Three days into the week-long J/24 World Championship at Rochester Yacht Club in New York, and Mauricio Santa Cruz of Brazil has taken dominant control of the 96-boat fleet.  Team Bruschetta has held the lead on each day of the event so far, and has now opened up a 41-point advantage with just three races to go. A throw-out took effect on Wednesday, and Santa Cruz dropped a 13, leaving him with all top 10 finishes in the seven races thus far.  Following him in the standings to date are American Mike Ingham who shot into second place, and a tie for third between Frithjof Schade’s JJone (Germany) and Rossi Milev’s Clear Air (Canada) with 67 points each. In the day’s first race, Ingham took top honors on 11th Hour Racing, with Nicolas Cubria’s Elvis of Argentina second and Pat Toole’s 3 Big Dogs of the USA in third. Race 2 saw another American in first—Will Welles’s Cougar. Matias Seguel’s Guru of Chile and Ignazio Bonanno’s La Superba of Italy trailed Welles. In the third bout, Mauricio Santa Cruz ended the day on a positive note, as did Americans’ Ingham in second and Darby Smith in third. Winds on Lake Ontario started at 12-14 knots, then built to 18 for most of Race 1, decreased slightly in Race 2, then dropped to 5-7 knots in the final race. Swells lingered from the previous night’s storm throughout the day. Racing continues through Friday, and 10 total races are planned. Live updates will be available all week at www.2012j24worlds.com.  The 2012 J/24 World Championship is title-sponsored by Quantum Loop Solutions and platinum-sponsored by Piehler Land Rover and Jaguar, Shumway Marine, and Miller Coors.  The J/24 Class and the Rochester Yacht Club are proud to be partnered with these companies and thank them for their support.

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Rochester Yacht Club

Mauricio Santa Cruz on Bruschetta held his spot on the top of the leader board on day 2 of the Quantum Loop Solutions J/24 World Championship at the Rochester Yacht Club in New York. Bruschetta from Brazil scored a 9 and a 1 on Tuesday for a total of 18 points after two days racing. Luis Olcese on Scaramoush from Peru is in second overall with 41 points, and Frithjof Schade on JJone from Germany has 43 points in third place. In the day’s first race, Mike Marshall on TBD claimed the top spot, followed by Tony Parker on Bangor Packet and Paul Scalisi on Rabit Cson Duck Cson. In Race 2 Mauricio Santa Cruz on Bruschetta of Brazil crossed the finish line first. Rossi Milev on Clear Air was second and Matias Seguel on Guru trailed him. Conditions on Lake Ontario started at 4-6 knots and settled in at 10 to 12 for race two and as high as 18 to 20 knots for a short time in a squall at the end of Race 2. Ninety-six teams from 12 countries (Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and the United States) are participating in the event. Racing continues through Friday, and 10 total races are planned. Live updates will be available all week at www.2012j24worlds.com. The 2012 J/24 World Championship is title-sponsored by Quantum Loop Solutions and platinum-sponsored by Piehler Land Rover and Jaguar, Shumway Marine, and Miller Coors. The J/24 Class and the Rochester Yacht Club are proud to be partnered with these companies and thank them for their support.
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Rochester Yacht Club

Mauricio Santa Cruz sailed Bruschetta to the top of the leader board on day 1 of the Quantum Loop Solutions J/24 World Championship at the Rochester Yacht Club in New York. Ninety-six teams from 12 countries (Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and the United States) are participating in the event. Bruschetta scored a 2,6 on Monday for a total of 8 points. Ted Bartlewski’s Drivers Wanted from Canada is five points behind, and Luis Olcese’s Scaramoush from Peru has 16 points. In the day’s first race, Olcese’s Scaramoush claimed the top spot, followed by Santa Cruz’s Bruschetta and Matias Pereira’s Luca from Argentina (the winning boat from the 2011 World Championship).  In Race 2, Peter Bream’s Team Tarheel of the USA crossed the finish line first, but suffered a 20% penalty.  Vernon Robert’s Joyita of Chile trailed him, and Ignazio Bonanno’s La Superba was third. La Superba appeared to have finished second in Race 1, however they suffered a disqualification. Conditions on Lake Ontario started at 4-6 knots and got as high as 10 knots for a short time in Race 2, then subsided.  The conditions then turned very unstable so the Race Committee was not able to complete a third race. Racing continues through Friday, and 10 total races are planned. Live updates will be available all week at www.2012j24worlds.com. The 2012 J/24 World Championship is title-sponsored by Quantum Loop Solutions and platinum-sponsored by Piehler Land Rover and Jaguar, Shumway Marine, and Miller Coors.  The J/24 Class and the Rochester Yacht Club are proud to be partnered with these companies and thank them for their support.

