Lovely, Windy Poole Regatta

Great Sailing for J/70 Nationals
(Poole, England)-  This year’s International Paints Poole Regatta was blessed with great breeze and awesome race committee work, making it fun and exhausting for all!  The regatta is a huge bi-annual event held over the three days of the late May Bank Holiday Weekend.  In addition to the U.K. National Championships for J/24s, J/70s and J/80s being run as part of the regatta, there was excellent IRC handicap racing, too.

First, the J/70 Nationals.  The report from Paul & Marie-Claude Heys comes from the perspective of sailing their J/70 JOSEPH’S COAT: “The regatta is run by a consortium of the Poole Yacht Clubs and was a brilliant example of how a regatta should be run; swift launching of trailerable boats by the Parkstone YC travel hoist crew, excellent on-the-water race management, a prompt results service and a delightful clutch of socials spread between Parkstone Yacht Club, Poole Yacht Club and the Royal Motor Yacht Club. Congratulations and thank you to the hardworking army that made it all happen.

Race day 1 was planned as a four race day, the morning races were sailed in 10-12 knots which was enough to see the J/70s planing downwind. There is a big difference in the downwind sailing styles of the J/70 and the J/80, with the 70s opting for an aggressive crew weight aft, bow up ‘hot angle’ mode and the 80s sailing in a deeper displacement mode. PRO Peter Sexton set the J/70s on their way six minutes ahead of the J/80s, this worked really well with no resulting traffic issues.

The first bullet for the J/80s went to Ben Richards and Andrew and Julia Dallas on Boysterous, with new class chair Mike Lewis second on Jester.

Races 2-4 of the J/80 series were won by Patrick Liardet’s Aqua- J which when added to a third in race one left Patrick sitting on a solid overnight lead.

In the meantime, on the J/70 circuit, defending National Champion and European Champion, Ruairidh Scott, having now teamed up with Ian Atkins to own and sail Boats.com, took the first two bullets. Ian Southworth helming Simon Ling’s Team RAFBF Spitfire won races 3 and 4, with Boats.com taking two seconds and thus the overnight lead. Team RAFBF Spitfire appeared to find the lighter conditions in the afternoon very much to their liking. Other noticeable results on day one were a second place in race one of the J/70 series for Charlie Esse’s Baby J, and class chairman Simon Cavey’s pair of thirds on Just 4 Play.

Race day 2, the Sunday, was again to be a four race day. The wind had increased to 15-22, which meant both fleets were planing downwind, with the J/70s sailing at 15 knots+ of boat speed for long periods. Others were drifting sideways with their keels horizontal for brief and embarrassing periods!

Boats.com showed the benefit of their experience and the hard work that they have put in during training to score an outstanding four firsts, Team RAFBF Spitfire took four straight seconds, the lead pair now opening up a points gap on the rest of the fleet. Charlie Esse’s Baby J completed the podium for the day with a flush of thirds.

The final day was, as forecast an ‘off the land’ 8 knots, making Poole bay nice and calm, thus giving the sailors some respite after a windy Saturday. For the third day in a row, PRO Peter Sexton got the fleet away on time. In the J/80 class, any one of three boats, Juicy, J.A.T. and Aqua-J, could win the series, so the pressure was high!

For the J/70 title Boats.com only needed to punch in one good result from the two final races, with a second as discard they were in a strong position. Their only possible challenger was Team RAFBF Spitfire who looked solid for a top two result. First to the top mark in race nine, was Joseph’s Coat helmed by Marie-Claude Heys, who had predominately worked the right hand side of the course. Boats.com assumed their normal position at the head of the fleet just before the end of the run. Team RAFBF Spitfire was a little further back in the pack. On the next upwind leg, Boats.com placed a general cover on the bulk of the fleet whilst Team RAFBF Spitfire headed hard left and found a nice shift that propelled them into a big lead at the final windward mark. Boats.com reeled them in on the final run closing them down but not passing.

That second place was enough for Boats.com to take the title, so they sailed in, to beat the queue for the crane leaving Team RAFBF Spitfire to pick up a fourth bullet in race ten, followed by Dave Atkinson sailing Jawbreaker in second and then Just 4 Play in third.

Boats.com were the deserved winners, with Spitfire a very solid second and Ian Wilson’s Wilson Covers being helmed by Geoff Carveth knocking Baby J out of third.

For the J/70s as a young fleet, techniques are still being developed to get the best out of these fast-planing machines, the build up to September’s inaugural World Championship continues with Boats.com looking the class act.

