• 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.

The post Regatta Series Detroit Overall Goes To Mike Welch’s J/35 Falcon appeared first on Sailing World.

• Saturday Results
• Saturday Photo Gallery

This is the summer of distance racing on Lake St. Clair and the sailors of Detroit have one big challenge ahead of them next month when more than 300 teams will sprint a couple hundred miles to Mackinac Island for the 100th edition. To prepare both boats and crew this year they’ve got the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit and two days of distance races, the first of which set off this morning under sunny skies and moderate but shifty winds.

Twenty-seven teams in total set off on a 22-mile race, led by the nine-boat ORC A group. Tim LaRiviere and his team on the Sydney 41 Eagle One were one of the early boats off the dock this morning, and with a good start that followed they were on their way to a race win to put their first keeper score on the board.

David Bauermeister’s small and sporty Donovan 27 was first across the finish line off host Bayview Yacht Club’s yardarm, followed by James and Paul Kraft’s Corby 33. Cameron Paine’s crew on the C&C 35 MK2 Underdog was the top PHRF finisher in the 10-boat fleet, and were quick to celebrating at their slip at Bayview. “The day was pretty awesome,” Paine said. “There was plenty of wind—12 to 15 knots—which is perfect for our boat. A happy crew is a happy boat and a happy boat is a fast boat.”

While the day felt and looked tropical, the easterly wind direction blowing across the Canadian shore kept the race committees busy all day as they hustled to deliver as many as four high-quality races for the regatta’s one-design fleets. PRO Matt Bounds was as whipped as they sailors by the end of the day.

“It was a tough day with the wind oscillating from anywhere from 160 to 200. Trying to get four fleets off with wildly different speeds was tricky. The call of the day was getting off starts between the fleets, which worked most of the time.”

On the busy Division B circle, the J/35 class is living up to its reputation as a challenging fleet with a lot of veteran sailors. Class stalwart, Bill Wildner’s Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride, put itself atop the fleet with a pair of seconds to take the lead from Sheri Dufresne’s Firefly. But Firefly got the last word for the day with a convincing win in the final race. There’s only 1 point between the top 3 and therein lies the battle.

In the J/111’s Jeff Davis’ Shamrock piled on three more race wins to its scoreline and now has a 13-point lead over their rivals from Cleveland on Black Seal. “Today was fantastic, being here in Detroit and being able to sail here in the southerly breeze was great,” Wally Cross, of Quantum Sails. “I think everyone in our fleet had a wonderful time, but the key today was about sailing the boat fast. Jeff has a great crew and the boat is fast.”

Over two days of racing thus far the J/120 has been producing some amazingly tight racing and today especially boats were overlapped at every corner of the racecourse. Nothing came easy for Greg Baker’s team on Kairos, which went 1-2-4 to lock in the lead by 2 points over Mike Fozo’s proof. But Mike and Bob Kirkman’s Hot Ticket is putting on the pressure, sitting third overall with a win in the day’s final race. “It was a pretty good day for Hot Ticket,” says the boat’s young tactician Michael Kirkman. His teammates praised his tactical calls. “It was just staying in phase and finding the pressure,” Kirkman said.

A four-boat ORC division joined the regatta on the second day as well and Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.98 went undefeated in three races, as did Keith Ziegler’s Thor in the Cal25 class, which actually won all four of its races. “It was a good day for us because the shifts went our way” said Thor’s bowman Dana Cinquepalmi. “Going far right at the end of the first leg was key. There was shift over there that paid off big.”

Standing remain unchanged in the three other Division C fleets: Bruce Ayers’ Monsoon, Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan and Andrew Morlan’s Avatar lead their Melges 24, T10 and Santana 35 division’s respectively.

Close to the Michigan shoreline, the J/70s added four additional races and the battle continues between Tod Sackett’s 313 and Wes Whitmeyer’s Slingshot: the two are tied with 13 points apiece.

The post Magic Continues at Regatta Series in Detroit appeared first on Sailing World.

