1 Bo Robinson Squeeze Play (7) 2 1 1 2 1 6.25
Annapolis, MD
2 Robert Taylor XSNRJ 2 3 2 2 (6) 3 12.00
Newport, RI
3 Thomas Sponholtz Atalanta (7) 6 3 3 3 2 17.00
San Francisco, CA
4 Bill Sutton Blonde Attack (7) 1 7 6 1 5 19.50
Annapolis, MD
5 Fred Babson Fluidity 7 7 6 4 5 (10) 29.00
Sandusky, OH
6 Paul Mikulski Tourist Trap 7 4 4 8 9 (11) 32.00
Annapolis, MD
7 Chris Coffin Seasaw 7 8 5 (11) 4 8 32.00
Chicago, IL
8 Andy Skibo Plum Crazy 1 11 11 5 (12) 6 33.75
Annapolis, MD
9 Jack Detweiler Curlew 7 (9) 9 9 8 4 37.00
Annapolis, MD
10 Steve Phillips Le Renard 7 (12) 8 10 7 7 39.00
Annapolis, MD
11 Robert Carballal Irresistable 7 5 10 (12) 10 9 41.00
New York
12 Jay Corcoran ESS 7 10 (12) 7 11 12 47.00
New Jersey
() Throwout
J Boats Chesapeake and Eastport Yacht Club hosted the 1996 J/105 North
American Championships over the Sept. 20-22 weekend in Annapolis. A total
of 12 boats representing six fleets participated with teams from San
Francisco, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Newport, in addition to
several from Chesapeake Bay.The storm patterns which had recently pounded the east coast, gave the sailors a respite, resulting in light winds for the three day event. Friday proved to be the only real drifter with just two J/105s, Andy Skibo's PLUM CRAZY and Bob Taylor's XSNRJ, able to sniff out enough wind to finish within the time limit. The rest of the fleet were scored DNF, which for this event equaled the number of finishers plus 50% of the non-finishers (7 points). Spirits the fleet were only temporarily dampened, for later, the assembled group enjoyed a festive river boat dinner cruise under the moonlit Annapolis sky.
Saturday was redemption day for the race committee as they banged off four windward-leeward courses in a steadily building breeze that started at 6 knots and ended the day at 14 knots. J veteran Bo Robinson and his team aboard SQUEEZE PLAY were hot. They strung together finishes of 1,2,2,1 in shifty conditions to win the day and take the lead over Bob Taylor for the series. This second day also saw the emergence of Thomas Sponholtz of San Francisco, Bill Sutton of Annapolis, and Chicago NOOD winner, Fred Babson of Sandusky, Ohio. The racing was so tight that 10 of 12 J/105s had at least one top five finish, and 11 of 12 had at least one race (not including a DNF) of 6th or worse.
For Sunday's final race, the race committee decided to run one long five-leg Windward-Leeward, with 2.25 mile legs. The shifty 8-12 knot breeze and "deep corners" made it difficult to cover your closest competitor and still stay with the fleet, because one moment the left corner was paying, and then five minutes later the right would dominate. That's to say nothing of the two large tankers (as in 400 footers) moored within the course. The top four positions seemed to change almost by the leg, with the race's early leader Fred Babson, having to settle for his throw-out (10th) by race's end. Picking up where they left off Saturday, Bo Robinson and Bob Taylor match-raced up the last beat, with Robinson getting the gun to clinch the championship. In a must win situation for third place, Thomas Sponholtz passed Bill Sutton's BLONDE ATTACK on leg 2 when Sutton split jibes on either side of a large tanker. Sponholtz was able to cover to the finish.
Other Items of Interest: Regarding the shoal draft vs. deep draft performance in the J/105s, the results were not conclusive. The deep drafts could point a little higher upwind with no visible advantage downwind. The 6 second per mile differential appeared fair. Two of the twelve J/105s had deep draft keels and finished 2nd and 5th overall. To the shoal keels credit, a shoal keel boat was first to finish in all but one race!
J/105 Trailerability? Fred Babson bought a trailer, and trailered his deep keeled FLUIDITY from Ohio to Annapolis. Height above ground without removing the pulpits was 13'5", only 1" under the road maximum. We've seen shoal keeled J/105s on trailers, but Fred gets credit for being the first "have deep keel, will travel" J/105 owner.
