Saturday, October 10, 2015

J/88 New England Championship Preview

J/88 sailing offshore under spinnaker (Greenwich, CT)- What a fleet!  Eight boats are turning out for the inaugural J/88 New England Championship.  The event runs from October 9th to 11th and will be hosted by the Indian Harbor YC in Greenwich, CT.  The forecast will be challenging for the competitors, with fresh southerlies on Friday in the 8-14 kts range followed by a frontal passage and a dying NNE on Saturday from 15 kts dying down to 5 kts, followed by a classic, cool, WSW seabreeze Sunday of 5-12 kts.  Not an atypical fall weather pattern on Long Island Sound!

The fleet includes a wide range of teams from across the northeast.  Based on their recent events in the Long Island Sound Championships and the American YC Fall Series, it will be tough-sledding for both Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION crew from Huguenot YC and Mike Bruno’s WINGS team from American YC to stay in front of a rapidly improving fleet of boats.  Don’t be surprised if a variety of past college sailors and local one-design performers give these two teams a run for the money.  Don’t count out Doug McKeige’s JAZZ crew from American YC, nor Russ Stokes’ BLUE FOR YOU from the same club.  Then, Doug Newhouse’s Sail Newport crew on YONDER and the rest of the fleet will be facing several competitors that could completely upset the apple car, like John Sommi’s CLOUD 9, Dave Betts’ INSTANT KARMA from Sag Harbor YC, and Kevin Marks’ VELOCITY from Noroton YC.  For more J/88 New England Championship sailing information