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Report by Chris Snow The newly formed Southern California J/80 fleet showed up in force at Long Beach Race Week this last weekend, thanks in part to a strong group of supporters out of Marina Del Rey. 8 boats hit the line for some great racing in one of Southern California’s best venues, Long Beach Harbor. With winds topping out at close to 20 knots on Friday and Saturday of this three day regatta all competitors were tested and got some great rides downwind. When all the scores were counted Roland Fournier of Long Beach onboard “Blue Moon 2” emerged the winner. Roland counted scores of 1,1,1,1,2 to sweep the event in style. I had the pleasure of sailing with Roland in this event and learned a few things about sailing the J/80 that I would like to share here. Among these are:
Here, the results:
Any questions about North Sails for the J/80 please contact Jay Lutz, Chris Snow or your closest member of the North One Design Team.
Report by Jay Lutz
I first want to congratulate our crew …because this regatta in particular, was a total team effort, especially during the mid week with the winds 25-35.. JT, Brian and Derek were fantastic and it was a pleasure to race with them. Now on to the racing. We arrived early Saturday morning and had plans of setting the mast quickly and spending most of the day out on the water. Unfortunately, and maybe it was an omen of things to come a Front came through early that morning and it “Honked” out of the North-NW about 30. The temporary Marina at the Truman Annex was scared to death of us gin-poling the mast up in those winds and asked that we postpone until later. Well, later almost never came so after negotiating with S&S Marine and taking all responsibilities we took 5 minutes and raised the mast between 30 knot puffs. Not a big deal when you have a good gin pole…Thanks “Hammertime”.Sunday was a perfect practice day and allowed the crews to get the cobwebs out and start to think about “Sprit” sailing again. Monday – Race day 1 Winds were light North Easterly with the possibility of a right hand shift during the day. Our racecourse consisted of Melges 24, J105’s and the J80’s. In the light lump the J80’s were sure to be faster then the “class” jib 105’s and our discussion prior to the start proved correct. We were going to have to deal with the 105’s as we caught up during the race. What we didn’t know was how quickly we would need to start looking for clear air “lanes” from the 105’s… By the time we reached the windward mark our strategy had changed to dealing with the 105’s---and our normal fleet! After having to over stand the windward mark by 15 boat lengths in order to stay in clear air we still arrived with a very comfortable lead. Glenn Darden on “Hoss” was second. Our lead quickly shrunk at the leeward gates when a pack of 105’s stalled and hearing a “no room” from a 105 clearly outside two boat lengths we proceeded to see the J80 fleet from behind roll right up from behind and the race was on again! We were lucky to hold off the group for the win with Rick Shaffer second and Hoss third. Race two saw slightly more wind which kept most of the 105’s ahead for the race duration as well as that right hand shift I mentioned earlier. Unfortunately for us, knowing about it and positioning for it was two different things. After leading half way around the course we gave up two spots to John Stork and Glenn Darden after a “mind fart” and forgot we were going to protect that side! Tuesday – Race Day 2 When we left the dock winds were SE at 20 with the potential to build, and build they did (to around 30) till mid afternoon. Race one was probably the hardest with the mainsail flogging most of the windward legs. Downwind…what a ride! Speeds in the area of 16- 18 knots…Throw in the jibes and look out. The best J80 wipe out we saw was Shaffer and crew on “Nasty” with an unplanned jibe broach that I would have to give a 9.6 with a high degree of difficulty… A sideshow was that we set up mostly on the port tack layline and watching the Melges 24’s scoot downwind was amazing. Also what was amazing was how many Melges 24 masts were breaking. I think we saw (and heard) 5 and counted about 8 broken. Race 2 was more under control with the breeze lowering into the 25 range….which really seemed light and