SW NOOD Chicago- 111 Video

(Chicago, IL)- The Sailing World gang produced a nice video on the J/111 one-design class that was sailing in this past weekend's Sperry Topsider Chicago NOOD Regatta.  Learn more about what makes this such a fun, one-design sailboat to compete on with family and friends.  Fast, easy-to-handle around the race-track by a family crew, the J/111 is proving that sailors from J/24s to J/105s and J/125s to J/145s can compete successfully across a wide-range of conditions.  Check out this YouTube video on the J/111.

  

Rolex New York YC Regatta

(Newport, RI) – With 135 boats competing (nearly one-third were J/Boats), the New York Yacht Club’s 157th Annual Regatta presented by Rolex, held June 10-12, broke all of its past attendance records, and with winds whipping into the high teens for buoy racing over the weekend, it certainly is in line for being the most memorable Annual Regatta in recent history.

Saturday and Sunday saw unusually windy conditions relative to what was forecasted by the NOAA Met office for the waters of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound.  Saturday was especially windy and rough with winds blowing in from the ENE at 15 to 22 knots with a huge quartering swell on starboard tack rolling in from the SW.  Sunday's racing for J's occurred up the Bay in the area north of Newport Bridge, nearby to the Quonset Naval Airbase.

The most competitive division happened to be IRC 4 that had J/111s, J/122s and J/44s all competing against one another.  It was a very tough class.  After the dust settled amongst this group, whoever got a "lane" to keep the boat going fast until the first shift had a huge advantage.  Top dog amongst this trio of boats was Bruno/ Boyle/ Callahan racing their veteran champion J/122 WINGS to second place.  Third was Bill Ketcham's well-sailed J/44 MAXINE.  Fourth was Annapolis-Newport winner Andrew Weiss' CHRISTOPHER DRAGON and fifth was the J/111 ANDIAMO sailed by Jeff Johnstone.

For more Rolex New York YC Annual Regatta sailing information

  

Rolex STC Block Island Week Preview

(Block Island, RI)- For many summer starts in New England with the biennial summer-time classic, Storm Trysail's Rolex Block Island Race Week.  With wonderful sponsors like Mount Gay Rum and Rolex, it's hard not to like the fact that if you happen to win some races, you not only get some Mount Gay Rum to share with crew, family and friends, you could walk off with the ultimate prize of the week- a shiny new stainless steel Rolex Submariner watch.  135 competitors will be fighting for all that hardware.  Again, J's will be by far the largest brand represented at the Rolex BIRW with 41 boats sailing, about 1/3 of the fleet.

Sailing PHRF 1 will be a fleet of J/111s vying for both one-design and class honors for the first time in New England. Paul Strauch from Manhasset Bay YC will be sailing ANDIAMO, Sedgewick Ward from Shelter Island YC will be racing BRAVO, David and MaryEllen Tortorello from Cedar Point YC will be sailing PARTNERSHIP and Doug Curtiss from New Bedford YC will be steering the new WICKED 2.0.  Into this mix of sea wolves will be thrown a lone J/120, Peter Hein's VAREKAI.

 For more Rolex Block Island Race Week sailing information

  

J/111s Celebrate Chicago NOODs

(Chicago, IL)- The annual Chicago Sperry Top Sider NOOD Regatta continues to be one of the pinnacle events on the Chicago summer sailing schedule every year.  Attending this year's events were one-design fleets of J/111s, J/109s and J/105s.  Included in the mix were J's sailing PHRF 3 and PHRF 4 divisions.

For the J/111s, this was their first NOOD regatta as a class and the second weekend in a row that Chicago 111s have sailed against one another.  It's clear the learning curve is high and the teams are learning how to sail the boats consistently faster all the time.  As an illustration of this development, Sailing World's Mike Lovett shares an interesting interview with the MISTY J/111 team sailed by Tom and Carol McIntosh- "For Tom and Carol, as it is for so many Chicago racers, the highlight of the sailing season is the annual Chicago YC Race to Mackinac. They've been doing the 333-mile race for years, and this year, they'll be doing it on their dream Mac boat— the J/111.

