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.

  

Mexican J/24 Sailor Lorenzo Berho 2nd Transpac!

* Lorenzo Berho- a Mexican J/24 and former J/145 owner sailed the 70 foot PELIGROSO in the Transpac Race this year.  Being the unflappable gentleman that he is as both a sailor, a person and as a competitive racer, it was more than amusing to hear about Lorenzo's spectacular finish off Diamond Head, Hawaii.  As described by Kimball Livingston who was present as it all happened---

"Another hundred yards and it would have been right out of the movies, the A4 spinnaker blowing up dead-on the finish line of an eight day race. But, she blew a hundred yards short, and PELIGROSO finished Transpac 2011 under the main that had been reefed since the night before, when that sail blew out in a gybe. Then, they blew big time, both of them-- at the finish!  We can honestly report there was no apparent dampening of spirits aboard.  Sorry, we don't have that shot, or at least, not yet.

The PELIGROSO crew was the second to arrive at Ala Wai Harbor and the first to tie up on Transpac Row-- the crew sang for the waiting crowd before they stepped ashore. According to navigator Ben Mitchell, they sang all the way across, 2,225 measured miles, from Los Angeles to Honolulu!

Once ashore and into the party tent, it was not long before young Eduardo Saenz - third generation sailor from the Club de Yates de Acapulco - fielded a bottle of rather fine tequila for the boat's owner, Lorenzo Berho, and that kicked off a round of 'put your head back, open, I'll do the pouring' celebration.

Lorenzo, grateful for his youth sailing and J/24 sailing in his early racing career, recognized the need to support youth sailing.  As part of his long-term interest in supporting youth sailing, Lorenzo bought PELIGROSO to bring big-boat racing to the talented youth of Mexico, and at second in Division One of the 46th Transpacific Yacht Race, it would appear he's moved the ball."  Sailing photo credits- Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing and Kimball Livingston/ Blue Planet Times.

  

Keane Crushes 105s @ SAILNewport Regatta

Mollicone & Johnstone Winners in 24s, 80s
(Newport, RI)- The three fleets of one-design J's racing this weekend, including fourteen J/24s, eleven J/80s and nine J/105s, were treated to what can be said as incredibly challenging weather conditions for the two days of sailing.  Saturday dawned with a gorgeous northwesterly wind blowing offshore that rapidly devolved into a slugfest between the classic southwesterly trying to fill in while the northerly pressure gradient kept pushing back.  For the fleets racing offshore, including all three J fleets, it made for an interesting dilemma, whether to chase the last finger of one breeze over another or stick with what you had.  Sunday's racing started off with a light northerly that ultimately died and saw the fleet treated to a gorgeous, classic Newport southwest sea-breeze of 8-12 knots.

In the J/105 class, Brian Keane's SAVASANA team was on a tear, demonstrating to the rest of their 105 competitors that they were going to be a big factor to contend with in the pending J/105 North American Championship in Marblehead later in August.  Keane's team won ALL four races to finish with 4 pts.  Perhaps the surprise story was the strong performance by Sean Doyle on KESTREL, sailing to a 2-3-2-5 for 12 pts.  However, Sean's no stranger to being a fleet leader, having successfully sailed college and one-designs for years.  The easy winner at the recent Rolex Block Island Race Week, Damian Emery on ECLIPSe, had to settle for third place with a 5-2-4-2 scoreline for 13 pts.  Fourth was another J/105 North American Champion, Joerg Esdorn on KINCSEM with a 4-4-3-4 for 15 pts.  Finally, yet another J/105 NA Champion finished fifth, Bruce Stone's team on JOUSTER with a 3-6-6-3.  Other than SAVASANA, it was very close competition for the balance of the top five.