manageable!! The results were similar with our Synergy winning and Nasty second. Oh, and more Melges 24 masts exploding on the run made for interesting conversation during our upwind leg. Instead of “Up 5, big wave” were heard “CRACK! There goes another one”. Wednesday – Race Day 3 And you thought yesterday was windy! A cold front arrived during the night and brought with it North winds 30+. Now a cold front in Key West is not like the rest of the US, the temperature dropped to about 65!! A 90 minute dock postponement by the RC let the wind drop to 30+…. But the forecast was for less in the afternoon. At least, because we raced in the lee of the island, the waves were not as big a factor as Tuesday but the velocity was higher. For the J80’s the start was all the fireworks with “Hoss” unable to make the leeward boat and stuck head to wind as the jib backed onto port. That was not a good thing for our “Synergy” as we were the next boat up on the line. As the “Hoss” crew remembers vividly, me yelling “OH NO, THEY ARE ON PORT!” we collided and spun towards the leeward RC boat only to avoid a head on but unfortunately got our port life line tangled with the RC boats bow cleat!! For the next couple of minutes (seemed like an hour) we were One. That incident started a chain reaction with “Nasty” and “Hyperdrive” tacking to port to avoid the melee which then caused “Emotional Rescue” to force both boats back to starboard and another collision occurred. Unfortunately, somehow the protest committee ruled it two separate incidents and DSQ’d “Nasty”…Weird. Downwind the A-spinnaker runs were completely out of control. In the big puffs the spray from the boats waves made it so you could not even see where you were going…and then we had to pick our way through the two fleets in front of us that were going back upwind and THEN figure out when and HOW to jibe!! You had to be there to understand completely! “Nasty” got the gun but John Stork and his Young Guns got the victory. J80 President Uzi and Dave Hendrickson were second, passing our “Synergy” on the final run after a combination of shrimping, broaching and tangling our spinnaker around the jib. (Because of all the problems we had I did not even want to mention to the crew that the rudder gudgeons were loose and the rudder was about to fall the boat). Winds never did die down and in fact might have increased a little. The RC called it for the day. More Melges 24 masts and even a couple of J105 sticks came tumbling down. Oh, our thought for the day was that J105 masts sound louder when breaking then Melges 24’s. Aluminum is louder then carbon fiber. Thursday – Race day four NE winds 13-20. An absolutely beautiful race day. All clear at the start and what a fun first beat. There were about 6 boats vying for the top spot at the windward mark with Shaffer and crew hitting a nice left shift just before the mark, after ducking transoms and then blasting away on a nice downwind puff that the rest of us never saw to extend his lead at the leeward gates. The rest of the race was catch up for us and after a fantastic jibing battle we were able to pass Rick at the finish. Third was the Darden/Hillard crew. Race two for this day was similar at the finish with “Nasty” pushing us around for most of the course and “Rumor” third. No mast breaking! The tough though for the day was downwind. When to head up and plane and when to rotate the spinnaker and try to sail low. We were at that wind speed when (at least for me) it’s tough to decide. We actually did both during the each downwind leg depending on the puff and/or lull’s. Friday – Race day five East 10-15. Another outstanding day on the racecourse. Key West, your beautiful. The RC had two races planned in order to make up for the single race on Wednesday. Our position in the regatta allowed for us to only race one, and since we were last on the list for haul outs, and I needed to get to my son’s Opti regatta in St. Pete we headed for the barn early. The Stork crew on “Rumor” with two 1sts dominated this day and a hard fought second overall for Key West Race Week. “Nasty”, with a 3-4 closed out the week in third with Glenn Darden fourth and rounding out the top five in the overall standings was USJ80 president Uzi Ozeri. Victory thoughts:
For more information our J/80 sails, please contact our J/80 experts!