At the final prize giving, Boats.com was awarded the Kleinwort Benson ‘Boat of the Regatta’ trophy as an accolade to their tally of twelve points from ten races. Top boat out of 180 competitors, well done Ian Atkins, Ruairidh Scott, Dan Brown and Ben Field! Oh, and to their coach, the legendary Q.P. Saltonstall!”   Sailing photo credits- David Harding   For more Poole Regatta sailing information

Southern Bay Race Week Preview

(Hampton, VA)- With eight-nine boats participating, the Southern Bay Race Week has undoubtedly enjoyed a more prosperous participation level than it has seen in recent year.  Taking place from May 30th to June 1st in Hampton, VA there is a happy coincidence that taking place on the harbor as well is the “Blackbeard Pirate Festival” and the “Hampton Block Party” hosted by the City of Hampton!

In other words, with visitors from all over the country enjoying the sights and sounds of 18th century Hampton overrun by “pirates” (and pirate-wannabe’s), Hampton’s waterfront gets a bit wild and crazy.  The waterfront comes alive with dozens of pirate re-enactors, costumed in historically accurate garb, who transform today’s Hampton into the busy seaport of yesterday. Led by “Blackbeard the Pirate” himself, re-enactors help visitors step back in time and re-live the history and legends of 1718 Hampton. The Festival offers a variety of children’s activities, live musical entertainment, fireworks, period vendors, arts and crafts, and much more!  Learn more here- www.blackbeardfestival.com

So, were we talking about sailing?  Yes, “avast’ye’matey’s”, the J/70s are making a huge debut in this year’s event.  Perhaps the reason why participation has massively increased?  Nine J/70s are sailing with several top traveling teams in the mix.  Top of the box (e.g. the podium) candidate has to be Blake & Lud Kimbrough’s NOSTALGIA and giving them a run for the money are experienced 70 veterans like the VORTEX Racing Team’s two boats, GETMYBOAT.COM and VORTEX.  Noel Clinard’s LOONATICTU and Clark Dennison’s CAT’S PAJAMAS will be sure to give them all a battle over the weekend.   For more Southern Bay Race Week sailing information

Delta Ditch Run Preview

A Cannonball Rally For Huge J/70 Fleet!
(Stockton, CA)- The Richmond YC and Stockton YC are hosting their incredibly fun, infamous, outrageous race that runs for 67 nm up the “delta” that forms the northeastern part of San Francisco Bay and heads off into the estuaries of the “flatlands”.  Notoriously windy most times, it’s a mad dash up the Sacramento River from Richmond YC’s starting line in NE Bay to Stockton YC’s finish in the muddy estuaries of the San Joaquin River.

With a fleet of 125 boats registered so far, it looks to be a full-on, crazy, wacky race.  With 30-40 foot carbon catamarans whistling down the straits at 75 kts, avoiding mudbanks along with J/22s, J/70s and dozens of others, you can bet there will be stories to tell after this event (e.g. groundings, dismastings, cart-wheeling humans into marshes full of mating snail-darters, etc, etc).

Last year, a number of J/70s did the race and nearly won the entire thing despite making all kinds of rookie mistakes in boat-handling and boat-speed.  This year, there is an entire armada of experienced J/70 teams tackling the race hoping to beat the fable Moore 24’s who’ve been a stalwart of the race for years. This year’s rogues gallery of competitors include DIVERSION (Chris Gabriel from Santa Barbara YC), the famous ZERO TO 60 (Karl Pomeroy- Newport Harbor YC), PERFECT WIFE (Chris Andersen- St Francis YC), CAKE (Scott & Leslie Deardorff- Santa Barbara YC), ECLIPSE (Mike Drammer, Shaun Hughes, Andrew Nunn- Santa Barbara YC), SPITFIRE (Tyler Karaszewski- Santa Cruz YC), 1FA (Scott Sellers & Geoff McDonald- St Francis YC), SUGOI (Mark Nelsen), DFZ (Eric Kownacki & Tom Jenkins- Monterey Bay YC), BOTTLE ROCKET (David Schumann & Jeff Thorpe- from San Francisco YC), and LOOSE LUCY (Justin Kromelow- St Francis YC).  God Speed to this group! My God how much fun could that possibly be planing downwind for 67 nm in perfectly flat water!?

Fun and games for who’s top J/Team?  Might be worth a magnum of Veuve-Clicqout champagne!?
Better yet, there’s a famous BBQ combined with one of the top classic and blues bands in Northern California that finish off the day of racing in grand style!  The party band, for over a decade the “Blue-a-Fuse” gang has been one of the top classic rock and blues bands in Northern California.  They go back to the roots of modern music.  They cover fun, upbeat, danceable tunes by great artists like Santana, Van Morison, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and many more...this band ROCKS!

