J/105 NA

Idag startar J/105 North American Championship på Annapolis Yacht Club. 69 båtar anmälda och man skall tydligen köra round robin och guld/silver-fleet. Poppis (precis som på bilden från San Francisco i september). Foto: Rolex/Daniel Forster.

Kul med juniorerna som fick ett nytt ställ av North och coaching av Terry Hutchinson!

ANNAPOLIS, MD — When the entry period officially closed on Wednesday, October 17, a record fleet of 69 J/105s from across North America were in the mix for the upcoming J/105 North American Championship, set for Thursday-Sunday, November 1-4. The regatta will be sailed on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, and is hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club and J/105 Fleet 3.

Defending North American Champion Thomas Coates from San Francisco, CA, will be on hand with his Masquerade team, hoping to repeat his 2006 win. In addition, Steve Phillips of Arnold, MD, who earned the championship title in 2000 and again in 2002, will be among the 27 representatives of Annapolis’ Fleet 3, sailing Le Renard.

Facing off against what promises to be a highly competitive fleet also will be Fleet 3 members and past CBYRA High Point Champions Jack Biddle (Rum Puppy), Jim Konigsberg (Inigo), and the team of Cedric Lewis and Fredrik Salvesen (Mirage), along with Pete McChesney (Kokopelli), a multiple High Point winner in the J/22 class, and several other local sailors who pose a perpetual threat. From outside of the Chesapeake Bay area, other sailors to watch include Fleet 10’s Gerrit Schulze and the Max Power crew from Cape May, N.J.; Brian Keane’s Savasana out of Fleet 14 in Massachusetts; Donald Wilson and the Convexity crew out of Chicago (Fleet 5); and Bennet Greenwald’s Perseverance out of San Diego’s Fleet 8.

The lineup of competitors is not only challenging, but also diverse. Along with past champions and consistently strong performers from 15 J/105 fleets in North America, two teams of Naval Academy midshipmen also will compete. These collegians are not the youngest participants, however; that honor goes to the Storm Trysail Club’s Chessie Team, made up of five junior sailors and their coach.

Support for the younger members of this fleet comes from a broad base, too. After Fleet 3 made the decision a few years ago to transition from shoal draft keels to deep keels, the requisition modification to the two Naval Academy boats was done with financial support from Fleet 3. Meantime, in support of the juniors of Team Storm Trysail, the local sailing community has reached out to many on the roster, but most notably Jim Allsopp and Will Keyworth of North Sails donated a new main and jib to the junior team, while America’s Cup veteran Terry Hutchinson spent time sharing tips on boat speed, teamwork, boat preparation, and good teamwork.

On-water management of such a large group of highly competitive sailors might be daunting, but Principal Race Office Chip Thayer and his team from AYC are up to the challenge. Using the successful model they fine-tuned for the 2004 J/22 World Championship, regatta organizers will split the fleet in four subdivision for a four-race round-robin competition on Thursday and Friday before re-dividing the fleet into Gold (Championship) and Silver divisions for an additional three races on Saturday and Sunday. The decision to split the fleet was made after polling the entrants for their preference.

The J/105 North American Championship Series was born in Annapolis in 1996 with 12 boats, and repeated here in 2000 with 34. Both regattas were sailed out of J/Port Annapolis, with Paul Mikulski at the helm. Since 1996, championship regattas have been held every year, in venues ranging from California to Long Island Sound, Florida, and the Great Lakes.

Sponsors of the 2007 J/105 North American Championship Regatta include North Point Yacht Sales, Charles Schwab, North Sails, Annapolis Performance Sailing, Ullman Sails, Bombay Sapphire, Hall Spars, and J/Boats.