Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point - Day 2
by Charleston Race Week 13 Apr 11:35 AEST
April 10-13, 2025
2025 Charleston Race Week © Priscilla Parker
It was moving day at Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point and that's exactly what several skippers and teams did.
Jack Jorgenson and his team aboard SDR had a strong Saturday on the water and overtook Far Side for the lead in VX One class. Ryan Davidson handled the middle and JoAnn Fisher worked the bow aboard SDR, which posted a solid 3-2-4 score line.
Jorgenson described it as somewhat of a "snakes and ladders" type of day with northerly winds that started off in the low teens then steadily tapered off. On Circle 2, sailors saw puffs of 14 knots and lulls of five and lower.
"It was very shifty and variable. We fought pretty hard and were able to pick up a couple boats here and there, which makes a difference," said Jorgenson, the defending champ at Charleston Race Week.
Jorgenson was able to throw out a 10th place result sustained in Race 3 and now has a low score of 12 points, one better than Day 1 leader John Porter and Bro Safari skipper Tej Trevor Parekh.
"I think it's going to be pretty crazy tomorrow, too, so I don't know if there is a strategy," Jorgenson said. "It could be any of the top three boats. We just need to go out and sail as well as possible and see how it all shakes out."
In J/22 class, Tasmanian Devil and Victor both made a move on leader Velocity. Darby Smith skippered Tasmanian Devil to victory in two of three races on Saturday, while Scott Jenson steered Victor to a bullet and a couple of thirds. Those two boats are now tied with 19 points, three more than skipper James Pine and his team of high school sailors aboard Velocity.
"We had a real good day. Our crew is starting to come together. We're all getting better at our jobs," said Jenson, a Napa, California resident who is chartering a J/22 from the College of Charleston. "I think consistency was the key to our success today. We got very consistent starts and were picking the shifts pretty well."
Jenson said tactician Andrew Kerr is "doing an outstanding job" and praised his knowledge of the J/22. Kerr chose the left side in the second race on Saturday and Victor found good wind and current relief on the way to winning.
"We're going to shoot for more consistency tomorrow. We're up against some very good sailors, so it's going to be a challenge," Jenson said.
Skipper Peter McClennen and his crew aboard Gamecock won the day in Melges 24 class and is now tied with Full Throttle with 12 points apiece. Gamecock posted a superb score line of 3-2-1 on Saturday and dropped a ninth that was posed in Race 1.
"We worked the complex racetrack that is Charleston Harbor pretty well today. It was really tricky out there and we just tried to stay connected to the top of the fleet," McClennen said. "It's better to be lucky than good. I would not claim any extreme knowledge or experience. Things kind of just went our way today."
Full Throttle, skippered by John Porter, is one of the most legendary boats in the class and McClennan believes it would be a mistake to get into a match race situation. The Newport, Rhode Island resident is doing Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point for the fifth time in the Melges 24.
"Full Throttle is one of the best boats of all-time and any interaction with them we will lose," said McClennan, who is sailing the newest boat in the regatta and recently captured the Melges 24 Midwinter Championship. "New Wave and Sentinel are also very well sailed and could still win this regatta. We have a long way to go and the level of competition in this class is absolutely amazing here this year."
Relative Obscurity saw its lead in J/70 class reduced to one point over Kid's Table and Progress. Skipper Paul Green sailed Progress to second place in all three races on Saturday and feels good going into the final day of racing. Five-time Olympian Stuart McNay is calling tactics for Green and earned his praise.
"Stu did a brilliant job of leading us today. You really had to be able to stay in phase and play the shifts and we did that thanks to him," Green said. "Everybody just did their part today. We had some clutch boat-handling."
Green is beginning his fifth season in J/70 class and has been with fellow Annapolis residents Andy Nowak and Ridgely Mackenzie throughout that time. McNay joined the program this year and a fourth place finish at the Bacardi Invitational was very encouraging.
"I'd say the real magic started this year when Stu came onboard. We took a big leap forward as a team," Green said.
As always in the highly competitive J/70 class, this major regatta will likely come down to the last race with at least four boats still very much in contention.
"It's one race, one shift at a time. We need to get good starts and execute the fundamentals," Green said. "We unlocked some speed in the boat today and hopefully we can carry that over into tomorrow."
In numerous classes it was a case of the pacesetter simply consolidating their lead. That was certainly the case in J/24 where skipper Jasper Van Vliet and his Evil Twin team continued to sail superbly. Evil Twin got the gun in two races and finished second in another on Saturday and has a low score of 13 points — 11 better than Blind Date and Clemson Sailing Club.
