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Arbitrage Tops Tight Scoring at 2017 J/Fest

J/Fest San Francisco was held at St. Francis YC on April 1-2, 2017, with 21 J/105’s on the starting line looking for the wandering river of spring run-off ebb that snuck through the weak flood tide. Heading out to late ebb away from the shore was sometimes the ticket to the fast lane, and later in the tide cycle footing to the city front brought some relief, though some boats won both sides and arrived together at the top mark. Scoring a consistent 4, 4, 4, 5, 3 for 20 points, Bruce Stone and Nicole Breault’s Team Arbitrage won by two points over Jeff Littfin’s Mojo and Ryan Simmons’ Blackhawk, with Mojo earning 2nd on the tie-breaker, followed by Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session and Theresa Brander’s Walloping Swede just one point further back with 23 points. Said Stone: “This was an amazingly close regatta – five boats separated by three points! In fact, including Rolf Kaiser/Shannon Ryan’s Donkey Jack with 25 points, each of the top 6 boats were in contention to take the victory based on the last race. This was also the first time on the podium for Theresa Brandner and we were thrilled to see her progress. The SF Bay fleet had 20 entrants on the starting line for each of the mid-winters, with several new owners, and over 20 entrants in the Spring One Design and in this J/Fest, so that bodes well for the vibrancy of the class.” In winning SF Bay J/Fest, Stone and Breault celebrated their second win of the season, and look forward to competing in other J/Fests. On their calendar are J/Fest New England in Newport RI in August, and J/Fest Southwest in Galveston in October.

 

Jfest 2017 pic 2

Fleet #1 AdminArbitrage Tops Tight Scoring at 2017 J/Fest
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Arbitrage Wins 2017 St. Francis YC Spring One Design

J 105 Team Arbitrage Wins 2017 St. Francis YC Spring One Design 2

The 20 J/105 teams in the season opening St. Francis YC Spring One Design Series were greeted with rain, hail, winds in high teens to low 20’s with gusts to 35 kt…and an erratic flood tide that was overrun by streaks of ebb from recent storm-induced water run-off from the NorCal rivers and reservoirs. On Saturday, the southerly wind caused the course to run across the tides, while on Sunday the westerly ran parallel to the tides. Going into the 5th and last race, it was a three-way tie among Brent Vaughn’s Jabberwocky, Philip Laby’s Godot (winner of the 2016 J/105 Fleet One season championship) and past national fleet captain Bruce Stone’s Arbitrage, with Jeff Littfin’s Mojo and Ryan Simmon’s Blackhawk just a few points behind and challenging for the podium. With flood on the pin end at the shore and ebb outside, the Race Committee skewed the starting line to favor the pin, but Arbitrage won the committee, flopped onto port and ran away from the pack, with Jabberwocky slightly back on its windward hip, both footing out toward the ebb. Godot dug out of a third row start and reached off to clear its air. Arbitrage faced the dilemma as to whom to cover. Mainsheet/tactician (and co-owner) Nicole Breault kept Arbitrage high to pinch off Jabberwocky, and hedge against the southerly gusts which favored Mojo and Blackhawk on the inside. This had the effect of letting Godot get to the ebb first, shooting forward from a ten length deficit to a 5 length lead at the windward mark. Arbitrage caught up downwind, and could have pinned Godot outside but let them gybe to round the unfavored port gate. In going there, Godot sought to replicate its strategy of getting to the ebb first, but Arbitrage chose the well-upwind starboard gate, coming out of the rounding way ahead and romping home with a huge lead. Godot finished second, with Mojo third, Jabberwocky and Blackhawk tied for fourth with Jabberwocky winning on the tie-breaker due to its two bullets to Blackhawk’s one bullet. Full results at:

https://www.regattatoolbox.com/results?eventID=g0EvWKuBY9

Fleet #1 AdminArbitrage Wins 2017 St. Francis YC Spring One Design
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Godot Wins RegattaPro Midwinters

Congratulations to Philip Laby and the Godot team on their win in the Regattapro midwinter series. Jam Session completed the winter events in second place and Charlie Abraham’s Javelin took third.

Fleet #1 AdminGodot Wins RegattaPro Midwinters
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2017 Championship Season Opener March 4th/5th

Ladies and gentlement, it’s time to polish your bottoms and shake out your new rags – on March 4th, the St Francis YC will kick off another exciting season of J105 racing on The Bay with the Spring One Design Regatta. The format is windward/leeward racing on the Cityfront and central bay courses with three races on Saturday and two on Sunday. 
 
Early in the season many boats are rebuilding their rosters and or looking for pick-up crew members to replace regulars that can’t make it. If you’re crew looking for a ride on March 4th/5th, try posting on the J105 Crewlist. If you’re a boat looking for crew, check out the crewlist, or try here and here for other San Francisco Bay crew resources.
 
Don’t forget to register before March 1st to avoid the late fee.
 