1 Steve Podell Thrasher #105 1 1 1 4 1 7.00 2 Harry Blake Limelight #23 3 5 5 1 3 16.75 3 Dean Dietrich Blackhawk #40 4 2 2 7 5 20.00 4 Dave Tambellini Bella Rosa #31 2 3 4 5 7 21.00 5 Sam Hock Jose Cuervo #42 7 4 3 2 6 22.00 6 Phil Gardner 20/20 #47 6 6 6 6 2 26.00 7 Tom Coates Charade #111 5 7 7 3 4 26.00While Thomas Sponholtz was duking it out with the east coasters at the Annapolis North Americans, the rest of Fleet #1 was enjoying typical Bay conditions for the 1996 Big Boat Series. Following is extracted from Oct issue of Latitude 38: "Both division winner Steve Podell, sailing THRASHER, and second place finisher Harry Blake on LIMELIGHT fared relatively poorly in last year's Big Boat Series. Perseverance paid off, however, as they set the pace for the seven entries in the J/105 class. THRASHER matched four bullets with a 4th to win convincingly. Blake won the remaining heat and expressed satisfaction with the new class rule [San Fran fleet rule] which prohibits professional and other rockstars on the J/105s. He also noted that the 105s completed the series with minimal mishaps or gear failures. "This was a happy regatta," he said.
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 Total
1 Thomas Sponholtz Aquavit #103 2 1 1 1 1 12* 2 7.00
2 Steve Podell Thrasher #105 7* 4 2 2 5 1 1 14.50
3 Dave Tambellini Bella Rosa #31 6 5 12* 5 4 4 3 27.00
4 Sam Hock Jose Cuervo #42 5 7 5 3 3 5 12* 28.00
5 Harry Blake Limelight #23 3 6 12 12* 2 2 4 29.00
6 Phil Gardner 20/20 #47 4 2 4 6 12 3 12* 31.00
7 Jim Cascino Jest #44 1 3 12 12 12 12 12* 51.75
8 Tom Coates Charade #111 8 12 12 4 12 12 12* 60.00
9 Walt Marti Invictus #35 12 12 3 12 12 12 12* 63.00
10 Art Ball Blackhawk #40 12 12 12 12 12 12* 5 65.00
11 Tony Soter Oeno #7 12 12 12 12 12 12 12* 72.00
*/ Throwout
Race #1: One-Design
Race #2: J/Fest
Race #3: Vallejo
Race #4: Cup
Race #5: Invitational
Race #6: Opener
Race #7: NOOD
Fleet #1 sailed an ambitious 7 regatta schedule over a four month period,
with the results reflecting the best 6 of 7 events sailed. Thomas
Sponholtz on AQUAVIT strung together straight victories at J/Fest, Vallejo,
Cup and St. Francis Invitational to clinch the season victory, despite a
strong surge at the end by Steve Podell in THRASHER, who won both the
Opener and NOOD events.
1 Bob Taylor XSNRJ #150 1 1 (6) 2 3 6.50 2 Jeff Johnstone Polar Magic #142 (4) 4 1 1 2 7.50 3 Craig Albrecht Avalanche #25 3 2 3 3 (4) 11.00 4 Dimitrios Spentzos Odyssey #121 2 5 2 4 (6) 13.00 5 Bob Carballal Tar Baby #80 (6) 6 4 5 1 15.75 6 Larry and Kathy Anderson Sea Shadow #8 5 3 5 (6) 5 18.00 7 Tony Bingham Isis #117 (7) 7 7 7 7 28.00Manhasset Bay Yacht Club hosted the J/105 fleet for its first one-design event in Long Island Sound. Five boats from Fleet #6 (Long Island Sound) and two from Fleet #2 (New England) survived the light air conditions to enjoy a competitive five race series over two days. Bob Taylor's freshly launched XSNRJ (splashed before bottom paint could be applied!) demonstrated great drifter technique by convincingly winning the first two races. Despite the conditions, the boats all seemed to find a way of overlapping each other at most marks, and virtually everyone had at least one fabulous and one dismal race. When the breeze finally did come in at 3:00pm on Sunday, the race committee chair Roger Shope fired off two more races, producing the best action of the weekend.
