team hot pursuit

The 2011 J/24 Worlds was a tough competition with many good South American teams on the challenging waters of the Rio de la Plata. It seemed the wind, waves and weather was different every day.

The top 4 teams managed to start every race without getting caught with a black flag penalty.

Our Argie friends on LUCA won, with the Guerro team from Peru in 2nd, followed by Mike Ingham from Rochester, NY (hosts of the 2012 J/24 Worlds) in 3rd.

The J/24 Class has had numerous world champions and the trophy table had many perpetual trophies with names from the 30+ year history of the past. championships. Awards were given to the top 10 finishers, top women’s teams, and top team under 25 years of age.

ITC Chairman Tim Winger presented our skipper Mike Johnson with a special award, the “Geoff Evelyn and Stuart Jardine Measurer’s Trophy” for his service to the J/24 Class as he’s been doing a lot of research and analysis on many of the proposed measurement rules for the International Technical Committee over the past year and since he devoted the first day of measurement (12 hrs +) to training measurers and helping measure the first 25 boats despite having to prepare and race a boat at Worlds. The recognition was a nice consolation and commemorative from this regatta.

The final day of racing was met with prerace drama following the disqualification of regatta leader Tim Healy in Race 7.  Since he had already taken a BFD/59 as a throw-out (for being over early on a black-flagged start), he had to keep the DSQ/59 and it pushed his otherwise dominating score from the other race into 8th place overall. This put ARG 5447 Luca squarely in the lead since their throw out (highest score) was  17 and they had bullets (1st place finishes) in Races 2 & 5. 

The regatta organizers really hoped to get two races off on the the final day of racing, but the early northerly breeze that greeted us when we arrived down at the marina faded by the time we got out to the race course. We had not seen wind from the north in our short 2.5 weeks here, and the current (from the river) was strong.

After a short postponement, they tried to start a race in a very light and dying breeze around 1200. I ended up staying down below on the low side counting down time to the start.  5 minutes after we had started we had only travelled 4-5 boatlengths from the race committee boat, and the race was blown off as the wind completely shut-off.

The regatta officials kept the boats out on the water, knowing that the afternoon would bring more breeze. Realizing there was no breeze on the horizon, teams lowered sails, slathered on sunscreen, and pulled their anchors out to wait out the delay.

According to the Sailing Instructions, no race would be started after 1500, but just like clockwork, at 1430 the breeze filled in and a course was set.

Race 9

Rather than what had become a daily routine of trying to start a race only to have everyone over the starting line early, the principal race officer decided to go straight to the black flag. It worked as the whole fleet behaved and the race was started without any BFD penalties.

We got a decent start with Keith Whittemore above us and Matias Carrera below us, but soon had to bail out and go right. A few tacks later we managed to find ourselves a lane with clear air, and were still in the top half of the fleet.  We were on starboard coming into the weather mark rounding, with a number of port tackers coming in at the mark. We set our kite, gybed and went to the right side of the course.

We fought to hold our right side advantage into the first leeward mark, but the shift had gone left, allowing many of the boats to scream in from the left and bury us as we were inside on the right leeward mark. What seemed to be a locked in position at the mark quickly changed as boats came in from behind, didn’t allow “room” for the boats inside, and the dominos began to push us to the right and we rubbed rails, getting pushed beyond the mark. Lots of screaming ensued with very few protest flags.

We had to avoid boats that had rounded the mark and had no way to get back to the round the mark, so we decided to drop out and head back for the hoist ahead of the fleet and get the boat put away since it was doubtful we could make up enough boats to improve our score.

Final regatta results are posted: http://www.j24worlds2011.org.ar/Popup.aspx?Id=1290

Congratulations to LUCA for bringing the 2011 J/24 World Championship to Argentina!

(photos from racing and the event will be posted later or on Facebook- having some problems with the upload/insert media function)

Regatta organizers attempted to start racing today at 1100 hours, but with only 4 knots of breeze, they postponed racing until 1330 hours for the wind to fill in.  All of the teams and the race committee returned to the docks and headed to the tent to eat lunch.

