J/70s Challenge Lidingo Runt Race

(Lidingo, Sweden)- The Around Lidingo Island Race was first organized by the Lidingo YC in 1949 as a small competition amongst friends to have some fun in the early part of the Swedish summertime.  The start is below Foresta / Millesgarden and the finish is at Old Torsviks lighthouse, north of Lidingobron.

For the first few years around fifty or so boats sailed, but the numbers began to increase quite rapidly. During the 2000s, the race had about 400 to 450 participating boats. The event is the start of the season for many East Coast sailors in Sweden.  In fact, the race has grown in such popularity that even Super Maxi 100 footers, Open 60s and 80 ft trimarans have participated for honors of "first around Lidingo"!

This year, a modest fleet of 280+ boats registered to sail the event, including a very strong class of a dozen J/80s sailing one design.  It also marked the debut of the first J/70 to participate in this famous "round island" race.

Sailing in by far one of the largest classes in the fleet was J/70 JULIA!  With next to no practice and little knowledge of how to make the J/70 go fast, it was amazing the Jan Nillson managed to skipper the J/70 to a third overall in their SRS-1 Handicap class against 23 other competitors.  For more Lidingo Runt sailing information

J/70s Electrifies Grand Prix du Crouesty

(Crouesty Arzon, France)- One of the classic late spring, early summer events on the French sailing calendar is the Grand Prix du Crouesty sailed in southern Brittany. It's traditionally been a very strong one-design regatta with additions of handicap fleets over the years.  The GPEN is hosted by Yacht Club Crouesty Arzon and sponsored by the Yacht Club de France. The event is always sailed the weekend of Pentecost on the beautiful bay bordered by Presque'Ile Rhuys and the islands of Houat Hoedic called Mor Braz.

With over 130 boats and 600 sailors competing for three days literally just off the beaches and cliffs, the general public have an exceptional view of Petit Mont on the Bay of Mor Braz.  And, with magnificent conditions blessing the fleet for most of the weekend, the sailors got in some fantastic sailing and some spirited competition.

In the Monotype Division, the combination of J/22s, J/24s and J/70s made for some interesting racing as the scoring was based on handicap.  While the J/70s were miles ahead crossing the line on elapsed times, they could only wait until they got to the dock at the end of the day to know how they performed on corrected.  Nevertheless, the J/22s swept the division based on handicap.  More importantly, on a class-by-class basis there were clear leaders as described below.  The J/70s were led by Gerard Chapelot sailing ALBERTO sailing very consistently.  Second was Luc Lajoye's EXIUM and in third was Jean-Marc Gosset's VOILERIE SAILS CONCEPT.  For more Grand Prix du Crouesty sailing information

J/70 @ Sanctuary Cove Show

(Sanctuary Cove, Australia)- This coming weekend, the J/70 will debut at the 25th Anniversary Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show from May 23rd to 26th. Located on the gorgeous "Gold Coast" of Queensland in eastern Australia (just south of Brisbane), be sure to take a hike with your family and friends to enjoy the fabulous beaches, islands and learn more about how the J/70 can be your next trailer-sailer for your "mates, kids and the ladies".

In fact, speaking of the ladies, the show features "Women on Water- High Tea on the High Seas" on Saturday and Sunday!  Ladies, leave the men at the Boat Show and embark on one of two special cruises full of fun and frivolity! Hosted by Channel 7 personalities, Kimberley Busteed and Liz Cantor, enjoy two hours cruising, complimentary bubbles, a light lunch, pampering sessions, on-board entertainment, prizes and gifts! "WoW Seminars" for the women also include "How to Furnish you boat" hosted by BoatStyle, "Basics of Sailing" hosted by Sunshine Sailing Australia, and "Look Your Best on Your Boat" hosted by Hypoxi Body Botique.  Sorry guys, none of this is for you.

