While the advent of autumn has taken place in the Northern Hemisphere, our friends Down Under are just getting started in their Spring Series in many places around Australia. In fact, a familiar J/122 for our readers is still putting the hammer down, having an amazing performance in a small gale off the western shores of Australia.Meanwhile, in northeastern America, the first major event of the summer sailing season for the New York Yacht Club just took place off Newport, RI; the annual Race week sponsored by Rolex had three days of gorgeous sailing both in Narragansett Bay and offshore. Having fun in the relatively small fleet were a J/109 and J/44.
Then, following a "J/22 family" theme, the Northeast J/22 Championship took place concurrently with the Lake George Open, hosted by the Lake George Club on Lake George, NY. A very happy group of mostly family boats enjoyed wonderful small sailing on perhaps the most picturesque lake in the USA during the fall. Then, out in the Midwest, we get a report from long-time J/22 sailor, Chris Princing, about the joys of bringing up a family sailing on J/22s in their J/22 fleet on Tawas Bay, MI.
Annapolis Double-Handed Distance Race Preview
(Annapolis, MD)- With thirty-seven entries confirmed in three classes, the Annapolis YC’s Double-Handed Distance on October 3rd & 4th is the largest double-handed overnight race of the 2020 USA season. Its popularity after last year’s debut is impressive, having doubled in size in only its second year. With 18 J/Boats on the starting line, that's 50% of the fleet!
Driving this popularity are the favorable early Fall sailing conditions on the Chesapeake Bay and an accessible yet challenging format: an overnight race of 24 hours duration held on course options that vary from 95 to 100 miles in length.
The fleet includes the mandatory "mixed doublehanded" 11-boat J/105 one-design class. The class is full of highly-competitive offshore sailors and a few "newbies" on the block that are sure to be considerable factors over a long-distance offshore race. The Ladbroke's Betting Parlour favorite certainly has to be last year's winners- the duo of Randy Smyth and Christina Persson sailing BAT IV. Two teams would be odds-on bets to give them a run-for-the-money, the duo of Patrick Gavin-Byrne’s & Cole Brauer on BETTER MOUSETRAP and Christina & Justin Wolfe on FIREBRAND (top sailors from Seattle, WA). Don't count out the "Middies" from the US Naval Academy Sailing Team- they are well-practiced, well-coached, great navigators, know the Bay and its current stone cold, and know their J/105s very well; those teams include Don Poirier & Ashley Koenig on AVENGER, Katie Boyle & Matt Gillcrist on CONSTELLATION, and Paul Jervis & Grace Vandergrift on DREADNOUGHT.
Sailing in the ORC Handicap classes are seven J/Teams. Three are sailing in ORC 1 Class; Richard Born & Guillaume Seynhave on the very well-known offshore winner, the J/120 WINDBORN; Keith Cole & John King's J/124 LUCKY EIGHTS, and Jim Demerest & Dobbs Davis on the J/46 SODALIS III (this is a "sleeper team"- watch out!). Sailing in the fourteen-boat ORC 2 Class are two J/105s (Arthur & AJ Libby's DOGHOUSE and Kyle McLaughlin & Raymond Bay's SMOKE'N'OAKUM), John Bell & Ryan Treat's J/100 HIWASSEE, and Roger Lant & Mike Wellins' J/35 ABIENTOT.
Annapolis YC PRO Dick Neville is looking forward to the opportunity to tailor the race to the course and weather conditions for fair and transparent scoring; hopefully, with equals elements of beating, reaching, and running. For more AYC Double-handed Distance Race sailing information
New York YC Annual Regatta Preview
(Newport, RI)- North America's oldest annual regatta will feature three great days of racing including the separately scored Around-the-Island Race on Friday, October 2. Competition will take place in ORC/ PHRF handicap classes and during the Two-Day Series the PRO's and regatta managers intend sail in the format that the fleets are accustomed to - i.e. drop-mark buoy racing for most and navigator racing for some. The focus of this year's event is getting back on the water and sailing. At this time, there are no planned shoreside or social activities.
