1998 J/24 World Championship Regatta - San Francisco, CA
The "Crew’s Union" in the J/24 fleet is as good as they come, and the 1998
J/24 World Championship – coming to San Francisco Bay July 19-24 -- offers an
opportunity to flex a little blue collar yachting muscle.
Picture a crew that has won the last two Worlds. But, with different skippers.
For an added wrinkle, one of those skippers crewed, one time.
When you have that picture, you have the set-up for the races that are coming to the St.
Francis YC this month, and it promises to pack in plenty of human interest. Chris Larsen
won the 1996 J/24 Worlds, with Vince Brun (Star world champion, Capri, 1986) crewing. But
Larsen didn’t defend the title in 1997, so Brun skippered the same crew in the races
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and won.
This year, Brun and Larsen both are sailing, and so is The Crew.
Who gets, The Crew? And who are these mighty men? Watch this space.
Measurement begins Thursday, July 16 for a fleet of about 65 boats. There would be more,
lots more, if entries were open, but this class has 5,200 boats out there on the Blue
Planet, so a world championship represents a year’s worth of qualifying and
eliminations. With so many boats on the water, and so much call for their services for
special events such as team races and match races, J’s have become second nature to
more sailors than any other boat we could name.
Practice days in Argentina saw winds to 30 knots, and race days included everything from
variably variable to a solid 20 knots. The difference was, Buenos Aires was warm. If the
month of June was any indication of the future, the next world champion of the J/24 class
needn’t expect to be warm on San Francisco Bay.
All 1998 J/24 World Championship Reports and Results listed above, were originally posted on the St. Francis Yacht Club website.
Other reports from the field...