J/111 One-Design Hatched
Dave Reed, Editor at Sailing World, had a chance to catch up with both Jeff and Stu Johnstone at J/Boats regards J/111 developments and perspectives on this next-generation one-design class. You can read more about this interview and learn more about the J/111 on Sailing World.com in the July issue. Please read more about it here- http://www.sailingworld.com/sailboats/hatching-a-one-design
J/Regatta News
The Sun Never Sets on J's Sailing Worldwide
The first week of June in the northern hemisphere is renowned for offering up a number of surprises in events going on around the world. This June was no exception. For starters, the Americas saw some great action in a diversity of settings across that rather large continent. The annual Canadian-American international classic, the Swiftsure Race, served up its usual unpredictable plate of weather conditions, going from near gale force winds to drifters and current induced schizophrenia. The girls got it on and enjoyed a great Santa Maria Cup match-racing J/22s in Annapolis, MD. Those in Motor City and someplace NE of the infamous 9 Mile Road, rocked and rolled and hip-hopped away in what the world knows as "Motown" (Detroit, MI) for the Sailing World Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta. The Canadians also enjoyed the start of their eastern summer offshore season on Lake Ontario with the Susan Hood Offshore Race. Way, way east near Greenwich Meantime (or perhaps the center of the maritime universe according to the British Navy), the long-running J/Fest England had yet another terrific turnout at Royal Southern YC that also included the J/109 UK Nationals. And, just a bit more southeast in the Europe was the gorgeous spectacle known as J/Fest Medcup conducted off that equally delicious and gorgeous island off Hyeres known as Ill de Porquerolles. 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.Regatta & Show Schedules:
Jun 10-13- J/80 Italian Championship- Lake Garda, Italy- http://www.j80euro2010.it/Jun 11-13- Chicago NOOD Regatta- Chicago, IL- http:/www.sailingworld.com
Jun 19-20- J/Fest Northwest- Seattle, WA- http://www.sailnorthwest.com
Jun 21-26- J/80 European Championship- Lake Garda, Italy- http://www.j80euro2010.it/
Jun 20-26- Block Island Race Week- Block Is, RI- http://www.blockislandraceweek.org
Jun 26-27- San Francisco NOOD Regatta- St. Francis YC- http://www.sailingworld.com
Jun 25–27- Long Beach Race Week/ J/120 NAS- Long Beach YC- Long Beach, CA- http://www.lbrw.org
Jun 26-Jul 3- J/22 Worlds- Netherlands- http://www.j22.
Jul 17-25- Rolex NYYC Race Week- Newport, RI- http://www.nyyc.org
Jul 22-25- Marblehead NOOD Regatta- Chicago, IL- http:/www.sailingworld.com
Jul 24- Chicago-Mackinac Race- Chicago, IL- http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org
Aug 1-7- Cowes Week- Isle of Wight, England- http://www.cowe
Aug 13-20- J/24 Worlds- Malmo, Sweden- http://www.j24c
Aug 21- Verve Cup- Chicago, IL- http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org
For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar.
J/Cup Mediterranean Biggest Yet
J/109 YACHT CHARTER Sets The Pace
(Ill de Porquerolles (Hyeres), France- 4-6 Jun)- just south of Hyeres, France lies one of the most beautiful islands of the French Mediterranean. Iles de Porquerolles is nothing but short of magical. Renowned for French island/ fishing cuisine, extraordinary hospitality and fabulous weather, it's hard to go wrong with a venue of such international repute. There was record participation with 29 entries for the fourth edition of the J-Cup on the Mediterranean island of Porquerolles.Mission accomplished for the J/109 YACHT CHARTER which managed to accomplish its first victory, skippered by the very friendly Figaro sailor Jean-Paul Mouren. Indeed, the well-sailed Marseilles J/109 had to overcome another strong challenge from the J/24 TOPO 2, the winner of the previous edition in lighter air.
The brothers Rodelato were second in their class sailing ST ANDREWS SECURITY, skippered by Ian Ilsley and supported for the occasion by Francis Brénac. Third place was the J/122 MADE IN LOVE owned by Jean-Marie Patier and skippered by Catherine Chabaud.The class of small IRC (J/92, J/92s, J/97) was won by the J/92s BEEP BEEP sailed by Olivier Mireur.