In fact, the perfect W.O.W. sailboat is the J/70 trailerable speedster!  Easy-to-sail even in 20+ kts breeze racing, a frolic for the ladies for a bubbly champagne evening sunset sail.  Like this gorgeous, fashionable woman seen here winning silverware sailing her J/70!

Please be sure to contact J/Dealer Yachtspot at "info@yachtspot.com.au" or telephone- +61-2-9449-4976 for a demo sail or appointment at the show!   For more J/70 and Sanctuary Cove Boat Show information

Epic Race to the Straits Regatta

(Seattle, WA)- The Pacific Northwest is full of fun-loving sailors always looking for a reason to get out on the water, seeking out yet another challenge and enjoy the shared experience afterwards over some great food, BBQ, fresh salmon and the occasional beer.  With over 200 days of "moisture" on average, the Seattle sailing crowd are a hardy bunch and, all things considered, are some of the nicest group of sailors you'll ever encounter around the world.

Recently, one of the more notoriously fun group of sailors hosted their annual "Race to the Straits" Regatta.  Imagine this, 100+ short-handed boats duking it out from Seattle to Port Townsend Saturday, then sailing back on Sunday. The first weekend in May and entries are capped at 100 boats!?! The Party is back at the American Legion Hall Saturday night.  There's a keg at the skippers meeting, kegs at the party in Port Townsend, kegs at the awards.  What more could you want?  More to the point, who are these people?  Well, the host is "Sloop Tavern YC" in Seattle, not exactly your classic "yacht club", in fact far from it! They're the equivalent of the East Coast's "Mystic River Mudheads", the spirit that drives them is being the ultimate underdogs in their local sailing circles-- pomp and circumstance be damned (unless, of course, it includes a kegger).

Class 9 Doublehanded Sails Division saw the J/70 DA SPENCER sailed by Mike Pitt take 4th followed by Dave Schutte's J/80 TAJ MAHAL in sixth.  Awesome job, dudes!  For more Sloop Tavern YC Race to the Straits sailing information

J/70 Mid-Atlantic Fleet Development

(Hampton, Virginia)- After their inaugural winter circuit, the J/70s continue to grow their local and regional fleets across the world as sailors continue to spread the excitement about this amazingly popular "baby J".  In such a short life-span, the J/70 has been setting attendance records in most major regattas they've participated in as a class- namely, Key West, St Pete NOOD, Charleston and Annapolis NOOD.  Next up are some really fun, laid-back events that are developing for 70s in Europe as well as across America.

In the Mid-Atlantic region, the J/70 circuit has evolved into the following events that sailors in the areas of Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida should take into account for their summer sailing plans.  Here is the latest schedule:

May 30- June 2- Southern Bay Race Week- Hampton Yacht Club- Hampton, VA- http://www.blacksealcup.com or please contact- Lin McCarthy at (757) 850-4225 or email-mcbear@earthlink.net.

June 15-16- James Island One Design Regatta- James Island, SC- http://www.jiyc.org/sailing.html or please contact Jack Martin at (941) 266-2856 or email- jwmartinjr@gmail.com.

July 27-28- Carolina Yacht Club Regatta- Charleston, SC- please contact Tommy Harken at (843) 830-4483 or email at Tommy@northpointyachtsales.com.

For more J/70 Mid-Atlantic sailing information, be sure to contact John Killeen/ JBoats Carolina at 704-236-8303 or email jkilleen@jboatscarolina.com.  Sailing photo credit- Tim Wilkes.com

Family J/70 Sailing With Children- Some Perspectives

(Stonington, CT)- After this past weekend's J/70 competition in the Annapolis NOOD Regatta, we received an amusing note from Brandon Flack sailing their J/70 with his wife and two kids. Here's Brandon's commentary for other women, children, family sailors:

"A couple of things I wanted to share that people have asked me about...

One- My wife is not a sailor. She is learning as we go with this thing, and she is game for anything we can do as a family.

