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The Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta was held at the St Francis Yacht Club over the weekend. The J/105 fleet boasted 16 boats. Scooter Simmons on Blackhawk came in first, winning the tie-breaker over Bruce Stone on Arbitrage. After 4 races, each team scored 11 points. In third was Phillip Laby and Richard Pipkin on Racer X (14 points).

Regatta recap courtesy of Jason Woodley:

“We were pretty excited to participate in this year’s NOOD after being absent in San Francisco for several years. The St. Francis Yacht Club and Kristen Lane put on an unbelievable regatta both on and off the water. The regatta after party reached new heights with the “Dessert Room” and photo booth conceived and implemented by Kristen.

The racing was tough and competitive as ever on the course. On Saturday in the first race we thought the left side was favored and we started down by the pin end with a few other boats. Majority of the boats went right, however we stayed on starboard for quite awhile until we flopped over to port. The left side was the place to be in the bottom of the course and this was the case all day really and this gave the boats that stayed over there a nice lead at the top of the mark. Abitrage made a nice move downwind to pass us and then we battled the next couple of legs, but never could get by them and we finished 2nd.

In the 2nd and 3rd races of the day the wind started to build with consistently being in the 18-22 knot range. We stayed to our same game plan as the first race and stayed on the left side. The pin was much more crowded in the next two races so the start became a premium as only a few boats were going to get the best lanes. At the top mark there was very little separation at all in the fleet with the strong wind. Crew work became a premium especially in the jibes and there were several position changes happening downwind. We were just trying to stay conservative and keep the boat underneath us while minimizing our jibes. We were able to win the last two races of the day and I really attribute the success to the great tactical calls by Harrison Turner along with the excellent crew work in the challenging conditions.

On Sunday we figured the day was going to be a repeat of Saturday which it was. The left side was favored again, however the whole fleet was there to try and capitalize today. I didn’t do a great job of getting off the line with speed as I had a decent lane, but found myself fighting to keep it which I eventually lost. I knew I put us in a hole as we needed to tack out to the right in search of a good lane. When we came back to starboard the damage was done and we were going to need to sail very well the rest of the race in hopes of keeping our lead. The team did a great job of staying positive and fighting our way back. We finished 6th and with Jam Session finishing 1st and Abitrage 2nd. We figured in the last race who ever won was going to win the regatta as only a point separate all three boats.

In the last race all three boats where again glued to each other as we all started on the left side with Jam Session taking the pin. Around the top mark it was Jam Session with us right behind and Abitrage right on our tail. We decided to take an early jib for clean wind and set up well for the right gate. Jam Session barely crossed in front of us and they seemed to want the left gate. We both rounded the gates simultaneously and we again went out to the left. Once we tacked over to port we were able to cross Jam Session on starboard. On the downwind leg the wind was increasing and we saw 23-26 knots. It made for a good ride and at this point just trying to keep ourselves in front and not make any mistakes. On the run Jam Session’s kite exploded and I was hoping ours would not suffer a similar fate. All three boats were pushing hard in planing mode working the waves up and down. We were consistently hitting 15-16 knots of boat speed. Needless to say this was not easy on the kites in this kind of breeze. I was just hoping we wouldn’t have any gear failure of our own and could hang on and win. Upwind we went to cover mode on Abitrage and were able to hold them off just long enough to take the win and the regatta. It was a very hard fought regatta both days and felt like we had sailed our best to date this year and that was barely enough to win. The final top five was Risk, Abitrage, Jam Session, Racer X, and Blackhawk.

Big thanks to the Sperry Top-Sider San Francisco NOOD regatta and all the folks that made it possible. It was a fabulous regatta in every aspect and hopefully next year we can beat this year’s record turnout. We look forward representing the San Francisco NOOD regatta this year in the BVI’s.”

