While the respective champions of the 2024 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series regattas prepare for the ultimate race of the season at the Caribbean Championship in the BVIs in late October, the regatta management team is full speed preparing for the coming

2025 season with dates now announced for all five regattas. Organizers aim to continue to build on the moment of past years with a focus on diversity across the one-design class spectrum and further inclusion of youth teams in established one-design and handicap classes.

As has been the case for more than three decades now, Florida’s St. Petersburg YC will host the first regatta of the season from February 14 to 16, and early indications hint at another benchmark gathering of one-design keelboats, handicap fleets (PHRF and ORC), and dinghy classes new and old.

Annapolis YC, with race-management support from Eastern YC and Severn Sailing Association, will host the second stop of the series, which remains one of the strongest multiclass one-design events on the Eastern Seaboard. In 2024, organizers included the Waszp foiling class for the first time, as well as the local favorite Harbor 20s which are expected to return in even greater numbers now that the event has found its way onto the busy class event calendar. May 2 to 5 is when the action gets underway in this Chesapeake Bay season kick off.

With a triumphant return to Detroit’s Bayview YC in 2024 after a ten-year absence, the regatta series returns to the Motor City from May 30 to June 1, with expectations of increasing fleet numbers in the area’s strongest one-design fleets, as well as inviting new classes to what is a reemergent racing scene keen to bring the once-vibrant racing scene back to its past glory.

The series continues its Great Lakes action at Chicago YC from June 6 to 8 before heading east for the final US stop, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, this year hosted by Boston YC, with on-water support from nearby Eastern and Corinthian YCs, from July 24 to 27.

At each of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series events, one overall winner is selected to compete at the Caribbean Championship, which is scheduled for October 18 to 25.

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• PRELIMINARY RESULTS
• PHOTO GALLERY

Marblehead Harbor was placid at first light. Pure sheen. Not a whiff of wind. And it remained that way as the Race Committees of Eastern, Boston and Corinthian YCs soldiered out to the open ocean with best intentions. The sailors followed. And wallowed until nothing came. Yet while the others drifted on the swirling currents of Marblehead Channel, race officials of the Archers Line made a calculated retreat to inner reaches of the Harbor where the Town class regularly sails.

The Lasers retreated as well, and while fleets from the offshore circles motored past en route to their moorings and hoists, a round green weather mark was placed 100 feet from Eastern YC’s launch dock. 

Soon, a dozen Lasers were slaloming through one of the most densely populated mooring fields on the East Coast, and then doing the same downwind, fighting for clean air between themselves, and swinging Grady Whites, Regulators and Sunday afternoon harbor strollers.

Yarmouth, Maine’s Jamie Carter won the race and the Laser series. And that was that.

The Townies were next, with nine competitors of the original 13-boat fleet piling up at the weather end with 20 seconds remaining. To leeward and forward of the group was the distressed black hull of Albatross, skippered by the wise ‘ol Rex Antrim from down in nearby Nahant.“We’re ahead in points,” Antrim says when interviewed before the race. “So far so good.”

The tips he shares for speed in the Town class are simple: “Don’t sail with any weather helm, if you can. And sail around the course faster than the other guy. Sail the shortest distance.”

His daughter Heidi is crewing with him today. “He’s had a different crew with him every day,” she says. “My mom, my daughter Callie, and then myself.”

Antrim has owned the boat since 1980, and his black beauty may be 90 years old, but for this edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week, he’s been the quickest of the fleet over three days of light winds and strong currents. After five races, he’s locked into a three-boat battle for this year’s Townie title, which is a big deal round these parts.

A one-shot windward/leeward race will decide the series, and Antrim is all alone near the pin end of the line at precisely 2 seconds before the start. He and Heidi trim their sails in unison and skirt past a big yellow Harbor Master buoy, duck a powerboat, and then speed off the left. 

Some of the fleet sail up the middle, tacking on shifts and obstructions. A few disappear to the right flank of the harbor. Somehow they’re soon on top of each other at the weather mark, calling room and then blanketing each other’s winds with their long footed mainsails.

Individual scrimmages weave through the moorings, and within a hundred yards of  the finish line, the top three converge in a bottle neck between powerboats. 

Antrim and skipper Nick Cann on Tonic are closing in on Bill Heffernen’s Sweep, ghosting up to him with a puff of their own. Twenty feet from the finish line, Heffernan hooks his mainsheet on a motorboat’s bow pulpit and his white boat comes to a brief halt. He breaks free quick enough to accelerate and win the race by a boat length.

Antrim and Cann are overlapped and then abeam of each other. Antrim is in the black boat to leeward. Cann is in the bright yellow boat to windward. Their jibs are poled out, their mainsails out to their stopper knots as the two of them see-saw places.But as they strike the line, Antrim gets the call and earns this year’s Town class championship by 3 points. A victory earned in the harbor, and another sidebar in the Town class annals: that time Rex Antrim won the lightest Race Week in a long, long time and proved once again that the really good ones are always faster in the light stuff.

