2013 J/Fest Southwest Announcement

(Seabrook, Texas)- J/Fest Southwest gets better and better every year and provides a lot of bang for your entry dollar!  Once again the skippers packet is going to be chock full of coupons for Seabrook area businesses, and great products.  With great restaurants, and lots of activities for shore side guests there is something for everyone:  Kemah Boardwalk Amusement park, NASA-Discovery Center (worth an entire day), Shopping and Dining.  

Sailing from November 2nd to 3rd, the host Lakewood Yacht Club will have real-time race updates for those that want to hang out and see how their favorite sailors are fairing out on the water.  In addition there will be a spectator boat available to take those that want to get up close and personal with the racing action going on amongst 8 fleets!  

The newest J/Boat- the J/88 Hull #007 "It's a Thrill"- will be making her debut!  How will she do?  We'll find out soon!  Her skipper will be Rod Johnstone, J/Boats co-founder and Guest of Honor back for his fourth year!  And that means a 4th year of J/Boats trivia!  With all the fabulous prizes that come with the right answers!  Hint: "Mello Yellow" will NOT be an answer this year!  

After Saturday's racing the band will start and the music will be heard across the inner harbor as we put our boats away, swap stories, and share a beverage or two.  Back by popular demand comes the "Cajun Feast".  Enough food for three regatta's!  

Your skippers packet will include additional restaurant vouchers to be used at LYC for this incredible dining experience!  After dinner several TV's will be replaying the day's race tracks-this has been an awesome prop for the bench racing stories that tend to go long into the night! But really!  It's all about the racing!

All the usual One Designs will be there:  J/22, J/24, J/70, J/80, J/105 and J/109!  With a record breaking early entry list topping 34 boats with two months to go this is shaping up to be a killer event!  The first year J/70 fleet will top 10 boats! Lots of fun and the J/70 Saturday post-race debrief by the leaders has been a real hit- everyone is welcome to attend!  

And for the real kicker- J/World Annapolis is bringing their talented instructors to Lakewood YC for a 2 day "J/Fest Southwest Racing Clinic" on October 31- November 1st to be run on J/70's and J/80's out of LYC!  It's the best deal in town, just $149/boat!

J/Fest Southwest always has great racing and great sponsors that provide us with a lot of valuable freebies!  Check out the regatta site at J/Fest Southwest and look at the list of sponsors to get an idea of the freebies, and listen to Seabrook Mayor Glenn Royals Welcome video!  Hook 'em up!  Head 'em out to J/Fest Southwest and Race, Dine, and Stay in Seabrook!  BTW ask for the J/Fest Southwest discount at any Seabrook hotel- check the website for a list of participating hotels!  For more J/Fest Southwest sailing information

J/24 Europeans Preview

(Monte Carlo, Monaco)- Twenty years years after welcoming the J/24 European Championship to the Principality of Monaco for the first time, the YC Monaco will host the event once again in Monte Carlo, uniting the international elite of the J/24 class, considered to be one of the world’s most important International one-design fleets.

Organized by the Yacht Club de Monaco, the Monaco J/24 Class Association, the International J/24 Class Association in conjunction with the Monaco Sailing Federation (FMV), the European J/24 Championship will take place in Monaco between 5 October 2013 and 12 October 2013.

The J/24 first appeared in Monaco waters in 1986. In 1991 the fleet grew with the first Yacht Club Challenge, organized in collaboration with the Manhattan Yacht Club. In 1993, 105 J/24 teams from 15 countries were on the starting line for the first J/24 Europeans in Monaco!  Nowadays, 17 boats compete each month during the Monaco Championships. Even after 40 races, the first three boats are only within points of one another.

A fabulous turnout of sixty-two teams are registered to sail the Europeans, including 22 German teams, 16 Italian, 3 Hungarian, 5 British, 2 Irish, 2 French, one Australian, one American, one Brazilian, one Swedish, one Greek and the seven best teams of Monaco’s local fleet!  Some of the teams that participated in the J/24 World Championship in Howth will be in attendance for this highly competitive Europeans, including BRUSCHETTA sailed by Mauricio Santa Cruz from Brazil (2nd overall); IL RICCIO skippered by Ian Southworth from Great Britain (4th overall and 2013 UK & Irish National Champion); LA SUPERBA sailed by Ignacio Bonnano from Italy (8th overall and 2013 Italian Champion); SULLBERG sailed by Stephan Karsunke from Germany (10th overall); and JJ ONE sailed by Frithjof Schade from Germany (13th in the 2013 Worlds and 8th in the 2012 Worlds).

The lone American team is led by Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY, they're 2013 J/24 US National Champions at Wayzata Yacht Club in Minnesota and were 2nd at the 2013 UK nationals.  In addition, Pascquale di Fraia, Chairman of the Italian National J/24 class Association, will be sailing BOTTA DRITTA as well as women's teams from Italy and Germany will vying for Top European Women's team honors.