As anticipated in the J/24s, the Newport teams were led by John Mollicone's 11th HOUR RACING, grabbing four 1sts and one 2nd to win with 8 pts.  The surprise to the Newport locals was the excellent performance by Chris Jankowski's STREET LEGAL team, posting a tally of 4-1-2-2-4 for 13 pts.  Third was Dave Marshall sailing PEGASUS with a 3-5-5-3-6 score for 22 pts, just one point clear of three other boats that were essentially tied going into the last race!  Winning the 4th place tie-breaker was J/24 Champion and World Team Racing Champion Peter Levesque on MOOKIE with a 2-9-3-6-3 score for 23 pts.  Peter beat the Zaleski Bro's TWINS from Stamford, CT that had a 5-2-7-4-5 score for 5th overall.  Just missing out was another Newport local, Mike Hill on OBSTREPEROUS with a 8-3-6-5-2 record for 24 pts to capture 6th place!

The J/80s saw well-sailed teams that traveled from as far away as California and Texas to have some fun in Newport.  Like their J/24 and J/105 colleagues, they too had a runaway winner in the form of Jeff Johnstone sailing LITTLE FEAT to three 1sts and one 2nd for 5 pts.  However, they also had five teams that could easily have finished second, with the last race determining who beat whom for the silver and bronze on the podium.    Just squeaking by was the FIRED UP team sailed by Gary Camins and Jay Lutz with a 4-5-3-6 record for 18 pts.  One point back was Newporter Andrew Burton's GROMIT with a 5-8-2-4 for 19 pts for third.  Fourth was Chris Bulger's GOOSE winning a tie-breaker with a 3-2-8-7 for 20 pts, fifth was Bert Carp with a 6-6-5-3 for  20 pts losing the tiebreaker.  Sixth was another Texas team, Bruno Pasquinelli's TIAMO team with a 7-4-9-1 for 21 pts!  The consensus was that sailing more conservatively would have kept many of the teams even closer, if you can imagine that, and in two cases kept a bullet for those teams instead of giving it up to others-- the big "fly in the ointment" often being the Swan 42s racing on the same course creating havoc amongst the J/80s playing laylines upwind or getting through huge line-ups at the gates to get around them.   For more SAILNewport Regatta sailing information

  

Turner Smokes J/24 UK Nationals

(Weymouth, England)- The Weymouth Olympic Sailing Center hosted their annual Weymouth Regatta that included the J/24 UK National Championship.  The organizers were blessed with beautiful weather, gorgeous breezes both days of racing for all.  The J/24s showed up en-masse ready to do battle to determine the 2011 UK champion-- several veterans showed up that included past J/24 UK Champions, like Stuart Jardine from Royal Lymington YC.

After the first days racing in the steady breezes punctuated by long wind streaks, it was self-evident that one team simply had everything dialed in to go fast, stay out of trouble and show their transom to the rest of the fleet.  By day's end, Bob Turner's SERCO from Castle Cove SC simply smoked the competition, starting off with three bullets and a second to lead by a large margin.  Nipping at their heels and still within striking distance was Mark Penfold from the RYA sailed RELOADED.

The second day of sailing again dawned with good weather and a nice breeze from the southerly quadrants.  Again, Turner's SERCO team stepped on the gas pedal, dialed in a 1-2 for the first two races, then simply coasted home in the last two races with a  7-6  to win with 14 points.  Brilliant sailing is an adjective that comes to mind to describe their remarkable, somewhat sparkling performance!  Maintaining their second position was Mark Penfold's team on RELOADED, finishing with 20 points.  A perennial class leader, Stuart Jardine from  RLYC sailed his latest generation J/24 STOUCHE to a strong third, narrowly missing out second by one point!  Fourth was Darren Stansbury  from Saltash SC with 30 points and fifth was Roger Morris on JOLLY ROGER from Parkstone SC.    Sailing photo credits- UK Fotoboat.com     For more J/24 UK Nationals Sailing information

  

Milev Dominates J/24 Canadians

(Port Credit, ONT, Canada)- The 23 boat strong fleet of Canadian J/24 sailors were treated incredibly well by their host for the Canadian J/24 Nationals, Port Credit YC.   PCYC has to be one of the most gracious, fun-loving clubs on Lake Ontario, renowned for their "can do" attitude, excellent RC/PRO management of races and a club membership totally focused on having fun sailing.  Note, this is the same crew that host the largest offshore race of the summer Lake Ontario season- the Lake Ontario 300 that starts this coming weekend.