With no results to change for the remaining fleet, the standings remained unchanged as the final regatta of the Regatta Series came to a close in Marblehead, but as is tradition at Race Week, there are perpetual trophies that come hard earned. First and foremost is the Cressy Trophy, presented annually to the “top performing skipper in the most competitive fleet at Marblehead Race Week.” That honor, presented by co-race chair Jud Smith, who with his wife Cindy, together held the reins of this edition, went to top ILCA finisher Jamie Carter, of Yarmouth, Maine. The young sailor emerged from a close series of five races with 8 points.

The Leonard Fowle Trophy, presented to “an individual who has made noteworthy contributions to sailing and racing in Marblehead, was presented to Smith, for his leadership of the regatta and working with his wife to modify and create new racecourses to add to the regatta’s traditional courses.
A new perpetual trophy added to the haul, the Widnall Trophy, which is presented to International One Design winner, was won by the man himself, putting up his 29th Race Week win in the class.

The final award of the night, the overall title, presented to an individual class winner drawn at random, went the way of the squad on the J/105 No Quarter, from nearby Beverly, Massachusetts. As a group of friends that have been racing with or against each other in different classes, together they’ve been quick to get up to speed, winning the regatta in what is now their second season with the boat.

They battled with perennial champ Merlin throughout the regatta and No Quarter co-owner Matt Herbster, says the win was bittersweet. “Merlin beat us on the water, but one bad spinnaker set did them in on Saturday. We wanted to go out and win today, but we were robbed of that [opportunity] because of the weather. “But we are happy to go back out with them and settle the score.”

On the boat with Herbster for Race Week and headed to the British Virgin Islands with Sunsail in October was Jonathan Dragonas, Julie Femino, Noah Flaherty, Ted Johnson and Chris Small. Small says their success over the weekend was “about keeping the boat rumbling, and working together with the trimmers to make sure we’re maintaining boatspeed and our lane.”

They’re confident they take their collective skills to the Caribbean and do just fine against the regatta series’ five other challengers and the defenders. “We’ll go down there and do what we do,” they say. “We’ll figure out how to sail the boat, get it fast and have fun.”

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• PRELIMINARY RESULTS
• PHOTO GALLERY

Aidan Naughton and Marina Barzaghi, who trekked north to the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Marblehead from nearby Rhode Island, won the one that counted today.

Truth be told, it was the only race completed for 27 Lightning teams sailing for their Atlantic Coast Championship. On their nearest-to-the-shoreline racecourse, along with the Viper 640s, Lightning sailors were lucky enough to get off a challenging race in the early tendrils of a sea breeze, before it went kaput and the waiting game started, to no avail.

The Viper 640s got one in as well and that one was won by Justin Scott’s Mambo Kings. But yesterday’s leaders on Marek Zaleski’s Team Z were fourth across the line, a finish good enough to keep them at the top of the standings by 4 points over Peter and Rachel Beardsley’s Glory Days.

While Lightning and Viper racers drifted on the tide and patiently waited, they were taunted by the scenery of full spinnakers further offshore where the other circles enjoyed just enough breeze to continue apace with their respective races. The Etchells fleet got in three, with three different teams winning races. Ron Zarella’s team on Bob, however, knocked off a pair of seconds and a fifth and kept their lead padded to 5 points over Don Dowd’s USA 1397.

Bill Widnall’s veteran crew on the International One-Design Javelin, started the day with back-to-back race wins before closing it with a third, shuffling the top-three teams and putting Widnall and Co., at the top of the standings by 1 point over Carolyn Corbet’s Elektra, winner of the third race.

There’s a change in leadership atop the J/105 class as well, with Mathew Herbster’s squad on No Quarter putting up a trio of second-place finishes. Charlie Garrard’s Merlin, started the day with a race win and followed that with a shocker (7th) before making up for it with another race win.

Al Minella’s crew on the J/70 Level 5 did a bit of a horizon job on the fleet in the day’s first race by “winning the pin and banging the left,” says tactician Nevin Snow. A second in the next race and win in the third of the day has them 4 points clear of Jim Raisides and Charlie Pendalton’s Bad Hombres.

Adam Roberts and Alden Reid on Ripcord are all but running away with the Rhodes 19 series, sitting on 16-point lead with one final day of racing remaining. Ripcord was fourth In the Rhodes fleet’s only race of the day, but Dave Reynolds and Jeff Shoreman on McLovin’ were loving their race win, which moved them into the top-10 of the 28-boat fleet after putting up a pair of mid-fleet results on Friday. Above them in the standings, however, five boats have only 2 points between them. That’s Rhodes 19 racing: always highly competitive at Marblehead Race Week.

