Cedar Point One-Design- A Class Act!

(Westport, CT)- A few years ago, many people may have asked where Cedar Point was, notwithstanding the fact they could have “googled” themselves where it was in the first place! Doh!  Such are the trials and tribulations of promoting regattas and getting people to begin to appreciate what your event has to offer to each sailor!  Nevertheless, the Cedar Point YC in Westport, CT has prevailed and with their incredibly generous hospitality, has managed to attract an enormous following in recent years to their Cedar Point One-Design Regatta.  Who knew, eh?  Can you imagine that over the June 4th to 5th weekend that over 80 boats and at least 500+ sailors had a scream chasing each other around the course?  Yup!  You bet, CPYC knows how to host a fun regatta.  The most secretive regatta on the late spring/ early summer calendar.  Just don’t go next year, you may have too much fun! :0

No question, the J/Tribe was there in full force.  One-design fleets of J/70s, J/88s, J/105s, and J/109s forming about 9/10ths the participants in the event.  Great sailing, fun people, and much to be learned from fellow one-design sailors— with Ken Read’s NORTH SAILS Team providing some interesting insights on the proceedings for tactics, strategy, sail trim, sail shape and other sailing speed stuff.

In the seventeen boat J/70 fleet, the largest at the regatta, it was Allan Stern & Bill Walker’s VICTURA that took the class championship by the narrowest of margins.  Just one point back was Andrew & Melissa Fisher’s BUTTON FLY from Greenwich, CT taking second overall, as well as the winning the Corinthians Division.  Third was Scott & Alex Furnary’s ANY COLOUR with 12 pts.  Fourth was Trevor Roach’s SEMI-CHARMED and also taking 2nd in Corinthians.  Fifth overall and third Corinthians was Carrie & Ed Austin’s CHINOOK.

The J/88s continued to see a massive game of “chutes & ladders” amongst the top boats.  A general theme has emerged over the past year, no question that Iris Vogel’s DEVIATION and Mike Bruno’s WINGS are considered to be class leaders and have traded off winning major events over the past year.  However, “new kids on the block” are beginning to figure it all out and are also beginning to show flashes of brilliance.  So it goes in a new one-design class as each team learns how to go faster and faster.  This time, it was Vogel’s DEVIATION crew that just squeaked out a victory by one point over Bruno’s WINGS crew.  Third was Ken & Drew Hall’s NEVERMORE with 12 pts.  The “fly in the ointment crew” may be the gangsters on Doug Newhouse’s YONDER team, having posted a 2-1-4 but suffering a DSQ in race four to take them out of the picture overall.  Otherwise, the YONDER team was tied on points for the lead going into the last race with DEVIATION and just one point ahead of WINGS!  That is incredibly close, tactical racing!  Just behind that pack was Kevin Marks’ VELOCITY crew.

The hugest offshore big boat fleet was the J/105 class, not surprisingly.  The sixteen-boat class saw great racing amongst the class leaders on Long Island Sound.  In the end, it was Paul Beaudin’s LOULOU narrowly winning class with a 6-4-2-2 for 14 pts.  Second was Dave Willis’ SOLUTION with a 5-2-8-1 scoreline for 16 pts. Third was a totally new crew in the top three in J/105 sailing (a sign for the future??), Za & Libby Jelliffe’s ARETE with basic 8-6-1-3 tally for 18 pts (they are learning fast).  Fourth were class veterans George & Alex Wilbanks’ REVELATION with 20 pts and in fifth was Randy Bourne’s STRANGE BREW.

Twelve J/109s congregated for their East Coast Championship.  What many sailors may not appreciate is that J/109 sailing can be incredibly tight, competitive sailing. Yes. It is a cruising boat.  Well, it does have an aft head with a huge shower.  But, it has a nav table, a massive stereo setup (for those who “man-up”), and a huge “play-pen” in the bow for those who can appreciate such things.  Before we forget why J/109 owners love their boats, we should remember that it is a cruising-racing sailboat that has won many offshore events in IRC/ ORC/ ABC/ PHRF and lots of other alphabet rating rules.  On a one-design basis, it was David Rosow’s crew on LOKI that took the championship with a solid 2-2-1-6-1 scoreline for 6 pts net.  Amazing.  It may be the first time that Bill Sweetser’s J/109 global domination team on RUSH had to settle for second with the most incredible scoreline of 1-1-5-1-7 for 8 pts net.  Hoping to be in the chocolates was Carl Olsson’s crew on MORNING GLORY, posting an insanely consistent 3-4-3-4-3 for 13 pts net.  Missing out being a bridesmaid again was Adrian Begley’s MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN, happy to settle for fourth.  Fifth was Jonathan Rechtshaffer’s EMOTICON.  For more Cedar Point One-Design Regatta sailing information


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