(Chicago, IL)- Hot, gusty winds led to challenging conditions and some
tight competition as the Verve Cup Inshore Regatta wrapped up the last
day of sailing at Chicago Yacht Club’s Belmont Station. Of the 86 boats
registered, twenty were J/70s, an impressive turnout for the fleet’s
debut year at Verve Inshore
“We had wind eight to 12 knots, typical Chicago southwester. This was
the first offshore breeze we’ve had this summer on a race day, which was
shocking, and the competition was good,” said Race Officer Janet
Baxter. After a solid day of racing on Saturday, Sunday's variable
winds made things interesting for both race committee and the
competitors.
“We’d have 15 knots followed by seven knots, so it was a little bit
challenging to figure out where the racers wanted to be sent – they were
all kind of tired from yesterday,” said Race Officer Lynn Lynch. “I
would’ve liked some more consistent breezes today, because not all of
the runs were as square as they could have been. Yesterday was really,
really solid racing – today we had a little bit more breeze, so that was
more fun that way. I thought the competition was very tight in some of
the fleets.”
“We’re very happy we have the J70 class for the first time,” said Race
Co-Chair Jessica Jamieson. “I think the event went very well, we’re
getting a lot of positive feedback.”
Taking first in the J/70s was class newcomer Dan Cheresh of Saugatuck,
MI with the appropriately named EXTREME; they're extremely great record
of 5-3-1-1-7-1 for 18 pts enabled them to run away with top honors in
the J/70 class. What was remarkable about Cheresh's performance was
that it came against some of the best teams in the J/70 class in the
past six months. Taking second was multiple regatta winner Joel Ronning
of Minneapolis, MI on the famous CATAPULT; their fast, regatta-winning
start of a 1-2-2 followed by a 7-6-11 dropped them into second overall
for the regatta. Rounding out third was CLOUDSOURCED, sailed by Ron
Copfer of Cleveland, OH with a 3-1-7-5-13-4 record for 33 pts.
The amazing fact about the J/70 fleet was how many brand new owner/teams
were amongst the top ten. From third place at 33 pts to tenth place at
54 points were just 20 pts, a race or two here or there would've made
an enormous difference for all of these teams. Fourth was another new
team near the top, Martin Johnsson's crew on AQUAHOLIKS with a
10-4-5-6-11-2 tally for 38 pts. Next was Joe Woods team from England
aboard RED, sailing a consistently better series to score a 9-8-6-10-3-3
for 39 pts, just one point back from 4th. Sailing her heart out was
Amy Neill on NITEMARE in her first major regatta ever, sailing in the
top five after just four races with a 4-5-10-3 but fading a bit with
some of the excitement (or anxiety) with a 12-10 to finish as top women
J/70 skipper at sixth overall! Another remarkable statistic about the
J/70 fleet one-design racing is that 13 of 20 boats (65% of the fleet)
had top five scores in their overall records! Proof again that good
starts, good conservative tactics could keep you in the hunt! Sailing photo credits- Marc Anderson. For more Verve Cup Inshore sailing information
