FIS J22 Results Blog

RIYC Regatta

2008-08-04T14:28:00.001-04:00

Hey all… can you believe it’s August… just a few more weekends for J22 racing! Here is the laid back NOR for this weekend’s upcoming Saturday J22 regatta hosted by the Ram Island Yacht Club.

SCHEDULE: Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, August 9, 2008

Starting Area.............................................. In the vicinity of Whale Rock (between Mystic & Stonington)
Skippers meeting ...................................... 10:30 on VHF 79… rolling until first gun.
Warning 1st race ........................................ 11:00
Post race gathering RIYC. BRING THE KIDS!. 5:30

We have plans to do as many races as we can get in on Saturday with no race starting after 3:30PM. Starts will be 3 min starts, with the courses being some sort of windward leeward.

The fleet will provide burgers and dogs at the club… so please bring a salad or slide dish to pass. There will be no racing on Sunday due to the Parson Cup conflict.

If you have not registered yet for the summer series there will be a $25 fee… please make the checks out to FISJ22 and give to me when we see each other.

We have two, maybe three loaner boats available for this event. Please email me if you are interested. Hope to see you all Saturday and please plan on coming down to the RIYC sat night with your families even if you miss the sailing.

Summertime.....

2008-07-08T10:25:00.001-04:00

We had a challenging Sunday with a light, shifty southeasterly and a mid-afternoon current flip-flop. Lots of positions changes on almost every leg. Carl Fast, Val and Jonathan came out on top for the day sailing Hercules. Great job, especially in the last race when the breeze dropped out and things got funky. Bill and Dave kept trading positions behind and in front of Carl with Dave ending up second. Sunday also saw Martha make an all-family debut with Gretchen and Lucas filling out her team and driving Those Guys. Also making a first appearance this year was Julia, the red J/22 in our fleet - another Fast driven boat with Kyle and Nate sharing the tiller and with Patrick and one of the owner’s grandsons rounding out the crew. They improved a lot in speed as the day went on – great first day out.

Rumor is that Jack Scaduto is buying a really nice J/22 (pending survey) from Lake George, NY. We’ll see these guys out sailing by mid to late July.

Clem? Wes? Peb? It’s now officially summer – time to come sailing.

You’re going to hear this a lot over the next week, but please get your entries in for the Mudhead Benefit Cup Regatta on Saturday July 19th. This will be one of our two big events this summer and we expect everyone to make the effort to attend. It will count twice in our season scoring. The Mudheads are making some special changes to accommodate our class and this is a great place to showcase our fleet. More details will be out soon.

In the mean time, please send in your entry. Links to the NOR and entry on the right-hand side of this page:
http://mudhead.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=121&Itemid=79

Results

Sorry about the delays....

2008-07-01T23:56:00.003-04:00

Sorry to be so late in the past few weeks updates... my international life of leisure has been catching up with me. Please see Dave's post I just got up from last week below.

This past weekend saw five boats with breeze from drifting to 15 knots, and kudo's to Bill and his team for some very strong finishes to win the day. He is the first back to back winner so far this season! Great job! Just a few weeks left before the big event at the Mudhead regatta, so those of you wanting some races to tune up... better get going!

Big kudos to Moise for a very competitive first day ever driving a J22! Hope to see you out with us more!

Results Click here

Women Rule!

2008-07-01T23:55:00.000-04:00

Yeah, the courses were good, we had great breeze, the nasty storms stayed far enough away, and the competition was tight. But the big news from last Sunday’s J/22 one-design racing is that we had our first all-women’s team out in the Fisher’s Island Sound Fleet. They sailed very well and were usually right in there -- mixing it up with everyone else.

As you may know, the J/22 has been used at several of the US Sailing Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Champs and it’s common at major J/22 regattas to sail against several very good all-women teams. Now we have a local team (with Rolex ambitions??) that is very impressive. With Gretchen driving, Martha added Lauren and Val, taking advantage of Brandon and Gary being away to sail “Those Guys” for the day. Good luck getting your boat back guys – it either needs a new name, or Martha is going to have to buy a J/22. This team has great potential.

