Screaming Eagle wins at Manhasset Bay

John Chapman’s first event in his new J/122 happened to be the 630 mile rough, upwind Bermuda Race against four other sisterships. A few months and a few buoy races later, Chapman and his team aboard SCREAMING EAGLE (Peconic Bay, Long Island) savored victory of their own by winning IRC 3 Overall at the Manhasset Bay Fall Series. The regatta featured three days of big breezes followed by a day of sun and shifty northwesterlies. SCREAMING EAGLE won their competitive 10 boat class on the strength of 3 bullets in 6 races. Photo by Allen Clark of Photoboat.com

J/122 is RORC Yacht of the Year

Philippe Delaporte’s PEN AZEN was recently named the 2008 Yacht of the Year by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. Delaporte was recognized for his ‘outstanding racing achievement… and in particular for his sportsmanlike approach, Corinthian spirit and the support he has shown his fellow competitors.’ What a great way to cap off a second straight winning season.Delaporte, a multiple J owner who helped launch the J/80 class in France, sent the following email report:

“This year was very good for us. We just finished the RORC season and we are more than happy with the results. We won the season’s overall, our class and a total of 6 annual RORC trophies: - Best Overall - Best IRC 1- Best Overseas Yacht- Best Series-produced Yacht- Special trophies for events 3 and 4.

We raced 9 regattas including 2 long distance races from Cowes to Madeira and back that are 1,480 miles each. Both of them with strong winds. On the way to Madeira we got 30 knots upwind with gusts up to 46 knots during 3 days. 5 boats only arrived and we win overall. We won our class 7 times and finished second the 2 others. In short a full success. Pen Azen has now sailed 11,000 miles and we are very happy with her.” RORC site

TKO Repeats at Rolex Big Boat Series

Dave Kirby of Manhattan Beach, CA sailed his J/122 TKO to its second straight Rolex Big Boat Series win last weekend hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. Racing in IRC C division, TKO notched 5 bullets in 7 races, finishing 9 points clear of a custom Wylie 42, followed by a Sydney 38 and Tim Fuller’s J/122 RESOLUTE. The J/122 continues to demonstrate her racing versatility with impressive results in light air, heavy air, inshore and offshore venues. Of particular note is that most owners also daysail and cruise their J/122s, while many of their IRC competitors sit idle between races!

Christopher Dragon wins East Coasts

It would be hard to find a tougher test of racing skill than at the 2008 New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex. 120 boats competed across 6 classes in this four day event that featured the J/122 East Coast Championship. Thursday’s racing was wet and woolly with all fleets having to race inside the Bay due to the severe conditions. Friday and Saturday conditions eased enough to sail outside but with very lumpy seas. Then the T-Storms returned on Sunday with winds hitting 50 knots to shorten the day’s racing.

In J/122 action, Andrew Weiss (Rye, N.Y.) on CHRISTOPHER DRAGON opened the series with 6 straight bullets, before being really tested by both FLYING JENNY VI (David Askew, Annapolis, MD) and GAMBLER (Doug Shaffer, Houston, TX). The J/122s raced around the Island on Sunday, and with a 3rd place finish (behind FLYING JENNY and GAMBLER), Weiss locked up the J/122 East Coast Championship by two points over FLYING JENNY VI and 10 points over GAMBLER.

Sailing aboard the J/122 in the Mac Race

Kimball Livingston, west coast editor of Sail Magazine, joined Bill Zeiler's aboard his J/122 SKYE for the Chicago Yacht Club's 100th Race to Mackinac. Read here for Kimball's fun perspective on the race, which ended in victory for the team.

J/122 SKYE Wins in Mac Race Debut

Some call the Chicago-Mackinac Race one of the most difficult distance races to win. It’s a 333 mile sprint from the southern end to northern end of Lake Michigan and the rule of thumb is that no lead is a safe lead. Many a boat has been winning the Mac, only to park in the final few miles and watch the rest of the fleet catch up. To win the event in your first try either means you are really good, or really lucky. Bill Zeiler, aboard his new J/122 SKYE was perhaps both. SKYE has been on a tear since arriving in Lake Michigan earlier this year with “preseason” wins notched at the Chicago-Waukegan Race and the Olympic Cup. Their Chicago-Mac race division, 22 boats strong, represented a wide mix of performance boats (1D35 Heartbreaker, CM1200s, Sydney 41, GS 44, etc) including the J/124 SUFFICIENT REASON and the J/130 EDGE. In the mostly reaching and running conditions of the race, both SKYE and SUFFICIENT REASON outpaced the fleet with SUFFICIENT REASON winning the elapsed time battle by 3 minutes and SKYE correcting out under ORR handicap to secure the class victory with the J/124 in 2nd and J/130 in 5th.