The leader and winner of the XXIX Primo Cup- Trophée Credit Suisse, Ian Ilsley aboard ST ANDREWS, will be defending the YC Monaco colors in his waters in October.  TOPO TOO, lead by the Rodelato brothers finished 6th in the 1993 European Championship, 3rd in the 1995 Irish Europeans and are very eager for a place on the podium this year. Denis Frederiksen, Monaco J/24 Class Association President, finished 2nd in the 2012 Italian Championship, 3rd in the Monaco Championship and 18th in the 2013 Worlds onboard PAGET. He will also be very well prepared for the Europeans.

If the dominant easterly wind prevails, the fleet will be in for some nice champagne sailing. 15 to 20 knots of rock steady breeze in which to demonstrate their sailing skills. If it doesn’t the Race Committee has the means of making the most of the alternatives conditions. Four mark laying boats will be on the course at all times reporting wind direction and wave conditions to John Coveney and his team. John will be assisted by Thierry Leret, the YCM’s own Sailing Manager. Thierry has been working at the Yacht Club for over twenty years and as a National Race Officer has organized many regattas all along the French Riviera coast from St Tropez to Monaco and more. Also on board the principal committee boat will be our veteran member Jean Lorenzi, a founding member of the sailing division and a local weather expert. If you want inside information as to what the conditions will be on the water, come and find Jean and he will fill you in on the meaning of the clouds rolling down the steps hills than encircle the Principality.  Sailing photo credits- Rolex/ Carlo Borlenghi. For more J/24 Europeans sailing information

GOOD VIBES Wins Mexican J/24 Nationals

A.k.a.- "La Regata de la Independencia"
(Valle de Bravo, Mexico)- The J/24 class in Mexico continues to enjoy vibrant, healthy racing in their three hotspots of activity, namely Valle de Bravo, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta.  This  year's Mexican J/24 Nationals were hosted by the Club Nautico Valle de Bravo, thirty boats showed up to compete for the honor of being crowned the 2013 Mexican National Champion.

Valle de Bravo is a spectacular lake located about an hour's drive west of Mexico City, high up in the mountains.  Surround by large peaks and long valleys, the mountain winds can be very tricky, especially when it blows hard.  This year the fleet was treated to nearly every imaginable weather conditions, light winds, rain, sunny days and enormous microbursts wreaking havoc on the fleet.  Saturday's sailing saw little wind, blowing just 4-8 kts with occasional gusts to 10 with rain clouds interspersed with the breeze.  Sunday's was more difficult for the RC, managing to get in only one race after spending hours on the lake waiting for breeze.  Finally, on Monday the fleet had a great race going, but got blown out by massive gust of breeze lasting well over ten minutes, forcing cancellation of the races.  In the end, the RC managed to only squeeze in three of the planned eight races.

While the racing is always fun and competitive, perhaps the biggest attraction to the regatta is "Mexican Night" on Saturday even.  Awesome Mexican home-cooked food, massive fireworks display on the lake, aquatic games, a mechanical bull to challenge your crew with, lots of dancing and a spectacular "Grito de Independencia" keeps the crews extremely entertained all night long-- for some a bit too entertained!

With all the festivities and sailing behind them, it was the GOOD VIBES team that were crowned champions, led by skipper Xavier Murrieta and crewed by Julián Fernández, Bernardo Minkow, Hugo McCarthy and Alejandro Murrieta.

Taking the silver on the podium was MAR II sailed by Miguel Arroyo and his crew Alan Benitez, Tito Benitez, Manuel Benitez and Javier Benitez.

Third was a past Mexican champion Kenneth Porter sailing with a family crew of Kenneth Porter Jr., Gerrit Gentry, Gerrit Gentry Jr. and Daniel Baños on the mighty yacht "S"!  Thanks for this contribution from "Rosalia", Mexican J/24 Class secretary.  For more J/24 Mexican Nationals sailing information

Mollicone Two-Peats J/24 North Americans!

(Newport, RI- John Mollicone's team sailing HELLY HANSEN outlasted 45 other teams to become the J/24 Sea Bags North American Champion. With Tim Healy (tactics), Collin Leon (mast), Geoff Becker (trim) and Gordon Borges (bow), team HELLY HANSEN totaled 50 points in the 10-race series to narrowly edge out a hard-charging Matias Seguel of Chile on SEMI-PRO by two points. Nicolas Cubria of Argentina sailed ELVIS to third place with 62 points.  The event was hosted by Sail Newport and J/24 Fleet 50.