Bill Griffin just got Chris Field to win the day. An ominous weather forecast probably keep a few boat on the dock. We expect to see Clem/Peter, Wes and a team out on Derrick’s red boat next Sunday.

Calling in the big guns...

2008-06-16T22:45:00.003-04:00

Well, after the results of last week, I started to rip through my Rolodex of local pro's that could compete with Team Fields. And you know what? It worked! I was able to get Clemmie Everett and Rod Johnstone out with me and WE WON, WE WON, WE WON by a TON! Ok, so maybe it was a tie breaker by about 2 inches... but hey... we still won ok? Turns out my old adage still hold true... if I am the worst person on the boat we normally do pretty well. Well bingo on that plan this weekend.

As usual it was really fun to crew with Rod. The best moment was him laughing at us trying to back down to get the weeds off the keel. As we are backing down you can hear... "Guys I designed the keel to not catch weeds in Fishers Island sound." No weeds come off and you can "feel" the satisfied grin from the back of the boat.

Turnout was a bit light with Fathers Day, Off Soundings and the threat of rain... but we had great wind with fun rides downwind for those of us who made it.

Results Click Here

A Family Affair....

2008-06-11T09:53:00.003-04:00

Nothing secret about the key to this weekends results.... Chris Fields and his all pro crew just sailed better than the rest of us. Now on closer look it appears that he had paid for a top notch team, and maybe we should look at our fleet rules to see if in fairness we should continue to allow this. I mean funding your teams housing and education is a pretty tall order for the rest of us to try and compete with.

It was really fun for those of us with family's to watch Chris and his kids sail so great together... it was a clinic in team work. They were not necessarily faster, smarter, or stronger they were just a little bit of each... like they had been sailing together for a lifetime (oh yeah, they have been!) It was wonderful to see (as I had a clear view from behind all day), and certainly the goal for many of us (me, me, me) with younger families now.

We even heard he threw a pretty good bash for his crew after the victory... sheesh what a nice way to treat your crew!

Note* Great job to our race committee on a nice course and for making great adjustments all day!

Results Click Here

UPDATE: We will have a class and our own start for this year’s Mudhead Regatta Saturday July 19th (even working on getting three races for us on a shorter course). We will sail this day in lieu of our racing that Sunday the 20th, and all races will be scored twice for our overall summer series, so please mark your books! If you have any major objections please voice them now… This year the regatta is raising money for a new cause, Hospice Southeastern Connecticut and it would be really wonderful for our fleet to support it (and be the only one design fleet in the regatta). If you make any date this summer please try to make this one!

Our mid-summer regatta this year will be on a Saturday as well... August 9th . Full day of racing, party afterwards, more details to follow…. Sunday the 10th of August there will be no races due to a conflict with the Parson’s Cup.

Bang! Start the season!

2008-06-02T16:36:00.003-04:00

Hey all! Well as promised sailing in June around here does not suck. The nine sailors out on the course yesterday were treated to a 12 to 18 knot south westerly, tons of sun and four close races! In the last race the lead even changed three times with everyone taking a turn at the top. It was a good day to be heavy as teams at max weight were able to push through the waves with Dave Nickerson and Brandon Flack each winning two of the four races.

As most of you know we have two very good boats in the fleet that are now available on a loaner basis. Don't let another great day of spring sailing pass you bye now that these boats are in the water and waiting for you! Just drop me a line and let's get you and your team out there!

Results Click Here

Victory at Sea!

2007-08-27T12:45:00.000-04:00

I'd like to say it was close...I'd like to say it came right down to the finish...I'd like to say I won, but those would all be lies. In the end it was the Don't Tell Mom team with a convincing victory sealing the race, the season, and the glory of a second consecutive year as FIS J22 Champion (kneels... "were not worthy, were not worthy"....).