Two- Neither of my kids are die-hard Opti sailors. Both take lessons and have done some regatta's, but they are by no means top of the fleet sort of kids. My son Dylan (8) is still a green fleeter (yes, the kid you saw steering a lot downwind).

Three- We enjoy all this together, but by no means are we completely into it. The kids enjoy the hotel pool, flight, heck pushing the buttons on the elevator, just about as much as the sailing. However, they do love the whole package and while educating them about Jimmy Buffet on the road trip home they said that last weekend was one of the best vacations ever!

My point is we are your typically family where the husband has probably sailed more then the rest. We have a self-imposed limit of 15 kts breeze and three races per day that we have established to keep it fun and safe, and we TRY to keep it light on the water (I need the most help with this... We almost had to call social services during a few of those huge shifts and lulls!!!).

We really hope more families or teams with kids get out and race with us. It's a tribute to the J/70 that we can do this easily and really enjoy it together.

We have the Sheraton (8 min from AYC) booked again for next year at $89 a night and the kids want more friends at the indoor pool (where they serve drinks for Mom & Dads might I add)!!"  Thanks for contribution from Brandon Flack

Australian J/70s On Show

(Sydney, Australia)-  Since the J/70's arrival in Australia, interest continues to increase in the dynamic little speedster that has been taking the world by storm since its introduction in America in the spring of 2012.  With record turnouts in American winter/ spring regattas and building fleets in Europe, the world of sailing in the Asia-Pac world is just beginning to get its taste of the J/70 magic.

From May 23 to 26, the J/70 will be debuting at the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show, its first big show and first “Australian International” show since its arrival.  For those passionate J sailing enthusiasts in Australia, this is a great opportunity to enjoy a classic "fall boat show" Down Under and learn more about why the J/70 will soon be the world's next giant international one-design class!  After all, when club sailors were having a ball sailing their J/70s in 20-30 kt breezes (with no boat breakages) recently in the Charleston Race Week regatta, many sailing "other sportsboats" were doing cart-wheels across the water with massive breakages and capsizes taking place everywhere (rigs blowing-off boats and crews seen standing on keels in just 20 kts of breeze!).  Learn more about the fun, family-friendly, one-design speedster- the world's most popular new sportsboat- J/70!

J/Team Sails Light Air Tour de Belle-Ile

(La Trinite-sur-Mer, France)- The idyllic Brittany setting of La Trinite-sur-Mer was the base for the sixth edition of the Tour de Belle-Ile race in the Bay of Quiberon, Saturday, 4th May. Sunshine and pleasant spring temperatures suggested that this was going to be an excellent event; the issue proved to be the wind. While a thermal breeze was forecast, a frontal sequence, with cirrus and alto-cumulus cloud led to a battle which lasted for most of the day, depriving contestants of the fuel for their sails, namely wind.

The start was something of an anti-climax, after all the waiting, at the monohull end of the line, where there was some urgent motoring to get back behind the line before the start in a few cases! It was obvious from the start that the on-going wind battle was not going to provide enough breeze for competitors to complete the Tour de Belle-Ile. Mid-afternoon, as the leader Spindrift approached the Poulains (famous from the photographs of them in storms by the Plissons and others) at the western end of Belle-Ile, the race committee decided to finish the Tour at this location.

With the light winds it appeared that this would be a small boat race. Almost all the entrants finished the shortened race; only about 40 of the 476 competing decided to abandon. The RC PRO wisely decided to postpone the start until 1330 hrs, even then the breeze was just 2-3 kts of wind.  In general, the J/Teams performed very well in the race. In the small boat open class, the J/70 SUBWAY finished 2nd in her very large class-- a great showing for the J/70 in such light winds!

The setting of La Trinité-sur-Mer is ideal, with the town and sailing-related shops immediately across the road from the large marina. The race village was set up by the marina, about 500 metres from the local yacht club, the Societe Nautique de la Trinité. The larger monohulls and multihulls were just the other side of the breakwater from the marina, close to the Capitainerie (Harbour Master's office), so everyone was together - something that most events do not manage to achieve.