Perhaps the most anticipated race of the entire summer is the famous Round Jamestown Race of 18.0 to 25.0nm, depending on course selection. The picturesque race that is a "tour" of Narragansett Bay around Conanicut Island takes the fleet through the two majestic bridges connecting Aquidneck Island to the mainland- the Newport Pell Bridge and the Jamestown Bridge. The scratch sheet shows five J's sailing in the ORC 3 Class, including twin J/44s (NYYC Commodore Bill Ketcham's MAXINE & Ken Luczynski's VAMP), twin J/109s (Bill Kneller's VENTO SOLARE & Bill Sutton's LEADING EDGE), and John & Sue Sutherland's J/111 19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. In PHRF 1 Class, Bob Manchester's J/133 VAMOOSE will be taking on their ten-boat class in a game of "cat & mouse" around the island. Sailing in PHRF 2 Class is Joe Britto's J/121 INCOGNITO, arguably one of the most knowledgeable "round islanders" in the fleet, having sailed them for over four decades. Finally, an eclectic collection of boats in PHRF 3 Class, we find EC Helme's J/92S SPIRIT and Don Dwyer's J/109 GUARDIAN J.
For the round buoys (drop or government) racing on Saturday/ Sunday, the scratch sheet is different. Sailing offshore on Rhode Island Sound is the Blue Circle fleet, including the ORC 3 Class with the same five J's as the Round Island Race, the J/44s (MAXINE & VAMP), J/109s (LEADING EDGE & VENTO SOLARE), and the J/111 19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.
For the Red Circle Narragansett Bay participants, the twelve-boat PHRF 1 Class includes the J/133 VAMOOSE and the J/121 INCOGNITO. Then, the PHRF 2 Class has the J/92S SPIRIT as the sole J/team. For more New York YC Annual Regatta sailing information
J/Gear HOLIDAY 20% OFF Specials!
(Newport, RI)- Believe it or not, it is just about time to get into the holiday spirit of things. The year-end is fast approaching and now is as good a time as any to give some thoughts to your holiday shopping for your crew, family, and friends.
We are offering a 20% discount on all orders excluding the following: J/Models, J/Prints and J/Calendars.
The discount code is- JB2020XS. It will be effective October 1st through November 28th, 2020.
Attention J/Boat owners- because of the demand for customization, we encourage "early ordering" in an effort to meet holiday gift dates.
NOTE- The J/Class logo of your choice can embroidered on the front. We can also customize with your detail. Perfect for the whole crew! For more information and to buy now.
Sailing Calendar
Oct 10-11- J/Fest Southwest- Lakewood, TX
Oct 17- Rolex Middle Sea Race- Gzira, Malta
Oct 24- Witches Brew Race- Charleston, SC
Nov. 1- Hot Rum Series I- San Diego, CA
Nov. 14- Around the Island Race- Hong Kong, China
Nov. 21- Hot Rum Series II- San Diego, CA
J/122 JOSS Continues Winning Ways Down Under
(Perth, WA, Australia)- It is exciting to see that certain parts of Australia have managed their pandemic behavior enough so that traditional offshore yachting events can take place. In Western Australia, the Royal Perth YC in Perth, WA held their first race of the new ORWA 2020/21 Offshore Racing Series. The race is called the George Law Trophy.
The report from Ian Clyne, owner of J/122 JOSS, was brief and to the point:
"We just completed our first race of our offshore season in Perth. The conditions were quite rough, with most of the race sailed in 25 to 40 kts of wind! The seas were outrageous, extremely challenging, giant waves upwards of 10-12 feet at times, often with no "backs" to them, resulting in some extreme power slams onto the face of the wave below. The weather itself was somewhat extreme in its range, going from sun, to violent squalls, to just driving rain! Crazy stuff!
We are happy to report that our J/122 JOSS did us good, reveling in the rough stuff, garnering 1st in Division 1 IRC! We safely won the day in seriously nasty stuff offshore. Great crew effort, especially by Ryan Binedell, our boat Captain!"
For more J/122 offshore cruiser/racer sailing information
CHIBOUGANAU Crowned Northeast J/22 Champion!
(Lake George, New York)- The Lake George Club cordially hosted the 2020 Northeast J/22 Championship last weekend as part of their annual Lake George Open Regatta. The regatta on picturesque Lake George, the “Queen of American Lakes,” in the southern Adirondack Mountains of New York State, features great hospitality, a beautiful setting, and lots of competitive racing, and usually favorable winds in the early fall.