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Kattack
Rochester Yacht Club

Ninety-six teams from 12 countries have converged on Rochester, New York for the Quantum Loop Solutions 2012 J/24 World Championship. Represented at the event are Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Peru and the United States.  Racing begins on Monday, September 17 and continues through Friday, September 21. Ten races are planned, and live updates will be available all week at www.2012j24worlds.com.  The fleet boasts an impressive array of talent and past champions from around the world.  A complete list of entrants may be found on the regatta website.

The 2012 J/24 World Championship is title-sponsored by Quantum Loop Solutions and platinum-sponsored by Piehler Land Rover and Jaguar, Shumway Marine, and Miller Coors.  The J/24 Class and the Rochester Yacht Club are proud to be partnered with these companies and thank them for their support of the 2012 J/24 World Championship.

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Rochester Yacht Club

Teams are gathering from around the world at Rochester Yacht Club in New York for the J/24 World Championship.  More than 100 teams are registered, and spending the weekend going through the measurement and registration process.  Racing starts on Monday, and continues through Friday.  Follow live updates at http://2012j24worlds.com/.

The website for the 2013 J/24 World Championship is now live. The event will take place at Howth Yacht Club in Dublin, Ireland from August 22-30.  The Regatta Website includes the Notice of Race and an online entry function, and Twitter and Facebook information is also available. BMW Ireland has been confirmed as the title sponsor when up to 60 boats from 13 countries are expected to compete. One of the major regattas on the Irish sailing calendar for next year, the BMW J/24 Worlds has already attracted interest from J/24 sailors in the USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, France, Japan, Monaco, Italy, Germany and Greece. Racing will take place over five days (August 26-30) and will be preceded by registration, measurement and practice from the 22nd. The Principal Race Officer will be ISAF International Race Officer David Lovegrove (IRL) while ISAF International Judge Bob Milner (UK) will chair the International Jury.  Twelve Irish boats have already qualified for the Worlds after a series of regional and national championships over the past two seasons. “We are delighted that BMW Ireland has agreed to continue its support of major sailing events at Howth, having sponsored the 2011 J/24 Europeans and this year’s ICRA Cruiser Nationals. The partnership has worked well and we look forward to a top class event next year,” said Derek Bothwell, Chairman of the organizing committee. John Ives, Managing Director of BMW Ireland, added, “Our connection with sailing and, in particular, our experience with those two major events means we are only too happy to work with Howth Yacht Club again to support such a prestigious world-class event in Ireland.” Howth Yacht Club has previously hosted seven World and European Championships in the past, testimony to its ability to host major regattas. The BMW J/24 Worlds is the biggest event in a program of 15 local, national and international events being staged by the club in 2013.

Have you noticed how many J/24s are registered for the upcoming World Championship in Rochester, New York?  Check out the triple digit entries at http://2012j24worlds.com/!

Join the 80+ other J/24s signed up for the 2012 J/24 World Championship in Rochester, New York from September 13-21, and save some money too! Late entries accepted after August 7 will be subject to a late fee of $200 (USD). Register at http://2012j24worlds.com/.

