J/95 BANJO Northeast Tour
Jump Aboard and See Why She Humms Along!
(Stonington, CT)- The tour'd'J/95 is shaping up to be a fun one--- the yellow "J" jersey autographed by Rod J. going to the first person to walk in the door with a deposit! J designer Rod Johnstone is ready to embark on the BANJO tour soon to various ports in the CT, NY, NJ sailing regions for sails with local dealers. The itinerary includes the following:July 11-July 24 - Demos at Stonington CT.
July 24 - Rod sails BANJO to McMichaels at Mamaroneck.
July 25-30 - BANJO at McMichael. Brokers give demos at Mamaroneck.
July 31 - Rod sails BANJO from Mamaroneck to Bay Head, NJ Yacht Club for the weekend.
August 1 & 2- Regatta on the weekend.
August 3-4 Rod demos at Bay Head including Tuesday night Race.
On August 5th Rod sails BANJO back to Stonington via Mamaroneck, or via the South Shore of Long Island
Please contact J/Boats if you have any potential customers who might want to join Rodney for the trips from Stonington to Mamaroneck, Mamaroneck to Bay Head, or Bay Head back to Stonington (or somewhere in between in LIS or the South shore of LIS).
For the NJ Tour, please contact Burt Geiges at Custom Offshore – 856-764-8181. The J/95 will race in the Squan Tri-Sail Regatta in Bay Head NJ on August 1st and 2nd. There is a crew position open for Saturday August 1st racing. The boat will remain in Bay Head for the following Monday August 3rd and Tuesday August 4th for demo/test sails.
J/105 North Americans
Ready to Roll At American YC
(Rye, NY)- J/105 Fleet 6 will be hosting this year's J105 North American Championship October 29- November 1 at American Yacht Club in Rye, New York. Entrants are expected from around the U.S. and Canada, but not all will be bringing their own boats. If your boat is either still in the water or on land close by to Rye, it would be terrific if you would consider chartering it out so we could attract the largest number of participants.Jordan Mindich and Byron Callan are responsible for matching charterers with charterers for this year's North American Championship. Additionally we can answer questions about insurance, charter terms and conditions and any other queries you have.
Please contact either:
- Jordan Mindich- 516 383 3254/ telemon1@aol.com
- Byron Callan- 203 655 7320/ bcallan@pwpartners.com
J/Regatta News
The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide
With July drawing to a close the world event calendar was taking a breather. The American events featured the famous Chicago to Mackinac Island Race and the equally infamous Marblehead to Halifax Race-- both notorious "crap shoots" and their legendary reputations lived up to all pre-conceived expectations. The European events included the J/92 UK Nationals in the Hamble....a preamble to what will be happening in one of the word's premiere events on the summer circuit- Cowes Week on the Solent and hosted by the Cowes Combined Clubs. Read on! More importantly, if you have more J Regatta News, please email it or upload onto our J/Boats Facebook page! Below are the summaries.
J/122 SKYE Wins 101st Chicago-Mackinac Race
J/105 ASYLUM And Inmates Win Mac Cup!
(Chicago, IL- June 19-21)- The J/Team does it again. The 101st Running of the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac may go down in the history books as a record slow race-- thanks to the renowned phenomenon known as global warming, right? As one crew member put it during the Saturday morning start, 'It's always a crap shoot.' Nevertheless, the inmates were truly running the J/105 ASYLUM and the wily veterans aboard the J/122 SKYE shot for the moon and won, too.The official count for the fleet is 337 boats, among 21 different sections. The debut of the new Double-Handed Division brought additional excitement as several veterans of past Mac Races were on hand to compete for top prizes. All eyes were on the 16 boats in the Doublehanded Division, as each boat is manned by two crew working the sails for optimum starting position under the day's conditions. This type of shorthanded sailing takes extra experience and skill. These are qualities demonstrated by the crews in this section, such as Bill Zeiler and Rich Stearns on SKYE, a J/122. Skye won Section 3 in last year's Mac with a full crew and now counts the Two-handed Crown amongst its laurels.
Jon Weglarz on J/105 ASYLUM not only won the Mackinac Cup Division, but also netted the fastest corrected time of the five division winners? Awesome job guys!! The J/105 ASYLUM's elapsed time was just under 62 hours and with handicap adjustments, the boat's finishing time was 54 hours 35 minutes 39 seconds--- hours faster than the next nearest competitor! Fifteen J/105s competed in the annual event, which is being described as the "flukiest" ever. Following Weglarz in the J/105 top three were Clark Pellet on SEALARK and Peter Fray on PRONTO II.
