Annapolis Sailboat Show Success
Good Turnout, Strong Interest in Latest J's
(Annapolis, MD- October 9th-13th)- J/Boats introduction of the J/95 and the J/97 was very warmly received by J/Enthusiasts in one of America's sailing capitals- Annapolis, Maryland.For the Chesapeake Bay, the J/95 had particular interest because of its shoal-draft cruising capabilities and its strong daysailing appeal. In fact, one group from a sailing club in the region were talking about forming a J/95 fleet soon! The J/97 crowds seem to indicate the concept was spot on- it was particularly attractive to young families and couples who wished to have a manageable, very roomy and accommodating cruising boat that could easily be raced competitively in local fleet events.
The J/122 continues to garner strong interest for those interested in a very comfortable, fun, easy-to-race offshore racing and cruising sailboat in the 40 foot range. Quite a few sailors were talking about the growth of the J/122 fleet and its evolution into a fun J/122 One-Design class. Don't be surprised if a number of former owners of other racing 38 to 42 footers jump ship and get into the J/122 One-Design class for the 2010 sailing season.Finally, the newly announced J/111 was generating a significant amount of interest from sailing aficionados from all over the world. Breaking new ground in its looks, layout and performance, sailors were excited about the new J/111 36' sportboat design planned for 2010 introduction. The J/111 is a sleek, modern one-design, with a large daysailing cockpit, easy-to-handle sail plan, and 6' headroom below for weekending. For more info contact J/Boats- Phone 401-846-8410 or email.
Regatta Schedule
Oct 23-25- J/80 North Americans- Galveston Bay- Lakewood YC- For more info.Oct. 24-30- J/24 European Championships- Eastern Mediterranean- Chania, Greece- For more info.
Oct. 28-Nov. 1- J/105 North Americans- Long Island Sound- American YC- For more info.
Nov. 18-21- J/24 South Americans- Porto Alegre, Brazil- Veleiros do Sul- For more info.
J/Regatta News
The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide
The fall sailing season continues with several world-class events taking place both in Europe and in the USA. In Europe, the GARMIN Hamble Winter Series continues to go full tilt with some hot racing in J One-Design classes (J/80, J/105 and J/109). In America, the ROLEX Women's Keelboat Regatta concluded in Rochester, New York. 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.
ROLEX International Women's Keelboat Championships
Tunnicliffe and Team Capture First Title
(Rochester, New York- October 7-10, 2009)- Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) and her team of Molly O'Bryan Vandemoer (Redwood City, Calif.), Liz Bower (Rochester, N.Y.) and Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) won US SAILING's 2009 Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship. At the gala Rolex Awards ceremony held at the Rochester Yacht Club, Tunnicliffe and her team were awarded US SAILING's perpetual Bengt Julin Trophy and a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Stainless Steel & Gold Datejust presented by Jaimie Carlsen of Rolex Watch U.S.A.
"We're very excited," said Tunnicliffe, Olympic Gold Medalist and a member of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, moments after returning the dock. "We wanted to win this event for a while and finally we've done it. We're super psyched!" Both Vandemoer and Capozzi also are members of US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. After yesterday's disappointing day off from racing, due to lack of suitable wind conditions, the fleet was anxious to get out onto the Lake Ontario race course. With only one day of racing and three races completed, Tunnicliffe lead the 35-boat fleet with a narrow two-point margin over Jennifer Provan (Toronto, Ontario, CAN). The final standings would come down to today, the final day schedule for racing. The RYC Race Committee, lead by Principal Race Officer Hank Stuart, took advantage of today's spectacular conditions - 15-18 knots of wind - and held three races.
"We were really happy about our first day," continued Tunnicliffe, 2008 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. "None of us have fleet raced for at least two months, and we are all a bit rusty in our fleet race tactics. Once we got a chance to get our heads around the tactics, we got locked in and dialed in, and we did really, really well."
Her team's five-race score line was 3-6-1-1-1 and with an unbeatable margin they decided not to participate in the final race. "It's one of those big decisions, do you race or do you not? We felt we wanted to stay out of everyone's way. We knew it was close for second (place), so thought we would stay out of the way and not influence anything."
The final race, with 10-12 knots of wind, was won by Nicole Breault (Old Lyme, Conn.) with Amanda Taselaar (Scarsdale, N.Y.) in second and Carol Cronin (Jamestown, R.I.) in third.