How much did they win by? Well lets put it this way, I beat two other J-22's and we could not SEE them finish. Another way to say it would be to point out they were the third boat to cross the line overall. The two boats that beat them across the line spent more money on their mainsails then Dave did on his boat (by alot!). After it was all said and done the Don't Tell Mom team even corrected out over every boat in the fleet as well. Proving on a day when the little boats were not even favored, that a well sailed J-22 can show you the money. Moral of the story... buy a J-22 or compete with one (sheesh any more bad cliches I can fit in here?)

I could recap the race, but must admit I was not in the best position to tell anyone what happened out there. After making enough mistakes to solidify my place in the back of the pack I was treated to nail polish conversations between my less then impressed crew. Thank god the wind held out, or you would have found me on the dock with a pedicure!

Great season everyone! Good luck in your upcoming fall regatta's. Get those boats on the trailers and go put to the test what you learned out here this summer. Next local event will be some sort of fleet meeting/awards thing so stay tuned. At this point we have commitments for two new boats next summer, keep you ears out for more, the fun is really just getting started.

BTW a bunch of boats are going to Annapolis in two weeks, a few going to Lake George, and some going to Cleveland for the NA's. Contact me if you have any questions on these events. Mid winters in Texas during March... Spring Break anyone?

Ram Island Results and Season Totals

It All Comes Down To This!

2007-08-20T21:05:00.000-04:00

If you saw a very tanned, tired, bruised, and grinning sailor on the dock Sunday night, most likely they had just come off a J22! What a way to end the course racing for this summer. 8 boats were treated to 7 to 11 knots of south westerly breeze and five great races.

The day started with a "bang" (literally as one J22 did it's best to sink the committee boat with a t-bone to the transom.... favor the PIN guys!) and ended with a "phew" after 5 very competitive races. Cheers to the whole fleet for really stepping up the level of competition this summer. One mistake and kiss the top half of the fleet goodbye in each and every race (on a personal note I thought my team did some of the best sailing we have done all season and finished a distant 4Th!)

As usual the top three places were decided by three points (amazing isn't it) and a big congrats to Bill Griffin and his team for pulling off the win. Chris Fields and crew with another great day just one point out of first, and Dave Nickerson and company showing how one mistake (PMS in 2nd race) can cost you the day in third.

So on to the season totals to date with just one more week to go. As is stands now we have sailed 43 races this summer. With 75% of the races counting I calculated 10 throw outs so far. With next week counting as three races that means we will throw out a total of 11 races. What this all means....get this...the season title comes down to who beats who in the round the island Ram Island race next week between the Don't Tell Mom and Woof teams... being just two points apart! Talk about pressure! AND if Woof beats Don't Tell Mom by just one place, we may have to go to the tie breaker to decided the season winner! The combinations are maddening and this is my best guess, the point is... it's really close. Good luck and have fun.

A huge thanks everyone on a great season of buoy racing! Participation was up nicely this third season with an average of 2.3 more boats on the line every week. With two more locks for new boats and a few more fence sitters, we are well on our way to a solid double digit fleet next season (and a 20 boat fleet looks even more real each season). Make sure you tell everyone how much fun we are all having.... if you want to borrow the J22 tattoo I have on my forehead just ask!

Next week, final race, Ram Island Race, you must send in your entry by Wednesday of this week! Click Here to Register!

Race By Race for the Day

Rave by Race for the Summer so far!

8 Boats! Loads of Fun!

2007-08-13T11:26:00.000-04:00

Another sunny day in on the sounds with a light southwester with plenty of current to make things interesting. It seems that the Maxwell / Field family likes to be consistent with their finishes. Chris had 3 firsts and Wes had 3 seconds; final bragging rights to the Fields!(What a family rivalry!) We are due for some wind next Sunday and it is the last race weekend of buoy racing so lets try to get everyone out. Ram Island race follows on the 26th; make sure you are registered. You can find the entry form here. (Counts as 3 races)

Race by Race Results

Hangover?

