Hurricane Sandy Update- Sailors in the Storm

(Sandy Hook, New York)- Our hearts, wishes and thoughts continue to go out to our friends in the J/Sailing community in Long Island Sound, Hudson River and, in particular, Barnegat Bay inside the demolished spit of land known as Long Beach Island off New Jersey.

The report from Manhattan YC's Mike Fortenbaugh was that "we were lucky, very lucky, and feel fortunate that all our planning to safeguard our fleet of J/24s and J/105s in the harbor went well."  Their J/24 "story" seemed to be prophetic as all video images on American TV broadcast across all news agencies showed J/24s on the Hudson bobbing easily across the monster chop.

From our friends in the Hudson River Community Sailing, they, too, reported an encouraging tale of survival of all their J/24s other than their clubhouse along the piers.  HRCS had this to say, "Thanks for the encouragement and support so many of you have shown HRCS since the storm. We feel fortunate. Our thoughts are with those whose homes and lives have been devastated.

Our Status:
- Our boats rode out the wind, rain, and surge successfully. Staff and members did a great job preparing.
- Our boat house did not fare as well.  High storage spared some computers and electronics. The remaining contents of our classroom, workshop, and office were destroyed as 6' of water filled the boathouse and floated and tumbled its contents. The boat house is closed, and we do not have a timeline for its use.
- This past Monday, a week after Sandy, we resumed our after school program using one of our partner high schools as our meeting site. We are making contingency plans should a prolonged absence from the boathouse be necessary.
- We will resume sailing operations (without boathouse) this upcoming weekend November 8th for our youth, members, and the public!

How You Can Help - Donate equipment or supplies:
- Educational materials: laptop computers, calculators, stopwatches, one-subject notebooks, pens/pencils, charts, nautical books (fiction/non-fiction)
- Office and classroom: folding chairs and tables, business telephone, small refrigerator, microwave, electric heaters, fans
- Tools: drills, sanders, grinders, saws, hammers, tape measures

Please contact HRSC at email- info@hudsonsailing.org for any contributions.

J/24 "Reality Sailing" In California

(San Diego, CA)- Manuel Morenos has been working with friends to create a unique new sailing, adventure and experiential organization called "Reality Sailing Adventure org".  Says Manuel, "Our group is embarking on an ambitious project and we need all the help we can get.  We have a dream of creating what we call the first bi-national sailing campus.  A campus which will have a variety of activities ranging from sailing instruction, adventure sailing voyages and a place for university students geared to marine biology and the research for cleaner technologies perform their studies. The development of this institution has given us the opportunity to reach to world leader in the nautical industry, and to sailing, research and governmental institutions in both the US and Mexico, generating an all around positive program. 

Our organization’s concept is simple, positive, and sustainable. Sailing is synonymous with a healthy environment. Don’t we all disapprove oils spills, pollution, punctured atmospheric layers created by carbonic emissions? Yes, we have to stop depending so much on this non-renewable fuel which is only damaging us. Sailing in the other hand utilizes the wind, currents, weather patterns and even solar energy to move from point A to B causing less harm to biospheres and so to the planet. Sailing also provides a great quiet pleasurable travel, at the same time promoting healthy life styles and good economies around it.

Help us create consciousness in the preservation of the magical waters of the Sea of Cortés and at the same time have fun doing it. Our developing organization is composed to the most part of sailors and a group of  visionaries  looking forward to create an innovative program. Additionally,  we would like to offer more opportunities for American cruisers to safely and responsibly sail this part of the world.

Part of our program is geared to connect the youth interested in sailing with other sailing schools, yacht clubs and he sport of sailing itself. This involvement game the opportunity to help direct a junior sailing in San Diego, CA for CVYC. By this community outreach program the Coronado Yacht Club offered a sailing class to (3) of my top sailing students. Opportunity which gave us the chance to meet former national champion in this class, you might remember Jon Rogers. He currently teaches sailing at the Coronado yacht Club.

Rogers who previously worked as an instructor for a J-World school in Newport, RI conducted one of the most educational and exciting class the kids and myself included ever had aboard a nice J-24 race sailboat. He gave the juniors the ins and out of this magnificent racing vessel. That confirmed what lots of people say about J boats, “They’re fast”.  Jon is a great guy and outstanding sailing instructor. We all enjoyed the class and hopefully in the near future we could have the opportunity to have one of this fast racing vessels in our fleet too."     For more information on Reality Sailing Org

J/24 Worlds Update

 
Brazilians Dominating, Americans In Catch-up Mode
(Rochester, NY)-  Ninety-six teams from 12 countries have converged on Rochester, New York for the 2012 J/24 World Championship. Represented at the championship are Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and the United States. Racing started on Monday, September 17 and continues through Friday, September 21. Even after 35+ years, the J/24 is STILL proving it's one of the world's MOST competitive classes to race in-- top teams read like a "who's who" of top one-design sailors from around the world.