“We did a really good job grinding back,” commented Mollicone about their last race on the final day. “We found ourselves in a lot of tough spots but were able to slowly chip away and pass boats.” He gave the credit to his team’s boat handling, crew work and tactics, saying “Everyone stayed really calm and cool, even if we were deep.” One such occasion was when they were OCS in a race, but still made the top 10. He added, “Today, things weren’t looking good for a while, but we just kept our composure. A lot of that is all of us sailing together a lot.” Mollicone won the 2012 North American Championship last November with the same crew.

It didn't start out that easy for this fast crew, most of whom had just won the J/24 World Championship two weeks earlier in Howth, Ireland.  Leader after day one was Peter Bream’s Team TARHEEL, taking a 3-1 to start the regatta with just 4 pts. The Florida-based team topped competitors from Japan, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Canada and the USA. At that point, HELLY HANSEN was two points back with 6 pts, and Matias Seguel on SEMI-PRO was third with 8 points. The fleet was treated to a spectacular opening day with sunshine, warm temperatures and winds Southwest 12-15 with a 1.5 foot swell. Kris Werner of New York got the event started with a win for his team on STICKS, with Mollicone and Bream rounding out the top three in race one. Bream took the bullet in race two, with Seguel in second and 2011 North American champion Travis Odenbach on HONEY BADGER in third.

On day two, the fleet had another beautiful day with winds ranging from 6-8 knots early on, increasing to 12 kts by the last race.  Mollicone and team made their big move, utilizing his hometown "local knowledge" advantage to leap into first place with just 12 net points after five races (including one throw-out). At this point, HELLY HANSEN led Chile’s Matias Seguel on SEMI-PRO by 6 points. Day 1 leader Peter Bream on Team TARHEEL dropped to third with 21 points. Mollicone sailed to victory in the day’s first race, trailed by Will Welles on COUGAR and Steven Kirkpatrick on BUCKSHOT. Argentina’s Sergio Pendola triumphed in the next contest on CACIQUE, with Michael Marshall’s PIPE DREAM in second and Seguel in third. The racing closed out with another Argentinian in front as Nicolas Cubria’s ELVIS took the bullet. Chile’s Robert Vernon racing GRINGA followed in second, and Pendola in third.

On the third day of racing on Saturday, the competitors were again greeted by superb conditions as temperatures remained in the low 70s with winds 10-12 knots and gusts to 14. Three races were held, bringing the total to eight overall.  Mollicone’s team continued their consistent performance to take an 11-point advantage into the final day of competition.  The reigning North American champion tallied a line of 2,4,1,5,7,8,(9),5 for 32 overall points.  Nicolas Cubria’s ELVIS amassed 43 points for second place, and Matias Seguel's SEMI-PRO was in third with 47 points.  International teams dominated the day. Argentina’s Sergio Pendola on CACIQUE snagged another victory in Saturday’s opening contest. Sumio Shimoyama’s SOKOKUMARU of Japan placed second, and Chile’s Raul del Castillo on LA BANCA third. Local Will Welles’ COUGAR captured a win in the next battle, with two Argentina teams behind him— Cubria and Guillermo de Martis’ TWIN. Shimoyama ended the day successfully, with Castillo in second and Travis Odenbach's HONEY BADGER in third.

The final day dawned cool and overcast with light winds around 6-8 knots, which dropped during the first race to about 4 knots by the time teams crossed the finish line. Conditions turned around by the next start as the clouds dissipated, the sun returned and the breeze increased to 8-10 kts. For the first time during the event, the course was moved inside to Narragansett Bay on Sunday. “It was really tricky with lots of outgoing current,” Mollicone explained. “The breeze was unstable so it was really difficult sailing. In the last beat of the last race, we went from mid-20s to what we thought for a while was top three. That’s how shifty it was!”  Local Will Welles on COUGAR won his second race of the regatta in Sunday’s initial battle. Seguel’s SEMI-PRO took second, and another local— Bob Kinsman on DOGFISH third. In the final race of the championship, Taylor Neff’s BUBBLES, from Lake Minnetonka, MN, claimed the top spot, followed by Canadian Michael Howarth’s MISTER H and Seguel.  Mollicone praised the conditions during the four-day event, especially the three days on the outside course. “That’s what Newport is known for— waves, solid breeze, southerly direction.”   For more J/24 North Americans sailing information

J/Fest San Diego Preview

(San Diego, CA)- The San Diego J/Fest boasts a long history of being one of the most fun and well attended regattas in Southern California.  And, it's exclusively for J/Boat owners! The regatta is open to one-design classes as well as a J/PHRF fleet!

Hosted by San Diego YC the J/Teams will enjoy three day of competitive, fun buoy racing from September 27th to 29th.  Friday is the fun, casual race around set marks and government marks, followed by two days of course racing on Saturday and Sunday.  Inside the bay will be the smaller boats (like J/22, J/70 and J/80) and offshore will be the larger boats (the J/105s, J/109s and J/120s).