2007-08-07T16:09:00.001-04:00

Well there must have been a bit of a something from our mid summer regatta. Just 4 boats came out to see the stellar race committee work by yours truly. Congrats to Carl Fast & Bruce Cathcart on the win this weekend.

See you all this Sunday at 1:30! Just two Sunday's of course racing left. If you do not have your entry in for the Ram Island race please do so soon. We should have another great turnout there!

Race by Race results.

Mid Summer's Nightmare?

2007-07-29T21:29:00.000-04:00

Well it was not THAT bad! Look at this this way, if you can have fun in a J-22 in less then 5 knots of breeze with plenty of current, then you really need to have your head examined..... just kidding, but of course the big race of the summer would be the slowest weekend yet! After all was said and done we did get 6 fair races off, and special thanks to Gary Orkney & Crew for doing their best in less then an ideal situation.

At the end of the day, as is becoming a tradition, it came down to a tie breaker to decide first place. Even better yet, first through forth place was decided by just 3 points! Congrats to the Don't Tell Mom team with another consistent day for an overall tiebreaker win over Bill Griffin & team on Woof. It's pretty cool to think in a 9 boat fleet, after 6 races, that the winners did not even average 3rd place per race!

Afterwards a very well attended post race party with plenty of commiseration made us all feel better about our days mistakes. The awards featured our Yankee swap format allowing the top finisher to choose the award of their choice. Bill Griffin passed up the chance to stay in his own hotel, and traded down to grab the Samson sheets from Bruce Lockwood. Enjoy the night at the inn Bruce!

Special thanks to first timers Lockwoods/Bergandahls and Fast family. Great to see new sailors in the fleet drift bye! 9 boats is an all time high for the fleet, and it's cool to see the nice steady growth. If the goal of our fleet was to create a competitive, affordable, local one design keelboat fleet then today showed we are well on our way (and we have areas to improve on too). The view from the cheap seats (8th) still did not feel that bad knowing we sailed well but just got beat by the best local talent sailing out on Fishers Island sound.

Thanks to our sponsors... Musto, The Inn at Stonington, Samson and Halls Spars and Rigging!

Cheers! Click here for race by race results in high point format.

-Brandon

P.S. Next week.... SATURDAY RACING - NOT SUNDAY - 1:30 Start!

Thud!

2007-07-23T10:32:00.001-04:00

We all knew it was too good to be true.... The bottom finally fell out of the wind this Sunday with the first two races sailed in very difficult light, shifty and high current conditions. It got so bad at one point that the sailors even boarded the race committee boat! Turns out like most things in life it was communication that was the problem. Things settled out and the last two races were well done with wind on a nice course. Hopefully we have our one bad week out of the way, and light air and starboard mark rounding’s will be a thing of the past!

Of course conditions did not affect the tight competitive nature of our fleet with 7 boats and just 6 points between 1st and 4th. Hats off to Gary Annino (dragging Dave around the marks) on yet another dominant performance, but we are nipping at your heels!

Do not forget next Sunday is the mid summer regatta! 11:00 AM first start! $25 boat entry fee (pay Brandon at the club). Please bring your family (put the kids in the swim suits) and one side serving (cookies, chips, yadda) for a 5PM post race, midsummer awards/cookout party at the wad club. Hot dogs, burgers, beer, and soda will be served.

1st place - 1 Musto gore-tex smock
2nd place - 1 Night at the Inn at Stonington - subject to avail.
3rd place - 2 Samson J-22 Spinnaker sheets
4th place - 4 Hall Spars hats
5th place - (anyone? Kitchen sink?)

Another small note: Sunday the 5th of August we will NOT be sailing, racing instead will be at 1:30 PM on Saturday the 4th (1/2 the fleet is sailing the Parson's cup on Sunday).

Race by Race Results

Wipeouts!