Answering the siren call of the sea were a happy and enthusiastic eight-boat fleet; eager to get out on what became nice sailing conditions, flat water, and fall foliage in full bloom! The racing was insanely close for the top of the leaderboard, as well as it was for the bronze step on the podium.
In what became a closely-fought two-boat duel, Richard Hallagan's CHIBOUGANAU and Alfie Merchant's FAMILY FEUD exchanged winning races all weekend long. After six races completed, Hallagan's four bullets and two 2nd was enough to win the regatta by a mere 2 pts. Second was the FAMILY FEUD'ers, also counting all 1sts and 2nds, not as many as the winner!
The bronze was settled on a tie-breaker at 22 pts each. Russ Merchants "III" counted 3-8-2-4-5 while Rik Alexanderson's BRASS RING posted a 6-5-4-4-3, losing the countback to take fourth. The next two places to round out the top five were also determined on a tiebreaker. Joe Favero's KNOT ON CALL and Doug Brandow's JOIA were knotted together on 24 pts each, with Favero getting the nod on the tiebreaker. For more Lake George J/22 Open Regatta information
J/109 Silvers @ NYYC Race Week
(Newport, RI)- The New York Yacht Club’s Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was first run in 1998 and took place this year from September 23 to 26 out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, in Newport. R.I. The biennial regatta, traditionally run at the apex of the summer sailing season, has established itself as one of the premier summer race weeks in the Northeast thanks to its attractive combination of great racing conditions off Newport and the superlative shoreside hospitality at the Club’s waterfront Clubhouse overlooking Newport Harbor. Partners for the 2020 edition of Race Week at Newport include presenting sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Hammetts Hotel and Helly Hansen.
After three days of racing, the ORC 2 Class featured some of the closest racing of the day at the top of the class. Starting out with two bullets on the first day to be handily atop the leaderboard, Tom Sutton’s J/109 LEADING EDGE continued their ferocious pace by closing the next two days with five deuces! Shockingly enough, that was not good enough to win the regatta! Instead, they happily settled for the silver. Starting out slowly on the first day, NYYC Commodore Bill Ketcham got his team into gear and managed a few podium finishes to finish tied for 4th place after seven races but ended up 5th on the countback. A great showing for these two teams after a long summer of not sailing anywhere with virtually "green" crews! Sailing photo credits: ROLEX/Daniel Forster For more NYYC Race Week sailing information.
J/Community
What friends, alumni, and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
-----------
Neatly maintained, comfortably fast, and sporty J/109 available from Messink Yachting in the Netherlands. All NKE navigation equipment renewed in 2015, large sailing wardrobe, life raft, cooker, and shower are some of her highlighted features in a very-well maintained boat. For J/109 Netherlands brokerage information
* Family Matters! A J/22 family report from Macatawa Bay, MI
“Mom, I can do this”! came the raised voice of our now 14-year-old daughter, Jenna. She was on the bow of our J/22, USA 1552, Evil Dr. Pork Chop. It was windy and rough, she was 12 at the time, but by God she completed the gybe by herself. It made me think back to my youth, telling my father, “Dad, we can do this!” as my brother, Matt, and I were trying to launch Sunfish by ourselves off the beach at Tawas Bay yacht club. We were growing and getting more confident in our abilities and wanted to do it ourselves. Didn’t always work out as planned, as I recall, one or two times our dad and friend had to come rescue us out on the Bay ha!
Jennifer came from a sailing family; her parents owned a Lightning while she and her sister were growing up. Jennifer would travel to regattas with her parents and eventually became part of the crew on the boat as her mother started to move away from the sailing part of it.
I came from a boating family. That is, a sailor trying to tell you his parents owned powerboats! I was lucky in that I always had a mate with me, my twin brother, Matt. Every weekend we would get in the station wagon with my family and head up to the old Chris Craft docked at the club in Tawas. So, early in our youth we would fish and then when my folks bought a 13ft Boston Whaler, we got to speed around and fish out in the Bay instead of off the dock. It was sailing though that kind of got into our minds. Pretty soon we are sailing borrowed Sunfish against each other for hours every weekend and a couple of younger men at the club started inviting us out on their racing boats teaching us about racing. We had to learn it on our own, there were no youth sailing programs or instructors, it was trial by error and there were a lot of those!
