skip to main |
skip to sidebar
J/70 CATAPULT, J/24 HELLY HANSEN,
J/22 JULIAN ASSOCIATES Winners
(Newport, RI)- As has been the tradition for years, the Sail Newport team led by
Brad Read and a select group of PRO's provided excellent race management over
the course of the two-day Bacardi Newport Regatta to ensure most classes had
four good races.
As the largest fleet in the regatta, remarkable considering it's "the new
kid on the block", the J/70s managed to put twenty-two boats on the line
for a highly competitive and fun event. Perhaps most importantly, the fleet has
demonstrated that newcomers to the fleet can be quite competitive against
earlier season "veterans" and sail quite well. Following on
earlier season success, Joel Ronning's CATAPULT team from Lake Minnetonka, MN
sailed well with a 1-7-7-1 series for 16 pts to just beat out Bruno Pasquinelli's
STAMPEDE team that sported a 9-4-2-2 scoreline for 17 pts-- it all came down to
who-beat-who in the last race. Taking third was Bennet Greenwald with a
4-1-6-10 tally for 21 pts-- fresh off wins on the Pacific Coast at Cal Race
Week and Long Beach Race Week. Dave Franzel's SPRING sailed a solid
series, capturing a consistent 6-8-5-4 for 23 pts for fourth and lying fifth
was newcomers TOUCH 2 PLAY sailed by Martin Kullman with a 5-6-1-12 record for
24 pts (nearly pulling off an overall win in their first try were it not for
the last race "bomber" race!).
For the sixteen J/24s, it was a double-whammy, a District 2 Championship
World's Qualifier and US Adult Sailing Championship Qualifier. And, to no one's
surprise, it was Tim Healy that ran the table with straight firsts on HELLY
HANSEN to take the J/24 title. Fresh from sailing over in Europe was Mike
Ingham (world-traveler man!), taking the second spot with a 5-2-2-2 record for
an easy second place. Sailing yet another BANGOR PACKET was Tony Parker
taking third. Fourth was Steve Kirkpatrick on BUCKSHOT and fifth was Mike
Marshall on PIPE DREAM.
Nine J/22s sailed gaining good practice for the upcoming J/22 Worlds sailing in
Newport in October 2013. And, what a practice it was! For THREE teams all
ended up tied at 9 pts each for first place! How often does that
happen? Never heard of it before in decades of sailing. Surprising
some of the teams was the excellent performance by Brad Julian and crew on
JULIAN ASSOCIATES, winning with a 4-2-2-1 record based on having most 1sts and
2nds. Second on the tie-break was Chris Doyle's JUG 4 1 with a 3-3-1-2
tally and third on the tie-break was Jim Bernash with a 2-1-3-3 record-- losing
the tie-break because of last race placing! How cool is that?!
CLose racing and fun for all. Fourth was Dave Godin and fifth was FJ
Ritt. For more Bacardi Newport Sailing information
(Poole, England)- Twenty-five teams from the United Kingdom, Ireland and USA
headed to Plymouth to contest the UK Nationals at the start of July. With
10 races scheduled over 4 days the race committee wasted no time getting going
with 3 rapid fire courses set on the first day to ensure the fleet completed a
series given the patchy wind forecast.
The following 3 days settled into a pattern with competitors enjoying lazy
mornings in the balmy conditions whilst waiting for the sea breeze to fill and
then as the wind arrived reveling in the close quarters racing and tight calls
at every start, mark rounding and finish. With a matter of boat lengths
separating first to last on the water this was one design racing at its very
best. Sail tracker units were carried on all the boats meaning friends and
families could watch races unfold from shore and over 1,300 visitors logged in
to check on the action across the 3 days of racing. You can still view the feed
via the SailRacer site here.
With an all-star cast, including the 2010 and 2011 European Champions, 2013 US
National Champions, as well as multiple UK and Irish National titles shared
between the teams, racing was always going to be tight, with 6 different teams
taking race wins from the 9 races contested and consistency being the key to
establishing a good series. Masters of this were Chris McLaughlin / Ian
Southworth and their IL RICCIO team who, with every result inside the top 5,
put enough space between them and their closest rivals to be able to reclaim the
UK National Championship crown last held by them in 2006.