The racing was very close amongst the fleet overall. In fact for the long distance race, the traditional tour of the island of Porquerolles and the opening race for the regatta on Saturday, there was less than 30 minutes separating the first from last boat to finish!
The weekend of racing ended with a cocktail party and dinner bordering the Perzinsky estate and vineyard, musically accompanied by the popular Hyèrois group "shush". For more J/ Med Cup sailing and regatta information
J/Cup England- Shorts & Shades Racing
VELVET ELVIS Rocks The Fleet!
(Hamble, England- 3-6 June)- Having already had two days of awesome ‘shorts and shades’ racing at the J-Cup 2010, the 74 boat fleet were postponed ashore for a short time on Saturday until ten to twelve knots of breeze filled in from the south east. The J-Cup 2010 was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club and the Principal Sponsors of the regatta were B&G, Dubarry of Ireland, North Sails and Universal Marina. The J-Cup series comprised eight races in total and on Saturday the J/109s, racing for their UK National Championship had just one race left to complete whilst all other classes had two.Neil Kipling’s brand new J/122 JOOPSTER had her best day on the water in IRC 1 on Saturday with a third place in Race Seven and a fourth in Race Eight, consolidating their fourth position overall. Once again it was Ian Matthews team on JINJA who took the top slots in both of the final races, resulting in a perfect first place scoreline and a convincing class win. David Hunt’s team on the J/122 JACOB'S LADDER finished second overall with Herman Bergshaven’s J/133 SOLNES III in third overall at the close of the event. SOLNES III was presented with the North Sails Boat of the Day prize on Saturday.
In the J/80 Class John Cooper’s OI! was one point ahead of the young crew on Steve Mittler’s TEAM BALTIC, with two races left to sail and before discards were applied. Some extraordinary sailing ensued in the pre-start of Race Seven, and TEAM BALTIC (visiting the Solent from the West Country) cleverly sailed the local boat down the fleet into ninth place, whilst still sailing fast enough to recover their own race and to be first across the line. Ouch! A second bullet in Race Eight secured TEAM BALTIC the series win with ten points. OI! finished second overall with twelve points. Patrick Liardet’s AQUA-J was third overall and was also the North Sails Boat of the Day for the J/80 Class. IRC 2 was where the new J/97s were doing battle and the owner with the most time in his boat in this class only took delivery of his J/97 in March. The result was that we saw some fantastic racing ensue, some astonishingly steep learning curves develop and three different J/97s each won a race at the J-Cup. On Saturday, Bill Blain and Nicola Carney stamped in a 2,1 scoreline in BATFISH IV, meaning that they were the best performing boat of the day and deserved winners of the North Sails Boat of the Day prize. The racing here got closer and closer as the regatta rolled on, precisely as you would hope and expect for these new boats, but in the end it was Mike and Jamie Holmes’ J/97 JIKKA JIKKA at the top of the class. Grant and Brigitte Gordon finished second overall in their J/97 FEVER JR. and BATFISH IV was third.
Andy Dennis and his team on the J/105 ORIJIN travelled all the way from Helford to compete at the J-Cup 2010 and the final day of the regatta was their best, having got used to the Solent and working the boat on boat one-design racing to their advantage. If the regatta had been just a day longer, the top slots might have looked a little different, but in the end it was Hamble based JAVA, owned and raced by Rob Dornton-Duff who took the top slot, just a point ahead of William Newton’s JELLY BABY in second place overall with Richard Watney’s JEOPARDY in third. JEOPARDY also won the North Sails Boat of the Day prize on Saturday.
