Participating in this year’s J/Fest at the St. Francis Yacht Club were 22 boats. Mojo had an outstanding regatta and finished first overall, followed by Blackhawk, Jam Session, Donkey Jack and Arbitrage to round out the top 5. The traditional summer weather decided to show up a little early this year and brought strong winds on Saturday followed by a perfect day on Sunday. It was a great weekend overall and you could see from the big smiles of those sailors participating in the regatta. Thank you to St. Francis Yacht Club for hosting the regatta and the folks to make this type of regatta happen from the sponsors to volunteers. Big thanks to the competitors for participating as it was fun to have all the boats on the line and it was just some fantastic racing.

Hope to see everyone May 14th and 15th at the Stone Cup.

Saturday

The race committee started the regatta right on time and it was a day to put the tide book away. The right side of the course was ebbing and the left side flooding, it seemed like it was 2 knots in each direction. Those boats able to get right in the first race early did well at the top mark and then the fleet headed to the shore for the downwind. Currents and wind shifts seemed to change quickly during the day and this also helped provide some exciting racing with many lead changes. Boats that could get off the line and get to the side of the coarse that was favored quickly did extremely well, however given the changing conditions this kept the tacticians on their toes and the racing tight.

The wind picked up considerably in the second and third races with gusts over 25 knots. Although fun and exciting, it was definitely challenging conditions. There were occasional sights where the conditions got the best of the crews, however it really seemed the boats were up for the challenge and handing this year first big breeze rather well.

Sunday

The conditions could not have been better on Sunday as the sunny skies and nice breeze in the range of 12-17 knots provided fantastic conditions. The currents however remained challenging like Saturday. In the first race most of fleet went right again like Saturday, however a few boats went left to the shore. When we got to the top of the mark the boats that went to the shore got the advantage and led around the mark with a nice lead. It was still close racing as the majority of the fleet had gone right (except 3 boats) so there were many lead changes and close sailing during the rest of the race.

The second and last race of the regatta the course started to even out and corners were not paying like on Saturday or the first race on Sunday. Lead changes were plentiful during this race and it seemed it was always a different boat leading the race at the top and bottom marks. Mojo finished the race in first and wrapped up first overall and had a tremendous weekend.

(Thanks to Jason Woodley on Risk for the recap.)