J/Fest Great Lakes Regatta at Royal Canadian Yacht Club
by Peter Gustafsson 28 Jul 2019 11:00 PDT
20-21 July 2019
2019 J/Fest Great Lakes Regatta © Royal Canadian Yacht Club
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club in Toronto, Ontario hosted their first J/Fest Great Lakes on their magnificent setting on an island offshore of the majestic city of Toronto.
The event featured one-design fleets for J/27s, J/80s, J/105s and a PHRF fleet that included J/88s, J/35s, and J/109. Thirty-three boats participated in the event, an excellent turnout for the inaugural event at RCYC.
In the five-boat J/27 class, winning was Bruce Scott's Warped Perception. Second was Chris Johnston's Afternoon Delight, and third was Madeleine Beese's Messing About. Rounding out the top five were Rich O'Hare's Take 5 and Christian Greenfield's Miss Trixie, in fourth and fifth, respectively.
There were three women owner/ skippers in the nine-boat J/80 class. It just so happens the women triumphed! Winning was Trudy Murphy's Feisty and in third was Chrissy Thompson's Puffin. Sandwiched in between were two guys, Dave Doyle & Mark McLean's Innocent Bystander.
Surprise, surprise, guess who won the sixteen-boat J/105 class? Mandate? No, couldn't be!? Well, after posting six straight bullets, who else would it be? Yet again, the 3x J/105 North American Champions, Terry McLaughlin & Rod Wilmer on Mandate walked off with the J/105 title at J/Fest with just 12 pts total, an astonishing, eye-popping, draw-dropping, low score compared to the rest of the fleet.
As the Queen was once rumored to have remarked after the yacht AMERICA won the 100 Guinea Cup after rounding the famous Isle of Wight in 1851, "who was second"? The answer was purported to be, "Your Majesty, there was no second!" And so it goes for the J/105 class in North America, the "Mc/Wilmer" duo is pretty unstoppable, with Mandate usually seen at the top of the leaderboard. Second was, in fact, Peter Hall's Jamaica Me Crazy and third was Frank McLaughlin's Starcross.
The J/PHRF class was won by Paul-Angus Bark's J/105 Crime Scene. Second was Tim Sweet's J/88 Puffin and third was yet another woman boat owner on the podium, Denys Jones' J/109 Carpe Ventus.
Full results available here.