"Because we do the Mac every year," says Misty skipper Tom McIntosh, "we wanted a boat that would be faster for us to come home on, and would be more fun to sail. Carol and I sail doublehanded back from Mackinac Island, and when we went out and sailed [the J/111] last summer, we said, 'Oh boy. With the roller furler—and we can use an asymmetrical when it's light—we'll make so much better time than we did before.

"It's a really simple boat," continues McIntosh. "We went with the Antal sail slides, which makes it really simple to go out sailing. And, you can go pretty fast. Last weekend, we did 11 knots downwind, right alongside the Farr 40s."

There are six J/111s competing here at the 2011 Sperry Top-Sider Chicago NOOD, making this the largest gathering in the class' short history. The 36-footer won "Best One-Design Keelboat" in Sailing World's 2011 Boat of the Year Contest. Apparently, Midwestern sailors agree with SW's BOTY judges, as they've been quick to embrace the new one-design. Racing the J/111 KONTIKI V, Jim Sminchack's Cleveland-based team won the PHRF 1 division at 2011 Key West Race Week. There are three J/111s in Detroit, and there will be as many as eight racing at the Ugotta Regatta in Harbor Springs, Michigan in July.

Local J-Dealer Rich Stearns has been instrumental in getting Chicago's J/111 fleet off the ground. At last weekend's Colors Regatta, hosted by Columbia YC, Stearns and a local sailmaker went boat to boat helping his clients get up to speed. MISTY's main trimmer, Jorgen Johnson, found the sessions to be incredibly valuable— a shortcut to success. "They showed us what the boat likes," says Johnson. "That makes the learning process a lot quicker than if we had to learn it ourselves. They were telling us, 'Do this, do that. Here's the basics. Work with this, and then fine tune.' That was really, really helpful.  "We're learning," continues Johnson. "But we're getting there quickly. That's what's interesting with this fleet. All the boats are very close, and they're all going very fast!"

In the photo are the crew of the J/111 MISTY (left to right): bowman Mike Gallo, main trimmer Jorgen Johnson, mast-man John Johnson, trimmer Dave Michaels, pit/co-owner Carol McIntosh, skipper/co-owner Tom McIntosh, floater Morgan Gates, tactician Ian Gates, Gerry Gherardini.

On the race course, it was the KASHMIR team comprised of Henderson, Mayer and Brummel that led the way to the top of the podium, securing five 1sts, a 2nd and a 3rd to win by five points.  It's clear this team has taken their training seriously and have learned how to  make the 111 go well both upwind and downwind-- particularly with ace spinnaker trimmer Karen Gottwald- a 25 year Chicago-Mac veteran and member of the "Goat's Society".  Also moving up the learning curve fast is Paul Stahlberg sailing the spectacularly colored red-hulled MENTAL into second with finishes of 1-2-4-2-2-1-3 for 15 pts-- by the way the graphics are awesome!  Stephen Dabrowski sailing NIGHT HAWK finished third amassing a 3-3-2-4-3-2-2 record for 19 pts.  In fourth was Tom and Carol McIntosh on MISTY and fifth was George Miz sailing his first one-design event in the J/111 on-board IMPULSE.

For more Chicago Sperry Top Sider NOOD sailing information

  

J/111 One-design Sailing- Colors Regatta 2011

J/105s & J/109 Close Racing
(Chicago, IL)- The first ever J/111 One-Design regatta was held on the beautiful, azure blue waters of Lake Michigan just off the spectacular city-skyline of Chicago.  The fleet was blessed with variable conditions both Saturday and Sunday morning but by midday the wind had settled into a N/NE direction with 5-12 knot breezes, gusting to 15-17 knots at times.