Amidst a range of sponsors, Land Rover France came on board (before the Extreme Sailing Series announcement of Land Rover as a partner) - and we would like to recommend to Sodebo, by means of this article, that they extend their sponsorship from the participation of the maxi-trimaran in the event to providing food and sponsoring the event itself. Surely the national and regional TV coverage alone would make this worthwhile, quite apart from the range of people to be found in a fleet of 476+ boats!

The Tour de Belle-Ile is growing in popularity from year to year, and it is easy to see why. The event is smaller than the Bol d'Or on Lake Geneva and far smaller than Britain's JP Morgan Round the Island Race, but has a strong and building following. The race was put back by a weekend this year, into early May, to try to aid entries for another event along the coast a weekend earlier, but that had to be cancelled for lack of entries. However, the Tour de Belle-Ile took place comfortably alongside the Grand Prix Guyader further west, in Douarnenez, near Brest, where many amateur and professional teams are doing battle. Some crews continued from the Tour de Belle-Ile to compete in the Grand Prix, while others left their boats in La Trinité ready for the ArMen Race next weekend.  Thanks for contribution from Anne Hinton @ SailRaceWin.   For more Tour de Belle-Ile sailing information

Yachting Cup- A Tequila J/Storm!

(San Diego, CA)- This year marks the 41st year of San Diego Yacht Club's (SDYC) signature regatta, the Yachting Cup. This premiere regatta brings together competitive fleet and one-design racing at multiple venues in San Diego. Responding en-masse with nearly 56% of the overall fleet of 84 boats, the Yachting Cup saw an armada of J sailing teams participating in the event, including 47 J's spread across PHRF & one-design fleets of J/70s, J/80s, J/105s, J/109s and J/120s.

The typically sleepy sailing conditions of San Diego got hit by a "tequila storm", with 20+ knots on Saturday with a Low spinning off Mexico kicking up huge waves and southerly breezes preceding the Cinco de Mayo party that night. Amid stories of torn sails and broken boats, there were 83 boats competing in 10 PHRF and One Design classes.

For their debut in the Yachting Cup, the half-dozen J/70s certainly served up some excellent racing in the windy Saturday conditions with huge waves and massive, almost epic planes/ surfs down the big Pacific rollers.  It was close racing with the top four boats all finishing within 7 pts of each other.  The Kownacki/ Jenkins team on DFZ sailed the most consistently, with four 2nds counting towards their total of 12 pts to take the J/70 crown.  Karl Pomeroy's ZERO TO SIXTY (does that mean "zero to hero" in sixty seconds?) sailed some great races (including three 1sts) but couldn't maintain that "fast & furious" pace, settling for second place overall with 14 pts.  Third was Scott Grealish's SPLASH with 18 pts.  Craig Tallmans' new JAYA was 4th, only one pt back!  And, taking the fifth spot was Kenyon Martin's CHEETAH CUB.  Amazingly, four boats won races in the pack of half-dozen boats, a great start for the San Diego J/70 fleet!
Sailing Photo Credits- Bob Betancourt & Bronny Daniels   For more Yachting Cup sailing information

Challenging, Cool Sailing Annapolis NOOD

Record J/Boats Turnout Enjoy Spring Sailing!
(Annapolis, MD)- With a virtual armada of 156 J/Teams attending the Sperry Topsider Annapolis NOOD Regatta (74% of the whole fleet of 211), the eight J one-design classes (J/22, J/24, J/70, J/80, J/30, J/105, J/35, J/109) all had their fair share of spectacular, sunny racing on Friday. From there it was only a matter of time that conditions would deteriorate on the notoriously fickle Chesapeake Bay.

