The pursuit-style race with quartering seas and winds were fun conditions for most of the J teams planing and surfing like mad all the way across Nantucket Sound. Many of the teams performed quite well, especially the classic old J/24s! Winning their Division D by a landslide was an astonishing performance by the J/24 MUTINOUS DOGS sailed by Marc Holdaway. Also sailing like a "mad dog" in conditions only suitable for ducks, was Stephen Lipman's J/37 DUCK SOUP, taking their Division F Non-Spinnaker by a landslide.
The balance of J sailors all had fun, placing in many of their divisions. At the top of the heap was the J/44 BEAGLE with Phil Gutin at the helm taking 5th in Division A. Next was the J/40 JAZZ skippered by Kirk Brown, taking a 3rd in Division B. Also sailing fast and liking the conditions was the classic J/29 masthead SEEFEST sailed by Ira Perry, taking 2nd in Division C. The J/40 SMITTEN sailed by Bill Jones was 5th in Division G Non-Spinnaker.
Finally, in Division S were lumped all the fast asymmetric spinnaker sprit boats, essentially a J/class division with thirteen boats vying for being the "big banana" amongst the deck apes bragging at the Charity Ball. First boat home was the J/105 DARK'N'STORMY sailed by Andrew Reservitz. Second into the harbor was the J/120 M-SQUARED skippered by Bill Mack and third home was the J/111 PRAVDA 2 with Ed Kaye at the helm (proud of their inaugural effort in the FIGAWI). Fourth home was the J/105 BEAR SPIRIT sailed by Jonathan Bloom and, remarkably, the fifth boat home was the J/105 PRIMA sailed by the Nantucket High School Sailing Team and led by their skipper Diana Brown-- congratulations to all!
It was interesting sailing for the J sprit boats, after about 4.5 hours of sailing, less than fifteen minutes separated the top ten! That's close sailing and a pretty reasonable job on handicapping the boats in PHRF, too. For more FIGAWI Race sailing information
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