Twelve J/92s were racing at the J-Cup and as Saturday dawned, Andy Roberts and his team on JUST IN TIME had an unbroken first place score sheet. However, this was not to continue. David Greenhalgh and John Taylor (racing on J'RONIMO) brought in an expert meteorologist in the form of David’s daughter Libby and also a fairly handy tactician in the form of David’s son Peter. They duly went on to nail the first race of the day. Nice work! There was also a different race winner for Race Eight in this class; Martin Pound and his team of flying Scotsmen on board MOBY J. This was Martin’s first ever race win on MOBY J. What a day! The final scoreline for the J/92s at the J-Cup 2010 was JUST IN TIME at the top of the pack, Richard Sparrow’s WHOSE TO NO in second place overall. Pete and Pip Tyler were third in NEILSON REDEYE and they also took home the North Sails Boat of the Day prize.
The J/109s had only the final race of their eight race series scheduled for Saturday morning, and I am quite sure that the team at the top of the pack (Chairman Wright and Martin Miller’s VELVET ELVIS) would have been quite happy if the breeze had failed to show up and racing had been abandoned. There were a lot of nerves flying around! In the end there was more than enough wind for racing and VELVET ELVIS left the dock to go out to try to win the 2010 J/109 UK National Championship, along with twenty six other J/109s with precisely the same intention. In fact, Dave Richards who had won his first ever race in the J/109 on the Friday or the J-Cup, led the final race of this series in JUMPING JELLYFISH until the very last moment when VELVET ELVIS managed to slip past him to cross the line in first place. What a fantastic way to win the UK National Championship and what popular winners! In second place overall was Matt Boyle’s SHIVA, then OFFBEAT owned and raced by David McLeman was third overall and was also the North Sails Boat of the Day. In fourth place at the J/109 UK National Championships was Steven Tapper’s STALKER and David Aisher’s YEOMAN OF WIGHT finished fifth. The bar was open, the sun was shining and (appropriately) Elvis was on the sound system as competitors returned to the dock to see the overall results and to prepare for the legendary J-Cup Gala Dinner and Prize Giving Party. Silverware and goodies donated by the numerous, generous Prize Sponsors of the J-Cup 2010 were presented to the podium finishers. This year each class winner also took home (or consumed on the spot!) a bottle of Wight Vodka and some rather special Wight Vodka caps as well as other fabulous gifts.
In addition to the Class Winners and the J/109 UK National Championship Trophy, there are some rather special prizes presented each year at the J-Cup.
B&G have been a Principal Sponsor of the J-Cup for several years now, and their generosity continued unabated. This year, Chris Greetham of B&G was racing at the event in IRC 1 for the first time but, it has to be said, he didn’t get his hands on any of his own prizes! A set of Deckman software was presented to JINJA for winning IRC 1, a fabulous handheld VHF GPS system went to the best J/92, JUST IN TIME and a set of B&G branded race jackets went to the J/109 UK National Champions on VELVET ELVIS.
The Elvstrom Best Newcomer Prize went to the team on the J/80 OI! and the Musketeer Trophy for the best two boat team from different classes was won by the team of J/109 VELVET ELVIS and INDULJENCE, the J/97 owned and raced by Mike Flood.
Dubarry of Ireland is another Principal Sponsor of the J-Cup and has been involved with the event for many years now. They present some of their fabulous footwear as prizes each year and this is accompanied by two trophies, fashioned in bronze, to represent the iconic Dubarry Boot.
The Dubarry Boot for Endurance was presented to Paul Griffiths and his team on the J/109 JAGERBOMB. Paul, daughter Gillian and son Mark have been racing Js together for a number of years. We have watched them work their way from the back to the front of the J/105 fleet in FAY-J and Paul also captained this class for a number of years. More recently they have moved from the J/105 in to a J/109 and the J-Cup 2010 was their first regatta in this class and, as Paul is the first to admit, the two boats are very different. These guys are great fun to sail with and against, they have championed the cause of each class in which they have raced, and we have no doubt at all that the front of the J/109 fleet is an achievable target for them. One thing is certain; this team will have a lot of fun on the way there and are deserving winners of this trophy from Dubarry.
