Friday, June 13, 2014

Cedar Point One-Design Regatta a Howling Success

J/70s sailing Cedar Point YC regattaSAVASANA Tops 70s, FAT CITY Crushes 30s, LOU LOU eclipses 105s, RUSH Nips 109s
(Cedar Point, CT)- With enormous one-design fleets of J/70s, J/30s, J/105s and J/109s, this year’s Cedar Point One-Design Regatta was destined to be a great weekend for racing for the J/Teams in attendance.  Blessed with amazingly good breezes and fair weather, the fleets saw mostly 10-20 kt breezes on Saturday followed by a more benign 6-12 kt winds on Sunday.  Most fleets managed to count six races over the two-day event, thanks to the expert RC PRO work from Cedar Point YC’s volunteers.

J/105 sailing around markBrian Keane wins again?!  Yes, it seems that Keane’s SAVASANA team has finally “broken the glass-ceiling” and instead of being a bridesmaid over several regattas in the past year sailing J/70’s, he’s now won another one!  Keane’s crew started off winning the first race and never relinquished their grip on the fleet.  By finishing far more consistently than any other team, their 1-3-1-5-3-2 score for 10 pts simply devastated the morale of his fellow competitors— they were untouchably consistent when others rode giant roller-coaster scorelines.  Fifteen pts back in second was Jud Smith’s AFRICA crew from Marblehead, MA.  They won the tie-breaker at 25 pts over Henry Filter’s WILD CHILD from Annapolis, MD.  The balance of the top five was Tim Healey’s HELLY HANSEN in 4th with 30 pts and Doug Sabin’s SCHRED in 5th with 32 pts.

J/30 one-design sailboat at Cedar Point YC regattaThe J/30s saw a dominant performance as well, with Carl Sherter’s FAT CITY taking class honors with just 5 pts total, counting three 1sts in the scores.  Second was John McArthur’s SMILES and third was Seth Shepard The IV’s DOW JONES.

Paul Beaudin’s J/105 LOU LOU also seems to be having several good regattas recently, they just nipped Damian Emery’s ECLIPSE by two points to take J/105 class honors.  Behind them was a new face in the top three, Richard Swanson’s team on GHOST DOG, just five pts back from the leaders.  The next two J/109 sailing Cedar Point regattaspots were determined by a tie-breaker at 22 pts each; David Willis’s SOLUTION took 4th and George & Alex Wilbanks finished 5th.

Not surprisingly, the J/109s saw yet another masterful sailing performance by class leader Bill Sweetser on the famous RUSH.  They, too, started off winning the first day to never relinquish their lead.  Making every effort to beat RUSH’s streak was Jim Vos’s SKOOT, finishing only one point back.  In yet another duel, Jon Rechtschaffer’s EMOTICON took third just one point in front of Adrian Begley’s MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN.  Just off the pace in fifth was Matt Baker’s RELIANT.  For more Cedar Point One-Design Regatta sailing information