Coutts and his team of Simon Daubney, Brad Butterworth, and Warwick Fleury lost only once in the 15 races they sailed in the five-day late August event sailed in Manhasset Bay, NY. That loss was to Hannah Swett and her all-woman crew during the round robin portion of the regatta. Other than that, the team led almost every race from start to finish, and overtook their opponent when they weren't ahead.
J/105s were provided by the Long Island Sound and New England fleets. The owners were able to crew aboard, and by week's end knew most of the sailors by name. The only damage came with the two French teams racing in the quarter-finals (Hey San Fran, does this sound familiar?), when Bertrand Pace tacked sharply astern of Thierry Peponnet without realizing his sprit was still extended by a foot. One stern rail and one sprit later, the boats were back in shape. Will the J/105 owners do the Brut Cup again next year? Depends on the timing. After three straight weeks of light air sailing in Long Island Sound, most owners are keen to take their boats to Newport next August for the New England Solo-Twin and NOOD Regatta.
1 John Bloom Norma Bell 1 1 1 2.25 2 Ted REilly Highlander 2 2 2 6.00 3 Skip Malm Wish 3 3 3 9.00 4 Leonard Redon Rhythm & Blues 4 5 4 13.00 5 John Ruehl Cutlass 5 4 6 15.00 6 Ian Farquharson Sonic Boom 6 6 5 17.00Rolling Stone Magazine declared Youngstown Level Regatta to be one of the top parties in the USA. We hear the sailing's great as well. This year marked the first with a J/105 one-design start. To encourage participation in the normally light air conditions, Fleet #4 permitted use of genoas and large spinnakers. John & Susan Bloom of Sodus Bay Yacht Club showed their mastery of the boat in the conditions as they strung together 3 bullets to take first place. The emergence of the J/105 class was well noticed by the group of over 2,000 participating sailors, promising an even higher turnout for next year's event.
1 Howie Howalt Polar Magic #142 3 2 3 1 1 2 1 12.25 2 Brian Tedeschi Ethereal #27 7 1 1 2 3 5 2 20.50 3 Johnstone/Spentzos Odyssey #121 6 4 2 3 4 3 4 26.00 4 Nelson Weiderman Kima #37 2 5 7 4 2 1 7 27.75 5 Warren Anderson Relentless #118 1 3 4 7 5 4 5 28.75 6 Bob Swirbalis Phenix #55 4 6 5 6 7 6 3 37.00 7 Hugh McLean All Right #56 5 7 6 5 6 7 6 42.00 8 John Callanan Showdown #92 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 63.00With J/105 one-design activity flourishing around the country, it was no surprise to see the 105s sail at Block Island Race Week for the first time as a class. And what a week it was, with 7 races over 5 days, and four different boats winning at least one race. It's no question the J/105 sailors had the most fun for the buck. The boats sailed with the three sail class inventory and crews of 5-6, helping to keep regatta expenses down and boat-to-boat competition extremely tight. Harvey Howalt aboard POLAR MAGIC sailed no worse than third to capture honors for the week. The battle for second was tight between Brian Tedeschi of Scituate, MA sailing ETHEREAL (3rd in the 1995 NOOD Regatta) Rod Johnstone and Dimitrios Spentzos aboard ODYSSEY, and Nelson Weiderman on KIMA. The goal of the J/105 sailors was to have lots of fun, learn more about their boats, and enjoy some friendly competition. We expect the fleet to double in size for the 1997 event.
1 Fred Babs Fluidity 1 4 1 1 1 7.00 2 Ron Cameron Lucky Dubie #46 2 1 2 2 2 8.75 3 Kevin Alcock Revelation 5 5 3 3 4 20.00 4 Chris Coffin We Be Jammin 2 4 3 4 4 7 22.00 5 Marty and Donna Hastings Joie De Vie 3 2 5 7 5 22.00 6 Mark Dunn Mad Dog 6 7 7 6 6 32.00 7 Thomas Petkus Vytis 9 6 6 9 3 33.00 8 Steve Rohrbach XTreme #89 8 9 8 5 8 38.00 9 Jack Rose Wild Thing 7 8 9 11 11 46.00 10 Rod Wallace Road Runner 10 10 10 8 9 47.00Fred Babson and his crew from Sandusky, Ohio aboard FLUIDITY migrated west to Chicago and successfully out-dueled Don Cameron (LUCKY DUBIE) and the rest of the competitive Chicago fleet for this early summer annual J/105 one-design event.