Windy J-FEST SW Regatta

(Galveston, TX)- Lakewood Yacht Club's annual J-Fest Southwest Regatta enjoyed some of the most amazing sailing conditions they’ve enjoyed in years.  Sailed over the November 2nd and 3rd, the sailors were treated to Northerly winds in the 20-25 kts range on Saturday, producing the usual “monster chop” renowned for Galveston Bay.  Then, on Sunday's “easy-going” breezes in the 16-20 kts range made for somewhat better conditions for the fleet of fifty J’s assembled for this year’s hugely popular J/Fest Southwest!

Starting out with the J/22s, their seven boat fleet produced a runaway winner in the “big breeze”.  No question, it was Casey Lambert and crew on BLACKBURN RACING that had the conditions wired, taking all firsts in six races to win by a “Texas-mile”.  Second on the distant horizon was Dov Kivlovitz with 13 pts and rounding out the podium was Chris Morlan’s TILT with 17 pts.

As the largest fleet in the regatta, thirteen J/24’s enjoyed a nice resurgence, showing up to lay it all on the line for Texas domination of the one-design world.  They enjoyed some close competition, but it was clear that Bryan Dyer’s RUMLINE had everyone’s number in the breezy conditions, finishing 1st with just 13 pts.  Second was TROPICAL AGGRESSION sailed by Stu Lindow with 17 pts.  Happily finishing in 3rd overall was HAPPY DANCE skippered by Bill Worsham with 19 pts; taking the tie breaker over GIGGLES sailed by Natalie Penner.

As the “new kid on the block” and one boat shy of the largest fleet, the J/70’s twelve boat fleet also proved to be one of the most competitive fleets at the regatta and, given the windy conditions, clearly the ones that had the most fun going into “planing mode” all over the Galveston Bay race course hootin’ and hollerin’ like cowboys at a stampede!  Appropriately enough, the winner by a comfortable margin was STAMPEDE, Bruno Pasquinelli’s team from Fort Worth Boat Club with a total of 10 pts.  While STAMPEDE has enormous experience sailing in a variety of highly competitive J/70 regional & national regattas, the balance of the top five was extremely tight!  Runners-up was GB sailed by Chris Lewis from Lakewood YC with 18 pts.  Following them in third was JBoats SW sailed by Scott Spurlin from Austin YC with 21 pts.  They just nipped fourth place finisher Sean Nunes from Austin YC with 22 pts.  A wind shift or two made the difference for 5th place finisher AKULA sailed by Rick Bell from Corpus Christi YC with 27 pts.

J/80s had a very competitive fleet of seven boats participating with several world and regional championship teams participating.  Topping the fleet, un-surprisingly, was GC/ QUANTUM RACING sailed by the team of Terry Flynn & David Whelan, representing Fort Worth Boat Club. Against such formidable talent, it was a duel for the balance of the podium with PARSONS PROJECT skippered by Luke McAllum from Houston YC taking second with 18 pts.  They narrowly beat out third place finisher  HENDRIX sailed by Kurt Vanderwall from Dillon YC with 19 pts.

The eight boat J/105 class enjoyed close racing all weekend long.  In fact, the last two races of the regatta completely turned the standings upside down.  Closing with a strong 1-2, it was INFINITY’s Uzi Ozeri from Lakewood YC that took class honors with 18 pts total.  Starting slowly with an 8th in the opening race, BLUE FLASH’s Matt Amo from Fort Worth Boat Club dialed in two bullets in the middle races, but was insufficient to overcome the strong closing of Ozeri’s crew, taking second overall with 20 pts.  Sailing perhaps the most consistent regattas was JB Bednar’s STINGER from Lakewood YC with a total of 22 pts.

Over in PHRF handicap world, the J/PHRF Sym fleet saw Chris Aik’s FOOTLOOSE from Galveston Bay Cruising Association take first overall with 5 pts.  Second was Glenn Stromme’s PRESS TO MECO from the Seabrook Marina Association with 12 pts.  Taking third was TOCCATA’s Gary Trinklein from Galveston Bay Cruising Association.

The J/PHRF Asym fleet had a diverse fleet of seven boats.  Taking first was the J/92 sailed by Kevin Hayes & Mike McGaugh from GBCA with 11 pts.  Albrecht Goethe’s Lakewood YC team onboard the J/109 HAMBURG took second with 16.5 pts.  Making its debut was the J/88 IT’s A THRILL sailed by J/Boats designer Rod Johnstone with 19 pts.  For more J/Boats Southwest sailing information

J/Fest + Harvest Moon Rising!

(Houston, TX)- A lot is happening in parts of grand'ole Southwestern America.  They think big down there whether it's "honky-tonks" with mechanical bulls, epic parties, enormous blond hair, rattlesnake boots, dude ranches and, sometimes, even huge regattas!  First up on the agenda is the Harvest Moon Regatta, or "HMR" as the locals call it.  This year's 27th edition starts the 17th of October and can be a real "trick or treat" event.  HMR was hatched over drinks in the Lakewood YC bar by a few sailors that wanted to use their boats more!  The October weather window between the summer doldrums and the blue northers makes for spectacular sailing along the Texas Coast.  Add in the beautiful "ginormous" Harvest Moon and a course from the Galveston Jetties to Port Aransas and you have the HMR.  Just a 100 plus mile jaunt down the coast with over 200 sailboats!

With several classes there is a place to race or cruise for every type of boat.  The Bacardi PHRF Racing fleet is about 50% J/Boats with the J/105, J/109, J/120, and a J/44 the primary entries.  Every year epic stories hatch of blast reaching at over 15 knots for 8 hours, or drifting in the same spot for hours!  The cruisers seem to enjoy regaling the racers with how they enjoyed watching the race boats zip by with the crew hanging over the lifelines chomping on a energy bar or MRE as they sipped a nice chardonnay and enjoyed exquisite hot cuisine under the bimini.  At Port Aransas all of the sailors come together for a lively party, brag a lot, tell mind-blowing stories (real or not!) and a wonderful time is had by all.  Almost all the boats start back on Sunday- either motor sailing down the cut or back out in the gulf.  It's no wonder this event attracts 200 entries every year to become one of our nations largest offshore point-to-point races! Put this one on your bucket list!  For more Harvest Moon Regatta sailing information
J/Fest Southwest is next up on the agenda.  Shortly following the Harvest Moon Regatta, be sure to note the deadline Friday is fast approaching!!  The skippers bag has well over $100.00 in product goodies such as Rejex Wax and boat wash, dinner coupons, t-shirt and J/Fest coffee mug!  After Friday the entry goes up by an additional $50.00!

Don't miss the racing action, live music, free beer, Kattack race tracking and thousands of dollars in goodies to be raffled off from Velocitek, Marlow, Torqeedo, Harken, Blackburn Marine, North U.  Along with these great product sponsors we also get financial support from the City of Seabrook, North, Quantum, Torqeedo, Hayes Rigging, Hays Insurance, Sundance Grill, Gulf Coast Marine, and Sundance Grill!

What does all of this mean?  The J/Fest Southwest Regatta committee puts on great racing designed to maximize your time on the water and our sponsors put the shoreside activities over the top to produce one of the highest quality events in the nation with a lot of bang for your buck!  There's a class for every J/Boat ever built and we want y'all to come on down to Galveston Bay and play! Come join the 50 fellow J/Owners already registered! So don't delay register today!   For more J/Fest Southwest sailing information