The 23 teams woke up Friday morning to light air, blistering sun and warm temperatures. Nevertheless, the PRO managed to complete one race and then by 2:00 pm the wind shut off completely.  The RC hoisted AP over H and the fleet went back to shore for shade, a dip in PCYC’s pool and re-hydration at the bar. By 4:00 pm a line of wind was spotted coming over the lake from the south west, so the fleet headed out and were able to squeak one more race out of the day. That's awesome RC work, if you go to sail a Nationals, then be ready to go anytime!  At the completion of Day one, it looked like Rossi Milev sailing CLEAR AIR/ ORANGE BLOSSOM was a leader to be reckoned with, scoring a 2-1 to lead over Peter Wickwire's team on SUNNYVALE with a 1-3.  Just off the pace was Tom Barbeau's NAVTECH.CA with a 4-2.

On Saturday, the forecast called for very light air and the fleet wasn’t too optimistic, however, the wind filled in and by 11:00 there was a solid 9 knots of breeze coming from the east.  The Race committee started the race right on time to make the best of the wind while it lasted. On the next 2 races, a persistent veer in the wind caused the race committee to put up  ‘charlie’ plus green flags at the top end to indicate the leeward gates where shifted course-side-left. By the third race the wind had dropped substantially, but the waves & slop did not.  The Race committee shortened the course and brought the windward mark to 0.9 nm.  It was a hard slog up and down the course, and by the time the last boat had finished the fleet was exhausted.  Still leading after this long day on the water was Rossi Milev with a 1-2-2 followed by Peter Wickwire's SUNNYVALE  with a 3-1-11 and Scott Weakley's REX team working on the comeback trail with a 13-3-1.  By 4:30 Saturday, the fleet was back on dock folding sails and finding shade. The wind had completely died so calling it quits when we did was the right call. The fleet was definitely dehydrated and looking forward to the party Saturday night where PCYC put on a great BBQ spread with salads and deserts, and plenty of beer taps flowing.

Sunday morning dawned with a good breeze and the fleet took off to get in two races before the time expiration for the start of the last race.  After scoring a 5-5 and holding his principal competitor back, Rossi Milev's team on CLEAR AIR/ ORANGE BLOSSOM from the local J/24 fleet at Port Credit YC were declared 2011 J/24 Canadian National Champions, winning with just 13 points after a toss race.  Second was Peter Wickwire's SUNNYVALE crew from Royal Canadian YC with 21 points.  Third was another local boat, Scott Weakley's REX team from PCYC with 28 points, winning a tie-breaker over Tom Barbeau's NAVTECH.CA team from Yacht Club Quebec also with 28 points for fourth place.  Fifth was the first woman team skipper, Katie Colman-Nicoll sailing QUICK NICK for the host PCYC.  All in all, a good showing for the local PCYC boats taking three of the top five.  For more J/24 Canadians sailing information

  

"Rambling George" First to Finish Trans-Atlantic Race

Congratulations from the J/Family to George David-- the real "rambling man"!  A former J/24 sailor from the 80s, George David, a New York YC member now living in Hartford, CT, simply traded up over time and is now racing RAMBLER 100, a Juan K 100 footer.  Kudos to George and team for having set a new Transatlantic Race record of 6:22:08:02 for the course from Newport, Rhode Island to Lizard Point, South Cornwall, a measured distance of 2,975 miles.  That's a 15.67 knots average across the Atlantic.  That's amazing!  It can be said with a straight face that even J/24s can go that fast for 1/100th the price!  LOL, perhaps not for 120+ hours!

  

J/24 Ace Ken Read Wins Trans-Atlantic Race!

