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.