Heather Gregg-Earl Dominates Nantucket Pro-Am Regatta!

(Nantucket, MA)- Nantucket Race Week’s featured IOD Celebrity Invitational Regatta started with a whimper and finished with a bang. On day one, PRO John Mendez and his hard working team managed to complete just one race in a light northerly, followed by abandonment and towlines to get everyone home. A day later, Nantucket Sound delivered signature conditions, 15 – 20 knots of wind, four tight races with constant changing of positions, and many exhausted crew by day’s end.

In the regatta’s unique format, many of North America’s best sailors act as tacticians, each being matched with a participating helmsman and team whose regatta fees and “bids” for tactician selection raised nearly $50,000 for Nantucket Community Sailing. The local IOD Fleet Association makes its fleet of identical International One Design sloops available for the benefit of the NCS fundraiser.

In the end, Heather Gregg-Earl of Stage Harbor YC and New York YC (J/70 owner and past J/24 Champion sailor and Tufts Jumbo Collegiate All-American Woman Sailor) became the first female winner of the event. Her celebrity tactician was sailmaker and champion Robbie Doyle, along with crew members Miles Cameron, Michael Obuchowski and Will Christenson.

Runner-up Gary Jobson (J/22 owner), President of US Sailing and Honorary Chairman of Nantucket Race Week entered as helmsman for the first time, switching from prior years’ role as tactician (for Democratic Senator John Kerry in each of the past two years). Jobson’s tactician was Dee Smith, who has been consistently near top of this competitive fleet three consecutive times. Together the crew might have been dubbed "Team Who’s Who", with champions and longtime sailing partners Jud Smith, Hank Stewart and Jim Porter.

Nantucket IOD fleet founder Peter McCausland was a strong third place, with tactician Geoff Moore (J/24 Champion) and McCausland’s regular crew members Steve Mead, Fritz McClure, Charlie McGill and Graham Kilvert.

Other Celebrity Tacticians rounded out an all-star roster, together representing countless national, world and collegiate championships, Americas Cup contests, Olympic Games, and offshore events – Chuck Allen, Sally Barkow, Andrew Campbell, David Dellenbaugh, Kevin Farrar, Cam Lewis, Dave Perry, Mark Reynolds and Will Welles (bold are all J/Sailors!). Honorary Chairman Tom Whidden welcomed participants at the opening reception, where Ken Read of Puma Ocean Racing (and past multiple J/24 World Champion) later presented thrilling video of the Volvo Ocean Race. Later, at the trophy presentation, Whidden said, “My wife Betsy and I love to come to this wonderful destination, it's great sailing for a great cause. We appreciate all that Nantucket Community Sailing stands for, and we are delighted to have an opportunity to lend our support.”   Sailing photo credits- Karen Ryan Photography   For more Nantucket Race Week Pro-Am sailing information

J/24 Worlds Preview

(Rochester, NY)- Over 100 J/24 teams are breathlessly anticipating the start of the first "open" J/24 Worlds in decades.  Starting September 13th, a strong American contingent will be doing battle against a cadre of past World, European, North American, South American, Canadian, Bermudian, Brazilian, Argentinean, Chilean, Peruvian and Japanese Champions.  Hosted  by the Rochester Yacht Club in Rochester, NY, located on the south shore of Lake Ontario, the teams are anticipating how best to get out of the starting blocks with over 100 boats on one huge line with multiple line boats calling the start and keeping the aggressive teams in check.

On the American side of the equation, the "open" registrants has encouraged a lot of the "old guard" from past J/24 wars to jump into the fray and test how far the world of J/24 sailing has progressed over the course of time.  Additionally, it has also encouraged a number of young, college-experienced sailing teams to jump in with minimal budgets and determine whether they're competitive at a global level.  Amongst the veterans are Pat Toole's 3 BIG DOGS from Santa Barbara, CA, Tony Parker's BANGOR PACKET with Geoff Ewenson as tactician from Annapolis, MD, Al Constant's BLITZ from Long Island Sound; and John Gjerde's PERSISTENCE from Lake Minnetonka J/24 Fleet #1!!  Amongst the next generation teams are a powerful group from Newport, including Will Welles' COUGAR, Tim Healey's 11th HOUR RACING and Peter Levesque's ORANGE BLOSSOM with Charlie Enright as tactician.  Other top champion teams include Mike Ingham's USA 5448, Travis Odenbach's HONEY BADGER, Darby & Jud Smith's DARBY from Marblehead, MA, Mike Sudofsky's BOB DYLAN, Kevin O'Brien's FUGUE STATE (with Moth World Champion and Melges 24 Champion Bora Gulari from Detroit, MI as tactician).  Finally, the "unofficial" Sailing World team from Newport is sailing on their thoroughbred CRACK OF NOON with Ian Scott, Herb McCormick, Stu Streuli, Dave Reed and Charlie Zechel on-board.