Race Report, courtesy of Jason Woodley on Risk:

“The weather could not have been better for this year’s J105 Invitational at the San Francisco Yacht Club with 18 boats participating in the regatta. It was downright hot on Saturday with the wind coming out of the NE, it was not the typical marine air out of the NW. Saturday’s racing was extremely tricky because of the wind direction and the course was set with the windward mark and offset just south of Richmond. The race committee did an excellent job of setting up the course and adjusting as the wind was extremely shifty with some easterly gusts coming through. I heard someone ask the race committee over the radio if there was enough water to give you perspective of how inside the course was to accommodate the strange wind direction. With a nice flood there were several general recalls (I lost count) before the fleet could put the first race in the books. With the flood and the course basically being opposite a typical day I think the fleet mentally had trouble adjusting as normally in a flood you are a little more aggressive to get to the line.

Finally the fleet got off the line clean and with several wind shifts up the first beat and the boats that played them the best rounded in the top. Going downwind there were multiple wind shifts and fleet position changed at the bottom mark as well. Going upwind the wind seemed to stabilize more and the shifts were much smaller than the first two legs. The next two races the wind become much more constant in the range of 12 – 17 knots with shifts much more moderate. The conditions were absolutely beautiful with the warm wind everyone was in shorts and t-shirts throughout the day. We kept saying it was like sailing in SoCal except for with wind.

Sunday the fleet headed to the race course and the normal San Francisco conditions were back, except without the fog. The wind picked up considerably from Saturday with a range of 17-23 knots consistently with a few big puffs coming through. It was extremely exciting and close racing throughout the day with a few wipe outs happening occasionally on the downwind legs.

Before the last race we calculated we were a point ahead of Jam Session in the regatta. We just wanted to get off the line clean for a good start and not win a particular side. We started closer to the left side which we thought was a little favored along with Racer X underneath us close to the pin. Once we tacked over we could cross the fleet and this gave us the advantage to lead around the windward mark with Racer X a few boat lengths behind us. Luckily for us it was a 3 leg race as on the douse we had a massive knot in the roller furling line and after trying for a few seconds to untie the knot we resorted to cutting the line. Needless to say it was not a great rounding and Racer X took advantage. Upwind we went to cover mode and finished a one or two seconds behind Racer X with the rest of the fleet close behind. The top five for the regatta was Risk, Jam Session, Racer X, Abritrage and Mojo.

Big thanks to the San Francisco Yacht and Svendsens for putting on a great regatta both on and off the water. All in all it was a great weekend of sailing and sunshine! Hopefully we will see everyone at the NOOD in a couple of weeks.”

The concise regatta recap, from Adam Spiegel, consists of the following:

“It was fun. We won.”

Indeed it was fun. Rounding out the top places were Arbitrage in 2nd, Blackhawk in 3rd, Risk in 4th, and Donkey Jack in 5th. Full results are here.

Charlie Bergstedt has some photos at his photoalbum website as well as some videos of the spinnaker sets.

Saturday Race Report

At 1125 hrs 13 J/105s “hit” the starting line in about 3 kts of breeze. Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session, wisely using their engine up until the prep signal, dashed into the current toward the committee boat, nailing the start and leading the group to the first windward mark, and as a matter of fact, the finish line, 3 hrs and 36 min later. The wind gradually built over the 21.5 nm. course with a high of 17 kts. In the latter stage of the race, Tom Coate’s Masquerade passed Will Benedict’s Advantage3 for second. Rolf Kaiser and the Donkey Jack Crew (including Scott Sellers) finished just ahead of Marc Vayn’s Whisper and Bill Hoehler’s Joyride. The three boat were separated by 24 seconds. Saturday’s ebb tide, sunshine and downwind run made the race pleasant in deed. Final Race Results can be found at www.yra.org. Check race info/results/party circuit.

Chinook Crew Wins 12th Annual J/105 Fleet 1 Toast Off !!

What Class drew the biggest crowd to the docks in Vallejo? The J/105 Class !!

