ZEIK Wins Big In Gale Force Winds
(La Coruna, Spain- 9 November)- This past weekend was the penultimate day of Commodore Trophy for J/80s organized by the Real Club Náutico de La Coruña. It was a blustery regatta, marked by the storm that struck the Galician coast for two straight days with near Force 8 gale winds offshore.
On Saturday at 1600 hours was the first race of the day for the J80 class inside the Bay of La Coruña, with a northwest wind 16 to 19 knots and waves of 2-3 meters. The Race Committee had to delay until late afternoon because the weather was so ferocious earlier in the day. Ultimately, it was a good day for the "Big Boy Nautical Aussycrawl" Stuart Shimeld winning two races. However, by the end of the weekend, it was ZEIK that took the overall event winning on a tie-breaker over MARINA CORUNA with 17 points each, the tiebreaker to "greater number of first "wins" goes to the former.
For more sailing information and regatta results.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Bancantabria Sailing Cup
(Santander, Spain- 8-9 November)- The forecast for bad weather in the Bay of Biscay, with orange alert announced and forecast winds of force 7 to 8, meant that the Third Act (Series) of the Bancantabria Sailing Cup was going to be an experience to say the least. Fortunately, the Race Committee elected to setup the courses in the inner bay, therefore enabling the J/80s to have two fun, very windy races. Only twelve of the thirty boats raced in the demanding conditions. And the end of the weekend, it was Tono Gorostegui who maintained their composure to maintain the overall lead sailing FUNDESTIC.
Leaders for the weekend (Act III) were Pichu Torcida on ECC VIVIENDAS; then RAITA finished second and Tono's FUNDESTIC got third. The provisional Overall standings for the Bancantabria Sailing Cup has Tono's FUNDESTIC in first with 8 points, Paul Santurde's SPACIO in second with 12 points and Pichu Torcida's ECC VIVIENDAS in third with 13 points.
For more sailing and regatta information.
French J/80 Nationals
(Cherbourg, France- Nov. 7-11)- A record turnout of forty eight J/80s showed up for this year's French J/80 National Championship in Cherbourg. The hometown hosts were fabulous and put on quite a show despite the somewhat difficult weather conditions they were presented with over the course of the four day regatta. Light shifty four knot winds and flat water to moderate rolling seas blowing upwards of twenty knots offered the fleet tremendous challenges. It was very difficult to stay out of the bottom of the fleet and maintain some kind of consistency.
However, Luc Nadal and his team aboard GANJA sailed magnificently, demonstrating remarkable consistency across the board to win by nearly thirty points over his next competitor. Their record of 2-1-9-1-7-1-1 for 22 points speaks for itself...four firsts was unequalled in the fleet. Second overall was Jean-Yves Jaffrezic racing ATLANTIS with a record of 5-8-21-12-1-3-1 for 51 points, beating JACUZZI on a tie-breaker. Ludovic Gilet raced the renowned JACUZZI into third place with a 1-6-13-3-5-19-4 also with 51 points but lost tie on most firsts. Fourth was the famous French woman sailor Christine Briand just three points back sailing J ILE DE RE and finishing behind her was Frederic Denis on ECOLE NAVALE CG29 with 63 points.
On a personal note, it was nice to see Pierre Follenfant- a former 470 and FD sailor whom Drake and Stu sailed against when they were kids in the 470 class in the mid-1970s sailing a respectable series to finish 11th in this highly competitive fleet! We're glad to see old warhorses like us can still hang in there with the top players in the class!
For more sailing and regatta information.
Bancantabria Sailing Cup
(Santander, Spain- Oct. 14-26)- Hosted by the FCV (Federacion Cantabra de Vela) in Santander, Spain, the Bancantabria Sailing Cup had a strong turnout of thirty-one J/80s. The Cup is a series of races taking place over several weekends sailing in the spectacular waters off Santander in often warm, sunny conditions.
While the last weekend of the two week event was nearly a wash-out, the sailors had an enjoyable time racing for this past weekend's Fundestic Trophy. Pichu Torcida racing ECC HOMES managed to take home another win. Pushing him hard was Jaime Pris onboard FONESTAR to take second overall and coming in third place was Adrian Zamacona racing MABLE. Notable amongst the competitors in this year's even was the return, after months of absence from racing J/80s, of the 49er Olympic Sailing medalists Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez. Iker and Xabi went sailing with friends aboard PROPERNOR-- looks like they'll need some practice after posting a twelfth in their first outing.
For more sailing information and regatta results, please visit J/80 Spain Class site.
2010 J/80 European Championship Sailing on Lake Garda
Texas J/80 North Americans
(Houston, TX- October 23-25)- Kerry Klingler has been sailing J/80s for a number of years. Yet, despite the talent and the CV that might favor a "three-peat", Kerry was perhaps the least confident of the class leaders going into this year's J/80 North Americans. With six previous J/80 North American Champions in attendance, including a current J/22 International Class World Champion Terry Flynn, it was not readily apparent who would come out on top of the heap of such a talented group of sailors. As Terry said. "it was closest competition ever in NAs amongst the top 10....it could've gone either way."
The first day was perhaps the best for the fleet as it was a windy, puffy northerly gusting to twenty knots on Galveston Bay. It made for difficult conditions to stay consistently in the top five against the tough fleet of NA Champions. On the second day, there was no wind in the morning and the fleet had to wait for a light, shifty sea breeze to develop out of the southeast. By the third day of racing, a solid sea breeze filled in making for extremely tight, fun racing amongst everyone-- the very tight mark roundings had an enormous impact on race outcomes.
Prevailing through the smoke and fog of battle was Kerry Klingler and team again aboard their J/80 LIFTED with a 1-4-1-5-[13]-1-4-5 record for a total of 21 points. Hanging tough was Terry and David Flynn, finishing second with a 3-1-[8]-7-1-5-3-2 for 22 total points! Third overall was Glenn and Reese Darden sailing LE TIGRE to a 4-2-6-[10]-5-4-2-3 record for 26 points. Special mention must be made of Jay Lutz- the victim of an extraordinary accident at the J/80 Worlds in Santander, Spain. Now fully recovered, Jay "feels like new again" and sailed to a respectable fourth overall onboard the appropriately named PAINKILLER JANE with a 6-[9]-4-4-3-3-7-1 tally for 28 points.
For more sailing information and regatta results.
J/80 Tour Update
Word on the street is that upwards of a dozen J/80s have been bought for competing in this years' upcoming J/80 Tour that starts with the Nautica Key West Race Week in Key West, Florida and ends with the J/80 World Championships in Newport, Rhode Island. J/80 Class leaders at the recent J/80 North American Championships in Houston, Texas have seen strong enthusiasm for the J/80 Tour. For more information on this circuit, please contact J/80 Class reps at the J/80 Class Association- http://www.j80.org
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