After the Americans, the second largest contingent by far are the Canadians with twenty-five teams participating.  Amongst their top boats will be John Wynacht's STICKY FINGERS, Tom Barbeau's NAVTECH.CA and Mike Howarth's MR H.

The next largest contingent are the extremely competitive teams from South America, with nine teams headed north to vie for top "Americas" honors, too.  Leading that charge are the top Argentineans (Nicolas Cubria's ELVIS and Matias Pereira's LUCA) and past multi-world champion Mauricio Santa Cruz from Brazil sailing yet another BRUSCHETTA.  Rounding out the South Americans are three boats each from Peru (Javier Arribas Leigh's HAWKY, Luis Olcese's SCARAMOUCHE & Tania Zimmerman's JITANA) and Chile (Raul del Castillo's LA BANCA, Vernon Robert's JOYITA & Matias Sequel's GURU).  Amongst the "island nations", sailing are Bermudian champ Trevor Boyce on NO SKIRT REQUIRED, Barbudan Neil Burke sailing IMPULSE and Japan's Mikio Tokano sailing HANSELKAI.

Finally, the European contingent is perhaps the least represented in the "J/24 Nation", with single entries from France (Nicolas Mabboux's TEMPUS) and Germany (Frithjof Schade's EL SCHLACHTSCHIFF).  Noticeably absent are top Australian, British, Mexican, Irish and Italian J/24 teams in this year's worlds.  For more J/24 Worlds sailing information

MERLIN Wins Marblehead NOODs

(Marblehead, MA)- Overcoming a morning fog postponement, the sun prevailed over Massachusetts Bay to commence the second full-day of racing in Marblehead for the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta. A very light breeze showed up on the Bay to spark racing from nearly every boat class.  At long last favorable winds arrived for the final day of the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta resulting in the most action-packed day of the entire 123rd Annual Marblehead Race Week. With each class completing multiple final day races, thank goodness!

In the eleven boat J/24 class, it was the Denman/Smith team on AIRODOODLE that tools the top spot with an impressive 3-2-1-1-dns record to win with 7 net pts (after toss).  Second was Matt Herbster's HIGH FIVE with a very consistent 2-3-2-3-3 record for 10 pts.  Third was Ted Johnson's VITAMIN J.

The nineteen boat J/105 class had some classically close one-design racing.  Leading the charge were some new names at the top of the leader board.  Who's Charlie, Matt and Rick?  Oh boy.  Perhaps some good teams that have some college sailors aboard and simple know how to get around the race-track.  In the end, it was Charlie Garrard on MERLIN that dominated the proceedings with a 1-2-5-2 to take the 105s with 10 pts.  Next was Matt Pike on GOT Q! with a 2-3-1-9 for 15 pts.  They just narrowly edged out Rick Dexter's team on CIRCE'S CUP with an equally impressive 11-1-3-1 for 16 pts.  Rounding out the top five were Peter & Doug Morgan on STEELAWAY III with a 4-8-7-3 for 22 pts and a trio of gangsters aboard BLOWN AWAY (Jon, Mike, Robert) with a 3-11-6-4 for 24 pts to round out the top five.  Sailing Photo Credits- Lauren McKenney    For more Marblehead NOOD Sailing World information

Foggy, Sunny Epic Buzzards Bay Week

J's Sweep PHRF1, Odenbach Dominates 24s, Van Voorhis Wins 80s
(Marion, MA)- The 40th annual Buzzards Bay Regatta got off a number of races both Saturday and Sunday, including the Dick Fontaine Memorial Distance Race Friday, which ran to more than 22 miles in four classes. Racing took place outside Sippican Harbor in Marion, Massachusetts in one of the largest mixed-boat regattas in the U.S.

