J/122 East Coasts Preview

(Rye, NY)- American Yacht Club is hosting the J/122 East Coast Championship this weekend in Western Long Island Sound.  With a forecast for sunny skies and solid breezes over the weekend following the passage of a large tropical depression Friday the racing promises to be tight and very exciting.  So closely matched are the J/122s that a blown tack, slow spinnaker hoist, or bad mark rounding can gain or lose you boat lengths, enough to change you several positions in the race. Many of the top teams will be attending, including the winner of the J/122 North Americans recently held in Newport, RI, Mike Bruno, Jim Callahan and Tom Boyle's WINGS.  The other podium finishers at the NA's will also be battling it out for line honors, including David Murphy's PUGWASH and Andrew Weiss' CHRISTOPHER DRAGON.  Last weekend's 122 leader in the IRC 40 Class was David and Mary-Ellen Tortorello's PARTNERSHIP, showing good speed and sailing well enough to win three races in a row at one point!  Sure to be contenders during the series will be Steve Furnary's PATRIOT (with Sandy Weill directing "traffic") and Georg Mark's GEORGETOWN III.  For more J/122 East Coasts sailing information

  

J/122s Enjoying American YC Fall Series

(Rye, NY)- With fall weather quickly gathering steam in the northeast, J sailors on western Long Island Sound are enjoying the changes in the weather patterns that often generate powerful fronts with strong, shifty West/ Northwesters or wet and wild North Easterlies on the back side of large offshore Lows.  No glassy summer calms for the troops this past weekend!  Saturday dawned beautifully, with partly cloudy skies and a strong westerly that kept shifting between 250 to 280 degrees all day with large, well-defined streaks of breeze in the 10-20 knot range.  By Sunday, the fronts moved on, greeting the fleet with a cooler, wet, grey day typical of a lingering northeaster with winds vacillating in the 45 to 80 degree range at 10-15 knots.  No one was complaining about the conditions, that's for sure.

In the IRC 40 Class, David and Mary Ellen Tortorello's J/122 PARTNERSHIP is in second and Tom Boyle and Jim Callahan's WINGS is in fourth in a very tightly contested series.  This weekend was essentially a warm-up for next weekends' J/122 East Coast Championship that will have at least six boats vying for one-design/ handicap honors.  For more American YC Fall Series Regatta sailing information

  

J/122 Best 40+ Record In 2010

(Newport, RI)- FLYING JENNY VI she was.  And flying on WINGS and a prayer she was, too.  And while SKYE was not to be denied, nor was the noble and famous CHRISTOPHER DRAGON taking off into wild blue yonder without collecting some gold and silverware along the way, too. Are TEAMWORK and PARTNERSHIP emblematic of teams like the Yankees and Red Sox knocking it out of the park? PUGWASH applying Einstein-like out-of-the-box thinking and cleaning house?  What's the common denominator?  All J/122s sailing in the summer of 2010...continuing to win in all conditions, all weather, from fully crewed teams to double-handed pioneers.  Let the force be with you.  Can something so comfortable, elegant and gorgeous really win that much? You can count on it.

Collectively, some of these J/122s sailed their one-design North Americans together, won by the WINGS gang. FJ VI won the Great Lakes IRC Champs, the Bayview-Mac, the Chicago-Mac and the Harbor Springs Regatta- not just the magic "three-peat" some Chicago basketball player once announced, but the more incredible "four-peat" all in one season!  PUGWASH walked off with class wins in the Astor Cup and Queens Cup as well as Squadron Runs in the fabled New York YC's Annual Cruise in Maine.  TEAMWORK sprinted away with the Ft. Lauderdale-Key West Race.  PARTNERSHIP blew away all competitors in the Stamford-Vineyard Race.  CHRIS DRAGON simply dominated the US IRC National Championship in her class.  Not to be outdone by FJ VI, the remarkable SKYE walked off with a three-peat of the Chicago-Mac Race, this year as Double-Handed Overall Winners- a feat unequalled by ANY boat EVER in the history of this most infamous race covering the length of Lake Michigan.  For more information on sailing the luxurious J/122

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J/122 Repeats Stamford-Vineyard Race

J/122 PARTNERSHIP Flies In Big Seas/ Big Breeze

(Stamford, CT)- The 76th running of the Vineyard Race historically takes place on Labor Day weekend. It is a classic American yachting event hosted by Stamford Yacht Club (Stamford, CT), taking the fleet on a 238-mile course stretching through Long Island Sound, past Block Island, and on to the light tower at the entrance to Buzzard's Bay before returning to the finish in Stamford Harbor. Interest in the 2010 race was high, with 85 entries confirmed, way up from 50 entries two years ago.