From Tim Winger, IJCA Technical Committee Chair:

There will be no GPS driven instruments allowed while racing. That will include the popular Velocitek series of speed and direction instruments. The J/24 Class may have been a bit relaxed on this issue in the past in anticipation of a changing definition on the total ban of GPS in the Class Rules. The World Council has now twice defeated any relaxation of the GPS ban. See Class Rule 8.1.5. GPS direction aids are allowed on board as safety devices, but not to be used while racing. We will be looking for any GPS driven equipment mounted on the mast as evidence of use or intention to use GPS devices while racing.

The deck tie-down rigs between the foredeck and the mast bearing beam, that have been used experimentally while trying to establish support for a Class Rule change that would allow their continued use, will not be allowed. The Class Rule to allow these has run into resistance from ISAF, J Boats and some builders.

The NOR for the 2012 NAC has been posted, and registration is now open.  Merrill Lynch/Bank of America will serve as the 2012 North American Championship title sponsor. The racing will take place on the St. Johns River, in the shadow of downtown Jacksonville, just outside of the historic Florida Yacht Club from November 14-17, and will attract some of the sport’s best talent from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. J/24 Fleet 55 and the Florida Yacht Club have hosted top J/24 competitions in the past. In 2007, J/24 sailors were welcomed by fresh breezes and ideal, yet challenging, sailing conditions on the St. Johns for the 2007 U.S. National Championship regatta. Tim Monahan chaired that event, and will serve the same role for the 2012 North Americans.   Founded in 1876 and located on the St. John’s River, the Florida Yacht Club has hosted many championship level regattas in its 110+ year history. For more information including how to register for the 2012 Merrill Lynch/Bank of America J/24 North American Championship regatta, visit www.J24northamericans2012.com.

I am pleased to announce that Christopher Howell has been hired as Executive Director of the IJCA. He is the president of One Design Association Management and, along with his wife Julie, has been managing the J/22 Class Association since 2000 and the J/105 Class Association since 2008.  Chris is a Certified Association Executive (CAE), bringing both sailing knowledge and an association background to our Class.  He has raced a variety of boats throughout his lifetime, including of course, the J/24. Chris will be very hands-on with our members during our busy Fall, including the J/24 Worlds in September, the World Council Meeting in October and the J/24 North American Championship in November.  Our current agreement with Chris is slated through the end of the year in order to allow time for the Class to study the position and better determine the future course. In the meantime, the Class contact information such as phone number (512-266-0033) and e-mail address (director@j24class.org) are unchanged.  Please feel free to contact Chris anytime with questions or concerns.

John Mollicone ruled at the J/24 US National Championship with consistent top three finishes and a total score of just 13 points over the eight-race series.  Going into the final race with an impressive line of 3,2,1,3,2,1,1, the 11th Hour Racing team was able to post a DNS and handily take victory in the championship raced out of Dillon Yacht Club in Dillon, CO from June 26-30.  Pat Toole’s 3 Big Dogs took the silver position with 34 points, trailed by Chris Snow’s Bogus with 37 points.

In conditions that ran the full gamut of weather from sun and 80 degrees to hail and 55 degrees, 32 J/24s competed.  For complete information, visit www.j24nationals.com.

The top five: 1. John Mollicone (13 points) 2. Pat Toole (34) 3. Chris Snow (37) 4. Tim Nelson (41) 5. Greg & Susan Johnson (46)

The U.S. National Championship started Thursday with 32 boats competing for the championship title.

After two races completed on Race Day 1, John Mollicone on 11th Hour Racing is in first (3-2).  Pat Toole on 3 Big Dogs is in 2nd (1-5).  Tom Nelson on Fly Mo’J and Frank Keesling on The Dumpster are tied for third, with Fly Mo’J winning the tiebreaker with a 1st in the last race of the day.

Lake Dillon provided the expected and the unexpected in terms of weather – sunny and 80 degrees gave way to hail and 55.

Over 20 teams tuned up during a North Sails Seminar put on by Chuck Allen and team.  The seminar had 3 hours on shore with another 2 hours on the water with the North guys coaching each boat.