Seventeen ILCA sailors got their two-day series underway with four short mid-day races before the breeze shutoff. Jamie Carter, from Portland, Maine, made the winning move in the first race with an immediate jibe at the weather mark, quick thinking that allowed him to jump from mid-fleet and into the lead. With three third-place over the remaining races, Carter leads Nicolas Regnault by 5 points.

The post Haves and Have Nots On Marblehead Regatta’s Second Day appeared first on Sailing World.

• PRELIMINARY RESULTS
• FRIDAY PHOTO GALLERY

Brian Keane and his team on the J/70 team Savasana have always been quick in Marblehead. As a local, Keane knows the waters well and his has been a perennial top team at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week, but this weekend, a last-minute addition of local wizard and National Sailing Hall of Famer Jud Smith certainly got the team off to a good start on a day that left most competitors wondering where wind would come from—or if it would come at all.

Thus was the opening day of the final stop of the national regatta series, which ushered sailors out to Marblehead Channel in a fresh northerly that would eventually fight with an afternoon sea breeze that did eventually come. 

It was especially challenging for the J/70 fleet, contesting its New England Championship. The location of their race circle on the “Brimbles Line” had them sailing with and through the Town Class and 28-boat Rhodes 19 fleet. Short courses, lots of traffic, dramatically shifty winds and a day-long tide switch threw all sorts of challenges at the fleet. Savasana put up a 6-2-1 to lead the fleet after three races, but they lead by only a single point over second and third-placed teams, Dave Franzel’s Spring and Jim Raisides and Charlie Pendelton’s Bad Hombres (top Corinthian), respectively.

Adam Roberts and Alden Reid, on Ripcord, made seemingly easy work of the conditions in the 28-boat Rhodes 19 fleet, the largest fleet of the regatta. The duo put up a 1-2 to start the series with an 8-point lead over Stephen Uhl and Kathleen Lane on Woodstock. The top-five are tight, however, with past regatta winner Matt Hooks winning the second race to claw back points from his 14th in the first race of the day.

Rex Antrim’s Albatross leads the 13-boat Town Class fleet with a 3-1 and has 3 points to spare over past winners Berit and Karen Solstad’s Lille Venn. The sisters won the first race, but found themselves batting in mid-fleet in the next.

The regatta’s “Outside Line,” which features the IODs, Etchells and J/105 classes found itself smack in the middle of the two winds fighting each other, and the second race of the day turned inside out when the wind switched 180-degrees. The race committee let it play out. Ron Zarella’s team on the Etchells Bob managed a 3-3-1 to end the day with a 5-point margin over Robert Hitchock’s team on Chemical Monkey (9-1-2).

The IODs, which are sailing for a new perpetual trophy named after fleet stalwart Bill Widnall, are making the local legend work hard to get his name on the trophy’s first plaque. Greg Mancusi-Ungaro’s Viking went 3-1-2 to Widnall’s 1-4-3 scoreline, but last year’s overall winner—Carolyn Corbet’s Elektra—is tied with Widnall at 8 points apiece.

Charlie Garrard’s Merlin leads the J/105 fleet with two race wins and a third, while Chris and Marek Zaleski, and Jacob Bradt atop the Viper 640 fleet with a 1-2-5 and a 5-point lead over Peter and Rachel Beardsley. The Viper 640 fleet, with 19 entries, is contesting its New England Championship.

Saturday’s racing will welcome a 27-boat Lightning fleet that has assembled for its Atlantic Coast Championship, as well as the 19 sailors of the ILCA fleet.

The post Regatta Series In Marblehead Starts With a Twist appeared first on Sailing World.

Marblehead, Massachusetts, with its iconic deep harbor and jam-packed mooring field, is as picturesque as a New England coastal town can possibly be—a Shangri La or Pleasantville in the shadow of madcap Boston. And here on the harbor are three equally iconic yacht clubs that have been hosting the region’s biggestsailing fete of the summer for 135 years: Marblehead Race Week.

The rotation of hosting duties between the Boston, Corinthian and Eastern yacht clubs is a longstanding tradition that ensures the burden is shared among them, and this year, competitors of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week will be hosted by Eastern, the grandiose clubhouse on “the Neck.” With a large turnout of sailors, friends and family expected, Eastern will certainly be bustling each evening, while out on the vast Gulf of Maine from Thursday to Sunday, nearly 160 entries will be making their best efforts to earn Race Week’s historic trophies and class championships.

Vipers In the Pit

Sailors of the Viper 640 class will be vying for their coveted New England Championship title and among them are East Coast diehards of the class, including Henry Amthor, the Viper 640 New England Champion skipper from Norfolk, Virginia, whose team “Bob, Parker & Henry” won in 2023. As expected, there’s also a strong Canadian contingent returning, as well as Marblehead first-timer Doug Jensen and his 20-year-old son Jay, driving in from Topeka, Kansas.