Sailing the J/111s for the first time as a fleet meant that many teams were searching for the "magic dust", that secret combination of factors that get the boat going faster and faster both upwind and downwind.  The fleet wisely took the approach to make it a "training weekend", with coaching coming from seasoned one-design sailors on each boat.  Enormous leaps of performance were being made as each boat learned how to "dial-in" better speeds around the race track.  What was abundantly clear was the fact that J/111 can tack upwards of 80 degrees or less upwind, depending on wind and wave conditions.  And downwind, the Farr 40 fleet was pretty impressed at how quickly a J/111 can slide downhill VMG'ing towards the mark in just 5-8 knots TWS.

Leading the charge amongst the J/111s was the team aboard KASHMIR- Karl Brummel, Steve Henderson, Mike Mayer.  They sailed nicely to get a 1-2-3-1-1 for 8 pts.  Their margin of victory was far, far closer than the scores suggest as two wins were overlapped scenarios where the victory could've gone either way depending on the last puff or wave.  Second was NIGHT HAWK sailed by Tom Edman & Steve Dabrowski, getting a  2-3-1-3-3 for 12 pts.  Third was a newcomer to sailing, the gang on MENTAL sailed by Paul Stahlberg to a 4-1-2-4-2 for 13 pts, narrowly missing second place due to their last race third.  Finally, in fourth was MISTY sailed by Tom & Carol McIntosh- 3-4-4-2-4 for 17 pts- they had the benefit of "local" Randy Draftz on-board (Chairman of the Charleston Race Week regatta and also creator of the Colors Regatta with Columbia YC).

Amongst the J/109s, it was the team of KIII sailed by Irving Kerbel to a 1-3-2-1-4 for 11 pts to barely hang in there for the win.  Nipping at their heels all regatta long was MOMENTUS skippered by Kevin Saedi, starting slowly with a sixth place, but rattling off a steady 2-1-2-1 for 12 pts to nearly grab the win on the last race.  Third was Jack Toliver's VANDA III with a 5-1-4-4-2  for 16 pts.

Local J/105 hotshot, Tom Petkus sailing VYTIS, won the first three races in a row and added a 5-3 on the last day to hang on for the win with  11 pts.  Hopefully, the inmates were not running the asylum on Tony Bowker's THE ASYLUM.  Nevertheless, whether or not they were, they managed to pull off a 2-4-4-3-2 for 15 pts to narrowly secure second by one point over the SEALARK sailed by Clark Pellett (they had 6-3-2-1-4 for 16 pts).

Associated with the Colors Regatta was an Offshore Distance race.  It is about a 25 nm race around various government marks and "cribs" (water intake stations for the City of Chicago). It was nearly a clean sweep by J-owners.  In first was the J/133 RENEGADE sailed by Larry Kwait.  Second was the J/130 SALSA sailed by Pete Stott, 4th the J/120 JAHAZI sailed by Frank and Lori Giampoli and 5th was the J/105 TRINITY sailed by Tom O'Grady.   For more Colors Regatta sailing results

  

J/133 & J/109s Win RORC North Sea Race

Tough Beat to Scheveningen Decimates Fleet
(The Hague, The Netherlands)-  The 2011 North Sea Race had more wind than had been forecast and turned into a tough cold beat to Scheveningen, The Netherlands. Race veteran Radboud Crul said "I have done this race 24 times and I think this one was the hardest. It was a beat for most of the way and cold as well as wet with 25-30 knots of wind".  The race committee had difficulty in anchoring the principal committee boat at the start which led to a ten minute postponement. RORC Racing Manager Ian Loffhagen explained: "having dragged the anchor twice the skipper of the Haven Hornbill, the oil spill platform kindly loaned by Harwich Haven Authority, assured me that he could hold the vessel within 10m of the required position. We decided to avoid further delay and go with this, so the postponement was only ten minutes".  Despite the challenging conditions, fifty-three yachts crossed the starting line hoping to finish on the far side of "La Manche" in one piece.  Only after rounding the MSP buoy off the Ijmuiden coast, could any boat hoist their spinnakers for the last miles to the finish.

