Tight battles at J/Fest San Francisco
by J/Boats 12 Apr 2019 03:37 PDT
2018 J/Fest San Francisco © St. Francis Yacht Club
The annual J/Fest San Francisco, hosted by St Francis Yacht Club, provided yet again excellent race management and close racing for the fleet of one-designs that included J/105s and J/70s. Over the two-day weekend, the fleet was able to get in three races per day for a total of six overall.
In the twenty-five boat J/105 division, the top of the leaderboard saw nip-and-tuck battles that raged race-by-race. The key was consistency and, other than the regatta winner, all teams posted at least one or more double-digit finishes; that is how tight the racing can be in the J/105 Fleet #1 on San Francisco Bay.
It was rough going for everyone, as evidenced by the scorelines. Nevertheless, it was Tim Russell's NE*NE, with an 8-1-1-9-5-3 tally for 27 pts, that took the class honors. Leading the regatta after four races was Ryan Simmons' Blackhawk, but a bruising fifth race dropped them out of contention, scoring a 2-2-10-3-13-2 for 32 pts to take the silver.
Taking the bronze on the podium was Adam Spiegel's Jam Session with a 3-8-5-10-10-7 scoreline for 43 pts. The balance of the top five was Justin Oberbauer's Strange Love with 44 pts in fourth and Phil Laby's Godot with 53 pts in fifth (breaking a tie-breaker with Jeff Litfin's Mojo that ended up 6th).
The J/70s saw two boats duel for the class lead on the first day. However, on day two, it was Chris Kostanecki's Jennifer that firmly took the upper hand to win the regatta with a 2-4-1-1-1-3 record for 12 pts. While giving them a run-for-the-money on day one, Scott Sellers/ Harrison Turner's 1FA ultimately had to settle for the silver with a 3-3-4-2-5-1 tally for 18 pts.
After starting off with a blistering 1-1-5 to lead the regatta on the first day, Brian Mullen's ORANGE YOU GLAD lost their "mojo" on day two, posting a mediocre 5-7-9 to close the series with 28 pts and settling for the bronze on the podium.
More information at stfyc.com