 nautical mile race course- 1 day 16 hours 20 minutes and 2 seconds- that's FAST-- you spend about 80% of the time reaching across the steady, strong trade winds-- very cool race course and a dream to sail with good breeze.  Kenny Read commented dockside in Antigua- "That was a lot of fun but hard work for a while, you do something like sail around the world and that is almost easy compared to this, because there is no time to take any sleep, you're taking so many corners and turns but it is also a gorgeous course, it's a dream come true type of event. I am glad we came and that George invited me. Probably the most memorable part of the course was at night with a full moon at the top of St. Maarten, big breeze and massive breaking waves, it was huge fun and really cool, we came out of their doing 26 knots, it has been a real adventure and Rambler 100 is a whole new dimension for sailing."

Not to be outdone by the 100 footers, Cam and PHAEDO became video stars, see this very cool YouTube video.  Also, there was another good YouTube video of PHAEDO on its race preparation.  For more RORC 600 sailing results go here...you'll see the Guboat 66 (left) was a pretty darn quick cat- not bad for a "cruising boat"!   

Mollicone Wins J/24 Pan Am Games Trials

(Tampa, FL)- John Mollicone racing Team 11TH HOUR RACING/ SAILORS FOR THE SEA beat a "who's who" of recent J/24 Champions (National, North American and World) vying for the honors of heading south to an awesome place to sail the Pan Am Games 2011 off Vallarta Yacht Club in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on the spectacular sailing venue, Bahia de Banderas.

After 7 races in winds ranging from 5 to 15 knots, John Mollicone and his team of have won the gold medal in the U.S. Pan Am Games Trials. The silver medal was won by the team helmed by Flip Wehrheim sailing ULTIMATE MARINE GROUP and the bronze went to Will Welles and his team sailing FAWN LIEBOWITZ.

10 boats sailed in the “Pan Am” configuration with teams of four and using 100% jibs only. Racing was incredibly tight with even the top sailors struggling at times to stay out of last place. The small fleet made for the perfect format for the trials as the Games in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in October will be limited to seven countries.  For more J/24 Pan Am Games Trials sailing information.   For more J/24 Pan Am Games Mexico sailing information.   

Bream Leading J/24 Midwinters

(Tampa, FL)- As part of its "J-One-Design Fest Month" at Davis Island YC, the club is hosting not just the J/24 Pan Am Trials and J/24 Midwinters, but J/22 Midwinters and the J/22 Rolex Women's World Clinic, too!  A busy bunch they are in Tampa, FL.

After 6 races, Peter Bream from Jacksonville, FL racing TEAM TARHEEL is winning the J/24 Midwinter Championship with just 7 points, counting three first and two seconds in his score after six races. Conditions range from 5 to 12 knots with tight mark roundings and aggressive starts.  Lying second is John Mollicone sailing the "green" boat, 11th HOUR RACING/ SAILORS FOR THE SEA with 13 points.  Third Rossi Milev on ORANGE BLOSSOM/ CLEAN AIR, another "green" boat.  Fourth is class veteran and wise man, Tony Parker sailed the remarkable BANGOR PACKET from Washington, DC with 30 points.  Fifth is Robby Brown on USA 799 with 35 points.  The racing is tight and it remains to be seen if Peter Bream and crew can maintain their incredible fast, dominating pace and strong tactics.  Five races remain to be sailed with a late afternoon cutoff time on Thursday, Feb 16.  Follow the J/24 Midwinters sailing results live from the water here.   

J/24 Crews Make Bigger Boats Go FAST To Hobart

*  J/24 Crews Make Bigger Boats Go FAST To Hobart- Sure enough, Down Under with our Aussie friends, it's pretty clear that J/24 training and experience comes in handy for "big boat" owners who are trying to make that 600+ nm dash from Sydney to Hobart a bit faster and safer.  Amongst the VELOCE crew and friends with some of the booty from their win to Hobart are NINE (9) J/24 sailors in the crew picture-- e.g. most of the crew!!

Once again some of the little boat guys went to do battle on big boats to Hobart – seems they like us out there. Or as Tim Bilham from Sydney points out, the Sydney-Hobart was their training ground for their subsequent J/24 Nationals victory. Coincidentally, their Hobart ride was on the First 45 VICTOIRE, another larger Tupperware version of their J/24 VICTORY.