 
 
Fleet #1 Admin2017 Championship Season Opener March 4th/5th
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Godot Wins 2016 Swiftsure, Continues Lead in Standings

St Francis YC’s Swiftsure Cup on August 20-21, sailed west of Alcatraz on SF Bay, attracted a large crowd of 19 J/105s who viewed it as a great warm-up for the upcoming Rolex Big Boat Series which takes the fleet into similar waters.  With a strong 4 knot max flood and west-southwest winds between 10 and 22 knots, the course favored a long starboard sprint to the city front.   The conditions put a premium on a good start and a beeline approach to the slower moving water, similar to the Sausalito J/105 Invitational Regatta just four weeks prior, so everyone was piling up at the pin end and a few general recalls were the norm.   

Winning overall was Phillip Laby’s GODOT with an amazingly consistent 4-1-2-3-1 record for 11 pts.  Ryan Simmons helmed BLACKHAWK around the race track in good order to take the silver posting 5-5-1-2-3 for 16 pts.  Third was Bruce Stone on ARBITRAGE with a 3-3-5-1-10 for 22 pts, recovering from an over-early in the last race to pass 9 boats and preserve the podium slot by one point over Adam Spiegel’s JAM SESSION who had a 2-4-7-4-6 for 23 pts.  Fifth was Tom Kennelly’s WONDER, also suffering from an over-early in the second race, and posting 6-10-4-5-2, for 27 pts.

Laby attributes Godot’s success to the crew’s clean execution of a successful game plan.  “Going into the event we decided that clear lanes off the start would be especially important.   With the long starboard approach to the city front there would be little opportunity to recover.  The leaders of each race separated quickly and we were successful in finding a good enough lane each race to stay near the front, which led to our consistency.”  

With this win, team Godot heads into Big Boat Series leading the season standings.

http://www.crayivp.com/StFYC-Regattas-2016/Aldo-Alessio-2016/i-wDZkG9g/A

Fleet #1 AdminGodot Wins 2016 Swiftsure, Continues Lead in Standings
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Arbitrage Wins 2016 Sausalito Invitational

A regatta report by the winning team. (Also, check out this great article at norcalsailing.com.)

SF Bay whipped up a significant flood tide and fearsome 20-27 kt winds to make for a challenging weekend of windward-leeward racing for the 19 J/105s that made it out to the western face of Alcatraz for the Sausalito YC J/105 Invitational, July 23-24, 2016. Unlike racing anywhere in the country, where you need to sail upwind both legs, time the oscillations of the shifts, and take into account a progressive veer or backing of the wind based on forecasts, here it was a case of advance planning. Before leaving home, skipper Bruce Stone reviewed the Sailtactics.com wind and tide forecast with his team on Arbitrage and announced, “We’re starting at the pin and banging the shore for tide relief upwind, and then jibing out to the bigger flood downwind.”

Well, of course it doesn’t perfectly work like that! We grapple with competitors for solid execution, and sometimes we pursue too much of a good thing. Arbitrage nailed the pin end of the line on the first two starts and led to the shore, winning both races by large margins. On the third try, as shown in the photo below, with heavy traffic at the pin, Arbitrage was forced to set up too low and failed to make the pin, so had to jibe around and start on port, taking the sterns of the peloton and going in the wrong direction away from current relief. “We’ll get some leverage outside in more pressure – no other option.” Heading into the teeth of the flood, they made little progress up the course while the fleet legged over to the shore. At mark one, Arbitrage was in a solid trailing position… ugh. Good boathandling downwind got them past a handful of boats struggling with the blustery afternoon winds. Taking a chance with the outside, seemingly more upwind leeward gate, then tacking right away toward shore helped gain quite a few lengths to windward and more boats. By the end of the race they finished tenth and were still leading the regatta, albeit by just one point.

Sunday brought the same weather and tide, and Arbitrage brought the same strategy. However, at the first start they once again didn’t make the pin and had to jibe out to start on port. Rinse and repeat, taking plenty of sterns and heading the wrong way. This time perhaps the regatta would be lost. Yet this time after tacking on the hip of the fleet heading toward the City Front, they connected with more pressure and right angle while the leaders had lighter air, getting them back into a fighting position by mark one. Grinding up through the fleet, Arbitrage managed a hard fought 2nd place. So for the last race, Stone finally tried a more conservative start in the middle of the line, and with good position and speed earned a solid third to secure the victory, with a score line of 1, 1, 10, 2, and 3, two points ahead of Steve Kent’s team on Perseverance and six points ahead of Philip Laby’s team on Godot. Stone remarked, “It was really special for the J/105 fleet to have a dedicated race course, with our own water and no delays. Sausalito YC did a great job in arranging this for us and dealing with really tough conditions for setting marks. Hospitality in sunny Sausalito was off the charts, with the Commodore pouring free beers for us and offering sandwiches. We’re looking forward to coming back next year.”  