In IRC 2 Angus Bates' J/133 ASSARIAN IV triumphed over a fleet of fifteen competitors to win class and finish 6th overall.  Niall Dowling's J/111 hung tough to finish 4th in class.   What is interesting is that for the RORC Season Championship IRC Overall, Niall's J/111 is second, but not having sailed the RORC 600, would be in a position to be within 4.6 points of the lead, a mathematical "dead heat" for the RORC Season Offshore Championship with the Piet Vroon's custom Ker 46-- not bad for the J/111 speedster that never had the IRC rule in mind when it was designed!  For IRC Two Overall- J/111 ARABELLA is still in first with the Rolex Fastnet Race and a few others left to go.

In IRC 3 the J/109 JETI, owned by Paul van der Pol, beat sister ship CAPTAIN JACK in second, sailed by Bert Visser. Both J/109s finished 11th and 13th overall, respectively .  Finishing fourth was Stan Fenton's J/105 FAY J, a great performance considering the less than ideal conditions for this veteran offshore campaigner.  Sailing both IRC 3 and Double-handed was the J/105 DIABLO-J sailed by Rear Commodore of RORC Neil Martin, finishing 6th in IRC 3 and  first overall in IRC Double-handed!  For the RORC Season Offshore Championship, Neil'S J/105 DIABLO-J is winning both IRC 3 and Double-handed Divisions overall!

In the ORC Division, the J/33 QUANTUM RACING sailed by Jerooen van der Velden finished third in ORC 2 and fourth overall.  Fourth in ORC 3 was Jaap Broek van Den sailing his J/92 JUMP OF JOY.    For more RORC North Sea sailing information

  

Big J Crew @ New York YC Regatta

(Newport, RI)- This year's 157th Rolex New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta has attracted a large J fleet racing across the spectrum of classes in this year's event, including a J/105 One-Design class and a raft of J's sailing in both IRC and PHRF handicap classes- 28 boats in total (nearly 1/4 of all boats sailing).

In the J/105 class, a number of class contenders with enormous pedigree in J/105 class events includes past North American Champion Bruce Stone sailing JOUSTER from St Francis YC in San Francisco, CA; Nelson Weiderman from Wickford YC sailing US 300; and past Key West Champion Brian Keane from Beverly YC sailing SAVASANA.

Sailing in the IRC classes will be extremely competitive.  The loaded J-fleet in IRC 4 includes two J/111s- ANDIAMO sailed by Jeff Johnstone from Ida Lewis YC and WICKED 2.0 sailed by Doug Curtiss from New Bedford YC; five J/122s- past North American Champions WINGS sailed by Mike Bruno/ Tom Boyle/ Jim Callahan from American YC, Andrew Weiss's winning family team aboard CHRISTOPHER DRAGON from New York YC, Bill Coates' OTRA VEZ from Galveston Bay Cruising Association, Steve Furnary's PATRIOT from American YC, and George Shaw's TUMBLEWEED from Boston YC; and three J/44s- Jim Bishop's veteran campaigners aboard GOLD DIGGER from American YC, Bill Ketcham's MAXINE from New York YC and GLORY sailed by Jack Neades from the US Coast Guard Sailing Club.

Sailing IRC 5 will be the lone J/120 sailed by a Coast Guard Academy team aboard RICOCHET.  In IRC 6 will be the J/105 HORNPIPE sailed by Andy Green from Newport, RI and the three incredibly competitive J/109s- past North American and East Coast Champions Bill Sweetser sailing RUSH from Annapolis YC and Rick Lyall's STORM from New York YC, plus local favorite Bob Salk and John Sahagian sailing PICANTE from Jamestown and New York YC.

The PHRF contingent includes John Lavin's J/29 called DIRTY HARRY from East Greenwich, RI, Dawson Hodgson's J/100 GRIMACE from New York YC, Mike Ryn and Richard Barker's J/24 NIGHTHAWK from Ida Lewis YC, Kevin Clarke's J/100 SAFINA from Portsmouth, RI, Mike Sullivan's J/33 SIRIUS from Fayerweather YC and Dan Stone's J/35 WHITE HEAT from Wickford YC.    For more Rolex New York YC Annual Regatta sailing information

  

J's Double-Down Spinnaker Cup Race

J/125 & J/111 Surf To Victory
(Monterrey, CA)- Each year, the San Francisco YC and the Monterrey Point YC host what has turned out to be a fun, classic NoCal/SoCal style race.  This one has a twist since you gotta beat upwind out of the the Bay, out under the Golden Gate before you turn left and hopefully take a sleigh-ride downwind in mountainous Pacific swells rolling down the coast to Monterrey.

