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.