For the most part the Annapolis NOOD weather conditions made for great fleet racing so long as sailors on the five division circles were well-behaved and the PRO's at each did a good job of managing the fleet and the racing.  Some were clearly better than others.  On Friday, the fleet was treated to a brisk ENE 10-20 kts with lots of choppy waters, a fast-flowing flood current and very shifty breezes with big puffs.  In such conditions, most fleets sailed four races.  By Saturday, the forecast was beginning to see diminishing winds and the sailor's confidence in the breeze fell along with those prognostications.  The forecast ENE was in fact 100% wrong, instead the fleet was treated to mostly NW-NE 6-14 kts, getting even shiftier and was full of holes, so much so that the third races for most fleets saw their last leg or two become a matter of rolling the dice.  Sadly, Sunday's forecast was even more wrong.  The forecast easterlies never materialized until late afternoon with a gorgeous sunny day.  Instead, the fleets were treated to an even crazier NW to E breeze blowing 0-10 kts with holes everywhere- a one race "craps shoot" for most, or none for others!

Debuting as the largest class at the event, the J/70s simply had an epic first day of sailing on Friday.  Spending about 80% of the time in planing-mode downwind, the fleet had big grins plastered across their faces as they enjoyed some serious sparring at double-digit speeds.  While Saturday's and Sunday's racing was mostly in displacement mode, the need to find the edge even in "soak-mode" meant that teams were learning the fine-edge of how to maximize apparent wind speed for optimum downwind VMG.  Avoiding the pitfalls more than most was Bennet Greenwald's team from California that sailed PERSEVERANCE.  They not only won the J/70 class, but also were awarded the "STSW NOOD Overall Performance Awards" for the 15 fleets sailing the regatta (they get to sail the NOOD World Championships in the Caribbean in fall 2013!).  Continuing their streak of finishing in the top five was Joel Ronning's crew on CATAPULT finishing 2nd followed by Tim Healy's rapid ascent up the ladder to snag 3rd overall sailing Team HELLY HANSEN.  Fourth was the Newport/ Marblehead team of Henry Brauer/ Will Welles on RASCAL and in fifth was Brian Elliott's B-SQUARED (the only team to win 3 races).  A strong indicator of the strength and wealth of talent in the J/70 fleet was the fact that 15 teams managed top five finishes over the eight races sailed.  And, this regatta produced the highest average score for the winner- at 6.1 pts per race and the highest average to get a top 10 finish- 13.9 pts per race.  Also of note were the fact that the two youngest skippers in the regatta, Willy Comerford (14 yrs old) on NORTHERLY and Dylan Flack (8 yrs old) on TORQEEDO were seen either leading the fleet, winning races OR finishing in the top 10!
Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com.  For more Sperry Topsider NOOD Sailing Regatta sailing information

J/70 Sailing Tips & Tricks - By Tim Healy

(Newport, RI)- Recently, the Key West and Charleston Race Week winner, Tim Healy from North Sails, offered to all J/70 sailors the latest know-how, go-fast ideas that have propelled him to two significant class wins in the two largest fleets of J/70s assembled to date.  As Tim describes,

"I just returned from beautiful Charleston, South Carolina after completing another fantastic Sperry Top-Sider Charleston Race Week! The entire event was so impressive and the organization on every level was impeccable, from the race committee work to the hospitality on shore, the event was well run, welcoming, and fun. The food was fantastic, and even though the sheer number of boats and sailors must have been a huge logistical challenge, the Charleston event team pulled it off seamlessly which made for an incredibly enjoyable regatta.

A whopping fifty-five J70’s were entered, making it the largest class of the nearly 300 boats that competed. As with the two other J/70 regattas our team has sailed in 2013, our learning curve was steep. Here are our thoughts, lessons learned, and the adjustments we made to our boat in conditions that ranged from 8-30 knots and water that could be flat one minute and extremely choppy the next."  Please read-on here-- lots of good info from a past J/24 World Champion!  Click here to read more about tuning a J/70 for hyper-space mode.

J/70 Hits 20 knots Sailing French Offshore Race!