And then came Hurricane Earl with reports of 50 foot seas offshore, Category 3 status with winds up to 150 mph, enormous storm surge due to its 940 mb low pressure and hitting the Northeast coast at high tide.  It all sounded a bit like a Hollywood death and destruction movie rolling up the eastern seaboard, mayhem and chaos left spinning in its wake.  As a result, the Race Committee studied the weather projections and by late Wednesday postponed the Friday noon start until 10:00 on Saturday.  It was a good move.  By the early hours of Saturday the storm was over Nova Scotia going out to sea.

The 2010 Vineyard Race provided serious thrills this year, with big seas and breeze in the 20 to 30+ kt range. J/Boats dominated the winner’s circle, with first place finishes in 5 divisions, including PHRF-3, IRC-Doublehanded, IRC-30, IRC-40 and IRC-45.

In the IRC-40 class, J’s took the first 3 positions, with David and Mary-Ellen Tortorello's J/122 PARTNERSHIP in first place- repeating their win the previous year.  The victory for the 122 proves again how successful a design the 122 can be in IRC racing. The 122 also beat most of the next division (IRC-45, starting 10 minutes later) across the line boat-for-boat! We’re happy to see the J/122 flourishing as both a one design class and an extremely competitive boat in IRC-40.  George Shaws' J/122 TUMBLEWEED finished fifth.
 
For more Stamford-Vineyard Race sailing information

For some fun, you might enjoy watching the J/92s Stamford Vineyard Race YouTube video.
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J/122 PUGWASH Wins In New York YC Cruise

(Camden, ME)- This year's 154th Annual New York YC Cruise in Maine had over 100 yachts. How cool is that?  Well, it was more like 60 sailboats and 40 motor yachts as support/ mother-ships.  Fun stuff.  The social calendar is nearly as important as the sailing calendar...some think the former is way, way more important than the latter (where was JP Morgan and The Queen?). 

The Queen's Cup, a marquee event of the Annual Cruise, saw Dave Murphy's J/122 PUGWASH (pictured above sailing off Key West) finish second overall by 20 seconds (but winning class)! Two days later, on August 10, Dave's J/122 PUGWASH also finished second overall in the equally iconic Astor Cup by 22 seconds (but winning class)!  Ouch!  That hurts...two huge chunks of silverware lost were it not for some lobster pots on rudders, a few slow tacks and a better spinnaker take-down.  Nevertheless, the PUGWASH gang, like George Washington forging across the Delaware River, persevered against all odds and took first overall for IRC 2 for the Squadron Runs.  For more New York YC Cruise sailing information.

  

J/122 JINJA 2nd In Cowes Week

J/122 JINJA 2nd IRC 2

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Racing conditions for this year's Cowes Week could be described as challenging interspersed with "champagne sailing" for those sun gods and goddesses looking to enjoy the "southern climate" of England; enjoying all the Solent could possibly muster over the week long event.

The J/122s were quite successful racing both handicap and one-design class within IRC 2 Class.  On handicap, Ian Matthews' JINJA climbed into second overall for the series and Rodolphe Marchais' JOLLY JOKER hung onto their mid-week position of sixth overall.  In one-design class, JINJA, JOLLY JOKER were first and second, respectively, followed by David Richard's JOLLY in third, David Hunt's JACOB'S LADDER in fourth and Robin Myerscough's MINT JULEP  in fifth.

 For more Cowes Week sailing information.

  

Cowes Week- Midweek Update

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The racing conditions have been challenging with the fourth day of racing producing some "champagne sailing" conditions.  A patchy early-morning westerly wind built into a 15-20 knot south-westerly by lunchtime, giving perfect racing conditions.
 
By late morning as the larger handicap classes started, the champagne sailing conditions kicked in.  The wind in the central Solent rose to a solid south-westerly of 15-20 knots, giving an increased tempo and energy to the short tacking and progressively more anxious calls for water as all boats headed upwind to the first markers. 

The J/122s are racing both handicap and class within IRC 2 Class.  On handicap, Ian Matthews' JINJA is in third and Rodolphe Marchais' JOLLY JOKER is in sixth.  In one-design class, JINJA, JOLLY JOKER are first and second, respectively, followed by David Richard's JOLLY in third.



For more Cowes Week sailing information.   

Sailing photo credits- Rick Langford- Ocean Images