Jensen, who grew up racing extensively in the Pacific Northwest, is relatively new to the class having bought his first Viper 640 in 2020. He’s trying the grow the class in his region and when the opportunity to race in Marblehead came up, he happily accepted the last-minute offer to come and race.

“The class is just so awesome,” Jensen says when we reached him and his son by phone as they were beginning their 24-hour trek. “They have a boat there for us to use I’ve never been there or raced on the East Coast, so I’m looking forward to having fun and racing on an ocean with currents and tides.”

Lightnings Strike Twice

The Lightning Class, which returned to the Race Week last year after nearly four decades, will bolster their return with an Atlantic Coast Championship title on the line and 27 teams registered. The class is enjoying a US resurgence thanks to long-term outreach efforts and programs to recruit younger sailors that are now bearing fruit. With their North American Championship on the calendar at Ontario’s Buffalo Canoe Club in August, Marblehead is the final stop before the big regatta. As a tight-knit grassroots one-design class that embraces the travel, it’s worth noting that only one of the 27 registered teams actually hails from Marblehead.

“There’s no fleet in Marblehead,” says CH Ritt, who won the regatta last year with Charles Quigley’s Chancy. “Last year was a lot of fun, but this time the fleet has a few more all-stars in it, including Bill Healy, from Niantic [Conn.], who would have to be considered one the favorites. While we did win last year, we will have our hands full this time.”

The third of the big championships to be contested over the weekend is for the J/70 class. As its New England Championship, the regatta will also serve as a world championship berth qualifier. Fourteen teams are on the roster, among them several top-level teams, including Brian Keane’s Savasana, which won Race Week 2023 and then placed fourth overall at the J/70 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Florida, last November, a regatta that was remarkable for the depth of the fleet.

The Regatta Classics

While the three big championship classes will share the “Tinkers Line,” the Outside Line further offshore will feature Race Week regulars of the J/105, International One Design and Etchells. The IOD’s defending champions and the 2023 regatta’s Overall Winner—Carolyn Corbet’s Elektra—are returning with the same crew but this time vying for a new trophy created to mark the accomplishments of fleet legend Bill Widnall. Widnall joined the Marblehead IOD fleet in 1966, and has since won 27 Marblehead season championships, 28 Marblehead Race Weeks, and 10 International Class World Championships.

The Halfway Rock Line, closer to the entrance to Marblehead Harbor, will host the other longstanding classes of Marblehead Race Week: the Rhodes 19 and Town classes, the latter of which will be sailing for its New England Championship. The enduring popularity and simplicity of the Rhode 19 continues to attract new sailors, and for this year’s edition 27 teams have registered, earning them bragging rights as the largest traditional class gathering of Race Week today. Twenty ILCA sailors will race on the Brimbles Line on Saturday and Sunday as the regatta’s only singlehanded dinghy class.

All parties and awards, including Sailing World’s Speaker Series on Thursday night featuring Race to Alaska class winner Adam Cove, will be hosted at Eastern YC with nightly food and entertainment. The regatta’s overall winner, which will earn a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands in October will be selected at the conclusion of the final Awards Ceremony. All regatta details and event information can be found here.

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On June 8, 2024, ahead of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series at Marblehead Race Week, the Widnall Prize was offered by the International Class (IOD) Fleet of Marblehead. The magnificent silver tray will be the perpetual trophy for the winner of the International Class at the annual regatta.  

The prize is dedicated to Bill Widnall, a legendary sailor in Marblehead, nationally, and internationally.  Widnall joined the Marblehead IOD fleet in 1966, and since that time has set a standard of excellence that is unlikely to be challenged by any future sailor.  To date, he has won twenty-seven Marblehead season championships, twenty-eight Marblehead Race Weeks, and ten International Class World Championships.

In addition, Widnall deserves much of the credit for bringing a new generation of sailors to Marblehead, top-flight competitors, including many who also won IOD World Championships – John Wales, Steve Wales, Charlie Hamlin, Ted Cook, Jud Smith, Bobby McCann, Peter Warren, and Bruce Dyson. Bill is a fierce competitor on the water, but always a generous, supportive, and gentle mentor ashore. He is a true sportsman who has been a quiet leader of the World Class for over fifty years (and counting.)

The prize is a beautiful sterling silver tray with a roped edge. It is hand-engraved in classic style. Across the upper part of the trophy are highlights of Bill’s achievements in the Class, the places where the number Bill’s accomplishments would be engraved in the trophy are intentionally blank – they will be engraved later—for Widnall is still sailing, and hopes to increment his accomplishments in each of those categories in the future.

The Marblehead Race Association and IOD Class will award this prize for the first time on July 28, 2024 at the conclusion of this year’s Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta at Marblehead Race Week. 

The post Widnall Prize Announced for Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta at Marblehead Race Week appeared first on Sailing World.