(Morlaix, Brittany, France)-  And wins IRC!! You have got to be kidding.  Not if you're Nicolas Troussel, a very famous French Figaro racer and Tour de France a'La Voile winner, who recently broke the 20 kts barrier several times while racing offshore in his new J/70 off the coast of Brittany!

You might ask, what is Troussel doing sailing a J/70?  Well, he loves sailing, loves one-design racing, and loves sailing hot sportboats with friends.  J/70 is the answer!  Over this past weekend, J/70s were sailing in the 2013 CCI Trophy in Morlaix (North Britanny). Here's the report from Fred Bouvier at J/Composites in France:

"On Saturday, the coastal race was started with a starting line in the vicinity of the Castel "Du Taureau".  The weather conditions were simply epic-- 22-27 kts of Northerly breeze with massive, steep waves for the boats to surf the downwind run offshore to the "Méloine" sea-buoy.

Troussel's J/70 managed to stay in the race for most of the initial long upwind leg against optimized 38 to 40 foot IRC handicap racers.  Indeed, sailing well enough to be able to use his downwind ability to recover his handicap time deficit while managing to beat the 20 kts speed record several times!

Unfortunately, Sunday's sailing saw very light and tricky winds, so the PRO had to cancel racing for the day.

In the end Nicolas Troussel and his J/70 team were crowned the victorious champions of the 2013 CCI Trophy in Morlaix!!  An astounding, earth-shattering performance!  Plenty of enthusiasm was shown around the J/70 and, in particular, Troussel's ability to sail easily and fast as a rocket downwind in rough conditions!"  Cool.  Troussel would've loved the Friday afternoon in Charleston Race Week when it blew 15-30 kts in flat water, too!  Next time. :)

Grand Finale For Warsash Spring Series!

Fabulous competition for J/70 Fleet
(Warsash, England)- The final gathering for the Brooks Macdonald Warsash Spring Series and Spring Championship took place over 27th/28th April 2013. Having had no cancellations due to gales and flat calms, the event has been a great success all round. Over the eight race days race officers have run over 170 separate races and even if the early spring was unseasonably cold, there was a warm and convivial atmosphere in the clubhouse for post-race banter and where the weekly class winners received their champagne and one lucky winner each week a SLAM jacket.

Saturday:
White Group raced near the North Channel with the tide pushing boats along the line. Starts went generally to plan with a couple of general recalls. The J/70s got away cleanly. For the J/80s the start line was moved and a large fender marked the anchor chain! The wind here coming from the north was shifty and sometimes reaching 25 knots. It was during one such gust in the last race of the day that an SB20 became caught on one of the buoys forming the leeward gate, reducing the gap just as the J/80 class arrived. Those in the lead were sufficiently spread out to negotiate the reduced space, but a bunch came as the race committee RIB was trying to lift the mark. The race had to be abandoned but was quickly re-sailed. The strong tide had an impact on the runs, particularly in the gusts, with many boats from all classes being seen to white sail to the gate having been carried too deep. North Sails (Ruairidh Scott) took three wins in the J/70s, with Boats.com taking one race.

Sunday:
On White Group there was a total lack of wind when the committee boat set up station by the Meon shore but just before the start time a gentle breeze began to fill in from the south-west to give enough pressure for the first race to get underway after a short postponement. The wind continued to build through the three races to reach 15 knots by the end of the third race, causing a few broaches and “wineglasses”. North Sails continued in fine form in the J/70s taking all three races.