Race 7

Winds were about 8 knots from the ESE at 1330 for the start of the race.  As usual teams pushed the first start into a general recall, so the restart brought out the black flag again. 2 more teams suffered a “BFD” scores, as the rest of the fleet headed up to the windward mark.  We started a couple boatlengths shy of the line and were quickly overtaken by boats around us, so we were forced to tack into “dirt”, buried by a whole host of boats and having to weave through the traffic.  Once we had some clear air and made our way up the beat, we realized our rig was a bit too tight as we had anticipated the breeze increasing, but it remained pretty steady throughout the race.  We worked hard but ended up crossing the line just after Scott Milne’s Tremendous Slouch.  Matias Perreira driving Carrera won the race easily, while regatta leader Tim Healy ended up 17th across the line.

Race 8

As we made our way back to the starting area, we debated about loosening the rig – as Brian noted, if we loosen the rig, the wind would undoubtedly build – as we waited until we got down to the starting area. It ended up being a good decision as the wind picked up to around 10-12 knots, still from the ESE.

We went through the now old routine of lining up for a start, only to be recalled and faced with the black flag for the restart – amazingly, this time it was a clear start, the first of the regatta!  We had good speed off the line and raced up the course, glad to be in the top half of the fleet where lanes were easier to find.

The wind stayed fairly consistent though we missed a couple of shifts on the 2nd downwind leg where we dropped a handful of boats. Mark roundings were two and three deep and quite eventful, but we managed to stay clean and get around the course “flag free” with no protests!

Matias Perreira won the 8th race as well–two bullets–talk about a great recovery from his BFD yesterday!

Once the boats returned to the dock, ten more protests were filed (a total of 51 had been filed so far in the regatta), and sailors who were involved were all lined up outside the jury rooms awaiting their turns to state their cases as we headed home for showers and steak & wine dinners.

Provisional Results:  http://www.j24worlds2011.org.ar/Popup.aspx?Id=1290

One more day of racing tomorrow, awards and Closing Ceremonies.

Race 5
With 4 races in the book, a number of protests fought with juries, and another delayed start to 1400, one might think the teams would be a little tired and less aggressive at the start…NOT!

The first start, as has become habit, was pushed by everyone without penalty. We had a great start, only to be buried on both sides as the boats surged over the line for the first recalled start. The black flag was posted for the restart, which was recalled with 6 boats caught over the line and disqualified, including regatta leader Tim Healy.

The 2nd restart (under black flag) saw another 12 boats over early, including our friend Scott Milne. With 18 boats BFD’d and sitting around watching the 3rd restart, only 39 boats remained. The gun went off and somehow we found ourselves buried but finally racing in 10kts of southeasterly breeze. Finding a clear lane proved tough, but we managed to sail a clean race.

Race 6
The first start served as yet another practice start. The restart again brought out the black flag, and with the breeze building and 20% of the fleet having sat out the first race, boats lined up well below the start line. With a decent hole on the line, and Peggy calling the line with precision, we had weigh-on and were off to our best start of the week!

We had Keith Whittemore punched a few boats above us and Tim Healy with his nose out a few boats below us and nothing but clear air ahead! We worked our way up on starboard tack forcing Whittemore to tack away. A third of the way up the leg, Tim Healy crossed us on port and we followed, seeming to have good pace, and crossing all of the boats coming back on starboard.

By the time we got up toward the weather mark, we found ourselves near the port tack layline, potentially rounding 7th with only a couple of starboard tack boats that would cross ahead of us. That all changed when a boat (who helmsman shall remain unnamed) came in on port layline at the pin, forced the boat inside us to tack, creating a domino effect with the boats outside of us being forced to go to port head to wind with a whole parade of port and starboard tack boats charging into the mark. We were bounced around like a ping pong ball, with no wind to fill our sails, we patiently waited as 20+ boats sailed past us before we could fill our sails and continue racing. Amazingly there were few, if any, protest flags flying as the boats all continued racing.

The wind built throughout the race, and by the time we rounded the 2nd leeward mark, many in the field changed down to the jib (smaller headsail). We probably had 20-22 knots during the final run and beat to the finish line, along with big waves.

The boat that originally rounded 3rd and created the chaos at the windward, flew a yellow flag, taking their 20% penalty after ending up 4th across the line.

With 6 races sailed, all boats get to toss out their worst score, which for us like many others, was a BFD/59.

Provisional Race Results: http://www.j24worlds2011.org.ar/Popup.aspx?Id=1290

Race Day 4 is scheduled for the planned 1100 first warning (and rumor is for 3 races!)