Thursday, November 1, 2012

JALAPENO Wins J/30 NA's

J/30 North American champions (New Orleans, LA)- No question, Team JALAPENO delivered the heat on their fellow J/30 compatriots over the long weekend sailing down in New Orleans.  Congratulations to Billy Ross and Ken Buhler's JALAPENO who won the J/30 North American Championships last weekend in New Orleans! The team raced an excellent regatta to claim the 2012 title  with three bullets and 15 points in seven races over a tough eleven boat fleet that came from across the country to vie for "Top Dog" in the J/30 class.  For many, the regatta started a long, long time before the final gun sounded on the last race on Sunday at the famous Allstate Sugar Bowl Regatta that played host to the J/30 North Americans.

At 6:00am on Monday morning, Dan Mather and his crew on CRUSADER departed from Oswego, NY and started a 1,300 mile journey to New Orleans. On the same day, Russ Atkinson and his beloved WILDCAT set his GPS to guide him to New Orleans from Rockwood, MI – another 1,041 mile trip.  So what is the occasion?  Both trailered their J/30s to race in the 2012 Allstate Sugar Bowl J/30 National Championship hosted by New Orleans Yacht Club on October 19-21.

According to Barton Jahncke, Olympic Gold Medal winner and multiple Sugar Bowl Trophy winner, “The Sugar Bowl Regatta Series is recognized as one of the premier national yachting events in the United States. It gives sailors or all ages, from the Optimist class through high school and intercollegiate levels and beyond, the opportunity to learn how to compete at a very high level.”

J/30 one-design cruiser racer sailboats off New Orleans, LAThis year’s J/30 National Championship was the 32nd in the history of the sailing class.  Two teams, ZEPHYR (New Orleans) and BEPOP (Annapolis) share the record of number of wins at 5 each.  US Olympic boat-wright Donnie Brennan with son Andrew sailed with the ZEPHYR crew this year. And, two J/30s were skippered by women, Debbie Grimm aboard HOT CHOCOLATE and Laura Webb sailing BLACK MAGIC. Cool, eh? Girl power to the max! Plus, the J/30 is a family-friendly sloop, which can be raced or cruised by women, kids and men offshore in even the roughest conditions.  Remember the disastrous 1979 Fastnet Race- a.k.a Fastnet Force 10?  Two J/30s sailed through it unscathed (one singlehanded!) while many other sailors were much less fortunate.

J/30 one-design sailboats- sailing in New Orleans, LAMany think of New Orleans as a French Quarter venue with a lot of historic value.  However, there is another jewel in town- it's called Lake Pontchartrain. “Sailing is more than a sport”, according to the event’s key note speaker, Nicholas Hayes, author of award winning book “Saving Sailing”.  It is a life choice. Today, there are about 2,000 New Orleanians participating in sailing on the lake today – enough to attract National and International sailing events to the city.  “With shifty winds and obstruction clear waters, our sailing venue is one of the best in the nation,” according to David Erwin, Allstate Sugar Bowl Regatta Chairman.  Indeed, it was.

This year's J/30 NA's proved to fun, gorgeous, sunny, somewhat windy with lots of challenging races.  Rolled into the mix between sailing time were many crews enjoying the great entertainment and food in the infamous French Quarter and Bourbon Street on-shore.

J/30 one-design cruiser racer sailboat- sailing North AmericansOn the first day of sailing, Team JALAPENO established the pecking order early by winning the first race of the regatta. It was not until the 6th race of the regatta where JALAPENO pulled ahead of their closest rival ZEPHYR 2.0 sailed by Dale Steinkamp from local host New Orleans YC; while JALAPENO scored 5th, the ZEPHYR gang were hit with a DSQ/ 12 pts to dash their chances at an overall win.  In the end, the Ross/Buhler team on JALAPENO amassed a 1-3-2-1-1-5-2 for 15 pts for a well-deserved victory.  Second was another Pontchartrain YC member, David Bolyard Jr sailing LAND SHARK to two 1sts in the last two races to cement their position with finishes of 2-2-4-7-3-1-1 for 25 pts.  The ZEPHYR 2.0 crew settled for 3rd overall with a 3-1-1-3-2-dsq/12-3 tally for 25 pts.  Fourth was Carl Sherter's FAT CITY from Connecticut's Cedar Point YC with 28 pts and fifth was Rob Doolittle/ Jeff Walter's GRTIZ with 37 pts.  For a J/30 NA's sailing video by Leighton O'Connor   Sailing Photos by Leighton O'Connor   For more J/30 North Americans sailing information