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Fleet #1 AdminArbitrage Wins 2016 Sausalito Invitational
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Godot Tops Blackhawk By One at 2016 SFYC June Invite

Beautiful warm sunny weather, with steady 12 to 15 knot breezes, provided sensational conditions on the Berkeley Circle for the 22 boat J/105 fleet, the largest participants in the San Francisco YC’s popular June Invitational.  We sailed five races and as usual there were no throw-outs.
 
Saturday’s racing showed steady winds with very few notable shifts.  The first race had a south side bias due to late flood/slack current effects and a building Southwest pressure.  Phil Laby and the team on Godot had a good start towards the pin end of the line and headed left towards the port lay-line.  At the first weather mark, Godot crossed behind Steve Kent’s Perseverance but with favorable downwind positioning rounded ahead at the leeward mark, never to look back and taking the win in the first race.
 
Ryan Simmons’ Blackhawk won races #2 and 3, securing the lead for the day with 5 points.  Godot trailed on the leaderboard with 8 points, partly due to a very late OCS call in the second race. Despite restarting a full minute late (as indicated by the GPS tracker), they managing to claw back to a fifth place finish.  In the last race on Saturday, a fun battle ensued for the lead between Blackhawk and Godot, with Godot coming in second behind a well-sailed Blackhawk, foreshadowing a showdown between them the following day.  Sitting in third for the day was Adam Spiegel’s Jam Session, who were involved in a collision which resulted in an injury to Adam.  Fortunately, Adam and Jam Session were able to continue sailing, and were awarded redress, finishing the day with 12 points.
  
Sunday had similar conditions to Saturday, though the wind started a little later and came up a little bit stronger.  The first start of the day had 6-8 boats on the pin end of the line being called OCS, including Blackhawk and Arbitrage.  Godot set up more conservatively mid-line and led the race most of the way for the win.  Blackhawk, making a fantastic comeback, managed a fourth, leaving Godot and Blackhawk tied with 10 points going in to the final race of the event, winner takes all.
 
Godot favored the committee end of the line for the first time all day and capitalized on a second row start by Blackhawk.  Arbitrage started even closer to the committee, and immediately tacked to port, followed by Blackhawk.  Five boat lengths to weather, Godot tacked for a loose cover on Blackhawk.  The three boats raced tightly around the course maintaining that order throughout the race, as Arbitrage led wire-to-wire, with Godot and Blackhawk close behind.
 
No one waits for Godot this season! The final results revealed Godot at 11 points for the win, Blackhawk second with 12, Jam Session third with 20, followed by Wonder with 25, and Arbitrage with 28.  
 
Fleet #1 AdminGodot Tops Blackhawk By One at 2016 SFYC June Invite
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J/Stop: A Regatta with a Twist; Consistency Prevails for Team Blackhawk

Twenty-one J/105s competed in the inaugural J/Stop at the St. Francis Yacht Club on May 14-15, 2016. While it certainly was another great weekend of tight racing, regatta organizer Bruce Stone explains that this was a regatta with a twist. Stone, our past national fleet president and owner of Arbitrage #116, provides us with this report:

We decided to implement a couple of different elements into the J/Stop Regatta. We had more racing with shorter courses so there could be more action for skippers and crews. We also had a lower entry fee because we kept the socials simple with just a keg on the dock instead of a catered event inside the Club. We tried out a similar format a few years ago at the Wickford Yacht Club in Rhode Island, with nine races, and it was a major success. Several J/105 owners told us it was the best weekend of racing they had ever had.

While we usually have five races on the weekend, StFYC Race Committee and PRO John Callahan agreed to try and run eight races. John set all three fleets up with the same long beat so the J/105s could get some separation going into the windward mark. He also set two leeward gates so the downwind leg and the second upwind beat were shorter for the 105s than the 111s and 120s. The 105s were rarely mixing it up with the other fleets which was just fine, as there was always plenty of action among ourselves at the windward and leeward marks.

The ebb was stronger in the middle of SF Bay, so the Race Committee favored the shore-side pin end of the line by a little more than 10 degrees to attract some customers, and in a few races the winning move was to start at the pin, flop immediately to port and cross the fleet. That move was well executed by Phil Laby’s team on Godot, #44, who won three races and finished second. Arbitrage won two races by starting at the other end, at the committee boat, and tacking to port to foot out to the strong mid-bay ebb. Ryan Simmons’ Blackhawk, #40, took fewer risks, was almost always on the starting line with speed, and won the regatta without actually winning a single race. Tom Kennelly’s Wonder, #266, turned in a strong last day with a bullet on the final race to move up to third, edging out Arbitrage.

Back at the docks, teams intermingled, blenders appeared on several boats, and competitors reported how wonderful it was to get to match up faces with boats. With a low entry fee of just $80, or $10 per race, our expectation is that this less formal format will be tried again.

StFYC regatta results HERE

Click HERE for StFYC regatta photos. Click HERE for more Chris Ray photos

 

Fleet #1 AdminJ/Stop: A Regatta with a Twist; Consistency Prevails for Team Blackhawk
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