FINAL RESULTS

REGATTA PHOTO GALLERY

Brian Kaczor’s Team on Erica was ready for the big breeze coming their way on the third and final day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, but they were unprepared for how difficult it would be to defend their lead and pull off a win in the ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet. After six challenging races in all ranges of wind, Team Erika’s winning margin was a single point, and it was this point they had fight for in the final race.

“We hung on to first place, barely,” Kaczor said. “We had a tough day with tactics and my driving, but we were able to make up a lot of it on the downwind stuff.”

Their downwind speed in top-end conditions, Kaczor says, was all down to the crew (Corey Fast, Christa Georgeson, Scott Melanson, Seth Morrell, Brian Nelson, and Chuck O’Donnell). “They were the key in the last race. We had to catch one more boat and there was no question that the chute had to go up to catch that one boat in front of us,” he said. “The crew was amazing, and was able to handle that and pull it off.”

The class win also earned Kaczor’s team the regatta’s overall title and a berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Caribbean Championship in October, hosted by Sunsail in the British Virgin Islands. The team will face winners from the regatta series’ other stops, as well as the 2023 defending champion.

For many sailors in the fleet, Sunday’s strong winds were reminiscent of Friday’s. A fast-building northwest wind pushed boats, gear, and crew to their limits, with more than one team reporting breakages and blown sails. Still, the Chicago and Corinthian YCs gave the sailors a full slate of races and enough stories to share all summer. This edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta will certainly be remembered for its testing but tasty champagne conditions. Beneteau 36.7 skipper Robert Nelson’s lasting memory was challenges his team on Free Radical faced in the final race while persevering to win the class.

“It was incredibly close racing,” Nelson said. “The biggest key for us on Friday was keeping the boat under control and under the chute. We made out that day and were 1-2-1. Keeping your air clean and the boat under control. When it’s as windy as it was, with the Beneteau 36.7, the winning technique is the helm and main trimmer being in sync. This was some of the most competitive racing I’ve experienced in this fleet and I’ve been in the fleet since 1996.”

On the One-Design White Circle, Andy Graff’s Team Exile experienced its share of broaches, as they had on Friday, and had a tough day today but pulled off a 4-point win. “We entered the day with a 1-point lead and in the first race we just covered the boats near us in the standings. In the last race I didn’t know the scores of the boats behind us, but we didn’t want to put a kite up—knew we just had to finish. The last race was a hard race…we were just trying to get around without hurting anything or breaking anything.”

In the J/105 class, John Kalanik’s Pura Vida pulled off an impressive win in the big breeze, earning the team’s first win in the boat. “We went in leading and had two good races and were still leading,” says Jim Elvart, Kalanik’s helmsman for the weekend—they trade off between helm and mainsail trim. “But in the last race we hit the weather mark. We were last for a bit and had to come back to save enough points. Over the weekend we had a few great experiences, but this is a great first regatta win for this new team.”

The regatta’s distance racers were again treated to 20 miles of fast sailing that had the first boats across the line after less than four hours. Thomas Papoutsis J/133 Renegade won its second race of two to win its ORC 1 division; Ben Wilson’s Rambler won its ORC 2 division and Tomasz Kokocinski’s Koko Loco 2 survived the day to enjoy a 1-point win in PHRF 1. Ben White’s Farr 38 Radiance was the top boat in PHRF 2 with a second in the day’s race, which was won by Branwell Lepp’s J/105, It Wasn’t Me.

Action on the Green Circle continued into the final race with Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s team on Mojo strolling away with the class win with a 10-point margin over Tom Weber’s La Tempete.

Michael Hendries’s J/109 Bull was a standout performer this weekend with four wins in six races. Hendrie has been racing the boat for 14 seasons as its helmsman under the ownership of local sailor Jim Murray [Calisto], but this was his first win as the new owner and driver of the boat, renamed Bull.

“It was a relief to win,” Hendrie said. “I didn’t sail much last year and to come to this regatta and pull it all together was a relief because we started with a few mishaps on Friday—our jib halyard shackle broke twice and that set us back initially.”

Bull was down by 3 points going into the day, but they made their move to the top of the scoreboard with a win in the first race. “We had a great start, tacked, crossed the fleet and knocked it out from there. It was shifty, though, and we played the shifts really well in that race.

“But the next two races we did not have great starts—were over early on the third one, came back and were able to claw our way back in that big breeze. We are good and set up well for the heavy breeze, we’re comfortable in it. When the big breeze comes on, we were able to minimize the errors and sail fast.”

Shawn and Jerry O’Neill’s Sydney 38 Eagle won its ORC division; Tod and Heidi Patton’s J/122e Blondie was the top PHRF Spinnaker winner and Jim Murray’s Calisto Racing [Hestia] was the top J/70, winning four of six races to beat out Laura Sigmond’s Norboy by 5 points. Norboy was the top Mixed-Plus J/70 team and Bob Willis’ Rip Rullah was top Corinthian.