After the first day of sailing, Brazilian Mauricio Santa Cruz sailed BRUSCHETTA to the top of the leader board.  With the entire fleet competing together, Bruschetta scored a 2-6 on a day when Lake Ontario started at 4-6 knots and got as high as 10 knots during Race 2 before subsiding. The conditions then turned too unstable for the Race Committee to complete a third race. To give you a reference point on how competitive the regatta is to date, past Moth World Champion and Key West Melges 24 Champion Bora Gulari is tactician on-board Kevin O'Brien's FUGUE STATE from Detroit and are lying 7th after the first day.  Past NA Champion 3 BIG DOGS sailed by Pat Toole from Santa Barbara is in 10th.  Past World Champion helm/tactician Tim Healy on John Mollicone's 11th HOUR RACING are in 10th and 2nd team in the 2011 Worlds in Buenos Aires, Argentina is Luis Olcese's team on SCARAMOUSH.

Mauricio on BRUSCHETTA held his spot on the top of the leader board on day 2, scoring a 9 and a 1 on Tuesday for a total of 18 points after two days racing. Luis Olcese on SCARAMOUSH from Peru stayed in second overall with 41 points, and Frithjof Schade on JJone from Germany had 43 points in third place.  In the day's first race, Mike Marshall on TBD claimed the top spot, followed by Tony Parker on Bangor Packet and Paul Scalisi on Rabit Cson Duck Cson. In Race 2 Mauricio Santa Cruz on Bruschetta of Brazil crossed the finish line first. Rossi Milev on Clear Air was second and Matias Seguel on Guru trailed him.  Conditions on Lake Ontario started at 4-6 knots and settled in at 10 to 12 for race two and as high as 18 to 20 knots for a short time in a squall at the end of Race 2.

After the third day, Mauricio's Brazilian team have taken dominant control of the 96-boat fleet. Team Bruschetta has held the lead on each day of the event so far, and has now opened up a 41-point advantage with just three races to go. A throw-out took effect on Wednesday, and Santa Cruz dropped a 13, leaving him with all top 10 finishes in the seven races thus far. Following him in the standings to date are American Mike Ingham who shot into second place, and a tie for third between Frithjof Schade's JJone (Germany) and Rossi Milev's Clear Air (Canada) with 67 points each.  In the day's first race, Ingham took top honors on 11th Hour Racing, with Nicolas Cubria's Elvis of Argentina second and Pat Toole's 3 Big Dogs of the USA in third. Race 2 saw another American in first- Will Welles's COUGAR. Matias Seguel's GURU of Chile and Ignazio Bonanno's LA SUPERBA of Italy trailed Welles. In the third race of the day, Mauricio Santa Cruz ended the day on a positive note taking another 1st, as did Americans' Ingham in second and Darby Smith in third.  Winds on Lake Ontario started at 12-14 knots, then built to 18 for most of Race 1, decreased slightly in Race 2, then dropped to 5-7 knots in the final race. Swells lingered from the previous night's storm throughout the day.

Also sailing amongst the crowd of J/24 sailors are a team from Newport's Fleet #50 that are comprised of a bunch of characters from SAILING WORLD Magazine.  Here's their latest report to date on what it's like to sail this year's J/24 Worlds from SW's Editor's perspective (Dave Reed) from the "front of the bus":

"OK, we got schooled, again!  Imagine trying to pick your lanes through this mess of a 96-boat fleet. Race 1 winner Saramouche had a terrible start, tacked at the race committee boat, dug hard into the bottom right corner, tacked once and led all the way around.

Sailing World editor Stuart Streuli and I are at the 2012 J/24 Worlds in Rochester this week, which started today (Monday) with two incredibly tough and shifty races. There were 96 boats on the racecourse, so it was nearly impossible to keep track of who was winning, who was losing, and who was gaining on one beat or the next, and what was really working at any given moment. Every time I looked across the racecourse, bows were pointed every which way.