When Jennifer and I welcomed Jenna into the world, we never really talked much about it. I think we both just thought we are taking her with us everywhere. And, we did, and that became the start of so many great memories centered around sailing and family.
Jenna came to us in February of 2006, but her first regatta was actually in the fall of 2005. Jennifer carried her in her belly and dragged a little puppy name Summer along with our friends Ernie and Jaqueline to Whitby, Ontario where Cameron and Elaine Smith welcomed us into their home with Jennifer pregnant and Summer living in her crate. I am pretty sure it was the Canadian J/22 Nationals that weekend.
From the very first May in 2006, we took her with us everywhere, and she was on a boat sailing before she was 4 months old. She did a lot of sailing on our friends, Derek and Monica Carrol’s 35ft sailboat, they had a one year old and a pack'n'play. We would put both kids in the pack'n'play and go sailing and they would roll around and have a blast. As Jenna got older, we just kept bringing her with us. By 2 years old, she was sailing on the J/22 as crew. Well… as a distraction, ha! We would race and she would go down in the v-berth and play. I recall one particular windy day and I think Jenna might have been 3 or 4 years old and Jennifer and I were doublehanding the boat. Because it was windy and wavy, we kept her in the cockpit with us. Whenever she would get a little worried, we would get splashed with a wave and she would just giggle. We got to the weather mark and just told her to sit on the cockpit floor north of the traveler as Jennifer and I got the spinnaker up and going. Still one of our fondest memories!
J/22 regattas were great as we always got to see our friends and Jenna would be a little bigger each time. A lot of our friends helped us out with places to stay and baby sitters if we needed them.
Some of our favorite places we took Jenna were Lake Wayzata as a baby hanging out and, of course, Tawas Bay Yacht Club East, or as they like to call it… Chris and Sue Doyle's cottage! The Doyle's were nice enough to let us stay there twice, thank you! And, the first time in 2010 we took Jenna to see Niagara Falls and Ernie and Jaqueline Dieball had their baby Dean with us.
So, kids grow, and pretty soon we have her trying to pull on lines on the J/22 and she is on the rail with Mom hiking. By 6 years old she is trimming the spinnaker on light wind days, by 8 she is on the bow on light wind days. Now at 14, it is her bow!"
In our J/22 fleet, we now have multiple kids racing on boats for the first time in a long time. The J/22 is an ideal boat to teach a child on, low loads, very tactical and fun to sail!" Thanks for this contribution from Chris Princing of Tawas Bay, MI.
(Annapolis, MD)- With thirty-seven entries confirmed in three classes, the Annapolis YC’s Double-Handed Distance on October 3rd & 4th is the largest double-handed overnight race of the 2020 USA season. Its popularity after last year’s debut is impressive, having doubled in size in only its second year. With 18 J/Boats on the starting line, that's 50% of the fleet!
Driving this popularity are the favorable early Fall sailing conditions on the Chesapeake Bay and an accessible yet challenging format: an overnight race of 24 hours duration held on course options that vary from 95 to 100 miles in length.
The fleet includes the mandatory "mixed doublehanded" 11-boat J/105 one-design class. The class is full of highly-competitive offshore sailors and a few "newbies" on the block that are sure to be considerable factors over a long-distance offshore race. The Ladbroke's Betting Parlour favorite certainly has to be last year's winners- the duo of Randy Smyth and Christina Persson sailing BAT IV. Two teams would be odds-on bets to give them a run-for-the-money, the duo of Patrick Gavin-Byrne’s & Cole Brauer on BETTER MOUSETRAP and Christina & Justin Wolfe on FIREBRAND (top sailors from Seattle, WA). Don't count out the "Middies" from the US Naval Academy Sailing Team- they are well-practiced, well-coached, great navigators, know the Bay and its current stone cold, and know their J/105s very well; those teams include Don Poirier & Ashley Koenig on AVENGER, Katie Boyle & Matt Gillcrist on CONSTELLATION, and Paul Jervis & Grace Vandergrift on DREADNOUGHT.