Also on Circle 1, skipper Will Monts and his crew on the Kirby 25 Stella have been outstanding — winning three races and placing second in three others. Stella has finished no worse than third, but only leads the S&S 30 Whiskey & Knives by four points.
Monts, who lives in downtown Charleston, was given the Kirby 25 by the previous owner who moved out of town and spent the winter and spring refurbishing it. This is the first regatta the boat has done and Monts has been joined by his father and three brothers this week.
"We're doing a lot better than I thought we would. It was pretty cool to come straight out of the gate and win the first race," Monts said. "I'm beyond thrilled by how well we are sailing."
Dennis Monts is working the pit for his son, while Matthew Monts is handling the bow for his brother. Two other brothers, J.D. and Hudson, are sharing mast duties.
"I would say our communication has been really tight on the boat. Our boat-handling isn't quite to where I would want it to be, but we've been solid when sailing in a straight line," said Will Monts, who praised the tactical expertise of Matthew, who is an Optimist dinghy coach at Davis Island Yacht Club in St. Petersburg.
Skipper John Polek and his crew of College of Charleston offshore sailors on Zephyr has performed well in posting bullets in two of five starts. Zephyr was winning J/105 class until suffering a setback in the protest room and being disqualified from Race 2.
Polek and tactician John McCarthy are hoping to be able to drop that result and get back atop the standings. For now, skipper Andrew Moor and the Thunderstruck team lead J/105 with 21 points, two fewer than Whistler (Ethan Taylor).
"I think the biggest thing in any one-design fleet is starts and we've had a lot of good ones. We've also been actively changing gears by playing every single control we can," McCarthy said. "We know we have the crew work and boat speed. This is our backyard so we know the conditions really well."
Polek, McCarthy, and mainsail trimmer Miles Wolff have been collaborating on tactics. "We're always having active conversations about how we can make the boat go faster. We're trying to be proactive instead of reactive," McCarthy said.
Skipper Ian Hill and his team on Sitella have been dominant in Melges 32 class, building a comfortable 10-point lead. Quantum professional Jason Currie is calling tactics on Sitella, which has won two races and placed second in two others. Hill has owned the boat for a year and this is the seventh regatta for Sitella.
"Jason is doing a great job with the starts and calling the shifts. He's been way ahead of the game on those," Hill said. "Our crew work has been clean and we have solid boat speed."
Robin Team and company on the J/122 Teamwork have been unbeatable in ORC A while sailing offshore. North Sails professional Jonathan Bartlett is calling tactics aboard the Lexington, North Carolina-based boat, which has won all six races.
Winds were 10 to 15 knots out of the north for the offshore course and Hilton Head skipper Denny Manrique steered Island Flyer to victory in Saturday's race in Pursuit Spinnaker A.
"I thought we played the current extremely well, played the headers and shifts extremely well. The crew work was sharp and we were tacking the boat extremely well," Manrique said.
Charleston skipper Willy Schwenzfeier sailed the J/35 Arrow to victory in Friday's race and leads Island Flyer, a Wauquiez 40, by a point. Emocean, a J/120 skippered by Bill Hanckel, is also in the mix.
"We just have to go out there tomorrow and try to sail fast. Whichever team sails better will win," Manrique said.
Cheers, a Santana 30 skippered by Charleston resident Jim Smith, leads Pursuit Spinnaker B after winning Friday's start and placing second on Saturday while sailing the 16-mile Course 1A, which takes the fleet straight out into the ocean, around Government marks G11 or R12 and straight back into Charleston Harbor for a finish off Sullivan's Island.
"It was a broad reach going out and tight reach coming back in," said Smith, who has the smallest boat in the class. "The wind sort of died as we got to the finish and that's where we caught a bunch of boats. We have a great crew that is communicating and executing really well."
Smith and Tom Mackin are co-owners of the boat with the former trimming the main and the latter steering. They have done almost every Charleston Race Week and have never won.
"We are very hopeful we can finally get it done this year," Smith said.
The final day of racing, April 13 at Charleston Race Week 2025 at Patriots Point will commence with a weather briefing by meteorologist Shea Gibson and Sailing Hall of Fame Ed Baird at 0800 presented by Hudnall Capital Advisors — streaming live on Charleston Race Week's Facebook page. The Pursuit course warning is at 0930, followed by an inshore course warning at 1100. The ORC Offshore warning is at noon. Racing is followed by a daily debrief with Ed Baird and Marty Kullman of The Sailing Inc. with free flowing Mount Gay Rum. Awards will happen post-racing aboard the USS Yorktown.
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