Roman Plutenko and Csilla Gal were the regatta’s top ILCA sailors (6 and 4, respectively) with three races counted.

The post Kaczor’s Tartan 10 Erica Wins Regatta Series Chicago appeared first on Sailing World.

Preliminary Results

Regatta Photo Gallery

As Tomasz Kokocinski and his crew of the Beneteau 40.7 Koko Loko 2, secured dock lines and flaked sails at their slip at the Chicago Yacht Club, the sky suddenly darkened and strong gusts shook their boat’s rigging. They were happy to be at the dock having finished their 23-mile distance race just ahead of the approaching squall, but they were equally delighted to learn they’d won their PHRF division on corrected time

“It was a really cool race with all sorts of conditions,” Kokocinski said. “It was light to moderate and later down totally, and then up 15 to 18 knots at the end, which was a really nice way to finish.”

Kokocinski typically races his Beneteau 40.7 in the local one-design fleet, but for the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago he prefers the distance racing option as preparation for the annual Mackinac Race. As Mac Race winners they clearly know how to get the most from this popular cruiser/racer.

“It’s a heavy boat with a lot of furniture, so we really have to watch the speed,” Kokocinski said. “We’re going pretty well in the light wind, but we made the decision to jibe toward the city where the wind came from and that was our big jump early in the race. There were only one or two other boats that came with us and when the wind did die, everyone that was further out in the lake stopped. We were in the middle, closer to the city, which was better, and maybe a bit of luck.”

Benjamin White’s Farr 38 Radiance won its PHRF 2 division, besting William Bartz’s Hunter 355 Ranger and David Baker’s Beneteau First 10R Handsome Pete, second and third respectively.

Thomas Papoutsis, ORC1 J/133 Renegade was the top boat in ORC 1 and Ben Wilson’s J/99 Rambler was the top team in the ORC 2 division, which was a close battle from start to finish among the top-three finishers. While Rambler won on corrected time, only 10 seconds of corrected time was the difference between the two J/122s that ultimately claimed second and third.

“It was a really good race,” said Andrew Kerr, crew on Mathew Songer’s Evvai. “It was a downwind spinnaker start and the boats that went out on the lake made early gains. It was on the long beat back in a fading breeze that we were pleased to lead the whole time, but we gave up the lead at the end to [Douglas Evans’] Elbow Room. They hooked into a shift and were able to get ahead. They’re an excellent team, and we were 1-2 at the finish, but it was great sailboat racing, great race management and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

While the distance racers laid tracks across Lake Michigan, the buoy racing fleets picked up where they left off after yesterday’s high-wind survival fest. Today’s benign conditions, however, did nothing to change the pecking orders in most fleets.

Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s Beneteau 40.7 Mojo extended its winning streak to four and now has 5 points of cushion to Thomas Weber’s team on La Tempete. Raymond Douglas Kristine Maybach’s team on the J/109 Courageous won the day’s first race but posted a fifth in the next, which reduced their lead to 3 points, with Michael Hendrie’s Bull within striking distance with one more race day remaining.

Shawn and Jerry O’Neill’s team on the Sydney 38 Eagle posted a 1-2, winning the ORC fleet’s first race by a country mile, but John Gottwald’s Grand Soleil 44 Eagles Wings won the second race to shave the O’Neill family’s lead to 3 points.

Tod and Heidi Patton J/122e Blondie went 1-2 in its seven-boat PHRF Spinnaker fleet and now has a 5-point lead over Jamie Downing’s much smaller Beneteau Platu 25 Ravn.

On the One-Design Red Circle, with the Tartan 10s and J/70s, shifting winds wreaked havoc on the race committee, which managed to get in two races before abandoning a fourth. With only one race sailed on Friday and two today, Brian Kazor’s Erica leads the standings with a 3-point cushion over Amy Cermak’s Diamond Girl. Edward Mui and Craig Roehl’s Meat, winner of the third race, moved into third overall, only 6 points from the top. Jim Murray’s Calisto continued its winning streak with two wins in the J/70 fleet. Laura Sigmond’s Norboy went 2-2-4 and now sit 5 points behind Calisto.

The three ILCA dinghy fleets, blown out on Friday, got in two races today after a long morning wait for wind. The regatta’s 2023 winner, Roman Plutenko, won both races in the ILCA 7 and Csilla Gal won both races in the ILCA 6. JP Crabb is the top ILCA 4 sailor after two race wins as well.

Distance Race fleets will have another long one tomorrow for some fast miles and the forecast is for a building breeze, which should allow every fleet to complete a full set of races to wrap up the weekend series.