Racing continues through Saturday, with a total of nine races scheduled.

by David Lush.

After a rather poor turnout at the J 24 nationals last year, the International Paints J 24 Nationals had double the entry at nearly thirty boats on 1-4 June.

The resurgence of the Class is even more remarkable as the event clashes with the J 24 Europeans; however the entry is not only large, but also of great quality with many new owners buying into the fleet and race preparing their boats with new sails and other equipment.

The J 24 is the original and largest one design sports boat class in the world, and the low cost fun and durability of the boats means that there are even Club owned J’s for youth sailing and training emerging in the UK.

The fleet may have lost its oldest helm, and elder statesman in Stuart Jardine, but he has been replaced by helms as young as the twenty year old Ed Lush and 21 year old Sophie Pearson helming an all girls team, and a group of thirty year old owners fresh from Classes such as the SB3, and crewing on larger boats.

The J 24 is possibly leading the way in sports boats in the UK, for the trend to a few large and strong Club fleets rather than a small travelling circus, where weekends with fuel, accommodation and craning making these events expensive, the X fleet has enormous depth with just this formula as anyone watching the huge turnout at last year’s century Cowes Week will testify.

The J 24 at thirty years young is a little way behind the X in maturity, but like the rebirth of quarter tonners, shows that, as in cars, classics are classics because they work, and give enormous pleasure to their owners.

The forecast is light for the weekend, but the pressure will be heavy, as teams use the event to qualify for the 2013 Worlds in Ireland.

Day One and Two

After a rather windless and frustrating first day in Poole racing in Poole bay, day two saw perfect sailing conditions, with a steady 12/14 knots of wind and a tricky short choppy sea. Serco are leading from Hedgehog and new boy to the fleet, Matt Hardy driving Sublime, Matt’s normal sailing has been on an 80 foot Swan, but the lack of water line length didn’t seem to do him any harm. Nick Phillips has returned to the fleet after a few years in an SB3 and managed to use his time in SB3′s to good effect, being the only boat to use a jib in one race but still getting to the windward mark in third place, probably forgot about the big genoa after all those SB3 races with that little jib.

There was incredibly close racing, with only a few minutes covering the whole fleet, this lead to some epic mark rounding excitement, with three top boats taking each other out on one windward mark, and Matt in Sublime sailing around all of them.

There are lots of new and young faces in the fleet, and after four races on day two, the forecast windier day three may see these fitter and more energetic crews lasting the distance better than their older and more experienced fellow competitors, although the young teams were the predominant consumers of the Regattas packed and varied social programme this evening, so hopefully the early to bed senior members of the fleet may have recovered enough to fight their corner tomorrow.

Tight starts and black flags have been the order of the day, leaving the writer with one question, why are Black flag starts always your best ones? Rather like the fisherman’s ‘one that got away ‘.

Day Three

The third day of the International Paints J 24 Nationals, part of the Poole Keelboat Regatta was a really busy day. Most forecasts were for 16 to 19 knots with gusts of around 25, but in reality the wind was a steady 19 plus knots with plenty of gusts up to 30 knots according to the tracking data on the Parkstone website, and building all day long.

The Race officer displayed good judgment in keeping the fleet near to the harbour entrance and in relatively sheltered waters. Optimistic, or the more competent competitors arrived at the committee boat with genoas hanked on, but as the wind built before the start, busy crews changed to jibs, with the exception of David Tabb on Mar-key, who held his genoa, with mixed success, for the first beat only.

Race one of the day, race six so far, was won by Hedgehog, followed by Serco and Madeline, and this set the pattern for the day as these three boats were consistently among the top five at the finish.

An increasing breeze was signaled by the Y flag for race seven, meaning life jackets must be worn, although there had already been several swimmers by this time. The pressure was now on and the fleet managed four starts for this race before getting away under black flag, the windward mark was exciting as port tackers dived in for room that often wasn’t there, but more egos were broken than boats, and the five leaders showed tremendous skill on the run to separate from the pelaton, and unlike the Tour de France, these top boats were not caught. Serco won from Madeline and Jawbreaker and Mar-Key now finding his form.

