J/70 Worlds, Louis Vuitton Cup drama, and the IC37 and Hobie 16 North Americans
by David Schmidt 24 Sep 08:00 PDT
September 24, 2024
Yonder (USA) wins the Sandberg Estates J/70 Worlds in Palma © SailingShots by María Muiña
The regatta was all about Old Glory. No, not the Louis Vuitton Cup - we'll get there - but rather the 2024 J/70 Worlds (September 13-22), which was hosted by the Real Club Nautico de Palma (RCNP), in Baleares, Spain, and organized by the RCNP and the International J/70 Class Association. A total of 96 teams gathered on the Bay of Palma for what has easily become one of the world's most prestigious keelboat trophies.
After five hard-fought days of racing, Douglas Newhouse and Jeremy Wilmot's Yonder team, flying the American flag, took top honors. Impressively, the Yonder team took control of the regatta on the first day of racing and never relinquished control of the the tiller.
"After a great deal of hard work, planning, training, regattas and teamwork, we have achieved our goal of winning the world championships, which is quite frankly incredible," said Newhouse in an official regatta report. "We had the regatta of our lives, and the team fought extremely hard."
The Americans were joined the winner's podium by Ralph Vasconcellos' (BRA) Mindset squad and Charles Thompson and Tom Mallindine's (GBR) Brutus II team.
At the risk of sounding jingoistic, it should be noted that American teams occupied six of the regatta's top ten slots.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly for American interests in the Louis Vuitton Semi Finals (September 14-19), as New York Yacht Club American Magic fell to Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli after eight races.
The Italians won the first four races, putting the Americans deep into sudden death territory, but then American Magic rebounded to win the next three, pegging the score in this first-to-five series at 4-3.
The final race saw close action between the two AC75s, but - at the end of the day - the fastest horse around the course won the right to advance to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final (September 26-October 7). And this horse was flying an Italian flag.
"We were always one of those teams that was going to get better with more and more racing," said Terry Hutchinson, American Magic's president of sailing operations, in an official team release.
"We faced some setbacks, like [Paul] Goody [Goodison] going down, but I'm so hugely impressed with Lucas [Calabrase] and how well he stepped into it. I'm also so proud of our team for how everybody evolved," continued Hutchinson, referring to Goody's onboard accident (September 7) that sent him to the hospital with five broken ribs after falling through an open deck hatch.
Goody, it will be remembered, was - along with Tom Slingsby - one of the team's two main drivers.
While this put the team on their back foot, Calabrase, the team's alternate helm, stepped up in a big way.
Hutch again: "It was so cool just to watch [Slingsby] and Lucas's relationship evolve in a very short period of time to a point where they were going toe-to-toe with the past winners of the Prada Cup and the last challenger in the America's Cup. We were there, knocking on the door, basically every single race. So, the disappointment is that you can see all the promise and where we were heading."
Sadly, campaign victory was not to be, and Luna Rossa will meet INEOS Britannia - who dispatched Alinghi Red Bull Racing on their side of the Louis Vuitton Semi Finals - in the LVC Finals.
This of course begs an interesting question, namely, which team has the best chances of progressing on to meet Emirates Team New Zealand on the starting line of the 37th America's Cup (October 12-27).
Since the start of the LVC Double Round Robin (August 29-September 11), Luna Rosa has met INEOS Britannia a total of three times, with the Brits chalking-up two wins. While this suggests that they may have the faster horse, the LVC and the Cup have a long history of teams evolving on the fly, both in terms of their boat-handling skills and in terms of design developments.
Then there's battle hardening.
INEOS Britannia, by winning the LVC Double Round Robin, got to choose their destiny by selecting Alinghi, who was the weakest of the four remaining teams, as their sparring partner for the LVC Semi-Finals.
The Brits may have an extra point on the scoreboard in their tussle with the Italians, but - given that the Brits beat the Swiss 5-2 - it's fair to say that the Italians had a harder fight in their LVC Semi-Final experience.
Racing continues for the LVC Finals on Thursday.
In the meantime, be sure to stay current with the racecourse action from the Unicredit Youth America's Cup (September 17-26).
Recently, and a lot closer to home, the IC37 North American Championship (September 20-22) recently unfurled on the waters off Newport, Rhode Island. Unfortunately for the 21 teams that gathered for this high-level event, the wind gods delivered a bit too much of the goods for the first two days of the regatta, precluding racing.
This meant that the title boiled down to four breeze-on races that were fought-out over a single day.
After the finishing gun sounded four times, Peter McClennen's Gamecock crew were in first place, followed by Steve Liebel and his New Wave squad, and Hannah Swett and Ben Kinney's MO.
"It was really windy out there, and it was super variable," said McClennen in an official regatta communication. "We were up [between Prudence and Hope Islands], which is a very interesting place to race, where you have all the geography. For us, it was just be fast off the line. We tried to minimize maneuvers, and then when we got the kite up, go as fast as we can, hitting speeds of 16, 17 knots. It was absolutely fantastic."
Also on the East Coast, the Hobie 16 North Americans (September 16-20) were recently hosted by the Roton Point Sailing Association in Rowayton, Connecticut, with racing taking place on the waters of Long Island Sound.
After 11 races, Francisco Figueroa and Faith Payne, flying the Puerto Rican flag, posted 41 points, which was a scoreboard tie with the American-flagged team of Ben and Casey Brown. This forced the RC to enforce the tie-breaker rule, where the team with the most fourth-place finishes wins. This meant that Figueroa and Payne took the win, followed by the Browns in second place, and Mark Modderman and Jose Justiniano, also flying Old Glory, in third place.
May the four winds blow you safely home,
David Schmidt
Sail-World.com North American Editor