Who was the winner of this long standing Fleet tradition, where one crew must toast the crew that just finished in front of them and present that crew with a six pack of cold beer? Jim Duffy’s Chinook Crew, that’s who. Their song was one of the more professional songs in modern times and even was accompanied by an instrument!

Who finished second? The Advantage3 trio (aka the Village People ) singing ‘It’s Fun to Race on a J.1.0.5 (aka Y.M.C.A)

And third? Theresa Brandner and the Walloping Swede Crew with a very “sincere” poem entitled “Victory Snatched Away! “

Who was the support staff? Jim Mullen (Cuchulainn) played Ryan Seacrest and was Master of Ceremonies. Lyn Mullen played Simon, Randy, Ellen and Kara, and judged the event, in addition to performing as the Class photographer (women can multi task).

And the Margaritas? After racing to Vallejo with Stuart Taylor’s MMM (Magnificence Margarita Machine)(which was leaking gasoline) Theresa and the Swedes served margaritas that loosened the group up for a wild Toast Off !!

Who had a good time? Everyone!

Sunday Race Report

Once the fleet had assembled and had the mud shaken off their keels, the fleet had a downwind start with kites set at or before the starting line and lots of close quarter gybing down the Napa River. The breeze built and backed significantly in the last several hundred yards of the river, catching several in the fleet by surprise and causing some significant grief as boats tried to douse on a hot angle without losing too much ground to leeward. Joyride pulled it off cleanly and led the pack out of the river, with Racer X somewhere around 10 boatlengths back and Jam Session and the rest of the fleet within another 15 – 20 boatlengths.

Once in San Pablo Bay, Joyride initially took the line furthest to the west, with the rest of the fleet in the shallow water to the east. About halfway up the bay, Jam Session tacked onto port and crossing far behind Joyride’s line, headed out into the channel to take the position as the right-most boat. Shortly after, the breeze clocked significantly such that when Joy Ride tacked to port, she barely crossed ahead of Jam Session. Jam Session again tacked to port, closely ducking Joy Ride and tacking back to starboard 300 or so yards on her weather hip. At this point, both boats were overstanding the layline to the finish and were sailing high to get to the current relief on the Marin shore and avoid a large hole to leeward. Once past Pt. Pinole, the wind continued to clock, tempting Joy Ride to try a chute. Unfortunately, a hot angle combined with several larger boats rolling over her allowed Jam Session to squeeze ahead. By the time Joy Ride doused and got her way on, she was clear astern of Jam Session and now defending against a fast approaching Mojo. Jam Session continued to the Marin shore, where she set a kite for the final crack-off to the finish.

A huge “thank you” to ZarAssist (owned and operated by Jeff Zarwell) for his low cost and friendly tow service! Without him, several of the fleet might still be in the mud in the Vallejo Marina!

A special prize is awarded to Donkey Jack, who won the single-handed division after starting the day as an obstruction in the marina channel mud, only to later run out of fuel halfway home. Captain Rolf singlehandedly set main, jib and kite without the benefit of an autopilot on board. When offered a tow at 5pm at Racoon Straights, he declined, insistent on making it all the way back to the dock under sail. Rolf is now reportedly excited about the Vallejo 1-2, run by the Singlehanded Sailing Society on October 16-17 (single-handed to Vallejo, double-handed back). Jam Session is the defending J/105 champion and is excited to have some more J/105 competition!

The fleet of J’s that gathered together for this year’s J/Fest were greeted by stormier than normal weather and with breeze directions that were nowhere near the norm for San Francisco Bay. Here’s an account of what it was like to race in the J/105 fleet from the winner, Bruce Stone sailing his boat ARBITRAGE- “It rained and was cold and gusty, up to 25 knots, out of the southeast, so they put the starting line between Harding Rock Buoy near Angel Island and Alcatraz, and ran us to the south near Aquatic Park, a routing I have never done before, across the shipping lanes and across the tide…and the wind near the shore was in the 8-11 range so setting the rig tension was tricky. Needless to say it was our kind of cockamamie race. We had a good start, duked it out with 4-5 boats who also sailed well, and ultimately won the race. It rained quite hard toward the finish, the front went through and they sent us home. The wind died after we hit the dock!”