Congratulations to Ken Read, a multiple J/24 World Champion, for winning the Trans-Atlantic Race on  the VOR 70 PUMA- Mar Mostro!  PUMA’s Mar Mostro was the second boat to cross the finish line at Lizard Point, Cornwall, England behind RAMBLER 100 and won both IRC Class 1 and IRC overall based on corrected time.  At one point topping 30 knots as they flew across the Atlantic in just over 7 days, Kenny simply remarked,  “We entered the race with zero expectations, just like the other IRC handicap racing we’ve done this year.  We wanted to learn the boat and the crew. Now, here we are in the position of possibly winning a race that we didn’t expect to win. We’re pleasantly shocked. We didn’t break anything, the sails held up, the team is certainly coming together, and there’s not a single negative to this race. It was a great experience.”  To follow the PUMA Mar Mostro Sailing Team visit- http://www.puma.com/sailing

  

J/24s, J/80s, J/105s @ SAILNewport Regatta

(Newport, RI)- One of the best summer one-design regattas in the American Northeast is the annual SAILNewport Regatta held in the first week of July.  Newport promises great sailing conditions most of the time and, combined with the superb race management led by SAILNewport's Brad Read, sailors can be assured of not only good racing but a fun time ashore, too.  There are three excellent fleets of one-design J's racing this weekend, including fourteen J/24s, eleven J/80s and nine J/105s.

Leading the charge in the J/24 class will be Newport teams like John Mollicone's 11th HOUR RACING, Peter Levesque's MOOKIE, Will Welles' NORTHWATER and Mike Hill's OBSTREPEROUS.  Giving them a tough fight for the podium will be out-of-town teams like Ed Walker's SMALL FLYING PATIO FURNITURE from San Francisco, CA (easily getting the long-distance award), Chris Jankowski's STREET LEGAL (a top Charleston Race Week boat this year) and the Zaleski Bro's TWINS from Stamford, CT.

The J/80s also have a diverse group of teams coming from across the country, starting with Gary Kamins' FIRED UP from Pacific Palisades, CA (another long-distance traveler winner) and Bruno Pasquinelli's TIAMO (third at Charleston Race Week this year).  Leading the charge locally will be Chris Bulger's GOOSE and Jeff Johnstone's LITTLE FEAT.

As part of their Narragansett Bay Championship, the J/105s have attracted an excellent group of teams, including past North American, Key West Race Week and Block Island Race Week Champions like Damian Emery on ECLIPSE, San Franciscan Bruce Stone on a new boat called JOUSTER, Joerg Esdorn on KINCSEM and Brian Keane on SAVASANA.  How these teams fair against one another will be a solid indicator of who will be major contenders for the upcoming J/105 Northamericans in Marblehead, MA this coming August.  For more SAILNewport Regatta sailing information

  

ARBITRAGE Crushes SF NOODs

(San Francisco, CA)-  This year's Sperry Topsider San Francisco NOOD Regatta was marked by "classic" San Francisco Bay conditions- "nuking" when the interior Valleys hit 90-100 degrees in the extreme hot weather the American west/southwest coasts have been experiencing.  Two solid days of breezes and sunny skies with one day hitting the upper end of the sea-breeze range, blowing 15-25 kts gusting to 30 knots.  The sailors who know the Bay love it and live for these conditions when they see it-- cool, foggy mornings punctuated by walking down to the local Peet's Coffee bar for fresh-roasted, fresh-brewed yummy coffee and breakfast treats.  Then, head down to the Marina District to savor the cool, light morning breeze and sunshine, waiting in anticipation of another day of racing on one of the  sailing world's more spectacular venues.

This year saw a nice turnout of J/24s with nine entered for the event and the J/105s had their usual strong turnout with fun, tight racing with seventeen entered to compete for that great "free" trip to race in Tortola BVI if you happened to have the best record and performance for all classes in the regatta!

Perhaps savoring it more than most this year was Bruce Stone (pictured at right with tactician Nicole Breault).  Having just competed in the Rolex Block Island Race Week and finishing 2nd in the J/105 class after five days of sailing, Bruce and crew flew direct from Boston to San Francisco to sail Saturday/ Sunday in the SF NOODs!  Mike Lovett from SAILING WORLD magazine caught up with Bruce after the first day-

"Bruce Stone really, really likes racing J/105s. On Saturday morning, he flew from Rhode Island, where he'd just spent the week competing at Block Island Race Week, to San Francisco, where he had just enough time to zip down to St. Francis YC and lead his Arbitrage team out to the racecourse for the first start of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta.