In the Chicago-Mackinac Trophy Divsion, WILLIE J, a J/130 sailed by Robert Vander Weele & Doug Petter finished 4th overall and 3rd in Section 2! They beat the famous Farr 40 FLASH GORDON 5 raced by renowned world commercial building architect Helmut Jahn! Good on ya WILLIE J for a strong performance in such vexating conditions!
The strong J/109 contingent saw REALT NA MARA raced by Tom and Joe Londrigan win J/109 Class Honors as well as garner a 7th overall in the Chicago-Macminac Trophy Division! 2nd in J/109s was ZEITGEIST raced by Robert T and Dr Cornelia Zerban and 3rd was K III raced by Irv Kerbel. For more info.
J/105 JADED Wins Marblehead to Halifax Race Double
Fog, Glassy Calm, Grey Mist, Rolling Swells Doesn't Dampen Spirits.
(Marblehead, MA- July 22nd)- A 360 nm screaming reach? That's always the wish. But, who's complaining? Despite yet another light wind classic drifting match through greyness, fog and littl wind to Halifax, Peter Rugg's J/105 JADED wins the PHRF Doublehanded Competition.The running of the 2009 Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean Race (MHOR) is preceded by a long and prestigious history. The race began in 1905 as an informal competition among sailors from the Boston, Eastern, and New York Yacht Clubs. The race was run sporadically until 1939, when the Boston Yacht Club (BYC) joined with the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) to formalize a biennial event. Since that time, the Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean Race has run regularly on alternate years from the Newport Bermuda Race, as one of the pre-eminent ocean races of the North Atlantic.
In PHRF 2, Eberle's J/130 CELISTA was second by only twenty five minutes corrected time. And, in PHRF 3 Petley-Jones's J/35 HARRIER won by a convincing two hour corrected time margin and the J/109 HEATWAVE raced by Weisberg cruised into fourth place a bit off the pace of the winners. For more info.
J/22 Eastern Great Lakes Championship
Doyle Reigns Supreme Again
(Buffalo, NY- June 18-19)- Chris Doyle of Kenmore, NY excelled in the wind and waves at the 2009 J/22 Eastern Great Lakes Championship at the Buffalo Yacht Club. In breeze of 15-25 knots and waves up to eight feet, team SOLID LAYER bested 42 other teams over eight races. Following Chris Doyle were Jim Barnash on THUNDER CHICKEN (Rochester, NY) and local Kevin Doyle on MO'MONEY. The event also featured the popular Raw Bar on Saturday night. Don't forget, the Buffalo Yacht Club is hosting the 2010 North American Championship! For complete results.
J/92 U.K. Nationals
Neilson's REDEYE Takes the Title
(Hamble, So'ton, England- July 13th)- Last weekend saw the main event in our racing calendar with the J/92 UK National Championships. We’ve had our name on the cup in the past but that was in the days when the ‘older’ J/92 boats dominated the fleet and the newer J/92 S was the new kid on the block. The tables have turned and the newer boats now out number the older designs and the time was right for us to have a bash at the overall trophy.Base for the weekend was the Royal Airforce Sailing Club on the Hamble River and racing was to be in the northern Solent. So all was set for a great championship. The forecast was for showers and sunshine and winds of around 10 knts from the SW. Not ideal for us as we tend to sail better in the windy stuff but with the chance of the sea breeze building on the gradient wind we hoped for some good sailing weather.
Friday pm we spent with the boys from Hyde Sails checking the fit of our new mainsail that had arrived the previous week from their sail loft in the Philippines. We were using some new technology they had developed with Dimension-Polyant (DP) – the German sail cloth manufacturer – where the sail designer is able to specify the thread density and load direction in the cloth prior to it being laminated and made into a sail. Sounds technical and it is - but it produced a lovely looking sail that after some tweaking set beautifully on our little boat. Most of the drive for these modern lightweight yachts comes from the mainsail and as such it’s important that the sail and rig (mast & boom) work together to create a sail that can power the boat well in all wind strengths you may find on the race course.
The regatta started in the usual fashion with too many beers and a curry on the Friday night – crew house for the weekend was Compass Point – a great little B&B in the heart of Hamble Village – Mike the landlord really looks after us when we race in this area so a hearty breakfast set us well for the first days racing.
Race 1 saw a poor start from Team Neilson Redeye and that along with a big wind shift in the still fickle conditions saw us on the wrong side of the race course and picking up an 8th place with our arch rivals (and current National Champions) Andrew Roberts and Stepehn Etheridge in ‘Just in Time’ (JIT) from Lymmington picking up the winning slot. Race 2 - and with our ‘race faces’ on we had a better start and finished with a dead heat with our other rivals from the East Coast Richard Sparrow and his crew on ‘Who’s to know’ (WTK) – JIT came in 4th. Race 3 - and we picked up the 1st slot this time by a 41 second margin – still close after nearly an hours racing. Race 4 was also a close one with us again having a dead heat with Peter Olden’s ‘Solan Goose’ (SG) another popular and well sailed boat.
