June 2012

J105 Fleet One’s championship season continued on June 23/24 at the very welcoming Sausalito Yacht Club. The race course was set up with the start line to the West of Alcatraz. By varying the weather mark position to the South of the channel on Saturday and North on Sunday, the RC provided racers the opportunity for both City-Front close tacking and open-water tactical racing in a single event. Conditions on The Bay were ideal for J105 racing with 12kt to 15kt breeze, bright sunshine and low chop due to the flood tide.

Racing in the middle of the 19-strong fleet was close, but Blackhawk dominated the front of the field, finishing the five-race regatta with just 9 points, taking three bullets, a second and a fourth. Arbitrage broke free of the pack, finishing second overall with 20 points and Risk finished strong with two 2nd place finishes on Sunday to capture third.

Kudos to Dave Borton, SYC Race Chair, John Cashman and to the rest of the team at SYC for running a fantastic event at a beautiful venue. Photos are available here and here courtesy of Roxanne Fairbairn. Don already posted the Kattack tracks here.

Brilliant sunshine and warm, steady breeze greeted competitors for the June 9/10 Spring Keel regatta sponsored by San Francisco Yacht Club. The race format was a change from the usual windward-leeward and included two reaching legs. The course setup enabled the large J105 fleet to race on it’s own course, while the J120s and Expresses shared the start/finish, keeping fleets separated. Racing was tight with multiple tie-breakers required to determine the final regatta placings. In the end, Blackhawk took the top spot, followed by Godot – who pulled out an impressive latter half of the regatta to recover and pip Arbitrage who finished in third place. Aerial photos of the racing arranged by Charles James, owner of Roxanne, are available here.