Next for SKYE and the Zeiler family is some cruising in northern Lake Michigan followed by the Harbor Springs Regatta, which will serve as the IRC-US Championship for 2008.

J/122s Excel in Bermuda Race

Think of 3 to 4 days of sailing upwind in big chop, shifty winds, large current eddies, and with fans back home second-guessing your every move via satellite tracking on the web, and you’ll have an inkling of what racing was like in the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race. Many a nice meal was put on hold while crews acclimated to the bumpy conditions that greeted the 200+ fleet as they moved through the Gulf Stream along the 630 mile passage from Newport to Bermuda. J owners turned out in record numbers and represented 22% of the entire fleet - the first time J has surpassed Swan (14%) for most popular brand/design in a Bermuda Race. 2008 also marked the first appearance of the J/122 in the Bermuda Race, and five boats competed in the event, which was doubled scored under both IRC and ORR.

With several lead changes right down to the wire, David Askew and Ken Comerford on the J/122 FLYING JENNY VI were the first J/122 to finish by only 1 min 7 seconds over Marc Glimcher on CATAPULT and 35 minutes over Stephen Furnary on PATRIOT (pictured above), who had been the J/122 pace-setter for most of the race. After handicaps were applied, the top J122s in ORR (and finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th in class) were CATAPULT, PATRIOT & FLYING JENNY VI. Under IRC, it was FLYING JENNY VI, CATAPULT then PATRIOT.

Askew and Comerford aboard J122 FLYING GENNY VI were also part of the team that won the overall Onion Patch Series, an event that included the NYYC Annual Regatta, the Bermuda Race and the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta, all sailed under IRC.

J/122 Class at Greenwich Cup

The J/122 class sailed as Division 1 at the Greenwich Cup, a 4-race, two day series last weekend at Indian Harbor Yacht Club, in Greenwich, CT. Mike Bruno of WINGS emailed in the following report: “We had 3 races the first day in shifty northwest breezy conditions and Barry Gold on SUNDARI sailed superbly to two firsts and a second. WINGS was next with two seconds and a first and Andrew Weiss’ CHRISTOPHER DRAGON was third. DRAGON managed to get a large stick fouled between her rudder and keel and would likely have won the race she got a 4th in. WINGS managed to pull it out on day two (light dying conditions) getting the gun on the only race of the day and winning first overall in the regatta by 2 points over SUNDARI followed by CHRISTOPHER DRAGON and CATAPULT.”

The Long Island Sound fleet will be split up sailing in several events including Newport-Bermuda and Block Island, before regrouping as a class in July for the East Coast Championships in Newport, RI.

J/122 wins RORC Cervantes Trophy….Again

The class and overall prize for the 2008 RORC Cervantes Trophy Race to Le Havre, France was won by Phillipe Delaporte’s J/122 PEN AZEN by four seconds over John Shepherd’s Ker 46 Fair Do’s VII. What a fantastic start to the 2008 season for this formidable French racer who won his class in the 2007 event and was second only to Chaz Ivill’s J/133 in the series overall.

J/122 wins Antigua Sailing Week

Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua– It was a week of great competition on the water and lively parties ashore - another fine edition of Stanford Antigua Sailing Week, the 41st annual. 17 classes competed for several prestigious trophies with J owners coming away with much of the silver.
In the Racing IV, V and VI fleets, the overall winner in the combined rankings, for which they received the Global Bank of Commerce Cup, was James Dobbs' new J/122, LOST HORIZON. Dobbs was also presented with the Air Canada Cup for winning Racing V; the Beefeater Trophy as Best Caribbean Yacht in Division A; and the Hightide Trophy as the Best Antigua Yacht in Division A.

David Cullen’s J/109 POCKET ROCKET won the Chippy Fine Yacht Woodwork Cup for the top overall boat in the Performance Cruiser III and IV ranks, plus the British Airways Trophy for supremacy in the Performance Cruiser III division over the J/133 SOLNES III owned and raced by Herman Bergshaven.

