Healy Crowned BMW J/24 World Champion

(Howth, Ireland)- "It's usually not like this here", was the familiar refrain heard from the local J/24 sailors from Howth Yacht Club.  After a reasonably windy J/24 Irish Nationals, the forty teams attending the J/24 Worlds were looking forward to battles on the windy, storm-tossed Irish Sea-- at least that was the promise from the Mayor of Howth and the local Chamber of Commerce!  However, an unusual front passed over Ireland for the first few days, producing somewhat capricious, light airs for the first few days of the event, even forcing cancellation of sailing on the Tuesday due to lack of wind (and later a notorious Irish pub crawl for those with too much time on their hands)!  With the exception of the one day, the  championship featured four good days of racing, with the wind strength progressively increasing as the week went on-- in fact hitting 20-25 kts on the last day.

The racing was very closely fought, especially by the top three teams.  There were six different race winners and the four American entries all finished in the top ten, which featured two British boats, two German boats and the sole Italian and Brazilian entries.

In a tense and closely fought final day any one of the top three teams could win the regatta, with all three of them trading positions atop the leaderboard during the previous three days.  Going into the last day, Travis Odenbach's HONEY BADGER was winning, followed by Mauricio Santa Cruz's BRUSCHETTA in second and Tim Healy's HELLY HANSEN in third.  On the final two races in fairly big breeze, Healy's HELLY HANSEN scored a 4-5 to become the impressive winners of the BMW J/24 World Championship-- they had eight top-five results (including three race wins) in the ten race series.

Healy, who previously won the title in 2010, was pushed all the way by the defending champion Mauricio Santa Cruz from Brazil on BRUSCHETTA, who also demonstrated remarkable consistency, but who had to be content with the runner-up spot, four points adrift of his rival.  BRUSCHETTA's final day tally of 9-3 was not enough to pull off a record-tying fifth J/24 World title to match the famous Ken Read from Newport, RI (now President of North Sails).

Third place overall went to another American crew led by Travis Odenbach from Rochester on HONEY BADGER who had been the series leader overnight but who did not enjoy the final day. A 20-8 score completely blew-up their chances of winning the regatta, although he was only two points off Brazil's Santa Cruz in the end.

In fresh westerly winds which touched 25 knots at times, the penultimate race saw a second win in the series for Britain’s Ian Southworth on IL RICIO, ahead of fellow Briton Bob Turner’s SERCO. Third place went to local Howth skipper Mossy Shanahan on CRAZY HORSE, following up on his great form the previous day, a result which contributed to him finishing as the top Irish boat overall in 19th place.  Success in the last race went to the German boat ROTOMAN skippered by Tobias Feuerherd, with Keith Whittemore sailing FURIO from Seattle 2nd and Santa Cruz 3rd.

Rounding out the top ten was England's Ian Southworth in fourth followed by Germany's ROTOMAN in fifth-- for both sailors their best J/24 World's regatta performance to date.  After leading the first day, Seattle's Keith Whittemore sailed FURIO fast and furiously, but not enough to overcome a third race "black flag" that knocked them out of contention, settling for sixth overall.  British skipper Bob Turner sailed Team SERCO fast and smart at times, managing scores of 1-2-2-4, but five higher double-digit scores moved them down the ladder into seventh overall.  Posting five top ten finishes was Italy's Ignacio Bonanno sailing LA SUPERBA (also J/24 Italian Nationals champions) to place eight overall.  Top Washington, DC political strategist and, arguably, the "wiseman cometh" of the J/24 "tribe", Tony Parker, sailed his famous BANGOR PACKET team to a first place in the first race to put their stamp on this year's Worlds-- cool, eh?!  Tony has only sailed a J/24 since 1977, since back in his Falmouth Foreside/ Portland, Maine days-- almost four decades!  Nevertheless, after winning the World Championships for a few hours, Parker's crew may have been blinded by ambition, scoring a few double-digit races but still celebrating their time in the limelight with five top ten finishes-- good enough for ninth overall.  In tenth was the other top German team, SULLBERG skippered by Stefan Karsunke from the Blankeneser Segel Club.   Sailing photo credits- by David Branigan - Oceansport Gallery   For more J/24 World Championship sailing information

One J/24 World Champion Joins Another!