The Dubarry Boot for Outstanding Achievement was presented to the crews of the three boats which were entered in the event by the charity Toe in The Water. This charity works to re-inspire and rehabilitate injured servicemen through the sport of sailing. They entered one J/109 and two J/80s in the J-Cup. They have to beg, steal and borrow boats and the host Club funded their entry. These guys and girls are amazing. Many have never sailed before and a number of them have just the most horrific injuries it’s incredible that they ever take to the water at all. Then they go out, race hard and competitively and are right in the mix with the rest of the fleet both afloat and ashore. They are all monumentally courageous and there have never been such unanimously popular winners of a trophy. The 500 person standing ovation seemed to last forever.
Universal Marina hosted the opening party at the J-Cup 2010, complete with pink mojito cocktails and a rocking band. In addition to this, they also ran a photographic competition at the J-Cup 2010 for which the prize on offer was a free marina berth at their Hamble facility for one year. Awesome! The berth was won by JIKA JIKA, for a rather clever photo of the Universal Marina Solent race mark, a couple of pink Universal Marina backstay flags and a JIKA JIKA crew member!
The J-Cup trophy itself is the silverware from which this regatta takes it’s name. Over the years it has been presented for many different reasons; sometimes racing related, sometimes not, but nobody has ever won it twice. Ian Matthews and his family have raced at the J-Cup for many years, formerly in a J/120, winning their class on so many occasions that their boat name was eventually stenciled on to the transom of the half-model trophy! This year Ian and his red-headed clan won IRC 1 on their J/122 JINJA with eight straight bullets and the J-Cup is deservedly theirs.
This was the fourth visit to the Royal Southern Yacht Club for the J-Cup, and each time we go there things just get better and better. Racing was faultlessly managed by Peter Bateson and Tony Lovell and their huge team of volunteers and helpers on the water. On the ‘house’ side, Mike Rogers and Natalie Gray kept everyone (including your author) organised and on-track. The whole team of staff, volunteers, committee boat owners, RIB drivers and the friendly Club members we met along the way must be congratulated. If invited, the J-Cup will return to the Royal Southern Yacht Club without hesitation.
J-UK would specifically like to express our enormous gratitude to the four Principal Sponsors of the J-Cup 2010: B&G, Dubarry of Ireland, North Sails and Universal Marina. Without the partnership of these companies the event could simply not maintain its current size and status. For more J/Cup sailing information Photo credits- Tim Wright
Leroy Defends BoatUS Santa Maria Cup
France's Leading Lady Graceful & Dominant
Annapolis, MD (June 5, 2010) - Close racing on-board precisely matched J/22s in hot, shifty wind conditions through the final contests of the semi-final and five-match final rounds in the 20th annual BoatU.S. Santa Maria Cup international women's match-racing regatta produced a similar result to last year, with the French team skippered by Claire Leroy topping San Franciscan Genny Tulloch and her team 3-2 to retain Leroy's title as champion for another year.
In the semi-final pairings, which were all tied up at the end of Friday's racing, Tulloch and her crew, including Molly Carapiet, Katie Pettibone, and Jen Chamberlin, outfought Sally Barkow and her crew this morning, going on to win the series 3-2, while Leroy made short work of Floridian Anna Tunnicliffe and her team in just two more races to earn the spot to race Tulloch and defend her title.The final series was a nail-biter, with Tulloch coming from behind in the second race to beat Leroy, and solidly in the lead throughout to win the fourth race, but Leroy and her team, including Elodie Bertrand, Marie Riou, and Claire Pruvot, were able to hold the challengers off for a second straight year and win the other three. In the Petit-Final, Anna Tunnicliffe beat Sally Barkow 2-0. For more Santa Maria Cup sailing and regatta information
67th Swiftsure Predictably Unpredictable
J/35c WILDFLOWER Ran For The Roses And Won!