Sailing in the ORC Handicap classes are seven J/Teams. Three are sailing in ORC 1 Class; Richard Born & Guillaume Seynhave on the very well-known offshore winner, the J/120 WINDBORN; Keith Cole & John King's J/124 LUCKY EIGHTS, and Jim Demerest & Dobbs Davis on the J/46 SODALIS III (this is a "sleeper team"- watch out!). Sailing in the fourteen-boat ORC 2 Class are two J/105s (Arthur & AJ Libby's DOGHOUSE and Kyle McLaughlin & Raymond Bay's SMOKE'N'OAKUM), John Bell & Ryan Treat's J/100 HIWASSEE, and Roger Lant & Mike Wellins' J/35 ABIENTOT.
Annapolis YC PRO Dick Neville is looking forward to the opportunity to tailor the race to the course and weather conditions for fair and transparent scoring; hopefully, with equals elements of beating, reaching, and running. For more AYC Double-handed Distance Race sailing information
New York YC Annual Regatta Preview
(Newport, RI)- North America's oldest annual regatta will feature three great days of racing including the separately scored Around-the-Island Race on Friday, October 2. Competition will take place in ORC/ PHRF handicap classes and during the Two-Day Series the PRO's and regatta managers intend sail in the format that the fleets are accustomed to - i.e. drop-mark buoy racing for most and navigator racing for some. The focus of this year's event is getting back on the water and sailing. At this time, there are no planned shoreside or social activities.
Perhaps the most anticipated race of the entire summer is the famous Round Jamestown Race of 18.0 to 25.0nm, depending on course selection. The picturesque race that is a "tour" of Narragansett Bay around Conanicut Island takes the fleet through the two majestic bridges connecting Aquidneck Island to the mainland- the Newport Pell Bridge and the Jamestown Bridge. The scratch sheet shows five J's sailing in the ORC 3 Class, including twin J/44s (NYYC Commodore Bill Ketcham's MAXINE & Ken Luczynski's VAMP), twin J/109s (Bill Kneller's VENTO SOLARE & Bill Sutton's LEADING EDGE), and John & Sue Sutherland's J/111 19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. In PHRF 1 Class, Bob Manchester's J/133 VAMOOSE will be taking on their ten-boat class in a game of "cat & mouse" around the island. Sailing in PHRF 2 Class is Joe Britto's J/121 INCOGNITO, arguably one of the most knowledgeable "round islanders" in the fleet, having sailed them for over four decades. Finally, an eclectic collection of boats in PHRF 3 Class, we find EC Helme's J/92S SPIRIT and Don Dwyer's J/109 GUARDIAN J.
For the round buoys (drop or government) racing on Saturday/ Sunday, the scratch sheet is different. Sailing offshore on Rhode Island Sound is the Blue Circle fleet, including the ORC 3 Class with the same five J's as the Round Island Race, the J/44s (MAXINE & VAMP), J/109s (LEADING EDGE & VENTO SOLARE), and the J/111 19th NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.
For the Red Circle Narragansett Bay participants, the twelve-boat PHRF 1 Class includes the J/133 VAMOOSE and the J/121 INCOGNITO. Then, the PHRF 2 Class has the J/92S SPIRIT as the sole J/team. For more New York YC Annual Regatta sailing information
J/Gear HOLIDAY 20% OFF Specials!
(Newport, RI)- Believe it or not, it is just about time to get into the holiday spirit of things. The year-end is fast approaching and now is as good a time as any to give some thoughts to your holiday shopping for your crew, family, and friends.
We are offering a 20% discount on all orders excluding the following: J/Models, J/Prints and J/Calendars.
The discount code is- JB2020XS. It will be effective October 1st through November 28th, 2020.
Attention J/Boat owners- because of the demand for customization, we encourage "early ordering" in an effort to meet holiday gift dates.
NOTE- The J/Class logo of your choice can embroidered on the front. We can also customize with your detail. Perfect for the whole crew! For more information and to buy now.