With hazy, hot, and humid days ashore, the offshore the breeze filled in nicely for the racers, after a nearly two-hour delay Friday. It was a long 21nm tour of Buzzards Bay, going upwind for 9.5nm towards the opening, followed by a criss-cross spinnaker reaching course, gybing back and forth to the finish line off the mouth of Sippican Harbor.  On Saturday, 8 to 10 knot southwest winds came in with a little more punch after lunch, making for a day of great racing despite the pesky fog.  Then, Sunday started off the same but the forecast winds of 15-25 knots with sunny, partly-cloudy skies finally rolled in for a fantastic, near epic final race of the day with speeds on the J/111s hitting near 15 kts on a windward-leeward course!

Friday's long distance race in memory of Dick Fontaine, the first representative of the Low Tide Yacht Club in 1972 when the BBR began, saw nearly 50 boats compete in four classes on courses up to 22 miles which took them through heavy fog past West Island and towards the Elizabeth Islands, then back towards Cleveland Ledge Light.  In the PHRF Racing 1 class Friday, Henry Brauer of the Eastern YC raced the J/111 FLEET WING to first place in a dominating performance over classmates, the J/111 WICKED 2.0, skippered by Doug Curtiss of the New Bedford YC in second place and Jim Masiero sailing his J/120 URSUS MARITIMUS to third.  It was literally a clean sweep by J/Teams of PHRF 1.  It also proved to be a prophetic outcome for the weekend regatta in PHRF 1.  In PHRF Racing 2 Friday, third place went to Ted Herlihy of the NBYC aboard his J/109 GUT FEELING.

The weekend regatta saw the addition of the J/24 and J/80 one-design fleets.  In the end, there was a fabulous, dominating performance in the J/24 class by Travis Odenbach of the Rochester, N.Y., Yacht Club 11 straight firsts, making for a total of 10 pts!  Local J/80 sailor Mike Sudofsky of Beverly YC finished in second place with nearly straight 2nds for a total of 20 pts.  Third was Edward Walker of the Mosquito Yacht Club with 43 pts.

In the J-80 class, Brian Keane of the Beverly YC led by a landslide for most of the regatta after 8 races (counting seven 1sts), but did not sail the last three races on Sunday.  As a result, Charlie Van Voorhis of the Fishers Island (N.Y.) Yacht Club won with 23 pts, second was Beverly YC member Nikolas Kotsatos with 25 pts, followed by fellow BYC member Brian Keane in 3rd with 29 pts.

Finally, in the PHRF 1 Class, Henry Brauer's J/111 FLEETWING team won four of fives races and added a second but took two SCP penalties to finish second overall instead by just one point.  Winning was Doug Curtiss's J/111 WICKED 2.0 team with 6 pts.  Third was Jim Masiero's J/120 URSUS MARITIMUS with 11 pts, completing the J/Team sweep of PHRF 1 again! In PHRF 2, the J/109 GUT FEELING sailed by local veteran and 109 champion Ted Herlihy finished 5th overall, dropping two places in a tie-breaker after placing 3rd on Saturday's racing.   For more Buzzards Bay Regatta sailing information

Ken Read & V70 il mostro crush Mac Race

(Chicago, IL)- Kenny Read and some Volvo Ocean Race mates sailed his first pony-ride around the planet, the Volvo 70 Puma il mostro, in the maiden voyage of its new life on the Great Lakes in the Chicago- Mackinac Race.  Chicago sailor Peter Thornton (former owner of the Santa Cruz 70 HOLUA) decided that winning the Chicago-Mackinac Race as the First Boat to Finish, taking home one of the more prestigious trophies in the race was the next item on his "sailing bucket list"-- he succeeded by spanking the best the Great Lakes had to offer for "maxi boats"!!  Kenny had on-board with him Richard Mason and Beech from Team SANYA, Brad Van Liew of Open 50/60 Velux 5 Ocean Race fame and fellow J/24 World Champion crew member Stu Johnstone (Kenny's tactician) as part of the team.  Fun, challenging race to beat the "Queen of the Lakes" for years, the Dick and Doug Devos (AMWAY family) Maxi z86 WINDQUEST for line honors. Dick and Doug themselves are former J/Boat owners, having successfully campaigned their J/44 WINDQUEST for years on the Great Lakes.  In short, members of the extended J/Family of boat owners and sailors went 1-2 in this year's Mac on elapsed honors while their stablemates swept handicap honors as enumerated above!!