"It was so nice to have good breeze," said Breault. "The wave action made the shifty-ness really about boat speed, and we finally started to click as a team. It felt really good and the day was great. We wish there were a couple more days of racing, but that's the way it goes."
Second overall was Cory Sertl, who counts this regatta as her 11th (including two wins in 1985 and 2001). She clearly relished having the regatta on her home waters at her home club. "It was really fun sailing and great to be out there," said Sertl, a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Her 'Team Lucy' included Annemarie Cook, Jane Mastrandrea and Amy Moran. Sertl's and Moran's daughters, Katja and Merritt, sailed together with the world renowned founder of TeamONE Newport, Martha Parker ("Princess Martha"), on the bow to keep them out of trouble and headed generally in the right direction. They finished 13th overall (pictured here). "They did just fine," continued a beaming Sertl. "They were really fast today off the starting line and held it for a really long time. Their speed was awesome today." For Cronin, who won the regatta in 1991 as crew, her overall third place finish is satisfying. According to Cronin, who marks this regatta as her ninth, her results were starting to look like a terrible trend. "I won this event in 1999," she said. "I was second in 2001, third in '03, fourth in '05, and that was my goal, to break the curse."
"We had a great day today," continued Cronin of her 'Team Spidey,' Kim Couranz, Margaret Podich and Kate Fears. "We worked really well together, and I thought it was a challenging day of sailing because the waves were ahead of the breeze." Three teams finished the regatta tied on points - Cronin, Dominique Provoyeur (Cape Town, South Africa) and Jennifer Provan. A count back system, detailed in the sailing instructions, was used to break the tie, putting Provoyeur into fourth and Provan in fifth.
"We can't really be too disappointed," said Provoyeur, who has competed in this regatta four times. "The fourth is our best result yet, but obviously when you are so close you think what could have gone better. I woke up this morning a little anxious for the final day of racing and knowing there was a bit on. There was breeze and we were in a position close to first. We tried to take the attitude that we want to go sailboat racing, but the wind was up and the swell was bigger than what we had had. We tried to start well and see what would happen, really one race at a time." Provoyeur sailed with Louise Meek, Tiffany Baring-Gould and Saskia Butcher. Rounding out the top 10 teams: Jennifer Provan (CAN) in fifth, Marieke Poulie (Maarssen, NED) in sixth, Amanda Taselaar (Scarsdale, N.Y.) in seventh, Breault in eighth, JoAnn Fisher (Annapolis, Md.) in ninth and Kaitlin Storck (Huntington, N.Y.).
Until this regatta, Tunnicliffe had held the record as the youngest competitor, having set the mark as a 14-year-old skipper in 1997. At that time, she confided that one day she would win the regatta. "I always thought it would be cool to do really well one day," she said. "This is my fifth time sailing the regatta, my fourth time skippering it. We were getting to the point that we need to get up there sometime soon. I'm happy we sailed really well together and did so well. I have a fabulous crew. Debbie, Molly and Liz sailed together a few times before, and the chemistry has worked perfectly. It makes my life so easy on the race course and they make me look really good."
For more information- where fans around the world can go to view photos from official event photographer Dan Nerney. Daily highlights videos produced by Tucker and crew from T2P.tv can be seen at www.t2p.tv and at US Sailing.
GARMIN Hamble Winter Series
J/109s, J/105s and J/80s Rocking the Solent
(Hamble, So'ton, England- Oct 3-4)- October 3rd and 4th was the opening weekend of the annual Hamble River Sailing Club's Winter Series, sponsored by Garmin. On Saturday a strong but steady 250 degree wind produced exciting conditions for the first day of the Hamble Big Boat Series. With a few broken halyards, some crew injuries, and a collision between two yachts, the IRC fleet dwindled from seven starters to three by the third race. Demanding conditions perhaps, but spinnakers were flown throughout as the gusts topped 30 knots.In the fifteen boat J/109 One-Design class, it appears that David and Kirsty Apthorps J-DREAM continues their winning ways in the J/109 class, leading the pack with a 1-1-1 over Luca Rubinellis's ARIA that has a 2-3-3. In third are Richard and Valerie Griffith sailing OUTRAJEOUS with a 5-2-7 over the two weekends.
The six boat J/105 One-Design class has tight competition with Paul Griffiths in FAY-J just hanging onto the lead by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin by one point (with 2-1-2 finishes) over Simon Curwen in the well-campaigned, hard-charging VOADOR with a 1-2-3 on the board. Lying third for now is Chris Jones JOURNEYMAKER 5 with a 3-4-4.