(Victoria, BC)- Gear buster to drifter, the 67th Swiftsure proved challenging for its competitors. In 15 knots of wind the first two starts went off without a hitch, but Class 3 was recalled. Principal Race Officer Jennifer Guest postponed the start sequence to allow enough time to get all the Class 3 boats back for their re-start. By late morning winds gusted to 30 plus knots causing 25 boats to withdraw because of gear failure. Two boats were dismasted, and two experienced rudder failure. By late evening the winds started to shut down at the western entrance of the Juan de Fuca Strait, which, coupled with an adverse ebb tide, made for slow and challenging overnight racing. By late Sunday afternoon 66 boats had withdrawn, leaving just 26 sailboats still on the race course. As the 67th Swiftsure wrapped up, Chairman Bill Conconi was quoted as referring to this year’s race as unusual in its extremes, noting it starting with a bang and ending with a whimper, keeping with its tradition of unpredictability.In the face of such adversity and extraordinary challenges, several J sailors persevered to not only push through the first day of "condo jumping" upwind, but despite the current/wind "shutdown", prevailed to win or place well in their respective classes. As you read about last week, John Macphail's J/160 JAM sailed well to finish 5th in Swiftsure Lightship Classic Class. Tom Mitchell's J/35c WILDFLOWER got it going and won Cape Flattery Race Class 4- Division F! David McLean's J/109 ILLUSIONIST stuck it out and placed fourth in Cape Flattery Race Class 5- Division H and Tom Kelly's J/122 ANAM CARA was sixth in the same class. Lorenzo Miglioni's J/105 ALLEGRO VIVACE was second in Cape Flattery Race Class 5- Division J. For more Swiftsure Race sailing information
Coolest Race on the Great Lakes
The J Team Is Up To The Challenge
(Mississauga, Ontario, Canada)- For some the challenge will be making the start line due to the low water levels on Lake Ontario; for others the challenge will be the unpredictable weather they're experiencing. While most people are getting ready for a nice bar-b-que or heading up to the cottage to enjoy the first Friday in June, over 300 sailors are preparing for a very different adventure. They will leave their jobs, pack their best and warmest wet weather clothing - and of course most importantly their safety gear to get ready for the 8pm start of the 73 mile overnight yacht race known as the Susan Hood Trophy Race.The Susan Hood is the first 2010 overnight yacht race of the year on Lake Ontario, starting Friday June 4th from Port Credit Yacht Club in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. This is one of the most exciting and challenging races on the Great Lakes since this time of year tends to bring unpredictable weather. This year is no exception.
In the past it has been referred to as the Coldest Race on the Lakes, but race organizers have dubbed it the “Coolest Race on the Lakes”. Due to the cold water and warm weather patterns around the lake, storms can come in without much warning. With the wind chill factor coming across the extremely cold water, the feeling equates to being out on a damp winter night when there is seemingly never enough clothing to put on. Given the water temperature at this time of the year, attention to safety is a critical component of successfully completing the race for more than the obvious reasons! The ultimate nightmare would be to have to rescue a crew member from the frigid waters of Lake Ontario.
The race begins outside Port Credit Yacht Club in Mississauga and heads west to the Burlington weather mark, just outside Hamilton Harbour. From there it heads south to the Niagara River mark. The final leg returns to Port Credit Yacht Club in Mississauga.
Offshore yacht races depend entirely on the wind to get around the race course, which is a great thing for the environment. If people are out relaxing on a nice mild evening there is a good chance these racers will be moving very slow. A typical yacht competing in this race will average a speed of 6 knots (7 mph) or 11km/hr, which means most yachts should return to Port Credit Yacht Club sometime Saturday morning - provided the winds hold up overnight. Despite all the obstacles and unusual weather and lake conditions, interest in offshore racing has continued to grow over the last few years and this race is now used as a warm-up for the Lake Ontario 300 race, which is a 300 nautical mile race that circumnavigates Lake Ontario. This is one of the most challenging races on the lakes and is the longest annual fresh water race in the world.
How did the J Team fair in this initial challenge for Lake Ontario supremacy? The J/109s and the J/105s did very well, offshore performance and success often mean having a good, well-balanced, easy-to-sail boat over a variety of conditions that can be competitive with good club racers. True to form, the two J/109s both attained podium finishes. In IRC1, the J/109 BLUE STREAK sailed by Eckersley was second overall. In IRC2, sailing under a slightly different IRC configuration was Gainer's J/109 LIVELY, winning class quite handily. In PHRF1, Disney's J/105 THE USUAL SUSPECTS finished second, not too far off the pace to win the race. Check back here in two weeks to see how this J Team fair in the Lake Ontario 300. For more Susan Hood Race sailing information.