• Friday Results
• Friday Photo Gallery

The return of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit was a long time coming, and by all accounts from competitors gathered after racing at host Bayview Yacht Club, the first day of was an excellent and low-key start to a weekend of racing on Lake St. Clair. After a morning postponement ashore, the bulk of the regatta’s one-design fleets enjoyed racing in light and shifting winds that produced tight racing, especially among the regatta’s big three fleets; the J/120, J/111s and J/35s.

Sheri Dufrense’s team on the J/35 Firefly had what she described as a “fabulous” day. “It was a great day,” Dufrense said. “The highlight for us was the teamwork, working together, learning new things and going fast.”

With a second-place finish in the day’s first race and a win in the next race, Dufrense’s Firefly team leads the eight-boat fleet by only 2 points.

Jeffrey Davis’ team on the J/111 Shamrock also has a 2-point lead in its seven-boat fleet thanks to two race wins. This Cleveland-based team is a previous winner of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Chicago, and following a brief absence from the sport, Davis’ and his crew were quickly back on form, pushed in both races by their friends from Cleveland on Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal.

Charlie Hess’s Funtech Racing, considered a perennial top team amongst Detroit’s strong and growing J/120 fleet went 3-1 on the day to claim the lead after two races, but Greg Baker’s Kairos went 2-2 to keep the scoreline tied between them. Mike Fozo’s Proof, winner of the first race, stumbled with a sixth in the next, but is only 3 points out of first with plenty of racing to come over the next two days.

On Division C Race Circle, Bruce Ayres’ team on the Melges 24 Monsoon—another past Regatta Series overall winner—won all three races by wide margins. Ayres, from Newport Beach, California, is a longtime Melges 24 skipper, and clearly knows how to get the most speed out of the iconic sport boat, especially in today’s light and flat conditions. With each race, they were quick off the start, quick into the lead and untouchable from there.

The ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet, which will host its North American Championship in Chicago in August, is using the Helly Hansen Detroit regatta as part of its Traveler Award Series in preparation for its big regatta. Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan: Flat Stanley Racing got off to an early jump in the series with a 1-1-2, but the same top-three boats were battling all day, giving a hint of more to come as the weekend goes on.

Andrew Morlan’s Santana 35 Avatar leads its 5-boat division; Tod Sackett’s J/70 team on 3­13 is tied atop the fleet with Wes Whitmeyer’s Slingshot. Three races were completed for the J/70s on the racecourse managed by Crescent Sailing Club. Jeanne Ehrenberg and Jeff Williams lead the Melges 15 fleet with two race wins.

With the addition of the Cal25s, the ORC fleet and two distance-racing divisions, the regatta goes to full capacity for the rest of the weekend, and with favorable racing winds in the forecast, expectations are that the regattas good start will continue. 

The post Detroit Delivers For Regatta Series Start appeared first on Sailing World.

There are two hot items off the Detroit news wire this year. Let’s start with the big one: the reversal of six decades of population decline. Resurget cineribus, indeed. Then came word that America’s biggest and longest running regatta series was returning to the Motor City. What was once the National Offshore One Design Regatta when last held in 2010 is now the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit.

Like Detroit’s population, sailboat racing on Lake St. Claire is also on the rise. Resurgent navigare, if you will. That’s according to Charlie Hess, an avid one-design sailor and treasurer of the all-seeing Detroit Regional Yacht Racing Association. Hess is one of ten J/120 owners who will be racing the Detroit edition of the Regatta Series over the last weekend in May.

“Participation in all of our events was dropping dramatically,” Hess says. He himself was once in the mix of the nearly 200 boats that would gather to race on any given Saturday during the short season. “It was huge in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it just started going down and down and down.”

Just before the COVID pandemic struck, he says, they were lucky to get 30 boats to show up, and even those were spread across six different types of classes.The Association has been tackling the decline through a number of initiatives, however, and Hess is now bullish on the region’s resurgence.

“Detroit is lucky to have 12 events that are run well and have good infrastructure,” he says. “We’ve got robotic marks, we’ve streamlined our courses and classes. A year ago, we bought in ORC as a standalone class and now we have three ORC classes; A B and C. That was what the sailors wanted and we’re seeing a real and positive trajectory for sailboat racing in Detroit. It’s all on the up.”