Report by Shane Hughes Hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club in the beautiful and charming surroundings of Falmouth in the south west of Cornwall (UK), this years J 80 Worlds saw a very light, tricky and challenging set of conditions, with the wind blowing between 0 and 5/6 knots mostly with only one day sailed in any more! Nevertheless, all races were sailed and a very competitive regatta was had. For this event I sailed with a very young and determined team on “Volvo”, we had managed to gain the use of a boat from the RYA and with a new suit of North Sails and a little ingenuity we had managed to bring a very reasonable campaign to the start line. Our helmsman was Ruaraidh Scott, a very fast and accomplished keelboat sailor who had come off the back of winning a European and National championships in the previous two weeks; this event was to round off the hat trick for him! The first day saw very light conditions which had been forecast, and the OOD left the fleet on the dock to enjoy the local amenities and perhaps an ice cream! A light thermal breeze filled in later on and we got one race away inside the harbour. Due to having to sail the race inside the harbour, this left the race track very left sided as there was a definite convergence zone against the left shore! It was a case of getting a clean start and a good lane left. We didn’t and got what turned out to be our worst result of the week, a 14th, it was the French team on “J’Suis” who took the win from The Germans on “Needles and Pins” with Kevin Sproul and team on “Silva Dream Machine” in third. Day two saw very similar conditions but with a little more stable breeze, we managed to get three races in. For our team, it turned out to be a phenomenal day and we posted a 1,2,2 . At the end of the day the point scores were very close with less than ten points separating the top four or five. The Swedish on “Team Sbab” were in the lead after some very consistent scoring, with “Silva” second and us on “Volvo” third. Behind in fourth were a very solid French team skippered by Laurent Abignoli and the US “Red Sky Glide” team in fifth. Day Three saw two races sailed in almost identical conditions to the first two days! You had to find those lanes and work the left shore. The team on “Red Sky Glide” skippered by Glenn Darden showed the fleet a clean pair of heals twice as they took both victories to put themselves back in the frame overall. This left the overall placings even closer with the top five boats all capable of making the regatta theirs if they could show some consistency! The Swedish still led from the Americans with our team third, “Silva” fourth and the French Fifth. Day four saw the best breeze of the week, with the fleet moving out of the harbour to the race course which we were supposed to have raced on all week had it not been for the light conditions. A lovely 10-15 knot sea breeze built through the afternoon and we sailed three superb races. Our team on “Volvo” had another fantastic day, a decisive day infact! We managed to score two 3rd’s and a 2nd , which after some average starting and very hard work from everyone onboard to get us through the fleet, felt very satisfying indeed . It turned out that on consulting the results board on our return to the dock, that this was enough to win us the World Championship with a race to spare! We took the decision to let the others fight it out for second on the final day, while we took a well deserved rest after some well deserved beers!!!! It was the team on “Silva” which managed to secure second after some very consistent sailing all week, with the Swedish “Team Sbab” in third place. Overall the regatta represented a huge success for our team who performed exceptionally all week and deserve credit; they were Ruairidh Scott (helm), Ben Field (tactician), Anna Scott (pit) and Giles Waterhouse (bow) with myself as trimmer. It also represented a great Success for North Sails who have remained as top sailmaker in the fleet yet again. We had exceptional pace all week which helped immensely in such a tight fleet! Thanks go to Volvo, the RYA, Kaenon, Our team at North Sails and everyone else who helped make us World champions, also thanks go to J-UK and the event organizers for doing such a fantastic job! We are already looking forward to Corpus Christy in The USA next year! TOP 10: For more information our J/80 sails, please contact our J/80 experts!
Report by Jay Lutz Wow, what a setting!! The J80 Worlds were held on the Island of Sandhamn off the coast of Sweden. A loud THANKS! to the RC, KSSS Yacht Club, JBoats Sweden and the member of the local J80 fleet for putting on a tremendous regatta. As is normally the case, Murphy dropped in for the regatta days….that is Murphy of “Murphy’s Law”. Winds, normally from the Southeast to South changed direction and came from the North for the entire regatta. However, besides race # 1 being a crapshoot the Northerly proved perfect in velocity and relatively steady in direction to run all of the scheduled races. A hearty congratulations to North customers Peder Arvefors and crew including his 13 year old son for winning the event. Peder got better and better with every race and secured victory with a final race victory. North sails were on five out of the top ten positions and won the majority of races. Said Peder after his win “I’m new to the class and my North Sails were fast and easy to trim right away”. For more information about the regatta or on our winning sails, please contact our J/80 experts!