In the 22 boat strong J/105s it was a donnybrook as usual for the top five sailors. Who won was determined by the finish of the last “cockamamie” race with St. Francis YC’s ARBITRAGE avoiding a bad race and just beating Tiburon’s Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK, getting a first to Scooter’s ninth. Bruce’s team on ARBITRAGE won with a 1-6-3-1 for an 11 point tally, beating by four points Scooter Simmons sailing BLACKHAWK with a 4-1-1-9 for 15 points. Lying third was Phil Laby and Rick Pipkin’s RACER-X just two points back….again with a mathematical chance to win in the last race despite their 9th place in the third race.

Report courtesy of the J/Boat website.

With a string of consistent finishes, Donkey Jack held off Risk to win the 2010 Spring One Design. Rounding out the top finishers were Business Time in 3rd, Arbitrage in 4th, and Blackhawk in 5th. Full results here.

John Navas has also posted some photos here.

Regatta Pro J/105 Midwinters

Rich Pipkin and Phil Laby’s RACER X finished 1st in the 8 race series with 13 pts. Following closely were Fleet Captain Walter Sanford on ALCHEMY with 14 pts and Scooter Simmon’s BLACKHAWK with 17 pts. New owner Ned Walker on WIANNO and Rolf Kaiser on DONKEY JACK rounded out the top 5 places of the 17 J/105s that entered.

Berkeley YC Midwinters

Pat Benedict’s ADVANTAGE3 finished 1st in a 10 boat PHRF A class with finishes of 3,3,1,1. A Flying Tiger 25 finished 2nd followed by an E37 in 3rd.

From Scooter Simmons:

We had a great time down at Key West Race Week. Our crew consisted of myself, Tim Russell, Rhett Smith, Ryan Simmons, Amy Guanierri, and Matt Clark. Lindsay Browne who normally sails with us is still recovering from his shoulder injury, but he came down to Key West to cheer us on. We charted the boat Gumption3 out of Rye, New York and she was well-prepared for racing. We practiced Saturday and Sunday in light to moderate breezes, but unfortunately our sail trimmer, Rhett, slipped on Saturday dislocating his shoulder and was out for the rest of the regatta. We scrambled to find a replacement and John Claude took the redeye out from San Francisco Saturday night and practiced with us Sunday afternoon.

Our first race day, Monday, the winds were light, shifty and the weather was warm (mid 70s). Actually the winds were light and shifty with warm weather the first three days. The winds picked up the first race on Thursday, but became moderate to light by the second race. We felt like we performed better each day as we became accustomed to the lighter breezes. Our highest score was an nine (out of 14 boats) and our lowest was a three before the bigger breeze on Thursday. We got a bullet and a third on Thursday giving us a third overall at this stage in the regatta one point ahead of fourth and one point behind second. (Savasana held a tight grip on first place throughout the entire regatta culminating with two bullets on the final day). We had a good shot at moving up to second, but in the light breeze along with some mistakes, we couldn’t move ahead of Ghost ahead of us, but soundly defended third overall in the regatta.

The competition in the top half of the fleet was quite stiff as most of these boats generally sail in lighter air conditions. There were no general recalls, and I think there was only one protest in our class during the entire regatta. There were a number of circles spun (including one by us hitting the weather mark on the final day), and there was very little if any yelling or screaming going on between boats.

Of course Key West Race Week is not all about sailing (at least not for us), and I can tell you a good time was had by all throughout the week.

Congratulations to the crew!

Racing PHRF A on JAN 9&10, Jim Duffy’s Chinook took first place on Sunday by 2 minutes over boats including an Ultimate 24 and Soveral 33. Pat Benedict’s Advantage3 took first place on Saturday by 26 seconds over a Henderson 30 and three Flying Tigers. Who says J/105s need a genoa to be competitve in light winds! See full results.