Friday’s annual kick-off to the Memorial Day Weekend started just about 11:00 AM off the Knox Point area of Angel Island. The 90 NM downhill jaunt to Monterey featured a fleet of 44 boats ranging from 24 to 78 footers. Cool and overcast at the start, the front which brought late season rain to the SF Bay Area exited just as the fleet exited the Bay and made their way south along Ocean Beach. Aided by the beginnings of an building ebb, and the clocking wind, switching from jibs to reachers and then chutes began just south of "Montara".  Winds continued to shift aft and by "Ano Nuevo" the pressure began to increase and the fun meters started pegging and the grins got bigger and bigger. As opposed to more recent Spinnaker Cups, the Ride across Monterey Bay was a fast one for the majority of the fleet with breeze on until just off the finish.

Andy Costello's J/125 DOUBLE TROUBLE doubled down and won the Spinnaker Cup Race to Monterrey- Overall and Class A. Frank Slootman's J/111 INVISIBLE HAND smoked down the course and won Class C and was 3rd overall-- not bad for their second offshore race!

Andy offers his insights sailing his J/125: "Well, we have been prepping the boat hard for Transpac so it was so nice just to go sailing. We went into SpinCup as more of a practice for big race in July. We may have compromised the over all win as we tested different sails working on cross overs so to come out with a Class win is awesome. The boat,electronics and crew all performed well.  We had a blast the last 30 miles and across Monterey Bay we really never dropped boat speed below 16 knots and had some blasts up to 20 knots!  The sea state was very flat with not much swell so no super high speeds, just good consistent bust speed.  Thanks to my crew for another awesome race. Trevor Baylis, Patrick Whitmarsh, Mark Breen, Gilles Combrusson from GC Marine and Peter King (who came along to dial in all the nV software and instruments).

Frank Slootman offers his perspectives sailing the J/111: "It's about 90 nautical miles down the coast, but the first 3 hours are beating out the gate and then fetching with a head sail, gradually allowing for an hour or so of code zero up. Conditions all the while around 9-11 kts of breeze. Wind built gradually to mid teens and aft of the beam, and last 4 hours we had 20-24 kts of breeze, and we were gybing back and forth from Santa Cruz to Monterey.  Epic sailing down wind across Monterey Bay, mid-teen speeds, peaking at 17-18 with 20-24 kts of breeze.  Apparent wind pretty much right on the beam in these conditions. Before dark we switched from the A2 to the A4, which was very much needed. We were hitting sustained mid teens, peaks of 17 and 18 kts at the time.  We caught all boats ahead of us in our class those last 2-3 hours. The 111 lights-up pretty good in these conditions, just "nuking" down the course. Nothing broke, boat felt nice and stiff.  We did get to the edge of conditions where we can carry the big kite. This regatta is a classic in the Bay Area. Our division had half the boats in the entire fleet in it, so it sure raised some eye brows to see this boat in its first attempt grab a bullet. I think the boat is aptly named as other sailors kept saying "you guys were coming out of no where".

