J/70s Debut With Monster Fleet
(Charleston, SC)- Starting on April 18th, a massive navy of J/Teams will
descend upon the beautiful sleepy town of Mt Pleasant, South Carolina
and transform the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina into "J/Town".
Of the 295 boats participating, 117 J/Teams (40% of the fleet) are
sailing in the event coming from all points of the compass, by far the
dominant boat brand for Charleston Race Week.
Making its debut as the single largest fleet ever since CRW began, the
J/70 class will have 56 teams vying for both Fleet and Corinthian class
honors. The depth of the competition is quite extraordinary, as it has
been since its debut in Key West Race Week in January of this year. As
more J/70s are delivered there will be more new faces showing up for the
first time enjoying the fun, camaraderie and amazing sailing that is on
offer from the world's best 23 ft sportboat!
Many of the top teams from the first three 2013 J/70 regattas to date
will be participating, making this event a good indicator of what the
competition may be like for the J/70 North Americans in Annapolis in
September (100 boats, maybe?). One thing is certain, Brian Keane's
SAVASANA team are proving to be incredibly consistent, tough competitors
no matter what the weather conditions or where they've buried
themselves on the race course-- seemingly always "rolling 7's and 11's"
to take the pot at the end of the day! Key West winners and top teams
include Tim Healey (Newport, RI) sailing with Will Welles on RASCAL;
Bruno Pasquinelli (Houston, TX) on STAMPEDE; Dave Ullman (Newport Beach,
CA) sailing USA 32; Cole Allsop (Annapolis, MD) on MOXIE; and
Corinthians winner David Franzel (Boston, MA) on SPRING. In addition to
this tough crowd, St Petersburg NOOD winners Joel Ronning (Minneapolis,
MN) will be
racing CATAPULT and Kerry Klingler (Larchmont, NY) will be sailing
MENACE. The entire fleet of twenty boats that raced Bacardi Miami
Sailing week will be attending, including top five finishers like Joe
Woods (Torquay, GBR) on RED; Brian Elliott (Sayville, N.Y.) on
B-SQUARED; and Peter Duncan (Rye, N.Y.) and Jud Smith on RELATIVE
OBSCURITY. New teams participating in their first major J/70 regatta
that could easily be factors in the top ten include champion Etchells 22
sailor Peter Vessella (San Francisco, CA) on RUNNING WILD; Richie
Stearns (Chicago, IL) sailing TYLISHAN; Ryan Ruhlman (Cleveland, OH) on
SPACEMAN SPIFF; Henry Filter (Stevensville, MD) on WILD CHILD; and Nick
Johnstone (Charleston, SC) sailing CAT'S PAJAMAS.
