J/105 C.O.2 Crowned San Diego NOOD Champion

CATAPULT Eclipses 70s, Taylor Dominates 24s, CAPER Owns 120s
(San Diego, CA)- The 2014 Sperry Top-Sider San Diego NOOD saw absolutely perfect conditions for the one-design fleets of J/24s, J/70s, J/105s and J/120s. Sunny skies, high 70‘s and breezes in the 10-15 knot range were around all weekend. The 17 boat J/70 fleet was the largest one-design fleet at the NOOD regatta, followed by the J/105s with fourteen.

The event began on Thursday for many of the J/70 sailors, as North Sails hosted an on-the-water clinic and took video during practice. The unique thing about the J/70 class is that it has a healthy mix of both amateur and professional sailors. The Pros have been great at helping the fleet really figure out how to sail the J/70, which has resulted in very close sailing. Thursday’s clinic had the J/70’s out sparring and working on boat handling, starting, and boat speed. On both Thursday and Friday, North Sails hosted a debrief after racing with Vince Brun, Chris Snow & Chuck Allen, along with videos and photos once again done by the pros at North Sails.

Friday came and the first day of racing saw light early morning breezes quickly fade as a strong sea breeze set in. Joel Ronning’s CATAPULT (from Minnetonka, MN), with local Coronado expert Willem Van Waay aboard, quickly jumped to a lead in the event with a strong 3-2-1 for the day. In a close second place, newcomer to the fleet, Joe Markee from San Diego YC, had his daughter Mandy and son-in-law Bill Hardesty, on board OHANA for their first J/70 race!

The conditions throughout the weekend were near perfect for sailing, with the trend of strong sea-breezes filling every day. The shifty South Bay made it possible to recover from mistakes and the fleet saw extremely close racing. There were multiple races where there were 5-7 boats literally overlapping at the finish, making it challenging for the race committee and very close racing throughout the fleet. In the end, the top five for the event were CATAPULT, followed by OHANA in second, Tom Garrett’s SLOOP JOHN B in third, Karl Pomeroy’s ZERO TO 60 fourth and the DFZ duo of Eric Kownacki and Tom Jenkins taking fifth.

The J/70 fleet in Southern CA has been growing rapidly in the past three months. There is an active group of fourteen local J/70’s with many more boats on the way. The fleet has a great list of planned High Point events which include: King Harbor Race Week, Yachting Cup, Long Beach Race Week, Fiesta Cup, Ahmanson Regatta, and J/Fest in San Diego.

Sailing alongside the J/70s in South Bay were the J/24s with a showing of seven good teams.  It didn’t take long for past J/24 NOOD Champion, Susan Taylor on TAKE FIVE, to get back into the swing of things and feel comfortable in the lead, winning four of six races to take home the crown.  Finishing second was James Barney’s CRITTER followed by John Cianciarulo’s ABOUT TIME in third.

A dominating final day of sailing in the J/105 class earned Gary Mozer and crew aboard CURRENT OBSESSION 2 the prestigious Overall Winner title at the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta San Diego. The Beverly Hills-based skipper made tactful decisions in the breezy conditions on San Diego Bay to claim top honors. As overall winner, Mozer and crew received an invitation to the Caribbean to sail against fellow NOOD Overall Winners.  After the first four races, Rick Goebel’s SANITY was tied for the lead with CO2 at nine points by virtue of having posted a 6-1-1-1 scoreline. However, ending the regatta with a 4-3 dropped SANITY into second place.  The tag-team of Tom Hurlburt & Chuck Driscoll on BLOW BOAT sailed a solid, consistent series to capture third.  They were followed by Jim Dorsey on WINGS and Steve & Lucy Howell’s BLINK!, fourth & fifth, respectively.  Watch the Sailing World video of Gary Mozer- the Overall Winner here.

The “big dogs” in the J/120 class had close racing with the top three teams, in particular, playing the children’s game of “chutes & ladders” just about every race.  One bad start, a blown tack, a lousy spinnaker take-down, all lead to catastrophic consequences in this tightly packed fleet.  In six races, four different teams won races and five boats had top three finishes!  Surviving the roller-coaster ride best was John Laun’s team on CAPER, taking their class by just 4 pts.  Mike Hatch’s J/ALMIGHTY rattled off a 2-2-1 in the last three races to climb quickly into second overall.  On the flip-side of J/ALMIGHTY’s rapid ascent was John Snook’s JIM dropping into third.  Fourth was Chuck Nichols CC RIDER and fifth was Gary Winton’s SHENANIGANS.

Finally, this year's San Diego NOOD also featured a one-day North Sails Rally Race.  On Saturday, March 15, Joe Dagostino, the owner of the San Diego YC-based J/105 VIGGEN (below left), hopped aboard to go sail the first-ever North Sails Rally Race, a one-day, random-leg, PHRF-scored race.  In the end, they enjoyed a fantastic day on the water and became the well-deserved winners with his friend Tom Fisher!
 

Also, new to the 2014 NOOD season is the “Local Boat of the Day” award presented by North Sails.  Designed to recognize a skipper who exemplifies superior local knowledge of the course as well as precise execution during their races, San Diego YC J/105 sailor Rick Goebel (above right), epitomized those characteristics on SANITY, also in the J/105 class, claiming this weekend’s distinction.   Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes (http://www.timwilkes.com) and Paul Todd (Outsideimages.com)  For more Sperry Top Sider San Diego NOOD sailing information

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