Once all the points were totted up we were leading the regatta overnight by 4 points and with 4 more races and more wind forecast for the second day – there was still all to play for.
WTK picked up the 1st race with us in 2nd beating 3rd by just 1 second and 4th by just 16 secs, in fact the top 5 boats finished within 90 seconds of each other after nearly an hour of racing – so still incredibly close racing. JIT took the 6th and 7th races and we picked up a 2nd and a 3rd. Doing the maths for the overall leaders was getting very complicated but it was obvious we had to sail our hearts out in the final race.
The wind had increased to a steady force 6 by now and a swift sail change by the crew saw us sporting our ‘blade’ headsail – a useful sail in our racing wardrobe and a sail we rarely use but one we particularly like so we approached the race with some confidence – almost too much as we were on the start-line too early and almost had to tack away as the clock ticked slowly down to the gun. Jronimo, another local Brighton boat, owned and raced by david Greenhalgh and John Taylor, who had been there or there abouts all weekend with places just off the podium took some pity on us and we found the smallest of gaps by the committee boat but were forced to tack away for clean wind rather than cover the fleet up the first leg. At the first corner we were well down the pecking order but some great crew work and sail handling by the team saw us creeping back through the fleet on the spinnaker leg. A great rounding at the leeward mark and some slick tacking got us back in the yacht race and into 3rd by end of the next lap a position we held till the finish. JIT took the honours and Jronimo had a well deserved 2nd place.
But had we done enough to win the Championships? It had been a great regatta with some great good natured racing – everyone obeyed the rules, there were no protests and over half the fleet had podium finishes – it was going to be tight. JIT, last years victors, won the day with 3 wins and a 6th but when combined with the previous days results Neilson Redeye took the overall Championship by just 2.5 points. With Just in Time in second and Who’s to Know taking the third overall slot but best in class for the J/92.
J/Community:
What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
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* Ed "Cool Kat" Baird- his latest steed truly flies! Wow, flying a 90 foot catamaran on its first day of trials is quite extraordinary! And, it's powered by a snowmobile engine! Imagine that....just $30 million worth of carbon fiber and high technologies relying on a bit of cast aluminium to power up a few winches and some hydraulics- who knew! SKIDOO! Yup, rumor has it they're hankering to be the named sponsor of the latest in "powered" multihulls! LOL, what's next gang? Some of our famous J/24 alums like Dirk Kramers and Scott Ferguson are making sure this flying spider on water holds together long enough to collect some silverware from that gift of gab from SFO- Sir Larry and his erstwhile partner in crime, yet another J/24 aficionado and alumni- Tom Ehman, formerly of Newport, RI. Read more at Alinghi's site. Some fabulous Carlo Borlenghi Photos.
Featured Boat
New 2009 J/80s Available
There’s plenty of new J/80 talk these days, thanks to the extraordinary coverage garnered by the record J/80 fleet of 131 boats in Santander, Spain.The J/80 is now the largest sprit boat one-design in Europe as well as the USA. Learn more about this remarkable, simple, easy to sail boat. Call your dealer now and learn more about it. Several are just completing in Bristol, RI - Base Price- $49,900. Please contact J/Boats or your nearest J dealer for details.
About J/Boats
Started in 1977, J/Boats continues to lead the world in designing fun-to-sail, easy-to-handle, performance sailboats that can be enjoyed by a broad spectrum of sailors. The International J/24 has become the most popular recreational offshore keelboat in the world with over 5,400 J/24s cruising the waves. Today, there are 13,000+ J/Boats, ranging from the International J/22 to the J/65 and ranging in style from one-designs to racers, cruisers to daysailers and, of course, the ubiquitous J sprit boats- J/Boats' innovation in 1992 for easy-to-use asymmetric spinnakers and retractable carbon bowsprits (J/80, J/92, J/95, J/105, J/109, J/120, J/122, J/130, J/133, J/125, J/145, J/160).J/Boats has the best track record in sailing for innovation and design as evidenced by: 11 Sailing World/ Cruising World Boat of the Year Awards in 14 years; 2 SAIL Awards for Industry Leadership; 2 American Sailboat Hall of Fame Designs (J/24 & J/35); and the three largest ISAF International One-Design keelboat classes (J/22, J/24, J/80).
Counting crew, every year there are over 100,000 friends to meet sailing J's, populating the most beautiful sailing harbors in 35+ countries around the world. Sailing is all about friends. Come join us and expand your social network everywhere! For background info.
