Mollicone and Helly Hansen team win J/24 Midwinters
by Connie Bischoff on 25 Feb 2014
Mario Bustamonte with Black Flag Connie Bischoff
The winds were mild, around eight knots with a light chop as 27 J/24s raced on Miami’s Biscayne Bay for the last day of the 2014 J/24 Midwinters. Although the Helly Hansen team from Newport, Rhode Island dominated the fleet, the regatta had never been boring. There were plenty of visitors crossing the race course every day including the Miami Boat Show Poker Run participants (40 very fast and loud Cigarette boats with bikini clad gals on the bow on their way to and from Islamorada), a pod of dolphins and BBYRA racers.
With Newport, RI’s John Mollicone at the helm and winning J/24 World Champs Tim Healy, Geoff Becker, Leon Collin and Gordon Borges onboard, Helly Hansen finished with five bullets and 18 pts. Their drop was the last race when they went in early to de-rig so they could catch their flights back to the frozen north after the Trophy Ceremony at Miami’s Coral Reef Yacht Club. Prior to Race 10, their worst race was a fifth. The boat has a Sailors For The Sea graphic on the side showing their support of protection for the oceans. Mollicone and Healy have traded helm positions from last year when Healy won the J/24 Worlds.
This year the plan is for John to skipper with upcoming regattas in Newport, RI in July, Pan American Trials, Nationals in Marion, MA and the J/24 Worlds in Newport, RI in September. John says that his Brown University Sailing Team will start practice next Tuesday, weather permitting. 'The team is anxious and wants to sail.'
The race for second place was very exciting. With Scaramoush leading into the 10th race, it forced Travis Odenbach’s Honey Badger of Rochester, NY to come back strong and take a first place in the last race to tie the regatta with 29 points. Scaramoush finished 10th in Race 10. Since both boats had 29 points, it forced a tiebreaker which gave the second place trophy to Honey Badger as they had three bullets to Scaramoush’s 2. The Honey Badger team included Patrick Wilson, Rossi Milev, Chris Morgan and Emery Williams.
Scaramoush, the third place team overall comes from Peru with Skipper Luis Olcese. Their team Christian Sas, Joel Raffo, Joaquin Razetto and Alek Stewart also won the unofficial best dressed award…racing on the water in red with the Peru brand on their shirts.
Two Davis Island, Florida teams took fourth and fifth. The fourth place team was Robby Brown’s USA 799 sailing with Ron Hyatt, Mark Liebel, Jeff Rubin and Arthur Blodgett. In fifth place was John Poulson’s Long Shot with Nate Viladabro, Doug Fisher, Rob Brills and Stephen Kaidos. The MidFleet Award was won by CRYC’s own Jim Bill’s Scouts Honor with Eamonn deLisser, Tim Banks, Isabel Galvin, Jillian Aydelotte.
The very proud Corinthian teams were
1st place - Velocidad’s Christopher Stone, Tim Fitzgerald, Patrick Murphy, Brad Russell and Doug Tooney from Middletown, NJ
2nd place - Lifted Ben Maloney, Erwin Naidoo, Evan Oulahen, Katrina Leighton and Hugh Layton from Nova Scotia
3rd place - MuyMuy Patricio Sly, Claudio Mintzias, Ernesto Mendoza, Lorie Sein-Messer and Atilio Renam from Miami
4th place - Joe Cool Lionel Baugh, Pilar Sanchez, Mauricio Ferres, Christina Urquiola, Andres Villar from Miami
5th place - Team Exit Strategy Rick Jarchow, Jr./Bobby Noonan, Jack King, and V. Andres Martinez from Miami
It was like old times in the 10th race. After a failed attempt at a start, PRO Jaime Ramon called for the Black Flag. In order to make it more authentic and bring back memories of the 1984 J/24 Midwinters where the Black Flag and bow numbers were first used to 'discipline the fleet,' 1984 CRYC RC Chair Mario Bustamante was called down from the bridge to perform the flag duties. As Mario raised the flag, he complained that 'it was a puny little black flag with no character and that the big Jolly Roger would have been a better choice.' Regardless, the Black Flag worked, the sailors were very well behaved and it was an all clear start for the last race of the regatta.
Regatta Chair Mark Pincus reports that the CRYC Race Committee team for the regatta was made up of PRO Jaime Ramon who is also CRYC RC Chair, Timer Jane Anne Pincus, Scorers Penny Tannenbaum and Sue Nichols, Landside Sharon Bourke and a cast of thousands with Mario Bustamante’s Goldilocks as the Signal Boat.' The last word from the Signal Boat was that if you were not out boating today on Biscayne Bay, you did not deserve to own a boat.
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