Mix of Classes For Regatta Series in Detroit

The Regatta Series’ reunion with its former hosts at the Bayview Yacht Club and its storied clubhouse on the Detroit River, is a long time coming. In the heydays of the nine-event NOOD Regatta Series, this Great Lakes stop was remarkable—and memorable—for its eclectic mix of larger keelboats and level-rated classes, its “warhorses,” emerging one-design sportboats and the classic plastics, the likes of the C&C 35s, Cal25s and Crescents, to name a few. The bigger boats of the era came with sizable crews and their thirst ashore was unquenchable. It was a good run until the club brought the regatta in-house in 2011 with the creation of its own weekend event, the Bayview One Design Regatta, locally referred to as the “BOD.”

The event management team of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series (SWRS) is going all in to bolster Detroit’s season-starting regatta, with Bayview hosting three nights of post-race parties and awards and working with other area yacht clubs for race committee resources on the water. Three race circles spread out across Lake St. Clair will accommodate nine one-design classes (J/111, J/120, J/70, J/35, Tartan 10, Santana 35, Melges 24, Melges 15, Cal 25) and one ORC fleet for buoy racing. Nearly 30 ORC and PHRF distance-race entries will sail long courses over the weekend, with many of these teams honing skills and sails for this summer’s monumental 100th running of the Bayview to Mackinac Race.

The J/111 fleet, with seven entries at press time, is considered the grand-prix set of the regatta, and longtime local racer and class champion Ed Kriese, says he’s looking forward to mixing it with top-level visiting teams from Cleveland, especially Jeff Davis’ Shamrock, the benchmark team of the class these days. “We will be tuning with them,” Kriese says. “Our challenge is to be as fast as them, and it’s going to be fun.”

In preparing for the task ahead, Kriese’s team on Wildcat has been tutored by professional sailor and coach, Wally Cross, who’s name comes up often round the lakefront. He has a reputation for turning upstart teams into winning programs. With Cross onboard Wildcat in 2023, Kriese says, they were the team to beat, but this time, Cross is onboard Shamrock so they have their work cut out for them. Still, Kriese is excited to see—and be part of—the Detroit sailing scene’s turnaround and expects a renewed enthusiasm for the regatta with Bayview’s partnership with the Regatta Series.

“Detroit sailing is definitely stronger today than it was a couple of years ago,” he says. “People are psyched that Helly is here as a sponsor and bringing the good schwag. The more focused teams like ours won’t be pounding the drinks like we used to, but we’ll cut loose on Sunday.”

Resurgent cupiditas. 

The post Detroit Racing On the Rise With Regatta Series appeared first on Sailing World.

Spring sailing in the Midwest is always fun, regardless of the weather —  it feels like opening day at the ballpark, with hopes of a wonderful summer. For many boats, this is their first time sailing together as a team, so any practice prior to the regatta usually pays off.  

Getting Ready

To prepare for a successful race, start by practicing boat handling drills to build confidence in maneuvers like tacking, gybing, and mark rounding. The night before the race, do thorough weather research using sites like SailFlow to understand the conditions you’ll face. Take into account the Detroit River’s east/west current at 0.5 knots, which can impact your travel time to the race circle during the regatta.

I aim to arrive at the course site at least an hour before start time. Use this time wisely: spend 20 minutes sailing upwind to adjust trim and tune for wind and waves, followed by 20 minutes sailing downwind to find the best angles. Dedicate 10 minutes to researching the starting line and pinging the ends to gauge distances. Finally, take a 10-minute break to relax, hydrate, and discuss your plan with your team. This comprehensive approach will help you enter the race feeling prepared and confident.

Need-To-Know Wind Patterns

On Lake St. Clair, understanding the wind patterns is crucial for a successful race. A light, northerly breeze typically starts with pressure on the left side and later shifts to the east as the day progresses. If a thermal wind kicks in, it will come from the east, but the day must be warmer than 70 degrees for this to occur. During a warm front, expect a southwest wind with early oscillations to the right, followed by a late shift to the left as you approach the top mark by the shore. An easterly wind usually offers the best pressure on the left side. 