Even better yet, for you armchair-racing fans, there is a new race-tracking “app” on the Android or iOS devices that are being provided by RaceQs for the Delta Ditch Run.  Totally cool stuff.  Even Manhattan YC in southern New York City uses RaceQs for their Tuesday night races!  Check out some Manhattan YC races here.   For more Delta Ditch Run sailing information

Seattle NOOD Debuts J/70 Class!

(Seattle, WA)- This year’s Sperry Top Sider Seattle NOOD Regatta brought tears of joy and smiles all around to the sailors for one simple reason- wind!  At least enough of it so that most fleets got in a least six if not ten races over the three day event.

Friday was a rather auspicious start for the regatta.  A consistent 10-15 kts southerly allowed some classes to complete as many as five races.  For the second day of sailing, there was still wind, but just a bit less.

Sailing ten races in the regatta were the inaugural J/70 class.  Clearly, the fleet loved the first day of sailing with a combination of planing and soak modes all day long.  Sailing super-fast out of the box on that day was the experienced team aboard DaSPENCER, skippered by Mike Pitt, taking two bullets to lead the fleet after day one.  However, as the wind dropped off over the next two days, so did Team DaSPENCER’s fortunes.  In the end, JUST LISTED sailed by the Sail Northwest team took top honors with 13 pts.  They were followed by Andrew Mesher’s PERIDOT in second with 24 pts and in third was DaSPENCER with 27! Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com.  Sailing World video interview - Dave Reed and Chris Snow   For more Sperry Top Sider Seattle NOOD regatta sailing information

Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga Starts With Three-Way Tie!

Norddeutscher RV Win The Tie-Breaker
(Starnberg, Germany)- After an intense qualification regatta a few weeks back, eighteen clubs participated in the Bundesliga season opener on Lake Starnberg at the Bayerischer Yacht Club. The thirteen sailing clubs that qualified from the first season in 2013 were joined by five “newcomers” that had qualified in early April- Bodensee Yacht Club Überlingen, Düsseldorf Yacht Club, Kieler Yacht Club, the S.C.”Wappen von Bremen" and the Seglervereinigung Itzehoe.

Prior to the start of the regatta, Ilya Wolf (BYC team manager) said, "Our team is perfectly prepared. We are looking forward to the coming weekend and are proud host of this event. We are very excited about participating with the Segel-Bundesliga. It is a very good opportunity for our young sailors and a great way to promote sailing to everyone."

Recognizing the importance of this season long series that culminates with the Finale in Hamburg, many clubs pulled out all the stops to get their top sailors to hop aboard the teams as either crew or skippers.  Among the most prominent sailors in Starnberg were four German Olympians. Sailing for Württemberg Yacht Club was Stefanie Rothweiler (two-time Olympic 470s); sailing for Wansee was Ulrike Schumann (Olympics in Ynglings); and Kristin Wagner (Olympic Yngling) and Patrick Follmann (Olympian 470) were both sailing for Deutscher Touring YC.

With so much talent and tactical horsepower aboard the various boats, the racing was going to be close.  In fact, far closer than anyone could have imagined!  After the first day of sailing, three teams were tied on points- Bayerischer YC, Deutsche Touring YC and Flensburg SC! Lots of sunshine and light 7 kt winds greeted the fleet, enough to get in seven races.  "The weather conditions were not optimal. In fact, it was often difficult.  But, we are extremely pleased and excited that we were able to get a good start in the new season on home turf," concluded Christian Schäfer, helmsman of the BYC boat.

The second day offered sailing at its best. Starting out with a bit of rainy weather, by afternoon, the weather had cleared and the good breezes enabled twenty-four races to be sailed! The defending champions, Norddeutscher RV, had an impressive day of sailing.   "The field is so close and tight that a single mistake is sufficient to be passed from the very front to the very back of the pack. With good starts and safe maneuvers, we were able to stay up front most of the time. Our goal is the top three," stated Florian Weser from the NRV team.  In fact, after Saturday’s racing, they did much better than that; Team NRV was leading after ten races.  Following them were Wannsee in second, Deutscher Touring YC in third and Konstanzer YC in fourth.

After Sunday’s sailing, only 39 of the 45 scheduled races were completed, 13 for each club.  In the end, the defending Segel-Bundesliga 2013 champions, Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, took first place overall by breaking the tie-breaker with seven race wins over their competitors.  The other two teams tied on 44 pts each were Verein am Wannsee and Deutscher Touring YC, taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.