Trust me, I was perfectly happy with my job on the bow. Stu, however, had the hot seat calling tactics, as he normally does on Ian Scott's Crack of Noon, and he had one hell of day trying to make sense of which shifts would come and when. I have habit of chirping in his ear (I'm a self-admitted backseat tactician, and not a good one at that), but I was perfectly happy keeping my "suggestions" to myself today and let him figure it out. He made some great calls, and it was interesting to see how they played out on the replay of the Kattack Race Player.

The conditions were a light southerly that came straight off Rochester shoreline. In the first race, a big right shift right off the start launched anyone on that side immediately, and in the second, it was the left that rewarded those who got off the line best, tacked (or started) on the big left shift, and got away. No surprise there, but what was surprising was watching the Kattack tracks and noticing in each race, the boat that won hit its side and tacked only once or twice. Our tracks had five or as many as eight tacks on the first beat, some of which were to clear lanes and to take advantage of shifts, but where it was hard work for us, the two race winners made it look easy. Fun, frustrating stuff, and we're at least in the top half (43rd), with a lot more racing to come."  Look for more updates from Dave, Stu and crew at SailingWorld.com  Sailing Photo credits- Tim Wilkes.   For more J/24 Worlds sailing information and results

J/Teams Hot In Annapolis!

(Annapolis, Maryland)- Annapolis Race Week (ARW) is a Mid-Atlantic Region annual event that occurs every year over Labor Day weekend off the famous shores of Annapolis (a.k.a. "Naptown"). The 3-day event offers a significant and unique opportunity for sailors to party and have fun on the city-front right in the city square where the enormous Annapolis Sailboat Show is held every year in October.  There were significant fleets of one-design J/Teams sailing, including J/24s, J/35s, J/30s, J/105s and J/80s.  Plus, J/111s sailed in PHRF class.

J/24s had six boats participating with Paul van Ravenswaay's team on MILLENIUM FALCON walking off with top honors with four 1sts, one 2nd and three 3rds for 15 pts total. Second was Paul Ford on WILDCARD with a 4-3-3-4-3-1-1-3 record for 22 pts.  Just one point back was Peter Rich on USA 4006 with a 1-5-4-1-4-2-4-2 tally for 23 pts.

In the J/35s, a strong contingent of seven boats sought the "holy grail", but in the end it was Masci McGonigle's WINDEPENDENT that just squeaked out a win with a 1-1-2-6 score for 10 pts.  Just behind them the score was settled on a tie-breaker with Pete Scheidt's MAGGIE beating out Chuck Kohlerman's MEDICINE MAN.  MAGGIE's 3-5-1-2 for 11 pts was better than the Med-MAN's 2-2-3-4 also for 11 pts.

The J/105s had the one of the large one-design racing division with seventeen boats participating.  Jack Biddle's RUM PUPPY was "alpha male dog" here with a fairly dominating 4-2-3-1-1-2 for 13 pts.  The next four boats had to fight it out amongst themselves for 2nd and 3rd on the podium.  Carl & Scott Gitchell's crew on TENACIOUS emerged from the smoke-filled field of battle as top of the pack with a 1-4-5-11-7-1 for 29 pts to snag second place.  They just managed to beat the VELOCE gang with 31 pts who finished 3rd.  Fourth was Andrew Kennedy's BAT IV with 32 pts and fifth was Carolyn & Chris Groobey's JAVA.

J/30s had a nice turnout with seven boats and it was quite clear the top three had an incredibly competitive series.  Setting the BETTER MOUSETRAP was Bob Putnan, sailing to a steady 1-3-1-4-2-2 for 13 pts.  One point back BEPOP'ing around was Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello with a 3-1-3-1-3-3 for 14 pts.  Then thirsting INSATIABLY for more was Ron Anderson's crew managing to smoke the fleet for two picket fences on the last day, but not enough to overcome his friends in 1-2.  So, Ron's 4-2-5-3-1-1 for 16 pts meant they had to settle for 3rd.

The largest one-design fleet sailing were the J/80s with eighteen boats on the starting line.  In the end, it was Kristen Robinson's much-improved team winning by a substantial margin- their 1-3-2-4-2-2 for 14 pts meant they had a 7 pt margin of victory.  Second was Ray Wulff on GORILLA PANIC! with a 3-7-3-2-1-5 for 21 pts.  Third was John White's team just one pt back.  Fourth was Todd Olds on TSUNAMI with 29 pts and fifth was Clarke McKinney sailing AUNT EDNA'S DEAD with 34 pts.