The post Distance Racers Play Wind Roulette at Regatta Series Chicago appeared first on Sailing World.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

PHOTO GALLERY

Cliché as it may sound, the Windy City indeed lived up to its reputation on the opening day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago, hosted by Chicago Yacht Club with more than 150 race teams participating. The warm bright morning sunshine and the blocking of the architectural giants of the lake front may have duped many of the competitors into thinking conditions were benign as they slipped their lines this morning. But out on the open water, northwesterly gusts peaked into the high 20s, catching many teams off guard. The day was good fast sailing for some, while for many others today’s races were all about the preservation of gear, sails and crew. 

Those who were willing and able excelled in the gusty conditions, however, including Richard Stearns’ team on the J/105 Five. They won the day’s only race for the 105s, and while others in their fleet played it safe by sailing runs under main and jib only, Stearns’ crew had no trepidations in setting the spinnaker. “There were four strong women keeping everything going at the front,” said crewmember Lindsey Hernandez. “We didn’t wipe out once, and the driving was perfect.”

Stearns, a veteran helmsman, has plenty of experience in all conditions and was happy with the team’s performance. “It was all having them pulling the sails around perfectly timed,” he said. “I’m just following what they’re doing.” 

The J/105 class shared the White Circle with the Beneteau 36.7s and J/88 fleets. The J/88s were the first fleet start of the morning and as they were rounding their first weather mark, the forecasted wind increase came on fast, and quickly built into the high 20s. As soon as their spinnakers were full, boats were simultaneously wiping out. Daniel Burns, bowman on John and Jordan Leahey’s Dutch, confessed to three broaches for his time in one race—a personal record for him. “They were fun though,” he said. “We did it in style. We were surprised by the first one, but the next two we were like, ‘let’s just get this over with.’”

Using a smaller spinnaker for the day, Grace and Michael Gillian’s Julia won the J/88’s only race, finishing ahead of Andy Graff’s team on Exile. Dave Dennison’s Pirahna was third. 

Robert Nelson’s Beneteau 36.7 Free Radical beat Silviu and Cristina Petrea’s Nomad in their fleet’s only race. Earle Atwater and Chris Metcalf’s Program were third and happy to have survived the day with sails and boat intact. 

Atwater’s advice once ashore and safely in their slip at CYC, was to “remember to ease the lazy guy in the jibe,” to avoid the broach. That didn’t happen once, so for the remainder of the race, they sailed the runs under jib and main only. “We were safely in third so we figured,” Atwater said. “So, why blow it?”

The big boats of the Division 3 racecourse, set straight east of host Chicago Yacht Club, were fortunate to get in two races. Scot and Yvonne Ruhlander’s crew  on the Beneteau 40.7 Mojo, racked up wins in both races and begin the series with a 3-point lead over Thomas Weber’s La Tempete. Mojo was quick upwind and clean on the runs by eventually leaving the spinnaker in its bag. Weber’s team was equally quick upwind, but could not match Mojo’s pace. 

“We’ve been doing it a long time,” said Tempete, nonplussed with the wild conditions. “We kept it together, but we got it rocking pretty good in the waves at times. Upwind, once we got it in the groove and everything tuned well, it was pretty easy. On the first upwind leg I had some trouble on port tack, but on the next three upwind legs we got it dialed in really well. The main trimmer gave me more play on the main and we were able to keep our speed up.”

Raymond Douglas and Kristine Maybach’s crew on the J/109 Courageous also won both races and have a 3-point lead over Jim Caesar’s crew on Liquid Lounge II. Both teams managed their spinnakers well enough to capitalize on good starts. 

The collective experience of Shawn and Jerry O’Neill’s crew on the Sydney 38 Eagle had them confidently guiding their boat around the course. Careful sail handling and clean starts got them two wins on the day to lead the ORC division. The disappointing news from the ORC division was the dismasting of Phil Dowd’s Farr 40 Inferno. They’d finished second in the day’s first race, but halfway down the first downwind leg of the second race, while leading the fleet, the mast broke and had to be cut away and scuttled to prevent damage to the boat. 

Tod and Heidi Patton’s J/112e Blondie also went two-for-two in the PHRF spinnaker division and have a 3-point lead over Jim Banovitz and Gary Feracota’s Aria, a Beneteau Figaro 3 that was quite quick on under jib and main only. 

Only one race was sailed on the One-Design circle with Brian Kaczor’s Erica winning the Tartan 10 race, ahead of Adam Prettyman’s Two Trailer Park Girls and Amy Cermak’s Diamond Girl. Jim Murray’s Hestia was the top J/70, edging out Laura Sigmond’s Norboy and James Prendergast’s USA167. 

The Laser divisions did not complete races due to the high-wind conditions, but will be on the water tomorrow along with the Distance Race divisions, with more than 30 teams getting underway in the early morning for what promises to be another challenging day on Lake Michigan.

The post Thrilling Big-Breeze Start to Regatta Series in Chicago appeared first on Sailing World.