North won 50% of the races and 5 out of the top 10 boats used North Sails!! (1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 10th). Report by World Champion Jay Lutz I’m sure all of the foreign competitors and many of the East coast J80 sailors had no idea what to expect prior to arriving on this North Texas lake for the 2003 J80 World Championship. What they got was fantastic winds and an organization that rivals the best on the planet! If the lake size was lacking the Ft. Worth Boat Club with Rick Shaffer and Craig White (as co-chairman) made up for it with “good old” Texas hospitality. This club had their act together with direct internet connection to the J80 Class web site where race results and a string chart of each competitor in each race hit the web even before the competitors knew what place they came in. The racing was something! The run of Eagle Mountain Lake to the North and South has the best set up racing. Monday’s practice race had good 8-12 knots from the South. Christer Faith-Ell finished first and showed us what I knew would be a tough team from Sweden. Day 1 Tuesday’s first day of racing dawned with a frontal passage and North winds in the 20-25 knot range lightning up as the day progressed. Three races were sailed with lake magician Scott Young counting finishes of 1,2,3. We were fortunate with a 1,1,6. The thing about lake sailing is even when it’s blowing 15-20 there are 20 degree shifts going on all over the place! If I were to guess I’d say that Scott Young used patience and waited for the next shift to come his way and did not chase the wind for his fantastic first day finishes. Day 2 An early postponement for lack of fresh breeze was a good decision by the RC and as the sun heated things up the breeze increased. By race time a nice South 8-12 knots filled in and continued to increase during the day topping off at maybe 18. A perfect day for 3 more races….with different sides of the race course showing an advantage at one time or the other…..and sometimes twice on the same leg! The leaders started to emerge with John Kolius posting finishes of 5,6,2 and we were fortunate to count 6,5,1 for the regatta lead. The famous “String Chart” showed plenty of ups and downs with some guys like Rick Shaffer moving up 20+ places on one leg! Day 3 Our morning crew meeting consisted of one thing….This was the day to separate from the fleet. Where consistency would be the key to make the regatta easy or very hard. Fortunately the weather service (or gods) depending on if you talk to the Ft. Worth RC, provided another South wind in the 10-20 knot range. Three races were scheduled and three were sailed. With consistent finishes of 1,5,6 (with the comeback from 22 to 6th in the last race) USA 531 Perigee and team of Joe Taylor, Alex Crowell and Derek Gauger clinched the J80 Worlds (without having to sail the last race). Christer and SWE 243 and Kolius were in a tight battle for second and Scott Spurlin and Klingler were locked in a battle for fourth. Day 4 Our morning crew meeting first consisted of passing aspirin around the table (after the celebration) and then packing away the boat. We talked about going out to race but since the battle for the next four places were up in the air we did not want any of the boats to think we were out to push them back and we did not risk a Black Flag on the starting line. Winds had shifted overnight going back to the North and velocity was once again perfect at 12-18. In the end John Kolius made a spectacular comeback to pass Christer and finish second in the race and second overall. SWE 243 accepted third after a stellar event. The 2004 Worlds will be in Sweden and this crew will be a force to be reckoned with. Summary of the victory If I were to summarize the victory I’d say it was a couple of key things. Boat speed - While not quite as critical on a shifty lake as open water it did help us hold our lane while in bad air and wait for an opportunity. Our 2004 sail designs by Ched Proctor were awesome! Good Tactics – Patience was a virtue. Often times things looked bad so you just had to wait your turn for the shift. It may not have put you back in the lead but it helped to get you out of the “cheap seats” where you could then attack. Crew work – Absolutely… The ability to say where the boat was going and let the crew figure out how we would get there was a major asset. We just thought we were the best …at that regatta….(maybe not next time.) Luck – Whether it was the planets in alignment or good biorhythms when you have it things just seem to flow well. We should have played the lottery! Congrats to Ft. Worth Boat Club ….(and the weather service)
on a job WELL done.
Report by Chris Snow We are pleased to report that North Sails scored a nice victory last weekend at the J/80 North Americans in Houston. Jay Lutz of North Sails Texas won the regatta over a fleet of sailors preparing for the J/80 Worlds next month in Fort Worth. Activity in the class has been gearing up recently in anticipation of the Worlds and more sailmakers are showing an interest. Jay’s win in the NA’s is testimony to his persistent,hard work in the class. He and Ched Proctor have been collaborating on the designs for this boat for the past couple of years and slowly making the sails better and better. Jay used our latest standard designs to win this event. To date over 600 boats have been built and the class is now becoming active in Europe. The class has about 400 members in the US. This is definitely a nice little market. For more information on North J/80 sails please contact Jay Lutz, jay@sales.northsails.com or any member of the One Design group.
Report by Jay Lutz J/80 NA's Houston
The Houston YC race committee ably headed by Scott Davis ran a flawless event under sometimes trying conditions. Winds ranged from 2-15 knots. Six races were completed which allowed for one throw-out. North Sails dominated the event with 9 out of the top 10 places. Also, 4 out of the 6 races were won by North Sail customers. Champion Steve Hammerman summed up his
victory by saying that good crewwork, conservative tactics and excellent
sails contributed to his victory.
For tuning help contact the North J/80 experts.
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WOW! What a regatta! Five days of fabulous racing (scary at times), and the atmosphere of Key West to boot! This should be a stop for any J80 owner. Slightly expensive but where else could you attend the finest regatta in the world in the cold of January. Plus there is something to do for all non-sailors as well.
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