Tim says, “our training for the J/24 Nationals on DEATH STAR has been predominantly centered around Hobart preparation. On our J/24 crew, we have Duncan (bow), me (pit) and Sean (helm) who all did the Syd-Hobart on VICTOIRE (Beneteau First 45).

We won our IRC and ORCi divisions and came 5th overall on IRC. Only plastic production boat in the top ten. Shane (our trimmer) sailed the Hobart on INVESTEC LOYALK. I’m sure he’s using a lot of the knowledge gained from sailing a 100 foot maxi with powered winches in his J/24 sailing”.

“David (our mast guy on the J/24) is the smart one and skipped the Hobart but this doesn’t seem to be holding him back at all on the J/24.”

As we know the Hobart fleet had some moments out there and some boats didn’t make it, although we think all the J Guys got there.

By comparison, the other overwhelmingly J/24 crewed boat was the Elliot 44 VELOCE out of Melbourne doing the M2H Eastcoaster. VELOCE was one of the front 3 that got away from the fleet and had a dream ride to Hobart, beating the old race record and finishing in a time of 2 days 2hrs 40min to take the race and series wins and just to keep the boys happy, hitting around 24 knots down the coast of Tassie in the middle of a very black night. VELOCE also set an additional informal record as the smallest boat in many years to win the King of the Derwent Double with line honours and handicap wins. Making the boat go to Hobart were Melbourne J/24 Guys; Mark Houghton, Kelvin Oldridge, Simon Grain, Noel Duffy and, of course, Fitzy.  Joining us for the race in Hobart were Stewart Geeves, Neil Wallace, Priscilla Cutter and Lisa Simonov. So you might say most of the crew !

Jane Flowers who sails on MAKE MY J went down the east coast in luxury on the 60ft Swan DREAMCATCHER 3 and Rowan “Two Dogs” Pollard also out of Sandy, won 1st place in Cruising Division of the S2H (keeping himself a much tidier boy than previous ‘escapades’ offshore).

So that’s at least 13 J24 Guys that I know of doing the Hobart thing. Well done everybody. And then many of us fronted up for further training in Sydney!   For more J/24 Australian Sailing news.   

J/24s & Shake-A-Leg Miami At Key West

* During Key West Race Week 2011, Kerry Gruson, a disabled sailor from Shake-A-Leg Miami, helmed John Smittle's J24 CLASS ACT for the first time Tuesday, then Wednesday and then again Thursday.

John Smittle has made it possible for disabled sailors and now current Military Veterans from Shake-A-Leg Miami to compete in Key West Race Week since 2005.  On Thursday, Ketty Wilson Gonzalez, an Iraq War Vet who is part of the Shake-A-Leg Miami Veteran's program, also joined the team.  Cool, eh?

John Smittle who teaches at J/World Key West, has a local sail making and canvas repair loft and is also a Navy Pilot Veteran (a.k.a. a Top Gun/ Black Aces trainer on those little F-14 jets that only go a million miles an hour upside down over Havana--- just to check on Fidel).

If any of you J Sailors wish to help out on Harry Horgan's eponymous program in Miami, please don't hesitate to contact him at:  Harry Horgan, Ph# 305-527-5602 or harryhorgan@gmail.com or visit Shake-A-Leg Sailing website- http://www.shakealegmiami.org   

J/24 Pan Am Games Trials

(Tampa, FL)- This week, the Davis Island YC who bills themselves as "The Sailingest Yacht Club South of the Mason Dixon Line (actually, Southeast)" is playing host to three J regattas in a row!  First, they are hosting the J/24 Pan Am Games Trials, then the J/24 Midwinters, then the J/22 Midwinters-- they will be busy catering to the fun-loving, under-demanding needs of J/22 and J/24 sailors who always look forward to their time in the sun in midwinter Florida.

Starting this week, the J/24 Pan Am Games Trials has a "who's who" of recent J/24 Champions (National, North American and World) vying for the honors of heading south to an awesome place to sail the Pan Am Games 2011 off Vallarta Yacht Club in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on the spectacular sailing venue, Bahia de Banderas.  Amongst the leaders will be Charlie Enright from Bristol, RI sailing MOOKIE, Will Welles from Portsmouth, RI skippering FAWN LIEBOWITZ and John Mollicone from Newport, RI racing 11TH HOUR RACING- "the green, environmental boat".