"For us it was a roller-coaster of emotions. The quality of sailors and the competition were extremely high. All in all, we really sailed well and look forward to enjoying our first win," commented NRV teammate Carsten Kemmling.

Second-placed VSaW Team manager Ulrike Schumann said, "After the bad start, we pressed the reset button and then it all ran much smoother. We want to win this year, that's our goal!"

Next stop on the Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga is July 19-21 as part of Travemünde Sailing Week on the Baltic Sea.  Remember, all races are broadcast via “live stream” on the Internet, so thousands of sailing enthusiasts in Germany and around the world can watch it “live” on the water.   Sailing photo credits- DSBL/ Lars Wehrmann    Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing video:   Day One    Day Two   Day Three   For more Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing information

Poole Regatta Preview

(Poole, England)-  The Poole Regatta is a huge bi-annual event held over the 3 days of the late May Bank Holiday Weekend starting 24th May.  In addition to the IRC series, there are a number of national championships being run as part of the regatta, including J/24s, J/70s and J/80s.

The one-design side of things is pretty remarkable, three International J one-designs are sailing their UK Nationals at this event!  What is even more impressive is that all three fleets have excellent attendance, the J/24s have 19 boats registered, the J/70s have 13 and the J/80s have 16.  Fun and games for all!

For the J/70 UK Nationals it is a compulsory qualifying event for teams that wish to go to the 2014 World Championship in Newport, RI.  Many of the top UK teams are attending, including Ian Atkins on BOATS.COM (top finisher at Key West Race Week), Simon Ling skippering TEAM RAF SPITFIRE Powered by SLAM and Marie-Claude Heys on JACOBS COAT.  In addition, participating is the American team of Jen & Ray Wulff from Annapolis, MD; they are sailing a chartered J/70 called JOINT CUSTODY.   For more Poole Regatta sailing information

Sailing J/70s Fast Off Malta- 18.6 kts!

(Gzira, Malta)- The gang from Malta were having fun sailing their fleet of J/70s in the often epic sailing conditions they encounter in the middle of the Mediterranean- 18.6 knots boatspeed!!  Things get especially fun and the amp-meter goes off the charts when they get the tail end of giant mistrals that blow across from France and Italy, often churning up enormous 10-15 ft waves and 40-60 kts winds from the NNW.  Catch the tail end of one of these on a spectacular sunny day and you can have the ride of your life in 20-30 kt winds and ginormous left over waves!  Watch this video made by the Maltese gang (Christian Ripard steering with friends) on their J/70s ripping around the Med.

J/70 CALVI NETWORK Triumphs in Scarlino

(Scarlino, Italy)- The J/70 class continues to grow in Italy, with increasing participation by top Italian sailing teams in this new class.  Many are planning to participate in the upcoming J/70 European Championships being sailed at Riva del Garda from September 23rd to 27th.  Some teams are also considering sailing in the J/70 World Championships in Newport, RI from September 8th to 13th at New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court.

An emerging leader in the Coppa Italia J/70 Circuit is one of Italy’s top sailors- Carlo Alberini sailing his renowned CALVI NETWORK.  Carlo has sailed for years at the top of the game in the M24 and M32 classes around the world as well as sailing in the European offshore circuits on the Mediterranean.  His “Lightbay Sailing Team” are now currently leading the Coppa Italia J/70 Circuit.

This past weekend, the third event in the circuit was sailed off picturesque Scarlino, a beautiful seaside town in Tuscany.  The J/70 teams enjoyed six races during the weekend sailing in the challenging waters of the Gulf of Follonica, bordered to the west by Elba Island, to the north by the headlands of Piombino and to the south Punta Ala.

On the first day of sailing, Carlo and crew aboard CALVI NETWORK sailed “lights out”, taking three bullets and managing to keep themselves out of trouble.  With the wind from the South up to 20 kts with short waves and irregular chop, sailing upwind took some skill to navigate the seas, rewarding those who had fine-tuned their sail-trimming skills.  Downwind was full-on planing-mode, extremely exciting and fast downwind with gennakers flying.