The gradient wind, which is predominantly westerly, can shift based on the front approaching. A warm front approaching will shift the wind to the left or south, while a cold front behind will shift it to the right or north. A settled cold front creates ideal racing conditions with an oscillating northwesterly wind. Lastly, a light air day usually ends up with an east wind direction. Understanding these wind patterns can give sailors a strategic advantage on the water.

Wind shear is common in the spring. The cold water prevents warmer air from reaching the surface, causing the wind aloft to be in a different direction than on the water. The direction of the shear often indicates the new wind direction. Understanding these nuances can greatly benefit your podium position. 

If you have any additional questions heading into the regatta, feel free to reach out to Wally Cross at wcross@quantumsails.com. Stop by the Quantum Sails Detroit loft with any other needs!

The post Local Knowledge For Detroit appeared first on Sailing World.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series returns to Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club after a 12-year hiatus, partnering again with the premier Great Lakes sailing club and its annual marque multi-class regatta from May 30 to Sunday June 2, 2024.

“For three decades, Midwest sailors have held this weekend on their calendars for competitive racing on Lake St. Clair,” says Bayview YC Commodore, Mike Helm. “This year, we have a great opportunity to grow our existing successful regatta and build partnerships with Helly Hansen, Sailing World, DRYA clubs and regional enthusiasts to build on this tradition.”

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series was originally created in 1988 as the National Offshore One-Design Regatta Series. It was an immediate success with its three-day concept for larger one-design keelboats, its unrivaled post-racing social experiences and its professional race management. The series grew nationally and remains the largest and only racing series of its kind in the United States.

“The Detroit stop of the regatta series was always a favorite of our event team,” says Dave Reed, Sailing World’s editor-in-chief. “It was so uniquely Detroit in that the sailing season being short, the enthusiasm for the racing, the variety of boats and the parties were second to none on the circuit.”

Today, the Regatta Series now features many different boat types: dinghies, multihulls, and keelboats that race one-design and under established handicap rating systems. Daily distance racing courses have also been added to embrace this growing segment of the sport, particularly in the Great Lakes.

“The freshwater sailors of Detroit represent longevity, commitment and high-level competition in sailing,” says Sarah Renz, Sailing World’s Director of Sponsorship and Events. “We’re pleased to return to Bayview and partnering with neighboring clubs to provide excellent race management.”

With sailors and teams expected from the other popular nearby clubs of Crescent Sail, Grosse Pointe, Port Huron, Detroit, Edgewater, Toledo, Cleveland and Chicago, the Sailing World and Bayview YC teams will be staging three days of buoy and distance races, which will kick off an historic racing season in the Midwest, which features the 100th running of the Bayview to Mackinac Race, a record fleet that already surpasses 300 entries. After-race socials with the Helly Hansen crew and store, Renz says, will be on par with the Regatta Series’ unrivaled onshore experience of food and drinks, music and games, race footage and Helly Hansen merchandise.

“After-race socials with the Helly Hansen crew and store will be on par with the Regatta Series’ unrivaled onshore experience of food and drinks, music and games, race footage and Helly Hansen merchandise.”

—Sarah Renz, Director of Sponsorship and Events

The Detroit edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series weekend will feature several divisions racing on multiple racecourses set across Lake St. Clair. Racing is open to nearly two-dozen one-design fleets including the classic and popular Cal 25s and Crescents, J/24s and Lightnings. The more modern Melges 15s, foiling Waszps and J/70s are expected to draw large fleets. Short distance races will be staged on Saturday and Sunday for the handicap-racing teams, many of whom consider the regatta essential practice for the coming Mackinac race. The J/35 and Cal25 classes, both of which will showcase strong turnouts, will showcase the longevity of these iconic classes that were once the big fleets of the Detroit NOOD.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series is held in St. Petersburg, Florida, Annapolis, Maryland, Detroit, Chicago, and Marblehead, Massachusetts, and culminates with its Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands where one selected team from each of the regattas competes against the defending champion and others for the overall title, raced in provided bareboats provided by Sunsail.

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