March 16/17^th weekend heralded the beginning of the 2013 J105 A-Series Championship Season as the St Francis Yacht Club hosted their annual Spring One Design regatta. A large fleet of 22 boats lined up for the first start under clear skies, changing ebb-flood and wind that appeared to be highly conflicted. Halfway through race 1, the 7 kt breeze swung around 180 degrees and shut down, leaving competitors drifting with kites up and mill-pond conditions, forcing the RC to abandon and postpone racing for an hour. The wind finally came in from more or less the usual direction and with more or less the usual vigor at about 1:30, and the fleet restarted. Donkey Jack took the first race and followed-up with a third in race two as Risk showed their class with a bullet to add to their 4th in race 1. The RC elected to squeeze in the promised third race into the building flood and 18kt South-Westerly, setting the fleet off with a pinch-fest to the beach and tacking scrum as boats fought for space, breeze and current relief along the shoreline.  Donkey Jack rounded the weather mark with a good lead and inexplicably broke their mast in two places. No-one was hurt and racing continued as Donkey-Jack cleaned up and headed into the YC to assess the damage.

Day two began with similarly variable wind; racing started late as the breeze stabilized and built up to 8 to 9 kts from the South West. In race 4, Risk took first place ahead of Team Donkey Jack, sailing the borrowed JoyRide hull with Donkey sails. The regatta wrapped up with the returning Nantuket Sleighride taking the bullet from Risk with an impressive 2nd place. Donkey-Joy finished just off the podium in 6th, a highly respectable result considering the DNF in race 3.

Overall results: