Skyway Colors Regatta at Columbia Yacht Club - Preview
by J/Boats 31 May 2019 07:54 PDT
1-2 June 2019
COLORS has been Chicago's shake-out-the-sheets event since 1995; e.g. time to dust off the tarps, raise the sails, and go sailing! More than 100 boats race annually during the first weekend of June. The strong one-design presence of J/Teams designates the event as a great tune-up for the season.
In addition to a weekend of buoy racing, the regatta has a distance race on Saturday. The distance race attracts the boats that are too large to go around the buoys, as well as, the more casual racers and even cruisers.
Racing is not the only factor that makes for a good regatta, though. The social side is equally as important, and Columbia is well-versed in having a good time. The big annual regatta party takes place on Saturday with tasty food, amazing libations and live band. It may be the closest thing the American Midwest has to the Heineken St Maarten Regatta's "serious sailing, serious fun"!
The half-dozen J/88s include leading teams like Tod Patton's Blondie 2, Ben Marden's Banter, John and Jordan Leahey's Dutch, Andy and Sarah Graff's Exile, Tim Wade's Windsong, and Dan Floberg's Misty.
The J/105 class looks to be a three-way shoot-out from past winners of the regatta; Clark Pellet's Sealark, Gyt Petkus' Vytis, and Jon Weglarz's The Asylum.
Will it be Goat Rodeo (Robert Evans), Slapshot II (Scott Sims- ex-Chicago Blackhawk), Full Tilt (Pete Priede), or Callisto (Jim Murray) that top the J/109 class this year? Time will tell with this very tight one-design class.
With eight-boats, the J/111 class is looking forward to several events this summer, leading up to the J/111 World Championship in Chicago. Top crews that should factor on the leaderboard are Tracy Brand's Solution, Kevin Saedi and Raman Yousefi's Momentus, the duo of Mike Mayer and Steve Henderson on Kashmir, and Rich Witzel's Rowdy.
In the PHRF Spinnaker class are Frank Giampoli's J/120 Jahazi and Rick Stage's J/35 Alpha Puppy.
The PHRF Distance Race class has these J/Teams participating; Ben Lumpkin's J/112E Mary Gail, Arne Fliflet's J/120 Mazal Tov, and Mitch Weisman's J/35 Flying Spaghetti Monster.
The PHRF Singlehanded Class has two J/105s sailing; Mark Gannon's Gangbusters and Mike Hettel's Global Nomads.
More information at columbiayachtclub.org