Of note was the fact that Bob Johnson's J/92 RAGTIME! sailed a nice race to get 7th in Class C and 15th overall behind Frank's J/111.  Also, special mention must be made of Jim Brainard's J/35c BRAINWAVE, winning not only the Double-handed IRC Class, but finishing 19th in fleet in a "cruising J", beating some famous offshore SoCal/ NoCal "sleds" and ULDB's along the way!! Thanks to contributions by Erik Simonson- http://www.pressure-drop.us.   Sailing photos by H2oshots.com- http://www.h2oshots.com
For Spinnaker Cup sailing results

  

Good Show for J's In Myth of Malham Race

"The Practice Race for the Rolex Fastnet Race"
(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The RORC's Myth of Malham Race is considered a good dress rehearsal as well as being a qualifying race for this year's Rolex Fastnet Race and 125 yachts braved a windy forecast to compete in the race. The race to the Eddystone lighthouse and back was a giant windward-leeward race course of 230 miles.  With a WNW wind between 15 and 25 knots and yachts experiencing gusts of over 30 knots it was a tough test and an excellent warm up for the fleet who had to beat all the way to the Eddystone lighthouse off Plymouth and experience a fast run back to the Solent.

The J's overall did well despite the challenging conditions, some teams reveling in the big breeze and big chop and making the right decisions on the long beat to weather.  The critical decision was weather to play shifts up the beach "inshore" or go "offshore" and make the "longer, strategic play" for a frontal wind shift.  If you got it wrong, it was horribly wrong.  J's were in both camps on this decision!

Perhaps the most remarkable performance came from yet another J/105, sailing double-handed!  Sailing FLAWLESS J was James Heald, getting scored in both IRC 3 and IRC Doublehanded.  For the two-handed division FLAWLESS J was third overall, missing first by only 30 minutes on corrected in IRC-- not bad for a "non-IRC" 20 year-old design!  In IRC 3, FLAWLESS J finished second overall, losing out to the overall race winner!  On IRC Overall, FLAWLESS J finished seventh and were second J overall in the standings to a J/122.  Congratulations to James and crew for a truly huge achievement.

Of the 24 yachts that competed in the IRC Two-Handed Class, five J's finished in the top 10 (e.g. J's were 50% of top 10) and 3x the number of any other brand in the class.  Behind FLAWLESS J were Nikki Curwen's J/105 VOADOR in 6th (and 5th in IRC Class 3); Richard Palmer's J/109 JANGADA TOO in seventh (and 6th in IRC Class 3); veteran campaigner Nick Martin's J/105 DIABLO-J in ninth (9th in IRC Class 3); and Andrew Bird's J/109 JAMBALAYA in tenth (11th in IRC Class 3).

In IRC Class 2, it was a real battle between the J/122 JOOPSTER sailed by Neil Kipling and an Oyster 48.  Winning line honors was Neil's JOOPSTER by over 12 minutes, but ended up on the short end of the stick on IRC handicap to finish second in class.  Also sailing was Niall Dowling's J/111 ARABELLA.  After choosing the wrong side of a 20 hour, 115 nm beat to windward in 15-25, gusting 30 winds, most pundits figured ARABELLA lost about an hour on the entire class and fleet.   Rounding Eddystone Light,  the J/111 set its big spinnaker and simply took off, chasing down the fleet in front of them at epic speeds.  At the end, with runway running out on them, the boys on ARABELLA had to settle for a seventh in class and seventeenth overall.  Nevertheless, Niall's team on ARABELLA are lying in second place overall for the RORC Season's Points Championship behind Piet Vroon's custom Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens 3.

As mentioned earlier in the IRC Double-handed results, the IRC Class 3 had a number of competitors sailing in both IRC 3 and Double-handed.  Robin Taunt's J/109 JIBE was fourth overall, breaking the string of top five laid down by the two-handers!  What's interesting is that the twelve J's in the top 25 constituted nearly 50% of the group and were 4x the number of any other brand-- quite a showing for J's in this class!

The next race in the series is scheduled to start next Friday 3rd June. The 180-mile North Sea Race from Harwich to Scheveningen in Holland. The Royal Ocean Racing Club's Season's Points Championship consists of a testing series of races, which attracts an international and varied fleet. Trying to win the Season's Points Championship is a real challenge for the serious offshore sailor. This year the Championship includes the tactically and physically challenging Rolex Fastnet Race, the oldest and most prestigious offshore yacht race in the world.   Sailing photo credits- Hamo Thornycroft   For more RORC Myth of Malham sailing information