Sailing against the American representative will be Maurizio Santa Cruz from Brazil, a past J/24 World Champion, who will have just come off of some good practice sailing the J/24s at Monaco's Primo Cup last weekend as a qualifier for the J/24 Worlds in Montevideo, Uruguay in September of this year.  For more J/24 Pan Am Games Trials sailing information.   For more J/24 Pan Am Games Mexico sailing information.

Of note are the fact that J/80 and J/24 sailors from Texas have won the Lightning berth for the American team at the Pan Am Games. Jay and Jody Lutz along with foredeck crew Derek Gauger recently won the Lightning Class Pan Am Trial's dominating a very tough group of sailors-- Go get 'em guys!!   

J/24 Monaco Primo Cup

(Monaco- Feb 4-6)- This year's 27th edition of the Primo Cup/ Trophy Credit Suisse runs over two weekends, the 4-6th and 12-13th of February and has traditionally marked the launch of the international racing season in the beautiful, picturesque principality of Monaco.  For over a dozen years, Prince Albert of Monaco raced J/24s in the event, inviting other royals from around Europe to participate and either stay at the Palace or nearby swanky hotels along the waterfront.  This past year, Port Hercules was buzzing with all the competitors from around Europe- Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Great Britain, Hungary and, remarkably, a huge contingent from Russia.  Of the 99 entries in 5 classes, the J/24s were the largest sailing class at the event (others had many "no shows").  Those 24 J/24 entries came from 7 countries- Monaco, France, England, Hungary, Italy, Brazil and Sweden.  Amongst them were Sweden's Anna Maria Gunderson, Brazil's BRUSCHETTA sailed by Maurizio Santa Cruz with J/Boats Italy's Paolo Boido aboard, England's HITCHHIKER sailed by Andrew Taylor and JOLLY ROGER helmed by Roger Morris, and Hungary's NORD TELECOM SAILING TEAM skippered by Gabor Makai.

Brazil's Mauricio Santa Cruz, three times world title holder in 2006, 2007 and 2009, commented, "It is the first time I sail in Monaco, this event is internationally recognized for it gathers the best European challengers." To gather all the competitors, Dennis Frederiksen, J/24 class representative, had organised a skiing weekend in Limone, France. Dennis mentioned that "the competition would be a great challenge as the winner of this series would also receive an "invitation" for the J/24 World Championship on 11th to 19th November 2011 in Montevideo, Uruguay."

"The years follow on and none are alike. After the snow and very strong breezes of 2010, it is the first time in 27 years that we have had such light, sunny conditions!" declared Thierry Leret, Race Committee President, at the prize-giving. Indeed, spring-like conditions, with an anticyclone centered on the Gulf of Genoa meant only one race counted during the whole of the first weekend of the Primo Cup - Trophy Credit Suisse.

"That's the risk you run with regattas! We had the most amazing practice sailing conditions from Tuesday to Thursday with 15 knots of wind and a calm sea which meant we were able to sail with many foreign teams who had arrived early to get in some training!" observed Jean Rodelato, one of the J/24 specialists in the very international field.

"It is the first time I have come to Monaco to race in the Primo Cup, as I had heard so much about this event which is a benchmark on the international one-design scene. I witnessed the dynamism of the Monegasque J/24 class which organised a ski & sail ahead of the regatta,"  commented Mauricio Santa Cruz (Bruschetta), triple world champion. Faced with a Monegasque and Italian armada, he clinched a fine second ahead of the Monegasque Pieter Flohil (Dangerous) and won “selection by invitation” to take part in the series’ world championship being held 11 to 19 November 2011 in Argentina.

As it turns out, Mauricio only had to sail one race!  On Saturday 5th February, following a recall, the J/24s competitors had to calm down their enthusiasm after being shown a black flag, with all early starts disqualified.  Despite a slow start, Santa Cruz's BRUSCHETTA team figured out the tactics and surged through the fleet to finish 2nd in the one and only race that was run on all three days!  The placid, calm seas made for gorgeous sunrise and sunset photos but offered impossible conditions to finish off the regatta after a beautiful start on Friday midday.  BTW, the "swag" the competitors receive for entering the event is extraordinary, as are the trophies-- including a Hublot Yacht Chronograph for all the winners, tasty champagne and lots of other nice things like you see in this photo! See you there next year!   Sailing and Regatta Photos by Carlo Borlenghi     For more J/24 Monaco Primo Cup Sailing Information.