Cleveland Race Week - A hard act to follow

by JBoats on 21 Jun 2014 After excellent sailing the week before, the second part of Cleveland Race Week this coming weekend will have a hard act to follow. After enjoying sunny skies and good breeze, the sailors this weekend hope they escape the Midwest heat and lack of wind to enjoy the festivities on-shore as well as good sailing on Lake Erie. This Saturday and Sunday, Edgewater YC will be hosting their 'offshore' version for PHRF handicap racing boats as well as the 'Women’s' division.

The PHRF divisions have 69 boats sailing, including 23 J/Teams (33.0% of the fleet!). PHRF Spinnaker Division has a large fleet of J’s participating, including two J/111’s (Don Hudak’s new Capers and Ryan Ruhlman’s championship team on Spaceman Spiff), Tim Yanda’s J/120 Viva La Vida, Seth Young’s J/39 Black Seal, Mark Saffell’s J/36 Painkiller, Paul Matthews’s J/35 Whitehawk, Jay Hawkins new J/88 Ty-Lee, Peter Kuhn’s J/33 Windlassie, six J/105s (Rick Drucker’s Knot Guilty, Eric Sutherland’s Rollick, Bob Mock’s Unbridled, Jim Uhlir’s Trio, Jim Sminchak’s IT, and Chris Mallet’s Synchronicity, three J/29s (Cindy Einhouse’s Ovation, Kevin Holland’s Badfish and Aarne Lillo’s Aquarius, John Sukis’s J/34 Ior Sneak Attack, and two J/30s (Rich Galaska’s Breezin and Dale and Maggie Gormley’s Sand Dollar).

Perhaps the most novel and certainly ground-breaking division that Cleveland Race Week has pioneered is the Women’s 'double-handed' offshore sailing divisions. The rules are simply that at least one crew member is a woman. The fact that 12 of the 29 teams are J/Teams (41.0% of the women’s fleet) is not surprising. Fun, easy to sail boats are essential to women having fun sailing boats whether it’s cruising, day-sailing or racing. There are three divisions based on level of experience. In the Jam-Double fleet is Chris Howell sailing with his wife on the J/22 London Fog. In the PHRF-Double Division is John Zelli sailing his J/22 Free Energy with his significant other. Then, in the 'all women' PHRF Women’s Division are Abigail Ruhlman and sister sailing the J/111 Spaceman Spiff, Mindy Sminchak sailing the J/105 IT, then two J/70s being sailed by Elizabeth Wilder on Rehab and CC Skoch on Useless, Cindy Einhouse sailing the J/20 Ovation, Linda Cutler sailing the J/24 Carry-On and Cheri Morabito skippering the J/22 WYSIWYG!

Sailing in the PHRF Non-Spinnaker Division are two J/34s (Dave Krotseng’s Bonafide and Jack Hull’s Avatii) and a J/30 (Doug Wahl’s Rubber Soul).

For more Cleveland Race Week Offshore sailing information, click here.