In handicap world of PHRF A-1, the J/111s had a dog-fight for top to the pack.  This time, it was Tony Culotta's CUORE DI LEONE overcoming the well-traveled VELOCITY for top banana.  Tony's crew managed to garner the identical score of 2-1-2-1 for 6 pts to Marty's 1-2-1-2 also for 6 pts, with the winner being who won the last race!  For more Annapolis Race Week sailing information

City Sail--Young Sailors Learn the Ropes in Record Numbers!

(Hudson River, NJ)-  What could be more incredibly cool than that?!?  City Sail--a series of one-week instructional programs Hudson River Community Sailing hosts for local youth each summer- enjoyed its highest enrollment ever this year, with nearly 200 kids showing up to learn maritime skills, leadership, and have some fun on the water.

The program incorporated various themes this summer. The America's Cup and the Olympics both served as rallying points, as students learned the history of the events and competed in races of their own. An ecology-themed program saw kids testing water samples and examining them with microscopes under the guidance of Hudson River Park naturalists.

An important objective of the program is to plant the seeds of leadership in young people. Will, an 8th grader from Manhattan, described it this way: "I liked that we learned how to do everything on the boat ourselves and at the end of the week [I] could do every job on the boat." Each of the ten individual week-long camps runs a total of 35 hours, Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm. Students are primarily from the 6th- 8th grades, with some high school attendees rounding out the mix.

A significant proportion of students attended with the help of scholarships provided by HRCS with funds raised from events such as the "Dark and Stormy". One parent, convinced she could not afford even a subsidized rate, was assured that scholarship funds could cover the difference. Realizing that her child would be able to join in this fantastic experience brought her to tears on the phone with Program Director Alex Baum. "We really work hard to try make sure every kid who really wants to get out and do this, can have the opportunity to do so," says Alex.  Thanks for the contribution from Seth Stephenson

Learn more about Hudson Community Sailing-- contributions always Welcome!

Ken Read 3rd in Volvo Ocean Race

(Newport, RI)- The Volvo Ocean Race had an unpredictable outcome for the last race from Lorient, France to Galway, Ireland. After winning about 85% of the race and leading the fleet into the turn towards Galway Bay, Newport's Ken Read sailed into a massive hole and finished 3rd on Leg 9, thus finishing 3rd overall.  The big winner were the French team led by Franck Cammas on GROUPAMA, finishing 2nd on Leg 9 to "seal the deal" and win the Volvo Ocean Race on their first attempt!  A rather unprecedented outcome for GROUPAMA, surprising not only themselves but the rest of their competitor and pundits, too!  With a bit of luck, Ken may be able to use some of his J/24 World Championship and one-design experience to pull the proverbial "rabbit out of the hat" and win the Inshore Series for the Volvo Ocean Race this coming weekend.  Best of luck from the J/Crew!  For more Volvo Race sailing information

India J/24 Women Sailor Promoting Sailing

India's top J/24 women sailor and women's match racer, Ayesha Lobo, is helping grow the sport of sailing in one of the world's largest developing nations.  With millions of miles of shoreline, many gorgeous harbors to sail out of and lots of "natural amphitheaters" to promote the sport on the water, Ayesha and friends are doing their best to promote sailing to a whole new generation of sailors in India.  And, they're making the efforts work in the most extraordinary ways.  Here's a quick report from Ayesha on her recent activities-

"Congratulations on the J/70 its a beauty, I can't wait to sail it sometime soon.  This is mail is long over due as I have been caught up with university and sailing. Just to give you a quick update- the link here is an article which I got them to do as a part of
developing the Adventure Sports Groups who are interested in water-based sports in India (a national promotion/ tour agency).

In our huge country, the percentage of people that know about sailing is not even one percent!! I’ve decided to explore all possible dimensions of fun on a J/Boat.  We are opening up the J/Boat experience to everyone and expanding the field to more buyers.

MTV India (yes, the big music television channel) wants me to collaborative with them, so I am currently working on ideas for outdoor sports & activities that combine music, beauty and sailing!

We are taking our J/24 down to Hyderabad, where we will conduct a "Discover The J Experience" for the next few months (June to August). If this is successful I am planning to visit other centers and maybe create a few new ones.  I find there is so much about the J/Boat I need to learn and I am looking forward to this very exciting experience, and I am all pumped up about it. Best regards, Ayesha"

For more Indian Women's Sailing information and more information about Ayesha's experiences.