(Newport, RI)- Here's one for the "why you sail a 'J' to learn how to sail better, faster, smarter and move ahead in the world department"-  J/24 World Champion Tim Healy has been asked by yet another J/24 World Champion, Ken Read (now President of North Sails) to re-join "Team Blue".  Prophetically enough, North Sails announced that Tim would join in the role of One Design Coordinator after Key West. Healy, who won the J/24 World Championship in 2010, worked for North Sails from 1998-2004 and has been in the sailmaking industry for 14 years.

"Tim has proven himself countless times in a wide array of one design sailboats from J/24s and Shields to Lightnings and Etchells – and now in the new and quickly growing J/70 class, where he won top honors in the 39-boat fleet last week in Key West,” said North Sails President Ken Read. "Having Tim back at North Sails gives us an opportunity to work closer with clients through his experience and knowledge of how to prepare and win on the race course,” Read continued.

Healy, who was a three-time All-American Sailor at St. Mary’s College in Maryland, has earned his place in the world of one-design sailboat racing. He has won 17 major titles in the J/24 class since 1999 and 7 National and North American championships in other classes. Healy also won a Gold Medal at the Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic in 2003.

"What I enjoy most about sailing and sailmaking is learning how to fine tune everything about the boat -- sails, rig tune, boat setup, tactics -- to make it go faster. Sailing our J/70 in Key West last week was a great example of how fulfilling it is to race in a brand-new boat and tweak our tactics and boat setup all week long until we found our groove. What we learned in Key West will be shared within the North Sails Group and will be applied to help our clients go faster on the race course,” he continued. “My love for the sport of sailing never seems to subside and rejoining North Sails allows me to utilize the best tools in the business to ultimately better serve my clients," Healy concluded.

"We are very excited to have Tim back onboard and look forward to his knowledge and input on where we can improve our sail designs and client outreach," said Vince Brun, head of the One Design division of North Sails. "Not only is he an accomplished and talented sailor but he is also committed to helping clients at regattas and he will work with our team internally to make sure we are doing the best job possible with regatta preparation and presence," continued Brun. "Our goal within the One Design division of North Sails is to have a stronger presence for our clients leading up to and during regattas and to provide better client services across the board," Brun said.  "Vinnie" should know, he sailed one of the first J/24 Midwinters himself starting in 1979 as a "newbie" just off the ship from Brazil. :)

J/24 Midwinters Preview

(Tampa, Florida)- This year's J/24 Midwinters are shaping up to be as competitive an event as its seen in recent years.  The Davis Island YC that is playing host to the event from February 12-15 is no stranger to having to manage this group of high-test racers who look forward to their winter pilgrimage down to Florida to challenge the locals as well as the top teams that show up from around the country, a tradition that started back in 1978 in the first J/24 Midwinters and has never let up since!  

With a massive Low pressure weather system flowing across the south and into the northeast coast this coming weekend, it may just clean out the weather and offer up some great sailing conditions on Tampa Bay for these intrepid J/24 sailors.  The Bay can be notoriously fickle at this time of year since most of the weather is driven by relatively fast-moving frontal systems from the Arctic North curving south and sweeping across the North American continent.  It's not unknown for Tampa Bay to have light to moderate winds one day and blowing "dogs off chains" in rather "fresh to frightening" conditions the next day as yet another enormous winter front pushes through the amazingly choppy waters off the Tampa city-front.  Without fail, the Midwinters always provides challenging conditions to the competitors.

Fresh off their win at the first J/70 Midwinters, perhaps it's somewhat symbolic the "three musketeers" of John Mollicone, Tim Healy and Geoff Becker have joined together again on I FEEL LIKE(?) as a formidable crew to take on other top teams for the J/24 Midwinters.  Giving them a serious run-for-the-money, and perhaps looking forward to knocking them off the podium, will be several top teams all with equally impressive credentials.  Special mention must first go to Tony Parker sailing yet another incarnation of the famous BANGOR PACKET, more often than not, Tony's always a factor amongst the regatta leaders-- not bad for a guy who's sailed J/24s starting in Maine since 1979! Yes, that does span four actual decades for those who are counting!  Watch out!  The wise-man cometh.  Other notable teams include Peter Bream's crew on TEAM TARHEEL, Robby Brown sailing USA 799, Travis Odenbach on HONEY BADGER and a pretty formidable group from Newport/ San Diego that know a thing or two about sailing J/24s- Will Welles is teamed up with Chris Snow and Anderson Reggio.  Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com
For more J/24 Midwinters sailing information
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