Summary results:
As a result of the weekend sailing, the winners of the Spring Series and the Spring Championship have finally been determined.  For the J/70s the story of the day was simply the fact that Ruairidh Scott sailed NORTH SAILS very fast onto the comeback trail after a slow start to the season.  Trailing BOATS.COM at the beginning of the Spring Series, NORTH SAILS climbed their way back into contention to ultimately take the series sailing to six straight firsts in the last six races to take Spring Series as well as the Spring Championship.  Blasting off to a fast start for the Spring Series, Ian Atkins' BOATS.COM sailed consistently well to finish second in both the month's long Spring Series as well as snag second in the Spring Championships.  The battle for third was different for each event.  In the Spring Series, it was Malcolm Jacques' DJANGO that took the bronze.  And, in the Spring Championships, it was Simon Ling's SPITFIRE POWERED BY SLAM that took the third spot.   Sailing photo credits- Iain McLuckie   For more Warsash Spring Series sailing information

Good Times @ J/Fest San Francisco!

(San Francisco, CA)-  This year's J/Fest hosted by St Francis Yacht Club had another strong turnout of San Francisco Bay area J/Teams.  Leading the way with twenty boats was the J/105 class, with good sailing for the J/24, J/70 and J/120 teams as well.

As for the J/70s, Jim Cascino's EOS prevailed while Chris Andersen's OLD AND IN THE WAY stayed out of the way!  They apparently had some amazing rides blasting around San Francisco Bay at about 100 kts with afterburners and vapor-trails smoking behind them!  OK, well maybe 15-18 kts at GPS speeds. :0   Sailing photo credits- Rolex/ Daniel Forster.   For more J/Fest San Francisco sailing information

Annapolis NOOD J/Fest Preview!

J/70 Debuts with Largest Fleet Ever!
(Annapolis, MD)- With 211 boats participating in this year's Sperry Topsider Annapolis NOOD Regatta, it promises to be quite the "class reunion" for many J sailors across eastern America.  Why? For the simple fact that 156 boats are J/Teams (74% of the whole fleet) competing in eight J one-design classes (J/22, J/24, J/70, J/80, J/30, J/105, J/35, J/109)!  In other words, for the few boats that comprise the six other classes (average of less than 10 boats per fleet) it may be a tad overwhelming to have nearly a thousand J Sailors criss-crossing the northern Chesapeake Bay and flooding the evening tent parties sponsored by Mt Gay Rum and other enthusiastic sponsors!

Leading the charge again are the J/70s-- setting a record fourth regatta debut as the largest one-design class. At forty-eight boats (Key West, St Pete NOOD and Charleston already in the books), the J/70 has completely eclipsed all attendance records for any sportboat worldwide in inaugural regattas since sprit-boats first exploded onto the sailing scene with the J/105 in 1991. The J/70 fleet is on a rapid learning curve and based on performances at past events, it's clear as mud who will be regatta leaders after the dust settles in the latest 70 battles.  Perhaps most importantly, it was self-evident, based on the huge "can't wipe the grin off my face" smiles after the epic first day at Charleston in 15-30 kts of breeze, all J/70 sailors were having a rip-roaring great time sailing their boats!

After four regattas, the betting will on a number of leading teams that will be seen somewhere at the top of the leader board for the 70s.  Included in that group may be Tim Healey's HELLY HANSEN, Joel Ronning's CATAPULT, Brian Elliott's B-SQUARED, Bob Hughes on MUSE/ HEARTBREAKER, Bennet Greenwald's PERSEVERANCE, Henry Brauer/ Will Welles' RASCAL, Jud Smith's RELATIVE OBSCURITY, Peter Vessella's RUNNING WILD, Bruno Pasquinelli's STAMPEDE, Henry Filter's WILD CHILD and a cast of local characters each of whom are capable of good performances, like Peter McChesney's TROUBLE, Tate Russack's DIESEL, and Cole Allsopp's MOXIE.  Sailing photo credits- Onne Vanderwal, Tim Wilkes and  Meredith Block/ Charleston Race Week.  For more Sperry Topsider Annapolis NOOD Sailing Regatta sailing information

J/70 Media Around The Globe!

(Newport, RI)- While many sailors in the USA and Europe have seen the J/70 sail or saw one in local boat shows or sailing magazines, there are still parts of the world that have not- like Belgium and Chile.