The UK National Championship Title goes to Chris McLaughlin/Ian Southworth
sailing IL RICCIO with Mike Ingham's HITCHHIKER from America taking 2nd place
and Rob Clark of JUJU taking 3rd. The Westerly Trophy was also hotly contested
and eventually went to the all girls team on NITRO skippered by Alison
Young. Next up is the summer regatta season with a number of J/24's
intending on heading to Yarmouth, IOW to join in with the fun at the Tattinger
Regatta at the end of the month. Sailing photo credits- Tom Gruitt For more J/24 UK Nationals sailing information
(Newport, RI)- What has become a right of passage for New England summer
sailors is the annual pilgrimage to Newport to sail what many consider one of
America's best run regattas-- the Bacardi Newport Regatta. Hosting
nineteen one-design classes is never easy, but the management team of PRO's led
by Brad Read always manage to make it happen no matter what cards the weather
God's have thrown down on the table. So far, the prognosticators indicate
this year's event taking place from July 12th to 14th may end up with some
classic Newport sea-breeze conditions.
The J/70's are "the new kid on the block" and as the world's fastest
growing sportboat class is fielding a fleet of twenty competitors. And,
there's no doubt it will be quite a competitive affair with several top teams
participating from the winter/ spring events like Key West, Charleston, St Pete
and Annapolis. Look for some of these teams to be in the top five,
including James Allsopp's MOXIE, Joel Ronning's CATAPULT, Bennet Greenwald's
PERSEVERANCE, Dave Franzel's SPRING, Blake Kimbrough's NOSTALGIA, Joe
Bardenheier's MUSE, Bruno Pasquinelli's STAMPEDE and Jud Smith's Marblehead
team.
For the sixteen J/24s, it' a double-whammy, a District 2 Championship World's
Qualifier and US Adult Sailing Championship Qualifier. As a result, Tim
Healy is leaping back into the J/24s sailing HELLY HANSEN. They will be
challenged by arch nemesis Travis Odenbach on HONEY BADGER, Steve Wood on
TASMANIAN DEVIL, Frank McNamara on ZOT, Ian Scott on CRACK OF NOON and Aidan
Glackin on MENTAL FLOSS.
Nine J/22s will be racing and for many it may prove to be good practice for the
upcoming J/22 Worlds sailing in Newport in October 2013. Expect to see
amongst the top boats champion J/22 sailor Chris Doyle sailing JUG 4 1, Brad
Julian skippering JULIAN ASSOCIATES, Lowell Thomas on CHAOS and Matt Dunbar on
WHARF RAT. For more Bacardi Newport Sailing information
Will Three Big Dogs Prevail?
(Wayzata, MN)- Lake Minnetonka will again be the playground for J/24s as the
Wayzata YC hosts them for their National Championship from June 20-23. As
J/24 Fleet #1, Lake Minnetonka has more experience than any other club hosting
major events for J/24s over the course of time sailing on the lake since
1977! The Wayzata YC J/24 sailors are looking forward to another
"most excellent" regatta with a stellar group of twenty boats
participating.
Recently, the J/24 class established a "World Rankings" website (http://www.j24worldrankings.com) that gives J/24 sailors
around the world a ranking overall and by country based on performance and
participation. Currently 1,118 sailors and 140 regattas over 4 years were
used in these rankings (best four in past two years count using a high point
system). Not surprisingly, six of the top ten are Americans with Brazil,
Italy, Argentina and Germany filling out the balance of top teams.
Sailing in this year's J/24 Nationals are three of the Americans, including
World #1 Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY, #9 Pat Toole from Santa Barbara, CA
sailing his famous THREE BIG DOGS and #10 Travis Odenbach from Rochester, NY
sailing HONEY BADGER. Not to be outdone are some of the famous founding
members of J/24 Fleet #1 sailing with Rolf Turnquist and John Gjerde on
the mighty yacht OZ! For more J/24 US Nationals sailing information