The third and final race was won by Madeline, with Duncan McCarthy, having a Lance Armstrong moment, from Mar-Key and Hedgehog. The J’s then had a long flog home was against a spring tide and ever increasing wind.

Going into the final day, hopefully everyone will be fully recovered, although some boats are nursing gear failures, so a busy night lay ahead, and most of the foredeck crews are nursing bruises, and a few significant headaches.

On the way in the fleet were treated to Pimms delivered by a Boston Whaler, followed by supper and entertainment at Parkstone Yacht Club, today’s treat was beer, but back at the Marina, followed by an evening at Poole Yacht Club, tomorrow will be an end of Regatta prize giving at the Royal Motor Yacht Club, who knows what awaits us on our return, my choice would be a Latte and rest, must be getting too old for this, but can’t face a Shrimper quite yet.

Day Four and results

Serco, owned by Bob Turner and helmed by Nathan Batchelor won the 2012 J 24 Nationals from Duncan McCarthy in Madeline by a narrow margin of one point, with Hedgehog third and two new members of the fleet, Nick Phillips and Matt Hardy, fourth and fifth.

Windguru was spot on, predicting a fading wind from a gusty 14 knots to a patchy 5 or 6 knots, allowing two races on the final day, both started under a black flag, to allow the fleet to return early for visitors to be lifted out and a superb prize giving held at the Royal Motor Yacht Club.

The fleet was supported by many of the already famous such as Endeavour Trophy winner, Nick Craig, Olympic coach Adam Bowers, and many of the up and coming sailors of the future; Andy Shaw, National Match race champion and X boat centenary winner, Phil Sparks, 470 squad sailor and 420 National Champion and Tom Phipps, the Olympic squad and now National keelboat sailor.

It is great to see such enthusiasm and energy joining the J 24 fleet, and the future has never looked so strong for the Class, there were 28 boats at the Nationals, a number not bettered since 2008, and it was seven years ago in 2005 when there were more competitors at a J 24 Nationals.

North sails presented fun prizes, which included the youngest crew, at 12, the oldest helm, censored!!! and youngest helm and first female helm among many other categories.

This has been a busy 4 days, starting and ending in incredibly little wind, but punctuated by almost every other wind strength in between, so the winners were truly consistent and skilled, thanks to the title sponsor International Paints and the combined Clubs of Poole for their support.

http://pooleregatta.co.uk/cms/

May 28-June 4, 2012

Cannigione, Sardinia, Italy

Stuart Jardine, IJCA-ITC

The European Championship crowned two winners – winning the Open Championship Event was Team Bruschetta (BRA 37) with Alex Saldanha on the helm.  Winning the European Champion title was La Superba (ITA 416) driven by Ignazio Bonanno.  La Superba finished 2nd in the Open Event.  Keith Whittemore on Furio (USA 5399) was 3rd in the Open Event.  Kai Mares driving Rotoman (GER 5420) finished second in the European Championship race, and fourth overall.  The european teams were happy to see two U.S. and one Brazilian team cross the pond to compete.

The Italian JCA President Mario Di Fraia, with the help of Massimo Mariotti, have done a huge amount of work to get their NJCA  back on track in both insisting on following the Class Rules and Regatta Regulations for the event. Di Fraia has spent a great deal of time getting Official International Measurement Certificates for the Italian JCA and still has further work ahead.

The Italian JCA had appointed Gianpaolo Sanna, the professional FIV J24 Class Measurer who lives on Sardinia as their      Measurer.  He was assisted by FIV trainee Measurer Yann Masserotti who was very, very good. They both showed a lot of interest in the possibility of  helping with the Measuring at the European Championships in Monaco, October 2013 and I would have no hesitation in recommending them.

In all, Cannigione was a wonderful place with lovely weather for the time I was out there. The championships provided very good, close racing and a well run event.