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.
Bruce Stone, driving Power Play, won the 2009 North Americans at the American YC in Rye, NY. With a string of four bullets from races 6-9, he beat the second-place boat, Hey Jude, by 9 points. Congratulations to Bruce and team.
As he pointed out to me, our Fleet #1 has consistently led the way over the last few years. This is the fourth year in a row that we have won the J/105 North Americans – Masquerade won twice, in 2006 and 2007, then Donkey Jack in 2008, and then again this year…and actually it’s fifth year out of seven, as Good Timin’ won in 2003.
Full results here.
In lighter-than-usual conditions, Good Timin’, skippered by Chris Perkins, won the 2009 Rolex Big Boat Series at St. Francis Yacht Club. With no finishes out of the top 7, he put on a very impressive show in his first regatta of 2009. Rounding out the top 5 were Arbitrage, Mojo, SWOOSH, and Aquavit.
Richmond Yacht Club hosted the Sarcoma Cup on August 22-23, 2009 with the J/105’s racing on the “deep water” Berkeley Circle. There were three races on Saturday with the wind initially in the 19-20 kt range and building to 32 kt by the third race, with appropriate carnage around the course – shrimped kites, torn sails and a couple of boats retiring. Racing was tight among the top boats with the lead in each race changing several times, and Arbitrage ending the day with a 2, 2, 1, followed by Mojo with 3, 1, 3. On Sunday, the wind was slightly lighter at 16-22 kt but there were still some breakdowns in the fleet. Arbitrage seemed to have nailed the top spot on the podium with a 4 in the first race, but blew out its main outhaul at the first tack of the second race and fell back to 13th by the first windward mark. A jury-rigged repair blew out again, but the team fought back to a fifth place finish and secured the regatta win with 8 points over second place Blackhawk, who had an impressive day with two bullets. Mojo finished third, a point behind Blackhawk. Jam Session was fourth, and LuLu was fifth. Full results here.
San Francisco J/105 Fleet #1