In Block Island, the team was racing a borrowed boat in light and variable conditions; returning to San Francisco, they were back in a familiar boat, racing in familiar, 18-25 knot conditions. "It was like putting on an old pair of shoes," says Nicole Breault, who calls tactics and trims mainsail. "And that's such a good feeling. You just know when it's happening. All the information is coming in, everyone is doing their job, and the boat-handling is like clockwork. If we had to make a last-minute douse at the leeward gate, the team just made it happen."

With flawless crew work, stellar starts, and a never-say-die attitude, the Arbitrage team put up a 2-1-2-1-2 scoreline to win the 17-boat J/105 class and earn the event's overall prize, which includes an invite to compete in the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Championship regatta this November in the British Virgin Islands. "There were plenty of times this weekend when we found ourselves in a tight spot," says Stone. "At a couple of the starts, we were sandwiched between two good sailors and had to fight to maintain our lane. Other times, we'd get the slows in the heavy chop, and we'd have to make some adjustments to get back up to speed."

In addition to Stone and Breault, the Arbitrage team includes Terry Brennan (pit), Mike Straus (trimmer), Will Madison (bow), and Marc Acheson (mast). "What makes the teamwork good," says Breault, "is when you do make mistakes, you fix them right away."

Stone moved to San Francisco from the East Coast in the early 1980s and has been running a bi-coastal program for the past 11 years. "We keep Arbitrage here on the Bay, and then we borrow boats on the East Coast," he says. "We find owners who want to race but don't have a team, or don't have the experience, and then we bring the team, help re-rig the boat, and go racing. I pay the variable costs, and they provide the boat.

"We've raced seven different boats in 11 years," he continues. "A few years ago, on Power Play at the Sail Newport Regatta, we had three bullets in one day. The owner was just ecstatic. He said, 'I've never been on a boat that had one bullet, let alone three in one day.' We had him doing mast, and he just had a blast. It's worked out really well that way."

Bruce's ARBITRAGE team ended up winning with a 2-1-2-1-2 record for 8 pts.  San Francisco Bay veteran Rolf Kaiser on DONKEY JACK finished 2nd with a 6-7-3-2-1 tally for 19 pts.  Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK was third with a 1-5-4-4-6 for 20 pts.  4th and 5th were settled on a tie-breaker with Jason Woodley on RISK taking the 4th and Jeff Littfin on MOJO taking 5th.

Amongst the J/24s, it was another past winner taking the gold with Mike Whitfield on TMC RACING winning with four firsts!  Second was Don Taylor sailing ON BELAY, third Darren Cumming's DOWNTOWN UPROAR, fourth Luther Strayer and fifth Raymond Lynch's BAD FISH.  For more information on the Sperry Topsider San Francisco NOOD Regatta.   Sailing Photo Credits- Tim Wilkes Photography

  

SRM, CO2, CAPER, AVET, HP Win LBRW

A J/125, J/105, J/120, J/80, J/24 Enjoy Long Beach
(Long Beach, CA)- As the West Coast's largest keelboat regatta, Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week on June 24-26 hosted 148 boats in 15 classes.  Two J fleets were resolved on tie-breaker count-backs: Gary Mozer's CURRENT OBSESSION 2 over David Gould's AIR BOSS in J/105s and John Laun's CAPER over Chuck Nichols' CC RIDER in J/120s. And, Jim Madden's J/125 STARK RAVING MAD walked off with their class.

Long Beach has long had the reputation of being the home of the notorious summer sea breeze that roars down the San Pedro Channel like an express train. So what was with the wimpy six to seven knots that greeted 150 boats in 15 classes for the first day of competition in Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week? Michael Johnson towed his J/24 HOT PURSUIT down from Seattle expecting something more than the wimpy six to seven knots he saw Friday.  Johnson (1-3), despite sharing the J/24 lead with David Klatt's JADED (2-2) from Ventura, said, 'We were hoping to have more wind---and more sun, too, actually. That's why we came down from Seattle.'  After winning the J/24 Western Regionals, he had hoped to use the event to prepare for the class worlds at Buenos Aries in November.

