Tuesday, June 25, 2013

J/Teams Love Cleveland Race Week!

J/70 one-design sailboat- sailing Cleveland Race Week Cleveland, OH (June 16, 2013) – Seventy-one one-design boats invaded Cleveland Race Week at Edgewater Yacht Club on June 14-16. Seven fleets competed, including four J one-design classes- J/22, J/24, J/70 and J/105. Light and inconsistent breeze on Saturday allowed only the J/105s to complete a race. Sunday dawned with winds between 14-16 knots, and all fleets were able to run three races.

J/22 one-design sailboats- sailing off Cleveland OH at Cleveland Race WeekThe largest fleet competing were the J/22s with sixteen boats participating from all over the Great Lakes.  Adding yet another feather in their cap was Chris Doyle and gang sailing THE JUG 4 1 from Youngstown, NY.  The JUG's 1-3-1 record for 5 pts was by no means a walk over, narrowly beating chief rival Travis Odenbach on HAARSTICK SAILMAKERS with their 2-2-2 tally for 6 pts.  Taking third was Tod Sackett on TRACTION with 11 pts, fourth was Vic Snyder on MO'MONEY and fifth was RJ Moon on MOONLIGHTING.

The J/24s did see a "runaway" in the form of FUGUE STATE sailed by Kevin O'Brien.  Their three firsts could not be matched by any other team.  In fact Dean Riedy tried, but their HALL PASS failed to get the ticket to pass go and had to settle for three seconds!  Third was Cathy Graf sailing GRAFIX.


J/70s had a terrific regatta with the second largest one-design fleet at the event.  Having learned some lessons from Key West and Charleston Race Week, Dave Ullman from ULLMAN SAILS simply staged another "runaway" with three firsts in three races to win handily.  Second was Ron Copfer on CLOUDSOURCED with three seconds and third was J/70 Class President Joe Colling.  Fourth was Tim Gibbs and fifth was David Koski sailing SOUL.

J/105 world saw the Sminchak family team (photo at right) led by Mindy Sminchak to a dominant four first places, the third example of a runaway in the Cleveland regatta.  Their closest competitor was Robert Mock's UNBRIDLED with three seconds.  Taking third was Eric Sutherland on ROLLICK.  For more Cleveland Race Week sailing information