Sailing Calendar
Oct 10-11- J/Fest Southwest- Lakewood, TX
Oct 17- Rolex Middle Sea Race- Gzira, Malta
Oct 24- Witches Brew Race- Charleston, SC
Nov. 1- Hot Rum Series I- San Diego, CA
Nov. 14- Around the Island Race- Hong Kong, China
Nov. 21- Hot Rum Series II- San Diego, CA
J/122 JOSS Continues Winning Ways Down Under
(Perth, WA, Australia)- It is exciting to see that certain parts of Australia have managed their pandemic behavior enough so that traditional offshore yachting events can take place. In Western Australia, the Royal Perth YC in Perth, WA held their first race of the new ORWA 2020/21 Offshore Racing Series. The race is called the George Law Trophy.
The report from Ian Clyne, owner of J/122 JOSS, was brief and to the point:
"We just completed our first race of our offshore season in Perth. The conditions were quite rough, with most of the race sailed in 25 to 40 kts of wind! The seas were outrageous, extremely challenging, giant waves upwards of 10-12 feet at times, often with no "backs" to them, resulting in some extreme power slams onto the face of the wave below. The weather itself was somewhat extreme in its range, going from sun, to violent squalls, to just driving rain! Crazy stuff!
We are happy to report that our J/122 JOSS did us good, reveling in the rough stuff, garnering 1st in Division 1 IRC! We safely won the day in seriously nasty stuff offshore. Great crew effort, especially by Ryan Binedell, our boat Captain!"
For more J/122 offshore cruiser/racer sailing information
CHIBOUGANAU Crowned Northeast J/22 Champion!
(Lake George, New York)- The Lake George Club cordially hosted the 2020 Northeast J/22 Championship last weekend as part of their annual Lake George Open Regatta. The regatta on picturesque Lake George, the “Queen of American Lakes,” in the southern Adirondack Mountains of New York State, features great hospitality, a beautiful setting, and lots of competitive racing, and usually favorable winds in the early fall.
Answering the siren call of the sea were a happy and enthusiastic eight-boat fleet; eager to get out on what became nice sailing conditions, flat water, and fall foliage in full bloom! The racing was insanely close for the top of the leaderboard, as well as it was for the bronze step on the podium.
In what became a closely-fought two-boat duel, Richard Hallagan's CHIBOUGANAU and Alfie Merchant's FAMILY FEUD exchanged winning races all weekend long. After six races completed, Hallagan's four bullets and two 2nd was enough to win the regatta by a mere 2 pts. Second was the FAMILY FEUD'ers, also counting all 1sts and 2nds, not as many as the winner!
The bronze was settled on a tie-breaker at 22 pts each. Russ Merchants "III" counted 3-8-2-4-5 while Rik Alexanderson's BRASS RING posted a 6-5-4-4-3, losing the countback to take fourth. The next two places to round out the top five were also determined on a tiebreaker. Joe Favero's KNOT ON CALL and Doug Brandow's JOIA were knotted together on 24 pts each, with Favero getting the nod on the tiebreaker. For more Lake George J/22 Open Regatta information
J/109 Silvers @ NYYC Race Week
(Newport, RI)- The New York Yacht Club’s Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was first run in 1998 and took place this year from September 23 to 26 out of the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, in Newport. R.I. The biennial regatta, traditionally run at the apex of the summer sailing season, has established itself as one of the premier summer race weeks in the Northeast thanks to its attractive combination of great racing conditions off Newport and the superlative shoreside hospitality at the Club’s waterfront Clubhouse overlooking Newport Harbor. Partners for the 2020 edition of Race Week at Newport include presenting sponsor Rolex and regatta sponsors Hammetts Hotel and Helly Hansen.
After three days of racing, the ORC 2 Class featured some of the closest racing of the day at the top of the class. Starting out with two bullets on the first day to be handily atop the leaderboard, Tom Sutton’s J/109 LEADING EDGE continued their ferocious pace by closing the next two days with five deuces! Shockingly enough, that was not good enough to win the regatta! Instead, they happily settled for the silver. Starting out slowly on the first day, NYYC Commodore Bill Ketcham got his team into gear and managed a few podium finishes to finish tied for 4th place after seven races but ended up 5th on the countback. A great showing for these two teams after a long summer of not sailing anywhere with virtually "green" crews! Sailing photo credits: ROLEX/Daniel Forster For more NYYC Race Week sailing information.