J's Enjoy SW NOOD Detroit
J/120 CAPERS Wins Class
(Detroit, MI)- As usual, the Bayview Yacht Club did an extraordinary job to host yet another fun-loving Sperry Top-sider NOOD Regatta. Can't argue with the fact that BYC members led by their perennial Commodore (well, kind-of) Frank Kern and his happy-go-lucky crew on the J/120 CARINTHIA put out the red carpet for all those who wish to participate in this annual event to have fun, enjoy the racing on that crazy body of water everyone knows as Lake St. Clair, just north of "Motown Detroit". Remember, Detroit invented not just cars (some guy named Henry Ford, remember (?)), but hip-hop, trip-hop, funk, rap, soul, rhythm and blues, dance hop and just about all other forms of downbeat and upbeat music one can imagine. Against that backdrop of musical innovation Frank's gang at BYC have done there own bit to keep the drumbeat rolling in the Detroit area to continue to have fun and grow the sport of sailing, welcoming one and all to their corner of the world with open arms.This year's extravaganza had 154 boats show up from the four corners of the Great Lakes. The J Crew were well represented with very good fleets of J/105s, J/120s, J/29s and J/35s showing up to lay their claim to some cool Sperry Top-sider gear and nice swag.
The J/120s were well represented with seven boats enjoying some great one-design racing. Kudos to Frank Kern and his CARINTHIA team for welcoming all competitors to yet another nice weekend of sailing. In the end, Donald Hudak from MHYC was the winner on CAPERS. Keeping Donald honest was David Sandlin on JHAWKER in second from Lake Shore Sailing Club. Lying third was Marvin Ihnen from CSYC in his cleverly named IHNSANITY.
The seven boat J/105 fleet also had some good racing. By winning the first race the rest of the fleet should've taken notice and run for cover, nevertheless Jim Sminchak's IT from LYC ran off with the first place prize. Second was Don Harthorn's SNAKE OIL (wished he had some more of it?) from Lake Shore Sailing Club and third was Mark Symonds' PTERODACTYL.
What seems to be a renaissance in the making are the passionate, enthusiastic and fun-loving J/29 owners around America. Ira Perry took his J/29 SEEFEST across from the East Coast to the Detroit event on their truck and trailer to go have some great fun in this event. Hailing from New Bedford YC in Massachusetts, Ira and his team were rewarded with a first overall in the J/29 class! Giving them a run for the money was John Bullga/Amyot from LMYC racing BLITZ! in second place. Brian Rice and his crew from Dalhousie YC were third sailing ROOSTER TALE.
The J/35s race as a class mixed up with a few other 35 footers. What was cool was to see that the J/35 NIGHT TRAIN sailed by Chris Herriges from North Star Sail Club won over this very competitive fleet.
Despite all the fun and games, there was an unfortunate, fatal accident at BYC on Saturday night. An automobile accident injured several sailors and resulted in the death of a fellow J sailor (most unfortunately, a member of Frank Kern's CARINTHIA crew)- Mike Badendieck. It is with tremendous sorrow that we deliver this news and all those in the J/Family wish Mike's friends and family our deepest condolences, prayers and warmest wishes-- may the Good Lord Be With You All. Said a Tufts classmate of Stu Johnstone, BYC Commodore Bruce Burton, “We are deeply saddened by this accident that injured nine people and fatally injured a tenth person. Our first priority and thoughts are for Mike Badendieck’s family, who died from this accident. Our prayers go out to all of those who were injured and their families. Our hearts and prayers go out to them and to all Bayview members. This is a family club and a close group of friends. This is a tragedy and we are all in distress.” For more Sperry Top-Sider SW NOOD Detroit sailing information. Photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com
Black Seal Fun Fest
Mad Dogs Eat Everyone For Lunch
(Sag Harbor, NY- 5-6 June)- Breakwater YC in Sag Harbor, NY, way, way out on the end of Long Island played host to yet another fun-loving, easy-going, start for the summer sailing season for the eastern end of Long Island Sound. A strong fleet of J/109s and J/105s competed for a case of Gosling's Black Seal Rum and other fun prizes.In the J/109 one-design class, it was the MAD DOGS team with Adrian Begley as their alpha dog leading them to a 1-1-4-2-5 series to just win by one point over David Jannetti's able crew on JIBBER JABBER with a 3-4-1-6-1 record. Just behind them only one point further back (no margin for error here!) was Jim Vos' crew on SKOOT. Greg Ames and his team on GOSSIP were fourth and Donald Fillpelli on CAMINOS was fifth.