On Day two it didn't look much different.  When Jim Madden and his Newport Harbor Yacht Club crew on the J/125 STARK RAVING MAD arrived at their boat Saturday morning for the second day of racing they ditched the dismal forecast for continuing light wind and proceeded to pack heavier sails.  'We saw the sun was out,' Madden said, knowing that in Southern California rising inland desert temperatures tend to suck in offshore sea breeze for sailing like a vacuum cleaner.  True to form, after fourth and third place finishes Friday, their J/125 sprang to life to sweep its three races Saturday and jump into a tie for the lead in the PHRF-2 class. Most impressive was that as the scratch boat in the class, STARK RAVING MAD, with a plus-3 rating, owes from 12 to 33 seconds per mile to its six rivals but finished far enough ahead in all three races to correct out on handicap time.  Of the wonderful wind, Madden said, 'We were reading 15 and 16 knots and a couple of puffs to 17' - about double the forecasts which, incidentally, call for 9 knots from the west-southwest Sunday after the sun breaks through for the two races remaining starting at noon.

The final days racing saw many scores settled amongst the fleet leaders in all classes.  In PHRF 2, Jim's SRM crew on the J/125 simply dominated their class, garnering a 4-3-1-1-1-2-1 for 13 points to win their class with ease.

In the J/120s, it was clear that the top three boats were going to have a closely fought competition for the lead between John Laun's CAPER, Charles Nichols' CC RIDER and John Snook's JIM.  After the dust settled on the last day, CAPER's record of 1-5-1-4-1 for  30 pts won the tie-break over CC RIDER's tally of 3-1-2-3-3 for 30 pts.  Just 4 pts back was JIM snagging a 4-2-7-1-2 for 34 pts.  Fourth was Peter Zarcades on MELTEMI with a 6-4-4-2-5 for 39 pts and fifth was Mike Hatch on J ALMIGHTY with a 2-8-3-5-4 for 40 pts.

Like the 120s, the highly competitive J/105 class also needed a tie-breaker to determine the ultimate winner.  Sailing a strong last day was the eventual winner, Gary Mozer on CURRENT OBSESSION 2 counting a 4-2-10-2-4-1-2 for 25 points.  Second was David Gould on AIR BOSS with a 3-6-3-4-3-5-1 for 25 points.  Third only one point back was Ed Sanford on CREATIVE with a  5-3-4-5-2-2-5 for 26 points.  And just 2 points back from them in 5th were past LBRW winners Steve and Lucy Howell on BLINK! with a strong start, but slow finish, collecting a 1-4-5-3-7-8-7 for 35 points.

PHRF 4 Division was dominated by a "classic" J, Dick Velthoen's J/35 RIVAL.  Their 3-1-2.5-5-1-1-2 for 15.5 points simply smoked their class, winning by 7.5 points.  Second was a J/33, John Messenger's NITRO getting a 1-3-5-2-3-6-3 for 23 points.  Just behind in 4th and 5th place, respectively, were two well-sailed J/109s, Alice Leahy's GRACE O'MALLEY and Tom Brott's ELECTRA.

For the J/80s, it was Curt Johnson yet again taking their class with all firsts and seconds on board his well-sailed machine AVET.  8 points back was Steve Wyman sailing NUHUNU to get second and in third was Dan Gribble skippering MONKEY SHOULDER.

The J/24s had a strong showing with a dozen entries for this year's LBRW.  Leading the pack home over some big dogs was Mike Johnson's HOT PURSUIT from Seattle with a 1-3-1-3-1-1-3 for 13 points.  Second was Pat Toole's team from Santa Barbara, past J/24 North American Champion, sailing their renowned 3 BIG DOGS to a 8-1-2-1-2-3-1 finishes for 18 pts.  Dave Klatt's team on JADED finished third with a scoreline of 2-2-3-2-4-4-2 for 19 points, losing his second place position on the last day of the regatta.  For more Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week sailing information.