While the sailing is always nice in sunny San Diego, J/Fest is perhaps most renown for its onshore festivities.  Saturday evening is the traditional J/Fest Party, basically a giant cook-out on the lawn with live music and lots of awesome swag and giveaways from the sponsors.  The fun factor is a key element of the event, a reason why over fifty boats have attended every year.

The J/105s have yet another great turnout with most of the top local teams sailing, including Chuck Driscoll's BLOW BOAT, Steve & Lucy Howell's BLINK!, Rick Goebel's SANITY, Dennis & Sharon Case's WINGS, Rich Bergmann's ZUNI BEAR, Jon Dekker's AIR BOSS and Gary Mozer's CURRENT OBSESSION 2 fro Los Angeles.

The J/120s have traditionally offered very tight competition with a modest-sized fleet.  Again, a number of local favorites are sailing and should be factors at the front of the fleet.  Familiar faces like John Laun's CAPER, John Snook's JIM, Chuck Nichols' CC RIDER, Gary Winton's SHENANIGANS and Mike Hatch's J/ALMIGHTY have all had their fair share of great performances in J/Fest.

The J/109 class will see past local and regional champions sailing again, including Gene Pitkin's GERONIMO, Rex Butler's JD, John Shulze's LINSTAR and Daylen Tercen's GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!

The J/70s will debut as a class and their six boat fleet should present a lot of fun racing on San Diego Bay.  Having been traveling to the last three major J/70 events on the West Coast, Dan Gribble's GO-RILLA, Eric Kownacki/ Tom Jenkins' DFZ, Karl Pomeroy's ZERO TO 60 and Craig Tallman's JAYA may have a leg-up on the fleet. Nevertheless, 70 sailors have proven they're climbing the learning curve fast in this simple boat, so expect to see good competition from Hugh Bennet on CHEETAH CUB and Sean O'Keefe on DECOLORES 3.  For more J/Fest sailing information, please be sure to contact Joanne O'Dea at joanne@jk3yachts.com.  Or, go to the San Diego YC website.

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

J/24 North Americans Preview

(Newport, RI)- Forty one J/24s are entered from six countries across North and South America to compete in the upcoming J/24 North American Championships hosted by SAIL NEWPORT in Newport, RI from September 19th to 22nd.  Renown for their pro-active race management, the J/24 sailors should be treated to superior racing by SAIL NEWPORT's Race Committee team on either Narragansett Bay or outside on Rhode Island Sound, depending on wind and weather conditions.  For America's Cup history buffs, the J/24 NA's are being sailed at about the same time as past Newport-based America's Cup had been sailed for several decades; with promise of cooler weather conditions and generally reliable sea-breezes from the south/southwest.

The largest number of teams hail from the USA, however, eight Canadian teams are sailing and a very competitive group of seven teams are participating from the South American countries of Chile, Peru and Argentina.  What's readily apparent is that many of the J/24 sailors are looking at this year's event as a "warm-up" for the 2014 J/24 Worlds also being sailed in Newport and hosted by SAIL NEWPORT in late September 2014.

The top US teams include Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY; Peter Bream on Team TARHEEL from Florida; John Mollicone on HELLY HANSEN from Newport, RI; Taylor Neff on BUBBLES from Lake Minnetonka, MN; Pat Toole on THREE BIG DOGS from Santa Barbara, CA; and Travis Odenbach sailing HONEY BADGER from Rochester, NY, amongst many other good teams.  Some of these teams have been sailing quite a lot lately, including recent J/24 World's participants Ingham, Odenbach and Mollicone (the cockpit/ tactician for Tim Healy's recent J/24 Worlds win in Howth, Ireland).

Eight Canadian teams from the Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia provinces include Greg Blunden on ADRENALIN RUSH; John Whynacht on STICKY FINGERS; Mike Howarth on MISTER H and Rossi Milev on CLEAR AIR.  Some of these teams are well-practiced having just competed in the Chester Race Week regatta in Nova Scotia.

The South American contingent all have tremendous experience at the top of the J/24 class, including a few with world-class experience.  The top Argentinean crews are Mario Cubria on ELVIS, Sergio Pendola and Guillermo de Martis on TWIN.  The Chilean teams include Matias Seguel sailing GURU and Robert Vernon on GRINGA.  And, the Peruvean teams include Lucas Peschiera on TIAMAT and Javier Arribas on WAYRA.

The lone ranger from Japan is Sumio Shimoyama sailing aboard SOKOKUMARU. Sumio is no stranger to top flight J/24 competition, having been a top Japanese J/24 team for years and is always a factor in the J/24 Worlds in recent years.   Sailing photo credits- Carter White   For more J/24 North Americans sailing information