J/122 JACKPOT Wins Down Under

(Sydney, Australia)- The opening race of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore Series held on 2nd October provided a challenge for the 18 boats who took to the water.

A spectacular rain and wind squall gave the fleet a wake-up call with boats reporting wind speeds of 25-26 knots from the 6 knot east nor’easterly breeze that marked the start.

Ray Entwistle’s J/122 JACKPOT, last year’s Grant Thornton Short Ocean IRC Pointscore winner, started the season where he left off – taking the IRC Division 1 win with David Forbes’ Kaiko 52 Merlin taking line honours. Tim Cox’s DK43 Minerva finished second in IRC Division 1 with Merlin third.

"I'm over the moon with today's win," said Ray Entwistle, owner of JACKPOT. "After a fickle start, we relished the challenging course and despite getting wet through had a great day out for the first race of the season.  The wind varied from 5 knots to 26 knots, with a massive rain squall which came through mid race, reducing visibility to 50m, with 30degree wind shifts.  On the final downwind leg heading back into Sydney Harbour, we were surfing at 14-15 knots, with the 155sq.m kite."  For more Australian sailing info
  

The DRAGON Wins J/122 East Coasts

(Rye, NY)- In addition to the AYC Fall Series, American YC also hosted the J/122 East Coast Championship this past weekend in Western Long Island Sound.  Strong winds following the passage of a large tropical depression Friday made for excellent sailing conditions for this competitive group.

After the four races held over the two days, it was Andrew Weiss's family team racing CHRISTOPHER DRAGON that sailed a very good series to win the J/122 East Coast Championships with a consistent score of 1-1-1-4 for seven points.  Nipping at their heels all weekend was Mike Bruno's WINGS sailing to a 2-2-4-1 score for nine points.  Sailing perhaps one their better regattas in awhile was Steve Furnary's PATRIOT, racing to a 4-3-3-2 record for twelve points. It seems that Steve did, in fact, benefit from Sandy Weill's wonderful ability to "direct traffic" on board to keep them in the hunt!  Previous weekend's winner, Dave and Mary-Ellen Tortorello's PARTNERSHIP sailed to a respectable 3-5-5-3 score for sixteen points, just behind Dave Murhpy's PUGWASH with a 3-4-2-5 tally for fourteen points.   For more J/122 East Coasts sailing information.

  

Generations of Dragons Flying Fast

(Larchmont, NY)- Andrew Weiss's J/122 CHRISTOPHER DRAGON recently won her class and the overall trophy in the inaugural IRC Championship of Long Island Sound. This was no small feat since the 34-boat fleet was greater in size than the fleet that sailed at the IRC Nationals earlier in the summer. Dragon also won her division at the 2010 Larchmont NOOD regatta.

At the IRC championship, DRAGON sailed with an all-amateur crew beating the second place boat that was a mostly professionally crewed J/122 with a brand new wardrobe of sails from another sailmaker. "We did to PUGWASH, just what we were able to do with WINGS the week before at the NOOD. We sailed right out from under them and then moved in front of them and forced them to tack away.”

The Dragon program has always been a family program. Andrew crewed with his father Steve on eight CHRISTOPHER DRAGONs going back to 1973. In 1975 his friend Larry Fox joined the crew and has been sailing with Andrew ever since. Andrew did his first Newport to Bermuda race in 1976 on the third CHRISTOPHER DRAGON that was a C&C 42 with Butch Ulmer, Howie McMichael several other prominent Larchmont Yacht Club sailors. They finished an second in class -- a huge accomplishment in one of sailing's most prestigious races. "I remember my father and Butch trying to convey the enormity of what we had done, but I was too young to understand. Thirty years later I took my son Christopher on the Bermuda Race and we won our class. Now the tables were turned I had to explain to my son how much it meant to win the race. He may not have understood, but it sure got him hooked on sailboat racing. He had such a good time that asked me why I hadn't made him to go to junior sailing classes in the past. Chris has been steady crew ever since.”

CHRISTOPHER DRAGON sailing upwind on her way to winning the overall award at the Long Island Sound IRC Championships.   Allen Clark/photoboat.com

Andrew's sister Gavin is also a regular and she brought a friend Byron seven years ago and he had been a steady member of the crew as well. Andrew's good friend Linda Berkley has been sailing on three different DRAGONS going back to the Farr 43. Larry Fox now brings his son the rest of the regular crew is rounded out by friends Jonathan Asch and Drew Stetler, both who have been sailing on DRAGONs going back to 1985.

Before the Long Island Sound J/122 championship, Andrew wrote to his crew, "The last two weekends have been great sailing for CHRISTOPHER DRAGON. Everyone has done a great job and it shows in the results!!! I just added it up. In 11 starts we had eight firsts and three seconds!! Hard to beat that.”

What's better than sailing with your family? Winning with your family.

  

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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