The seven boat J/80 One-Design class has two perennial class leaders pulling no punches and going at it hammer and tong over six races to date. John Cooper racing O!! with a 2-2-1-1-2-4 record is holding off Mr. BOATS.COM EUROPE Managing Director, Ian Atkins, racing none other than the appropriately named BOATS.COM (who knew?) with a 4-1-4-3-3-2 tally. Not far off the pace in third is Thor Askeland aboard ELLE SAPELLE also showing strong improvement over the two weekends with a 5-4-5-4-1-1 score card.
For more information and full results. Photos by Paul Wyeth.
GARMIN Big Boat Series
J's Dominating IRC Class!
(Hamble, So'ton, England- Oct 3-12)- So far, so good. That's about all the Neil Martin on his J/133 JAMMY DODGER and Ian Matthews racing his J/122 JINJA can expect in the wild and woolly racing they've seen so far in the Big Boat Series.After two weekends of racing, JAMMY DODGER has collected finishes of 1-1-1-3-1 over stablemate JINJA which has a 2-2-2-1-3. The racing is closer than the scores indicate on the tally sheets. Unfortunately, another champion stablemate, he other J/133, Bill Blain's world-beating, RORC Champion BATFISH III was forced to retire from Race 2 after a heavy collision. It remains to be seen if Bill and the BATFISH III crew can rejoin the series. For more information and full results. Photos by Paul Wyeth.
GARMIN Autumn Championships
J/80's and J/109's Tangle For Solent Bragging Rights
(Hamble, So'ton, England- Oct 10-11)- This past weekend saw the J/80s and J/109s race for their Autumn Championships in southern England.The ten boat J/109 One-Design class again saw class leaders David and Kirsty Apthorp on J-DREAM cruise to a first overall with a 3-1-3-1-1 set of finishes. Guy Knight's team aboard BETH jumped into second overall on the podium with a 4-2-1-4-5 record. And, in third was Adam Wright and Martin Miller racing VELVET ELLIS/ JOUSTER into third with finishes of 5-7-2-2-2.
For the eleven boat J/80 class, it looked like the top three from the weekend before agreed to flip-flop their positions! Thor Askeland proved that his team on ELLE SAPELLE was only warming up from the weekend before and walked off with the J/80 Autumn Championships with a 2-8-1-2-5-1-1 score sheet. Hanging in there as he'd done the week before was Ian Atkins (yea, that Boats.com guy) racing none other than BOATS.COM into second on the podium with a 3-6-5-1-4-3-2 record. John Cooper racing O!! couldn't seem to get a consistent series off but nevertheless managed to avoid too many disastrous decisions on the race track and while starting off with a bullet, rode the roller-coaster to a 1-10-6-4-1-2-5 tally. For more information and full results. Photos by Paul Wyeth.
Norway's Hollender Regatta
J/133 FLIRT Dominates Huge Class
(Oslo, Norway)- Eivind Astrup and his team won the illustrious Hollender Regatta in Norway recently, emblematic of their late summer/early fall offshore sailing championship. Here is Eivind's account of what took place in the land of the northern lights:We love our boat and we sail our J/133 always as fast as we can. The link below is the results of the main fall event in Norway, the "Hollender" regatta with 330 entries. The distance is 50 nm. I think you will like our class result (1st out of 33 boats) and you will note that we have reasonably good boats behind us. Otherwise, we were 1 min 05 secs from winning overall. Last year, we also won our class and missed the overall victory by 2 mins, so we'll soon be there!
I had the pleasure of helming the boat at a speed of 14-16 knots on flat water for about an hour, attaining 17 several times and a peak speed of 18.5 knots, with 7 guys sitting on the transom. The pressure was such that the cover of the spinnaker sheet melted! As a result we lost control, ended up on the roof and destroyed the sail. A new one was hoisted but the lesson is clear: Under a load like this, the drum has to be watered in order to cool down the sheet. (Ed's note- holy COW that's a lot of HEAT to melt a spinnaker sheet like that-- fair warning to all of us to "grind hard but stay cool"!!). Here is the link.
