Great One-design Sailing @ Cal Race Week

J/105s, J/109s, J/80s, J/24s Love SoCal Sunshine
(Marina Del Rey, CA)-  In their usual fashion, the amazing facility that Cal YC offers to its members and visiting sailors is second to none in terms of fun, hospitality and excellent race management.  Rolling out the red carpet for eight one-design classes, including four J-classes, the J/24s, J/80s, J/105s and J/109s, the J sailors responded with good turnouts in all four fleets.

In fact, the number of J/24s attending equalled those sailing that famous "old" Olympic class- the Stars!  Imagine that, kudos to the 24 fleet for continuing to have so much fun with their buddies.  Susan Taylor on TAKE FIVE again showed the boys her tail feathers and managed to nearly "run the table" with four firsts and one second to win with a total of 6 pts.  The battle for second came down to the last two races between Tom Tunberg's BULLET and Jim Bauerley's CRITTER.  Ultimately, it was Tom's 3-3-2-3-1 for 12 pts beat out Jim's team with a 2-4-5-2-3 for 16 pts, for second and third respectively.

Also showing strength and having fun were the five J/80s.  This year it was a repeat win for Curt Johnson on AVET sailing to a 1-1-2-2-1 for 7 pts.  An up-and-comer showing great promise for the future, winning two races in a row, was Dan Gribble's DUI sailing to a 3-3-1-1-4 for 12 pts to secure second place.  Third was Bob Hayward's BLUE JAY with a 2-2-3-4-3 for 14 pts.

The J/105 always shows up with a good number of very competitive teams from the SoCal neighborhood.  Sure enough, past winners of San Diego and Los Angeles area J/105 SoCal series were on the starting line going for all the gold.  However, showing a remarkable turn of speed and consistent sailing was Gary Mozer's team on CURRENT OBSESSION 2 dialing it up a notch to nearly "run the table" as well like Susan in the J/24s, getting four firsts and a third for 7 pts to win by 8 pts!  That's a spanking!  The contest for second was a donnybrook going into the final two races for four teams, all the action was taking place here as Gary's CO2 team took off over the horizon.  Rick Goebel's SANITY, John Howell's BLINK!, Don Poppe's ROCK & ROLL and Ed Sanford's CREATIVE had a great series racing one another.  In the end, Rick's SANITY team squeaked ahead to finish with a 3-3-6-2-1, coming on strong at the end to finish with 15 pts and get second overall.  Third was determined by a tie-breaker, with the nod going to John's BLINK! crew due to a 4-2-2-4-6 record for  18 pts and Don's ROCK & ROLL crew got the short-end of that stick with a 2-4-3-5-4 record also for 18 pts.  While starting out slowly, Ed's CREATIVE team nearly pulled off a third, ending up fourth with a 6-5-4-3-2 tally for 20 pts.  All in all great sailing amongst the J/105 teams.

While the J/105s and J/24s both had runaway winners and battles for podium honors for silver and bronze, the J/109s had a tough battle for the entire series between two well-sailed boats, Alice Leahey's GRACE O'MALLEY and Tom Brott's ELECTRA.  Both teams sailed fast and smart and didn't give an inch.  However, there was no holding back Alice's first attempt at winning silverware in the J/109 class at Cal Race Week.  Both teams sailed to a tie-breaker, Alice getting a 3-1-2-1-1 for 8 pts to win over Tom's 1-2-1-2-2 also for 8 pts.  Watching the fireworks at the front of the fleet was Bryce Benjamin's PERSISTENCE, counting a consistent 2-3-3-3-3 record for 14 pts.

PHRF Class was won by Fred Cottrell's J/133 TIGGER, literally "running the table" with five straight firsts for 5 pts, the only boat in the regatta to do so and completely dominate their class.  Way to go Fred!   For more Cal Race Week sailing information

  

Coors Light Island Double

J/133 JAMMY DODGER Leads Fleet Home

(Southampton, England)- It's 30 years since Neil Cox of Solent Rigging organised the first Double Handed racing at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. Since then the series has continued without a break and grown in popularity.  And, it has to be one of the most challenging of the famous "around island" races anywhere in the world, especially shorthanded.

The tides for this year's Coors light Island Double were more suited to the east-about circumnavigation of the Island instead of the more usual west-about course - If only the boats had enough wind to get over the line. The forecast, and the actual conditions were very light but the Race Committee made the right call by getting the boats away, some of whom were swept OCS by the tide. The fleet of over 100 boats flying spinnakers of all descriptions made a great sight as they ran, slowly, down towards the forts in the bright morning sunshine.

All tactics were used to get down to Bembridge with some boats following the mainland shore and taking a long, wide sweep east and others hugging the Island shore and sometimes getting caught in wind holes from where they watched others further north overtake them.

Once at Bembbridge the very light wind slowly picked up but immediately became so flukey that it was hard to know which sail to hoist or which tack to take. Eventually the conditions settled down with the earlier boats taking full advantage of the favourable tide to make the Needles in two tacks. The later boats were robbed of that option and had to take the inshore route but at least then found the tide in their favour in the Needles Channel.

The western Solent delivered winds that hadn't appeared on any of Friday's forecasts and strengthened the nearer the boats got to the finish where the Race Committee were on station to the south-east of Williams Shipping buoy, setting a line that was a near straight run from Sconce. From there the main question then became, if we raise the kite will we get it down again? The hardy souls that took that risk had an exhilarating, surfing run to line.

