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The J-Fest Regatta is always one of the highlights of J105 Fleet One’s championship season. Not only does the St Francis Yacht Club provide excellent race management, but the party, hosted by Norman Davant from Sail California, has developed a powerful reputation for good times, great live music and sponsored libations (Mount Gay Rum and Mount Beautiful Winery). Norman presides as ring-master for a highly entertaining and boistrous raffle, sponsored this year by Svendsens, Trident Funding, West Marine, Cameron International, Doyle, Hall Spars, Seashine, B&G, North, JBoats, Quantum, and Interlux.

The J105s fielded an impressve 20 boat fleet for 5 races over 2 days in the usual windward-leeward format. Conditions were clear and sunny with 12 to 18 kts of cool breeze from a slightly more Southerly direction than is typical for the City Front course. With a well established and strong ebb running both days, the obvious imperative after each start was to find a clear port tack lane back out to the stronger current and breeze in the Central Bay. Starting well was particularly critical to snagging a premium lane, with the tactical benefit at the boat end offset by a slight bias in favor of the pin. Downwind legs also presented choices, with some boats preferring the northerly, more direct VMG course in breeze, but adverse current, while others chose a fast mode to the beach and ebb relief.

Mojo took the first race, and the subsequent bullets went to Godot and the Arbitrage team sailing the borrowed Joyride hull while their boat awaits repairs. Donkey and Risk also showed good results and Blackhawk returned to form with a bullet in Race 4. As racing ended it looked like Mojo’s regatta with Godot also placing well, however, a start line altercation between the two boats in race 4 spawned a protest. When the dust cleared late on Sunday evening, the jury handed down a mutual-fratricide-by-protest ruling and both were DSQ’ed – Godot for rule 11 and Mojo for rule 14. Donkey Jack’s bullet in the final race allowed them to inherit an impressive debut victory for their new stick. Team Donkey was followed in the winner’s circle by a very consistent Risk, the well-sailed Advantage3, Blackhawk and excellent performance by Alchemy, taking 5th overall.

Kattack replays are available here. Don’t forget to sign up for Vallejo on May 4 & 5 and for the upcoming Aldo Alessio Regatta (J105’s skip Friday’s distance race and participate in buoy races on Saturday and Sunday).

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:

Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session leveraged light-air speed and consistency, gaining a convincing overall win in the RegattaPro Winter One Design series that wrapped up on Saturday Feb 9th. The four day series spread over the winter months is an annual off-season favorite of Fleet One J105s, this year attracting 17 entries for light air and highly tactical racing on Berkeley Circle. Jam Session totaled just 15 points over 6 races, 16 points ahead of Alchemy on 31. Akula and Donkey Jack tied on 33 points, the third place going to Akula on a tiebreaker.

A full list of results is available here. Kattack re-runs for participating boats can be found here.

Chris Perkins led his Masquerade team to victory at the J/105 North American Championship. Hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club, the San Francisco-based boat led from race 1 through race 9 with a remarkably consistent line of 1,2,2,1,3,2,4,4,4 for 23 total points. The team consisted of Perkins, Steve Marsh, Tom Purdy, Mark Chandler, Larry Swift and Rose Eberhard. Former J105 NA champion and Fleet One stalwart Bruce Stone took 5^th in Arbitrage. And in another strong showing for Fleet One in warm-weather away regattas, Scooter Simmons took second overall in the BVI NOOD Regatta Championship.

Congratulations to Chris, Bruce and Scooter for strong Fleet One representation in highly competitive national/international level events.

The Rolex Big Boat Series traditionally forms the climax to J105 Fleet One’s season. Hosted by the distinguished and very competent folks at the St Francis Yacht Club, the annual event truly deserves its reputation for world-class competition and the best crew parties on the West Coast. Racing started on Thursday 6th September under the sunny summer conditions with a stiff breeze already established through The Slot. Moon and sun conspired to provide a relatively small (for San Francisco Bay) tidal flow, and the wind remained, by and large, under 18 kts, yielding a more tactical and less survival-oriented event than those in the recent past.

The first day’s racing began on the North Course in gentle ebb and just 12 kts of breeze from the South West. Risk and Blackhawk made decisive moves to the left, which paid off well. Speed and boat-on-boat tactical calls kept them ahead of the pack and they rounded the weather mark with good separation that they never surrendered – first blood to Blackhawk. Race 2 started on the City-Front course into a building flood tide. The left paid early, but boats that failed to find a lane back to The Cone behind Alcatraz were punished as the crews that committed to the right side early-on recovered their initial losses and controlled the critical space behind the island. Risk found clean air on a high lane for the dash to the beach and lead the tacking scrum through the current relief along the shore. The rounding at Presidio Shoals was very busy as the pack converged at the mark in puffy and uncertain wind conditions prior to the downwind leg. After one more upwind and a downwind dash along the beach for a race-deck finish, Risk ended the day on top, having sailed to a bullet and a second, ahead of Blackhawk (7) and Godot with Mojo tied on 10 points.

Weather conditions and race schedule on day two and three were identical – one North-Course and one City-Front. Stable, but geographically-variable wind conditions and the turning of the tide in mid race made for an interesting contest. Wianno chose the right side early in race 3 and committed to it aggressively. This move paid-off and they benefitted from a huge lift. They rounded the weather mark in first place by multiple boat lengths, and sailed on to take the bullet. Risk, the regatta leader, did not fare so well on day two, recording only a 12th and a 5th. Godot and Donkey Jack each took home 6 points on the day, with Donkey scoring a bullet, while Godot’s best score was a 2nd in Race 4.The regatta lead shifted in favor of Godot, with multiple boats in contention close behind.

