SPACEMAN SPIFF Wins J/111 Pre-Worlds

J/88s, J/105s, J/109s Battle @ Verve Offshore Cup
(Chicago, IL)- As one of the largest offshore regattas in the Great Lakes, the Chicago Yacht Club’s Verve Cup Offshore has developed into a world-class regatta attracting many national and international competitors. This year, that level jumped up a few notches as the Verve Cup also served as the J/111 Pre-Worlds regatta; the J/111 World Championship will be taking place starting August 18th the following weekend off the beautiful Chicago lakefront and skyline.

Last weekend, the Chicago YC hosted the 28th annual Verve Cup Offshore Regatta in a dizzying array of weather conditions over the three-day event. On Friday, a post-frontal, shifty, breeze from the northwest started at 15 kts, then quickly diminished and swung to the north-northeast by late afternoon in the 5-8 kts range. Saturday saw a light east-southeast wind slowly build after a one-hour on-shore postponement into the 4 to 8 kts range, with wild 40-degree swings across the race track. Then, Sunday dawned with the possibility of another frontal system with enormous embedded thunderstorms. Fortunately, the front moved south, not southeast, and only the western suburbs of Chicago got pounded by lightning, hail, and tropical-like heavy rains. Out on the lake, the wind started in the SSE quadrant in the 4-7 kts range, then swung strongly SSW to 240 deg and increased in pressure to 8-12 kts, before oscillating from 230 back to 190 for the last two races of the regatta.


J/111 Pre-Worlds Drama
For the extremely competitive seventeen-boat J/111 class, the wildly oscillating breezes produced a roller-coaster scoreline for the entire fleet; with not even the top three boats scoring all top five finishes. Starting fast out-of-the-blocks on Friday was Rob Ruhlman’s family team on SPACEMAN SPIFF, leading after the first day with an amazing 4-1-1-2 tally with a huge 10 point lead over Jeff Davis’ SHAMROCK that had a 3-5-9-1 scorecard for 18 pts. Sitting in third was Peter Wagner’s J/111 World Champion crew on SKELETON KEY with a 1-8-5-6 for 20 pts.

The second day for the J/111s saw a few seismic shifts in the scores, but little change for the top three. SHAMROCK posted a 3-3 (tied for the best record of the day with KASHMIR’s 1-5) to close the gap significantly with SPACEMAN SPIFF that posted an 8-4, the spread was now only 4 pts!

The dramatic finale on Sunday had more than its fair share of anxious moments for the top three boats. In the seventh and penultimate race, SKELETON KEY nailed down a 2nd, SPACEMAN SPIFF a 4th, and SHAMROCK 6th. With their lead back up to a 6 pts advantage, the SPIFFER’s could breath a little easier. But, the sailing conditions were so unpredictable that just about anything could go wrong. Well, that is just about what happened. The final race was set for a 230 deg wind, but just before the start, it swung left to 190 deg- a 40 deg. change of course! Nailing the start was SHAMROCK, rounding the weather mark 1st with SKELETON KEY in 4th and SPIFF back in 9th. At that moment, SHAMROCK was winning both the race and the regatta. However, it was never a dull moment on that first run. The wind swung back slowly to 220 deg and the tail-enders that had either sailed low or gybed made big gains, namely SPIFF and SKELETON KEY. The ensuing windward leg saw even more lead changes. While the lead group of SHAMROCK, SKELETON KEY, and KASHMIR stayed left, a breakaway pack behind them of four boats took off from the leeward gate on port, hitting the right corner hard. That move paid off huge, as the wind swung further right to the 230+ range with more breeze, and that group took 1-2-3 (UTAH, VELOCITY, & ROWDY). Meanwhile, SHAMROCK dropped back to 6th, SPIFF jumped up to 7th, and SKELETON KEY secured a 4th. As a result, Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF team won the J/111 Pre-Worlds and also the overall trophy for the regatta- The Verve Offshore Cup Trophy! Second was SKELETON KEY and third SHAMROCK.


J/109 Class Chutes & Ladders
The eight-boat J/109 class saw similar dramas to the J/111s play out on the final day. Leading going into the last race was Jim Murray’s CALLISTO with a 3 point margin over David Gustman’s NORTHSTAR. In the last race, there was a lot of shuffling in the standings due to similar huge shifts and changes in wind pressure. Winning the final race to take the J/109 title was Gustman’s NORTHSTAR; meanwhile, Murray’s CALLISTO team had their worst race of the regatta, posting a 7th to drop into second place.

Perhaps the most unfortunate victim of the changing winds of fortune was Doug Evans’ TIME OUT. After four races on the first day, TIME OUT posted a mind-numbing, eye-bleeding 2-1-1-1 scoreline to torch the J/109 fleet for a 6-point lead. Perhaps living up to their namesake, the crew perhaps did have a “time out” and could never recover their swagger or “mojo” for the next two days. As they say, they had moments of sheer brilliance interspersed with moments of stark terror, the latter winning out in the end. They closed their last four races with a painful 7-2-7-8 scorecard to drop into third place.


J/88 Class Lots Of Drama
The seven-boat J/88 class had a somewhat acrimonious regatta. It was very close racing amongst the top four boats with just a few points separating them after seven races on Saturday. Those teams were Tim Wade’s WINDSONG, John & Jordan Leahey’s DUTCH, Andy & Sarah Graff’s EXILE, and Ben Marden’s BANTER.

After much protest room drama, it was Tim Wade’s WINDSONG that won the regatta with three 1sts, five 2nds, and a DNC in the ninth and last race for 21 pts total (they had already won on points by winning race 8). Second was the Leahey’s DUTCH team with 28 pts and third went to Todd Patton’s BLONDIE 2 with 32 pts.


J/105 Class Whitewash
While their colleagues in the J/111 and J/88 classes had plenty of drama to worry about, the six-boat J/105 class was suffering from a good-old-fashioned butt-whipping by none other than one of the long-standing veterans of the class- Clark Pellett’s SEALARK. It was quite apparent after winning the first two races, SEALARK’s wily veterans onboard were not going to be dissuaded, nor distracted, in their mission and their march to the victory stand.  In the end, SEALARK hammered home six bullets and a 2-3 to win with just 11 pts. Gyt Petkus’ VYTIS veterans made a run at them, winning races 3 & 4, but could not maintain the furious pace and pressure they were subjected to by the SEALARK gang. Nevertheless, they had a rather impressive scoreline of two 1sts, four 2nds, two 3rds for 16 pts total to take the silver. Rounding out the podium with the bronze was Jon Weglarz’s THE ASYLUM, closing out the regatta with soul-satisfying double-deuces on the last day.

ORR Division
Not surprisingly, Rick Stage’s J/35 ALPHA PUPPY sailed a very solid series in the nine-boat ORR 3 Division, winning three races along the way, to take the silver. After a rather slow start, they had the best record in the fleet in the last four races with a 2-1-1-3, not enough to get the job done to get the gold, but darn close!  For more Verve Cup Offshore sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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