• FINAL RESULTS
• REGATTA PHOTO GALLERY

As the late afternoon southerly streaked out of the Detroit River and blue skies returned, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta’s distance race finishers trickled past host Bayview Yacht Club to conclude three days of excellent racing and the return of the regatta series after a 14-year absence. By all accounts it was a perfect weekend of racing and socials hosted by Bayview Yacht Club.

The sailors of the local J/35 fleet put on quite a show with its growing fleet. Most of these now decades-old 35-footers have been returned to racing form, and the top three of this fleet were locked in boat-on-boat battles all weekend. At the start of the final race, Mike Welch’s team on Falcon was sitting on a 1-point lead, but an OCS had them clawing their way back through the fleet to win the race and the series by 2 points over their arch rivals on Bill Wildner’s Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride.

 “That was quite a comeback and there’s definitely luck involved,” Welch said. “When you’re over early, the wind literally goes out of your sails, but our crew kept it together and stayed positive. Our main trimer and tactician, Jim Allen, who is a very experienced sailor noticed better pressure left. He called that. There was pressure on the left side of the course and the class went right downwind. We got a little bit more pressure out on the left side of the course and then we got a nice 15- to 20-degree wind shift, which really helped.” 

With this weekend’s J/35 class win to add to Falcon’s trophy cache, the team was also selected as the regatta’s overall winner, earning a berth to represent Detroit at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Caribbean Championship, a battle of class champions in the British Virgin Islands on Sunsail-provided monohulls. The regatta is scheduled for late October where overall winning teams will race against the 2023 defender.

“I’m going to bring the A team,” Welch said. “We have nine people on our boat, a very talented crew, and a lot of us have been together for 20-plus years, so we’ve got a talented group. But we also have a very fast boat. So that helps, too. We’ll bring the team and it will be fun. We’re really going to be looking forward to it.”

A third day of light to moderate winds allowed nine one-design fleets to complete as many as eight races for the series while two ORC divisions and one PHRF fleet completed their second distance race.

Today’s distance challenge was a 20-miler won by James Cresswell’s 1D35 Katana. The crew of Tim LaRaviere’s Sydney 41 Eagle One tried their best to beat Katana, but Creswell’s squad was fast and Eagle One didn’t do themselves any favors.

“We worked hard,” said Eagle One’s Greg Hummel. “But today’s highlight was also a lowlight in that, at the second turning mark we missed a shift and didn’t do a good jibe. We coughed up a lot of spots right there, but we got around the second mark and got back in the groove. Hats off to the Katana—they’re an excellent team and they get more out of that boat than I think then we get out of ours.”

James and Paul Kraft’s Corby 33 Powertrip won the day’s race and the ORC B division with a second in Saturday’s distance race. Mike Wedwins Dehler 44SQ, Notso EZ Money won the day’s distance race in the PHRF division, but was sitting on a sixth from yesterday. In an unpredictable twist of fate, Cameron Paine’s team on the C&C MK2 Underdog, yesterday’s race winner, finished sixth today and as the last-race winner, Notso EZ got the best of the tie-breaker.

Tod Sackett’s team on USA 313 won the J/70 fleet and the inaugural J/70 Mixed-Plus National Championship. Perrin Fortune’s Airforce was the top Melges 15, and in the seven-boat J/111 fleet Jeffrey Davis’ team on Shamrock put up a convincing win ahead of this summer’s active class championship schedule with seven wins in eight races.

The big battle of the regatta, as expected, was in the nine-boat J/120 fleet where four teams were sitting on race wins, and after eight races, only 2 points ultimately separated the top-three. Mike and Bob Kirkman’s Hot Ticket got it done with a hard-earned second in the final race.

“We love sailing together,” said Trish Kirkman, whose husband Mike is the helmsman. “We had a fantastic day today. We kept our heads in the game and you just can’t count us out.”

Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.8 DeTour was the only undefeated team of the regatta, winning all six of its races in the ORC Division, and on Division C, Keith Ziegler’s Thor had won all of its races until the final, where a bad start put them on the back foot. The best they could do was fourth, but that was good enough. “It was a good day for us,” Ziegler said. “It was good close racing and we had a great weekend. We were fast and had the right rig tension.”

Bruce Ayeres’ Monsoon found themselves recovering from a bad start in the final race as well, but 4 points was enough to seal the class win given the seven races they’d won already. In the end, it was a 7-point difference between Monsoon and Dan Berezin’s Surprise, the class’s top Corinthian team.

Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan Flat Stanley Racing closed out the regatta with an 11-point win in the ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet. “It’s tough competition,” Sheehan said. “These T10 guys don’t give an inch. They mix it up and it is game-on every race. We had a ball, good weather and it worked out great for us.”

The Santana 35’s proved their competitiveness as well, and this five-boat victory came down to the final race for Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. A third in the final race was enough to seal the win over Chris Benedict’s team on Shape—only 2 points was the difference.

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