Recently, Belgian sailors had their taste of the J/70 sailing experience. Their premiere sailing magazine- VAREN- did a test of the J/70 on the Braassemermeer and it was recently featured in latest issue- please see http://www.varen.be    Furthermore, VAREN did a cameo video on the J/70 sailing on YouTube, please watch here.

In the meantime, Manuel Eguiguren was recently out sailing J/70s on a spectacular Chilean lake high in the Andes Mountains of South America-- enjoy this "J/70 sailing music video" here.


Cover Girl- J/70! Did anyone see the April issue of Sailing World magazine?  The J/70 was on the cover and SW Editor Dave Reed's article was about the J/70 sailing experience in Key West Race Week. In addition, the "From the Expert's" article was about sportboat tips that are directly applicable to the 70.  Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes.com and Sharon Green/ Ultimate Sailing.com.

Glorious Warsash Spring Championship!

(Warsash, England)- It was a busy weekend for Warsash Sailing Club on 20th/21st April with racing on both days for the Brooks Macdonald Warsash Spring Championship and the fifth Sunday of the Spring Series. Perhaps the warmer weather had enticed new entries on the water, resulting in 150 boats ready to enjoy a busy programme of racing. Over the weekend, the race officers ran 40 separate races - a challenging but rewarding time all round.

Saturday- Spring Championship Day 1
The Spring Championship offers an intense schedule of four days’ racing, with no discards allowed.   White Group includes classes for J/70 and J/80.  Although the day dawned with the River Hamble resembling a millpond, everyone was pleased to see the wind fill in and racing got underway without delay.

White Group completed three good races between 40 and 50 minutes in length before the wind faded away and PRO Peter Knight called it a day amidst requests from competitors and race officers alike to enjoy a beer on the terrace in the sunshine. Information from ‘Bramble-Met’ confirmed this to be a good decision since there was a lull of well over an hour before any wind returned - too late for racing.  In the J/70s North Sails (Ruairidh Scott) took two races and Boats.com (Ian Atkins) one.

Sunday- Spring Series Day 5,  Spring Championship Day 2
The weather was bright and sunny with a forecast south-westerly breeze set to build from 10 to 17 knots during the day. The Black Group committee boat set up station near Universal buoy using courses with an initial windward leg to Williams Shipping or West Knoll buoy. The plan was to offer a longer race well over two hours to the Spring Series competitors followed by a short race for those boats entered in the Spring Championship only. The conditions offered the best sailing in the series so far, only a few sunbeams short of champagne sailing – the champagne instead being presented after racing. Smaller boats needed to choose carefully to find clear air avoiding the  powerful IRC1 and IRC2 classes speeding downwind. Sundays in the Solent are also also busy with commercial traffic and the North Channel saw several shipping movements to avoid.

White Group enjoyed good sailing with a start near Meon. The moderate breeze remained fairly stable from the south-west necessitating only a single slight reorientation to the course to maintain good beats and runs.  Racing took place on a small neap tide which may have led boats into a false sense of security. Several had to take penalties after misjudging the tide at the windward mark. North Sails went well in the J/70s followed by Spitfire (Team RAF Benevolent Fund) then Boats.com in each of the three races.

The J/70 class has seen the teams fluctuate on performance based on weather conditions.  Nevertheless, showing greater consistency of late is Ruairidh Scott's NORTH SAILS team, leading both the Spring Championship as well as the Spring Series-- running the table with three straight 1sts on Sunday seemed to have helped their scoreline a wee bit.  Bolting out of the blue on Saturday and maintaining the same performance on Sunday was Simon Ling's Royal Airforce Team sailing SPITFIRE, taking six 2nds over the two days!  In third for the Spring Champs is Ian Atkins' BOATS.COM with lots of 3rds and is hanging onto second in the Spring Series just one point back from NORTH SAILS.   Sailing photo credits- Iain McLuckie   For more Warsash Spring Series sailing information