Here is Neil Martin's and Deb Fish's report from the J/133 JAMMY DODGER:  "With just over an hour of flood tide left, the race committee sent the fleet East down the Solent for a clockwise circumnavigation. Neil got us a good start at the Squadron end of the line, where we could stem the lighter tide until it was time to turn for the line. Seconds before the start we hoisted the light runner and set off in the forecast light NWly winds. We gybed all down the Solent, generally staying away from the lighter winds on the Island shore and gybing between mid channel and the mainland. The patchy wind became a bit steadier and we found ourselves leading the fleet by some margin by the time we reached the forts. We crept inside No Mans Land fort, deep inshore to get out of the foul tide, and the wind died before shifting dramatically. Fortunately the fleet of Redwings racing off Bembridge allowed Neil to anticipate the new wind, and we soon had the kite down and were beating to Bembridge Ledge.

The wind soon shifted to the SW and built to 17 knots, and we tacked along the middle of the course to Dunnose, trying to keep out of the bays and in the stronger tide, but stay right in anticipation of the wind veering. (At least, we think it was stronger tide - having tossed Winning Tides overboard in the spinnaker drop at Bembridge, we were relying on the tide atlases in the Almanac...) By St Cats the wind had veered and we could just lay the Needles on port tack. Visibility was amazing - halfway between St Cats and the Needles, both looked just a couple of miles away, and we could see Anvil Point and Portland Bill really clearly. The sea had built with wind over tide, so I was in for a soaking on the bow to clip the spinnaker on. I managed to cut my finger, covering the deck with blood - unbelievable how such a tiny cut can cause so much mess. We passed the wreck, bore away and hoisted the kite in 20 knots of breeze. Gybing the light runner on the J133 down the Needles Channel then the Solent double-handed was hard work, with the boat on the edge, but we managed to avoid wraps and stay in control somehow. We still led the fleet around the Needles, but the two multihulls that had been drawing ever closer finally overtook us in the Needles channel.

Conscious of stemming the strong tide in the middle of the Solent, we gybed in to the mainland shore, but I had failed to notice the shallow waters further along our gybe out on the small screen on the hand-held chart plotter and we held our breath as the depth decreased to 0.0m and we touched the bottom with full main and spinnaker up doing 10 knots. Mercifully we got through the shallow patch and out of the other side.

The final drama was finding the finish buoy just upwind of the Bramble bank and getting the kite down quickly (listening at the race committee's urgent calls to one of the following boats to beware the Bramble bank!)."

Besides winning elapsed time overall, JAMMY DODGER also managed to finish fourth in Class 1 on corrected time behind the two well-sailed J/109s.  Finishing second was the J/109 JAGERBOMB sailed by the team of Paul and Mark Griffiths, just missing first place by 52 seconds on corrected time!  Ouch, now how many places were there on the race you could make up 52 seconds?  Just off their pace was the J/109 JANGADA TOO, well-sailed by the team of Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt to get third in class.  Finishing ninth was the OSTAR class winner (and nearly overall), the J/122 JBELLINO, ably sailed by experienced offshore sailing veteran Rob Craigie with Charles Allen as part of his team.  For more Island Double sailing information.  Sailing Photo Credit- Paul Wyeth
  

A Jubilee J/Fest Northwest

J/105 Wins Top Performance Award

(Seattle, WA- Jun 19-20)- A gathering of 30 J's including one-design fleets for J/109s, J/35s, J/105s and J/30s enjoyed eight races over two days of competition in the waters off Shilshole Bay Marina, sponsored by Seattle J-Boats dealer Sailboats Northwest, with Corinthian Yacht Club running the racing and hosting post-race parties.

For the J/109 class, the Dack/ Nordquist team sailed J/TRIPPER to a 1-1-3-1-2-1-2-1 record for twelves points.   The Greene team on IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL finished second with a 2-4-1-4-1-4-1-2 record and third was Woodfield's SHADA with a 3-3-5-3-5-3-3-3 tally.

The J/35s were won by the Whitfield/ Chatham team on JABIRU.  Second was White sailing GRACE E and third was the Ellingsen's BERGEN VIKING.

Erik Kirsten's team sailing JUBILEE were not only winners of the J/105 class, but got Top Performance Award for best regatta in biggest fleet at the event.  Second was Petersen racing LAST TANGO and third was Pinkham's USAWI.

The J/30s had a nice turnout with the Gardner/ Adair team winning with seven firsts on ROUNDER.  Battling for second and third were CELEBRATION and OUTLAW. At the end of their epic battle for J/30 supremacy in the greater NW, the Storm/ Gossett team racing OUTLAW just lost out in the last two races to Bottles' CELEBRATION.

The PHRF handicap fleet had quite a mix of boats and a donnybrook of a fight for the silver/ bronze positions on the podium.  No matter what anyone could do, the Moynihan/ Conway team raced WINGS to a dominant first place getting eight straight firsts!  Playing "tourists"/ bridesmaids to this amazing performance were Daniel's TOURIST and Sawyer's FEARFUL SYMMETRY.  Finishing in a tie with twenty-one points each, the tie-breaker went in favor of TOURIST with FEARFUL SYMMETRY finishing third- with an average of 2.5 each!

In the photo is the crew of CYC member Erik Kristen's J/105 Jubilee. From left are Joel Thornton, Jeff McLean, Matt Tookey, Bruce Sherman and Kristen. Kristen's wife, Steph, and children Mary and Tom sailed on Saturday.   For more J/Fest Northwest sailing information