J/122 EL OCASO “Insider’s” Heineken Report

While tight reaching along St. Martin’s eastern shore, we watched with delight as a J/122 crept up on on windward hip and watched the deft crew prepare to hoist a spinnaker on an impossible angle.  As the head rocketed towards the masthead and the tack hammered home, I exclaimed, “how did they get a Flying Jenny kite way down here?”   Kevin Ryman, my coaching partner explained “that is Flying Jenny!”  Was David Askew back in the 122? Were they speedy dopplegangers? We may never know, but the short encounter made us wish we were sailing a J 122 in these conditions.  The following is a great perspective from the spinnaker fleet from this year’s Heineken regatta.

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J 80 Midwinters Report



J/80 sailing crew- Key West

J/80 US Midwinters Report
(Key West, FL)- Top J/80 sailor Andrew Kerr has been going down to Key West as part of his annual pilgrimage south to escape the frozen Midwest.  He provided a great report on how it all went down for the J/80 class in their recent Midwinters.

“This year’s Key West Race Week was also the venue for the J80 Midwinter Championships; it is hard to think of a better venue for a championship in January!  Peter Craig and his team from Premiere Racing always make the event a World class event with top level race management on the water and great shore side activities after wards.

On the Sunday evening I participated as a member of the tactician’s panel representing division three (J80 class and PHRF 1 and 2 fleets) with Ed Baird as moderator, Ed does a great job keeping everyone engaged and the ideas and conversation flowing and as a result the interaction with the audience was highly effective with great insight and thoughts from the panel and questions from the audience. Read more

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