While CALVI NETWORK enjoyed their evening with newfound J/70 friends, it was clear some of them were listening to “go-fast” tips on sailing their boats.  As a result, there were three different winners on the second day of sailing- PENSAVO ITA-262 (1-5-5) sailed by Beppe Zavanone; MAGIE ITA-455 (3-1-4) skippered by Gianluca Grisoli; and ITA-570 (7-4-1) led by helm Andrea Zaoli.  Hanging on tough was CALVI NETWORK, sailing to a 2-3-2 to clinch the regatta and the overall lead for the Coppa Italia circuit; their team was comprised of  Carlo (owner-driver ), the Slovenian Olympic sailor Karlo Hmeljiak (tactics), Irene Bezzi (mainsail trimmer) and Sergio Blosi (trimmer).  Just behind them in the standings were PENSAVO in 2nd, MAGIE in 3rd, SPIN ONE with skipper Peter Saccomanni in 4th and Zaoli’s team in 5th.

The next stage of the Italian Cup will be staged again in the waters off Scarlino between May 31 and June 2.  Thereafter, the last two events are both being sailed at Riva del Garda- the first one on 26-27 July and the last one from 23-27 September for the J/70 European Championships.

For more Italian J/70 sailing information, please contact Paolo Boido at J/Boats Italy- email- jboats@jboats.it or mobile# +39-335-688-5005.

Seattle NOOD Regatta Preview

(Seattle, WA)- From May 16th to 18th, the one-design focused Sperry Top Sider Seattle NOOD regatta will be held in the waters of Puget Sound.  One hopes the sailors will be blessed with great sailing on Friday with sun and good breeze since the weekend forecast looks very “classic” Seattle (a bit of wind, some rain and misty southerly breezes.

Joining the fray are one-design fleets of J/24s, J/70s, J/80s and J/105s.  The most significant fleet happens to be the venerable J/24s, with a dozen of the area’s veterans going at it hammer and tong.  Potential fleet leaders could be Chris Snow & Pat Dore on BABBA LOUIE, Scott Milne on TREMENDOUS SLOUCH (a past NOOD 24 winner) and Jasper Van Vliet from Mill Valley, CA sailing EVIL OCTOPUS!

The J/70s are starting to prosper in Seattle and this will be their debut in the Seattle NOOD.  Hard to know how it will shake out for this fleet other than the fact that Mike Pitt’s DaSPENCER has the most experience so far.  Andy Mesher’s PERIDOT and Bill Henry’s RIP VAN WINKLE will be doing their best to overcome their experience deficit in the 70s with plain smart sailing.  Sailing photo credits- Jan Anderson and Tim Wilkes.com.  For more Seattle NOOD Regatta sailing information

Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga - Premiere League Begins!

(Starnberg, Germany)- The second stage of the 2014 Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga is about to commence this weekend on the Starnberger See- a beautiful lake SSW of Munich surrounded by gently rolling hills to the north and just 15 miles north of the majestic German/ Austrian Alps.  Host for this event is the Bayerischer Yacht-Club Munich situated at the very northern end of the lake.

Sailing in this weekend’s event are the top eighteen clubs that pre-qualified from the first event held from April 4th to 6th in Glucksburg (a total of sixty-one teams participated).  The Bundesliga is now split into two “leagues”- the Premiere League sailing in J/70s for the next four stages and the Bundesliga II League.  The five clubs who qualified for the “Premiere League” from the first Glucksburg event, were the winners Kieler YC, the Bodensee YC Überlingen, the Seglervereinigung Itzehoe, the Segelkameradschaft "Wappen von Bremen" and the Düsseldorf YC.

Joining them will be the top five teams from the 2013 DSBL, including the champions Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, followed by Württembergischer Yacht-Club in second and Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee in third, Yachtclub Berlin-Grünau fourth and Chiemsee Yacht Club fifth.  The winner of the first event at Tutzing last year (also on the Starnberger See) was Yachtclub Berlin-Grünau; they certainly hope to repeat that performance again this year!

In addition, the following clubs will also have strengthened their teams, including the host Bayerischer Yacht-Club, Berliner Yacht-Club, Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club (the host for the next event in Tutzing), Flensburger Segel-Club, Konstanzer Yacht Club, Lübecker Yacht-Club, Mühlenberger Segel-Club, and Schweriner Yacht-Club.

The teams hope the weather forecast (http://bit.ly/1qAdgv2) improves a bit, nevertheless, it looks like there will be breeze all weekend long.   After the passage of a Low pressure system on Thursday, it looks like Friday will be in the 50s F. with WNW winds in the 6-12 kts range, followed by the passage of another Low pressure system Saturday bringing some cool rain and WSW winds in the 5-10 kts range.  With any luck, Sunday’s forecast for partly sunny skies in the mid-60s F. may effect the forecast light SW winds (hopefully a sea-breeze can build on the northern end of the lake!).  For more Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga sailing information