J/Community
What friends, alumni, and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
-----------
Neatly maintained, comfortably fast, and sporty J/109 available from Messink Yachting in the Netherlands. All NKE navigation equipment renewed in 2015, large sailing wardrobe, life raft, cooker, and shower are some of her highlighted features in a very-well maintained boat. For J/109 Netherlands brokerage information
* Family Matters! A J/22 family report from Macatawa Bay, MI
“Mom, I can do this”! came the raised voice of our now 14-year-old daughter, Jenna. She was on the bow of our J/22, USA 1552, Evil Dr. Pork Chop. It was windy and rough, she was 12 at the time, but by God she completed the gybe by herself. It made me think back to my youth, telling my father, “Dad, we can do this!” as my brother, Matt, and I were trying to launch Sunfish by ourselves off the beach at Tawas Bay yacht club. We were growing and getting more confident in our abilities and wanted to do it ourselves. Didn’t always work out as planned, as I recall, one or two times our dad and friend had to come rescue us out on the Bay ha!
Jennifer came from a sailing family; her parents owned a Lightning while she and her sister were growing up. Jennifer would travel to regattas with her parents and eventually became part of the crew on the boat as her mother started to move away from the sailing part of it.
I came from a boating family. That is, a sailor trying to tell you his parents owned powerboats! I was lucky in that I always had a mate with me, my twin brother, Matt. Every weekend we would get in the station wagon with my family and head up to the old Chris Craft docked at the club in Tawas. So, early in our youth we would fish and then when my folks bought a 13ft Boston Whaler, we got to speed around and fish out in the Bay instead of off the dock. It was sailing though that kind of got into our minds. Pretty soon we are sailing borrowed Sunfish against each other for hours every weekend and a couple of younger men at the club started inviting us out on their racing boats teaching us about racing. We had to learn it on our own, there were no youth sailing programs or instructors, it was trial by error and there were a lot of those!
When Jennifer and I welcomed Jenna into the world, we never really talked much about it. I think we both just thought we are taking her with us everywhere. And, we did, and that became the start of so many great memories centered around sailing and family.
Jenna came to us in February of 2006, but her first regatta was actually in the fall of 2005. Jennifer carried her in her belly and dragged a little puppy name Summer along with our friends Ernie and Jaqueline to Whitby, Ontario where Cameron and Elaine Smith welcomed us into their home with Jennifer pregnant and Summer living in her crate. I am pretty sure it was the Canadian J/22 Nationals that weekend.
From the very first May in 2006, we took her with us everywhere, and she was on a boat sailing before she was 4 months old. She did a lot of sailing on our friends, Derek and Monica Carrol’s 35ft sailboat, they had a one year old and a pack'n'play. We would put both kids in the pack'n'play and go sailing and they would roll around and have a blast. As Jenna got older, we just kept bringing her with us. By 2 years old, she was sailing on the J/22 as crew. Well… as a distraction, ha! We would race and she would go down in the v-berth and play. I recall one particular windy day and I think Jenna might have been 3 or 4 years old and Jennifer and I were doublehanding the boat. Because it was windy and wavy, we kept her in the cockpit with us. Whenever she would get a little worried, we would get splashed with a wave and she would just giggle. We got to the weather mark and just told her to sit on the cockpit floor north of the traveler as Jennifer and I got the spinnaker up and going. Still one of our fondest memories!J/22 regattas were great as we always got to see our friends and Jenna would be a little bigger each time. A lot of our friends helped us out with places to stay and baby sitters if we needed them.
Some of our favorite places we took Jenna were Lake Wayzata as a baby hanging out and, of course, Tawas Bay Yacht Club East, or as they like to call it… Chris and Sue Doyle's cottage! The Doyle's were nice enough to let us stay there twice, thank you! And, the first time in 2010 we took Jenna to see Niagara Falls and Ernie and Jaqueline Dieball had their baby Dean with us.
So, kids grow, and pretty soon we have her trying to pull on lines on the J/22 and she is on the rail with Mom hiking. By 6 years old she is trimming the spinnaker on light wind days, by 8 she is on the bow on light wind days. Now at 14, it is her bow!"
In our J/22 fleet, we now have multiple kids racing on boats for the first time in a long time. The J/22 is an ideal boat to teach a child on, low loads, very tactical and fun to sail!" Thanks for this contribution from Chris Princing of Tawas Bay, MI.