And not to be outdone by the newer J models, Philippe Champion steering his J/120, PAULISTA, won the Antigua & Barbuda Investment Bank Trophy, for besting the Racing VI fleet. News & Results

J/122 Class debuts at AYC Spring Regatta

It was “spring” in name only at the American Yacht Club Spring Regatta as blustery, wet conditions forced sailors to keep out the winter frostbite gear for at least two more weekends. 100 boats in 12 one-design, IRC and PHRF classes did battle in the annual event that kicks off the big boat racing season in the Northeast. 51% of the entries were J’s, including one-design starts for the J/105, J/109, J/120, J/122 and J/44 classes.

In what was the first J/122 one-design event held in North America, American Yacht Club Commodore Michael Bruno and co-owner Tom Boyle skippered their new J/122 WINGS (pictured above doing 14.5 knots) to an impressive victory. Action was tight in the 7 boat class and is expected to ratchet up even further as more boats are slated to attend upcoming New England events including the East Coast Championship at NYYC Race Week in Newport in mid July.

“Having never sailed a sprit boat in the past, or competed in one design racing, it was particularly rewarding to do well in our Spring Series,” said Commodore Bruno. “The 122 is a superb boat with excellent build quality, awesome performance in all the conditions we have experienced to date, and great looks. The boat was totally in control on the days we saw 30kt gusts with steep seas, and was also very fast on the two light days. We already have three 122s at American and I suspect our fleet will grow quickly.”

Results

J/122 Video Action 2008

Check out the following video on J/122s racing around the course.

J/122 Wins Culebra Regatta

Jamie Dobbs and his new J/122 Lost Horizon II followed up their recent win at the St. Maarten Heineken regatta with another convincing win in the Racer-Cruiser class of the Culebra Heineken International Regatta in Culebra, PR. This is the second leg of the 2008 Caribbean Ocean Racing Triangle (C.O.R.T.) and this year featured both round-the-buoy and round-the-island racing in a variety of conditions. J/100 Bad Girl, the Key West & US PHRF National Champion, also enjoyed a return to the award podium by placing third in class 1. results here (photo by Bob Grieser).

J/122 Video Reviews

As posted on the J-UK web site and on an earlier news item here on the J/122 site, below are fresh links to two online J/122 videos.

Sail.TV Video Review

Demo Sail the J/122

'Panacea' Wins Her First Two Races

The brand new J/122 Panacea, owned by John and Jill Patterson, turned heads and wowed the opposition on Sunday winning her first ever race, and her second race too. John Patterson, an experienced racing sailor helming his new boat, with an all new crew in her debut race, steered the J/122 to victory winning both races on the water and on corrected time.

Racing in the Royal Southampton Yacht Club’s Frostbite Series, in the first race of the day Panacea beat the Corby 35 Njos into second place by 1 minute 20 seconds on corrected time and the Mills 36 Prime Suspect into third place, by over 4 minutes. Elsewhere in the eighteen boat class were, amongst others, two X-332s, a First 44.7, a HOD 35 and an Elan 34.

In the second race of the day Panacea (now really finding her stride) took the race from the Beneteau 44.7 Koko Kai beating her on corrected time by one minute 23 seconds. Kirsty & David Apthorp’s J/109 J-Dream (also new this season) finished in third place.

Conditions were relatively benign, with a south-westerly breeze of between ten and twelve knots, but Panacea’s first outing is none the less impressive!

J/122 Makes Debut at Key West

Two J/122s made a successful debut at the 2008 Acura Key West Race Week. After 8 races over an abbreviated 2 1/2 day schedule (2 days cancelled to bad weather), Andrew Weiss’ CHRISTOPHER DRAGON (Long Island Sound) and Robin Team’s TEAMWORK (Beaufort, SC) led the rest of the 37-40' IRC racers to finish 3rd and 4th overall in the closely contested IRC-2 class. The top two boats (Swan 45 MURKA-2 and J/44 GOLDDIGGER) sailed well and thrived in the moderate to windy conditions seen for most of the racing. The highlight for the J/122s was on Thursday when CHRISTOPHER DRAGON took two 2nds to TEAMWORK’S 1st and 3rd, with TEAMWORK later awarded the Premiere Racing BOAT-OF-THE DAY for winning the most competitive handicap class.