J/Community:
What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
* Holy Smokes Batman- The Wilson Race was a blast! The J/125 WARRIOR Rocks!We were forwarded a follow-up report on the Wilson Trophy Race from Santa Barbara, California. We thought you'd be amused by the account that comes from "Madmax" (a Sailing Anarchy.com contributor) onboard the J/125 WARRIOR raced and owned by the renowned radio/ talk show psychologist Dr. Laura (her boat is pictured at right):
"We started in 18-22 knots with puffs to 24 knots. Had a long beat up to Platform Holly off Isla Vista. Pretty square beat, slightly right favored. Pounded upwind with the number 3 and all went well. Were racing a SC 52 PREVAIL and a J/105 REPEAT OFFENDER (Larry Harteck's boat that was reported on last week) mostly due to the fact that they were the only boats we could see.
There were 10-25 degree windshifts and we tacked on shifts all the way up the coast. Rounded the Platform and because it was almost a square run and max puffs were 24 we put up the Whomper..the A2. At this point we were probably winning the race, close in time though with the J/105 REPEAT OFFENDER.
We set and BLASTED OFF! As we migrated offshore looking for steadier conditions, more constant 22-24 knots windspeed, we were met with a nice surprise. Wind shot up to 30 knots and never went below 25 knots and we were, to say the least, HAULING THE MAIL. The J/125 in 30 knots with the A2 up has enough power and speed to pass waves. We would climb up the backs and shoot down into the troughs, only to do it again. The swell was small and wind-waves were 6-10 feet. Constant 20 knots with frequent blasts to 24 knots--boatspeed man, pure boatspeed!!
We continued down the coast and finally realised that we had to gybe and get rid of the A2. We letter box dropped the A2 and then gybed. Everything was fine, we were still surfing at 20 knots with the main and jib and 130 apparent. Boys were setting up the boat to put a smaller kite up and our bowman, Jan, decided to go for a swim. Mind you we were going 18-23 knots at the time still surfing like crazy and as Jan walked back from the point with the tack line the boat surged and he flipped head over heels over the bow. I tried to turn towards him...deeper and flick him back on but it was to late. Kit our boat man ran for him and got a hand on him but frankly at 20 plus knots...no way. Ker-plunck...Jan gone.
Instant broach into the wind on port, crew sprang into action and 3 people kept an eye and pointed at him. 2-3 others ran to the bow for a jib douse. Jib was 70% down and we sailed 2 more boatlengths and tacked, never getting more that 4-5 boatlengths from Jan.
Jan looked OK and after the tack we bore off to a broadreach and headed up beside him with the leeward beam and by the time the boat stopped he was abeam the mainsheet winches. Pulled him back on and had to put the jib back up, just to bear away. It was now 32-33 knots steady. Bore away and gybed again and ended up on port with a wind angle of 120-130 headed for the barn. Continued to surf at 20-24 knots with main and jib, not really surfing but planing 65% of the time.
Checked on Jan and he was OK. Had a nice mouse under his eye from hitting the rail. He showed no signs of shock but was a little shaky. We watched him closely and finished just behind the SC 52.
Parked the boat and trudged up to the club. Jan was fine but decided to head home for some ice on his lump.
Larry Harteck and the REPEAT OFFENDER crew on the J/105 managed to sail the whole run with their chute up and won easily. Dana Jones, the Santa Barbara YC Race Committee chair said he had never seen a J/105 go so fast. He said they were planning and looked like a skiff. This did not come without a wipe out though--Larry said the were pinned at least once during the 3 gybes they did.
All and all, INSANE RACE. Most fun running I have done in a LONG time. One thing is clear....The J/125 needs a smaller kite then the A2 in 30 knots!!
I give the entire Doc Laura crew a "big kudos" for acting so fast and staying so calm during the man overboard drill. It could have been much worse. The crew pulled together and did a superb job."
Editors Note- "Congratulations to you, Dr. Laura and the crew for exemplary seamanship in such difficult conditions. Thank goodness you had fun and could tell the story afterwards!"
Featured Boat- J/133
A brand new J/133 "J/Demo" boat is available, ready to race for Key West!
This J/133 is currently located in France but is ready to ship anywhere in the world. A proven race winner, her sistership J/133 BATFISH III won the RORC IRC Overall Season Championship in England and France. Another sistership in America is racing on Long Island Sound, the J/133 SIREN SONG is proving hard to beat in a wide variety of conditions.Now is the time to get rolling for Key West and the 2010 sailing season. Take advantage of this "fall special" and get ready to rock and have fun this coming season. This J/133 is available at $430,000 USD, FOB Bristol, RI with all options and U.S. shorepower.
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/110, 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:
http://www.jboats.com/intro.htm
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