The J/105s saw Wayne Morse on ROXANNE win with a 1-1-2-1-2 record over Bruce Tait's BUCKAROO with a 2-2-4-2-1 score. Lying third was Sedgwick Ward's MAMBO. For more Sprit Fest Regatta sailing information.
J/Community
What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide
* Genny Tulloch Report: The Boat U.S. Santa Maria Cup finished up yesterday, with a typical shifty and puffy Annapolis day giving us a very intense and long day of racing, where we finished second overall after going 2-3 against #2 world ranked Claire Leroy in the finals. Sailing with me was a brand new team, with Molly Carapiet on main, Katie Pettibone on Jib/spinnaker trim, and Jenn Chamberlin on the bow. We worked on our communication throughout the double round robin, and were seeded fourth against top seed Sally Barkow for the semis. We went 1-1 Friday night, tying it up. Saturday morning we lost initially then won the last two races against Sally to finish 3-2 in the semis, leading us to meet Claire Leroy in the finals, as she had defeated Anna Tunnicliffe's team in her semis. Both the semis and finals we went to the maximum five races, so at the end of the day we were joking that we’d gotten our money’s worth with the most of races we possibly could have done. The racing was difficult with big shifts and pressure differences throughout the day and across the course, and a lot of the wins were determined by who had the better start headed to the first shift. But with the directional swings and pressure changes the pre-starts were very interesting and calling laylines and time to the start were big stresses and very important for winning the start headed the right way. Claire won the first race, we won the second, then the third was a very close fight. To read on about the racing and see more great pictures from the event, check out my website http://www.getsailing.org.
I’d especially like to thank my teammates this week for doing an excellent job, our housing hosts Dick and Phyllis for taking care of us, our regatta hosts Nancy and Phil for keeping us entertained (and well-fed!), and the club and all of the volunteers for putting on an excellent event. I also would like to thank USSTAG for their support. Next up for me is the Kiel Week World Cup event in Germany; I leave on Tuesday for training in the Elliotts in Chicago then straight to Germany.
* Anna Tunnifcliffe Report- The final day of racing concluded today at the BoatUS Santa Maria Cup and Team Tunnicliffe came home with a bronze medal after winning the petit-finals 2-0 over Sally Barkow. The finals were fought between Genny Tulloch and France's Claire Leroy. Claire came out on top after defeating Genny 3-2 to defend her title from last year.The day started hot again, but with a bit more cloud cover which meant that we weren't going to get a sea breeze, but were going to sail in the gradient breeze. The 5-9 kt breeze was off the land so it made for very puffy and shifty conditions. In addition to that, the usual Annapolis boating traffic was out, resulting in a lot of challenging chop.
We began the day finishing up the semi's against Claire. Claire sailed the first race very well and won the race easily. In the second race, we were leading the race, but then got caught down speed on the second upwind leg and she managed to sail around us. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't move on, but psyched ourselves up for the petit-finals against Sally.
The first race of the petit finals was close and exciting. We led around the top mark by about one boat length and gybed early. She extended on port tack and then gybed later in the leg. We hit some chop a little bit harder than she did and she managed to use that opportunity to pass us. But coming into the leeward mark, we managed to get just inside her and rounded ahead. We had to tack immediately around the mark to avoid fouling her, but tacked back soon after so as not to split too far from her. We both sailed on starboard tack for a fair ways, heading towards pressure. This time, Sally hit the waves harder than we did, and it gave us an opportunity to advance a couple of boat lengths ahead and hold on until the finish. In the second race, we managed to get our bow into the breeze just before her off the line and controlled the side of the course with the breeze the whole race. We had a huge lead around the top mark and extended on the downwind leg. On the second upwind leg, she caught up a bit as we sailed a little out of the pressure, but it wasn't enough to pass us and we went on to win the series 2-0.