Godot and Risk suffered on Day three as Donkey Jack posted another bullet and Blackhawk returned to form with a bullet and a 4th, tying for first overall on points closely followed by Godot. With all to play for in the final race – the arduous final Bay Tour – Sunday was shaping up to be very interesting.

Weather conditions for the Bay Tour remained consistent and any one of Blackhawk, Godot, Donkey-Jack, Risk and Arbitrage had a realistic shot at winning the regatta. The fleet split after the start with Blackhawk, Risk and Arbitrage favoring the left and Godot committing early and hard to the right. An excellent start, boat speed and a huge advantage on the right of the course sprung Godot out of the pack and Donkey Jack tacked to join them. The other regatta leaders reacted too late and were unable to overcome the early leverage that benefitted the port tack boats on the right hand side of the course. To win the regatta, Godot needed to finish 4 boats ahead of Donkey Jack. During the remainder of the race, Godot stayed in front of a pack consisting of Donkey Jack, Mojo, Roxanne and Advantage3, protecting clear air and the favored course. At the finish Godot took a bullet, with Advantage3 in second, Roxanne 3rd and, crucially, Donkey Jack in 4th place. The regatta, the Rolex and the 2012 J105 Big Boat Series was won by Donkey Jack on a tie-breaker.

Check out the video of events and Kattack replays.

Don’t forget to sign up for the Logan-Paige-Simpson, Noods and Salsalito cup match racing.

17 boats entered the San Francisco YC’s always popular Summer Invitational on August 18/19.  This is the final regatta for the larger one design classes on SF Bay leading into September’s St. Francis Rolex Big Boat Series.  Winds blew 18-24 kts on the Berkeley Circle, such that one of Bruce Stone’s crew, Philipp Berner, a skiff sailor from Germany, suggested we might as well adjust our SF Bay “base setting” to that range since it’s been there for almost every regatta this summer!  In the three races on Saturday, Stone’s Arbitrage team nailed some starts and scored a 1, 1, 2, with Risk close behind, gathering a bullet in the third race due to some excellent downwind sailing, passing Arbitrage by jibing early into even more pressure – hard to believe there was more somewhere, but there was!  The two boats entertained the race committee by engaging in a match racing tacking duel for the last half mile to the upwind finish.  On Sunday, Arbitrage logged another bullet despite shredding a kite on the first downwind leg and changing to the back-up.  Stone was a bit aggressive on the last start and called over early.  After restarting, they clawed their way back from dead last off the line to fifth at the windward mark but were flagged for tacking too close in the zone, so did a 720, potentially losing the podium position for the regatta.  They nailed a shift on the last downwind to work their way back again to fifth by the leeward gate, only to get camped on by the whole world on the last beat, and slid back to 8 in the race. This was good enough and allowed them to edge out Risk by two points for the overall win.

The Aldo Alessio Regatta is one of the highlight events on SF Bay each summer. This year J105 Fleet One opted to skip the Friday ocean race, contesting windward leeward races in the Central Bay and City Front over the weekend. Wind and weather co-operated to provide two ideal days of racing with breeze from about 10 kts to 18 kts both days. Awkward, puffy and more southerly wind direction than usual, coupled with a complex switch from slack to ebb during the race, made for interesting tactical choices on the course. Arbitrage dominated, winning the first and last race and finishing 8 points ahead of Godot, who bested Donkey Jack  on a tie breaker for second. Following-on were Blackhawk in an unaccustomed fourth spot with Alchemy and Roxanne close together in fifth and sixth place.

J105 Fleet One’s championship season continued on June 23/24 at the very welcoming Sausalito Yacht Club. The race course was set up with the start line to the West of Alcatraz. By varying the weather mark position to the South of the channel on Saturday and North on Sunday, the RC provided racers the opportunity for both City-Front close tacking and open-water tactical racing in a single event. Conditions on The Bay were ideal for J105 racing with 12kt to 15kt breeze, bright sunshine and low chop due to the flood tide.

Racing in the middle of the 19-strong fleet was close, but Blackhawk dominated the front of the field, finishing the five-race regatta with just 9 points, taking three bullets, a second and a fourth. Arbitrage broke free of the pack, finishing second overall with 20 points and Risk finished strong with two 2nd place finishes on Sunday to capture third.

Kudos to Dave Borton, SYC Race Chair, John Cashman and to the rest of the team at SYC for running a fantastic event at a beautiful venue. Photos are available here and here courtesy of Roxanne Fairbairn. Don already posted the Kattack tracks here.

Brilliant sunshine and warm, steady breeze greeted competitors for the June 9/10 Spring Keel regatta sponsored by San Francisco Yacht Club. The race format was a change from the usual windward-leeward and included two reaching legs. The course setup enabled the large J105 fleet to race on it’s own course, while the J120s and Expresses shared the start/finish, keeping fleets separated. Racing was tight with multiple tie-breakers required to determine the final regatta placings. In the end, Blackhawk took the top spot, followed by Godot – who pulled out an impressive latter half of the regatta to recover and pip Arbitrage who finished in third place. Aerial photos of the racing arranged by Charles James, owner of Roxanne, are available here.