1FA crowned J/70 Pacific Coast Champions
by J/Boats 25 Aug 2018 10:06 PDT
17-19 August 2018
J/70 Pacific Coast Championship © Haul Parteck
The St Francis YC hosted the 2018 J/70 Pacific Coast Championship over the weekend of August 17th to 19th. As is typical for this time of year on San Francisco Bay, the seven teams racing in the event had to contend with strongly building seabreezes from the west that would peak up to 25-plus kts by late afternoon.
Perhaps the most notable performance of the regatta was that of the Santa Barbara YC Youth Team on USA 1156, after the first day they were leading the entire fleet with a record of 5-1-1 for just seven points total.
However, one of the kids got into an accident on Saturday evening, severely scraping his leg. As a result, on an even windier Sunday, the SBYC Youth Team did not want to risk their injured crew member, so bowed out of the last two races. Nevertheless, skipper Paul Harteck was ecstatic with their performance against the top West Coast J/70 teams. Ultimately, they finished in fourth place.
Watch their YouTube sailing video highlights of their first (and only) day on the Berkeley Circle race track winning one of the races.
Winning the event by taking two bullets on the last day, obviously loving the nuking winds, was the trio of Scott Sellers, Harrison Turner, and Geoff McDonald on 1FA. Their record of 2-3-2-1-1 for nine points enabled them to be crowned the 2018 J/70 PCC Champions. Never far behind them on the race track was Chris Kostanecki's Jennifer team with a 3-2-3-2-2 record for 12 points total. Then, ending up in the bronze on the podium was Tracy and Christine Usher on their boat, Christine Robin Racing, with a tally of 1-5-6-3-3 for 18 points total.
In the Corinthians Division, winning was Kostanecki's Jennifer, second was the Usher's on Christine Robin Racing, and third was the SBYC Youth Team skippered by Paul Harteck!
More J/70 Pacific Coast Championship sailing information can be found here.