We are happy with our overall result at the event. We were using this regatta as a training event for our team. Our next couple of events are in Elliots but since our next major event is the World Championships coming up in September in Sonars, we don't have that many events to practice with 4 people. In addition to that training, we also tried some new moves that we don't normally do: we wanted to see how they would work and get a feel for them. We had a great coach working with us during the event, Dave Dellenbaugh, who helped us out a lot between races and in the evenings. You can check the final results at the regatta website.
Our next event is in Kiel, Germany which starts on the 18th. First though, we have a couple of days at home before heading to Chicago Match Race Center to do some training before we head over to Germany for the event.
We have a lot of thank you's to give out for this event, but specifically we would like to thank Frieda and Jim Wildey for housing us. We would also like to thank all of the volunteers at Eastport YC who help at, and for supporting the event. We would also like to thank Harry at Annapolis Sailing Fitness and Boatyard Bar and Grill for their support of our team during this event.
We would like to thank our sponsors Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) and its sponsors for their support. Sail Hard, Anna/ Team Tunnicliffe/ http://www.teamtunnicliffe.com
* Several J/160 owners are island hopping across the world's oceans, fulfilling life long dreams to cruise the Pacific islands, the Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean and all points in between. Anyone for Georgia and penguins?? Read more about their adventures and escapades (like our J/109 GAIA friends above). SALACIA, the J/160 owned by Stephen and Cyndy Everett has an on-going blog describing some of their more amusing experiences (http://www.salacia1.blogspot.com). Susan Grun and her husband on the J/160 AVANTE are also sailing in the Pacific archipelago, read more about their great adventures on their blog (http://web.me.com/susangrun).Featured Boat
J/120 Race & cruise ready
The 1998 J/120 HIGH ENERGY is a one owner, lightly sailed example. She's owned by a sailor who lives on the west coast and sails for a few weeks on the east coast. Having just retired, he's downsizing into a J/100 and has decided to make his J/120 available. She has a large, updated sail inventory and the highly desirable carbon rig. The interior shows virtually no wear and decks are clean and dry. She's currently lying Nova Scotia with delivery to New England by water available. For more information, please be sure to contact Jim Snair at Sunnybroook Yachts - syb@eastlink.ca or by phone- 902-444-4500 or web at http://www.sunnybrookyachts.comAbout 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: 15 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 and sailing the waters of 35+ countries around the world. Sailing is all about friends. Come join us and expand your social network everywhere!
For more information on J/Boats:
http://www.jboats.com/intro.htm
for IRC2 went to J/109s! On the race to England, the J's finished 1st- J/105 PANTHER, 2nd- J/109 XCENTRIC RIPPER, 4th- J/109 JETI and 6th- J/109 ARETHUSA. On the return trip from England back to The Hague, it was 2nd- J/109 X-CENTRIC RIPPER and 3rd- J/109 JETI. As a result of their consistent finishes, the J/109 X-CENTRIC RIPPER skippered by John van de Starre was also the Overall Winner of IRC2. 
Race (a 100 mile offshore race off Oslo, Norway) by 50 minutes corrected time to the next boat and (ii) winning both class and overall in the local Oset Race in the Swedish archipelago. Said Peter Gustafsson, skipper of BLUR, "it sure was a great start to our 2010 season, winning both inshore- and offshore races in three different countries and in three different handicap rules".
* Greg Fisher on T2P.TV! Check out this nice interview with Greg - perhaps one of one-design sailing's most gracious Champions. Greg Fisher has spent a lifetime sailing one designs and along the way has won 21 championship events in 7 different classes (including Lightning and J/22 World Championships)-- a remarkable achievement in and of itself. But, if you know Greg, what's more important to him is his untiring love for the sport and people in it, helping anyone who cares to ask, and often those who don't need to ask since he helps you anyways! 