2007-07-17T20:41:00.000-04:00

Wow!!!! What did we do to deserve all this wind this summer! We had 6 boats out and it was blowing 18 to 20 plus for all 3 races. Lots of rock and rolling with nice surfing weather. There were plenty of wipeouts for the cameras.

Dave Nickerson put his boat in the hands of Allen Kruger and he won all 3 races, proving that Dave has nothing to do with the success of "Don't tell Mom" and that clearly Gary Annino is the key element for victory! Chris Field had an exciting day with he and Jack falling off the boat in Race 2 (still finished third, only a boat length behind Woof) and then had a classic wipe out downwind that required spinnaker down (still finished third!) Bruce Cathcart got a taste of our fleet on Deuces Wild.

It was a wild day but probably the most fun Sunday yet this season; keep your fingers crossed for more of it!

Race by Race Scores

2007-07-09T15:51:00.000-04:00

Another nice day with a few cool new faces. 6 boats sailing, one on the dock, but again there is a lot of talk on who is going in when....

1st place was a two way tie, as was third place, making the top 4 within 4 points after 4 races! In the end it was Chris Fields and crew talking the overall day with a strong finish in the last race to beat the Orkney/Flack/Maxwell team in a tie breaker. It should be noted that he went from 5th to 1st at the last mark rounding, and by holding on to that 1st he moved up from 4th to 1st for the day. Congrats Chris and crew!

In the third race we had 4 boats finish within 2 seconds! The fleet is really getting better every week. Most boats found one bad set (meaning the chute was up 5 seconds late) would cost them TWO places! Overlaps were the norm, and clear lanes were hard to come by.

Hop on a J-22 and come play. We have four new teams looking to buy boats, and this fleet is really attracting some great local talent. See you next Sunday!

PS.... Do not forget the mid summer regatta is Sunday July 29th with a 10 AM start... That is just three Sundays away!

PSS..... There are new sailing instructions posted effective next week. Download them on the main page.

Click here for Results

J22's... The Next Generation

2007-07-02T15:30:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes, 10 knots, sunny, lots of races, blah, blah, think it's getting old? Well Sunday's races brought out the younger under 30 generation of local sailing. Names like Henry, Jack, Gareth, Lucas, and Robbie were on every boat in the fleet. You would have thought it was an opti regatta with the critiques coming from every parents direction!

In the end it was the Don't Tell Mom team with another dominant day. However, it seems the fleet is getting even tighter at the top, with plenty of down to the wire finishes. One more boat made the line with week to get us up to six, with just one boat left on the dock. A few more boats are going in the water this month, so 10 should be on line sometime soon! Great job everyone!

Hopefully you all agreed the course being a bit longer was nice, and the 5 min breaks between races helped to keep us all hydrated. Still 4 nice races in near perfect (but shifty) conditions kicked off at 1:30 and we were on the docks by 4:30.

As always stop by the Wad club next week after sailing for post race drill downs with free drinks and snacks!

Click Here for Race by Race Results

Ditto... Wind Again!

2007-06-24T21:18:00.000-04:00

Can it be June forever? Another Sunday, another 12-14 knots, another just perfect sunny June J-22 Sunday. Our fabulous race committee has proven they can get off races very well. The first gun was right at 1:30 as usual, we sailed 5 very nice 1.5 mile races, looked down at our watch and it was 3:30! Uncle!!!!! In all seriousness the consensus is to stretch the course out a bit more next week, and we will add a 10 min water/rig tune break after the second race as well. Phew!

The Don't Tell Mom team took right off where they left last year with 5 straight bullets! Ho hum must be boring up there... you missed all the action in the cheap seats Dave! Back in the "pack" only 4 points separated 2nd from 5th (and there was almost a 3 way tie for second)! Racing was very tight all day with one mistake meaning you just got passed by somebody. In almost every race last place was within 10 boat lengths of the top boats. And of course what would a windy Sunday be without a Maxwell overboard drill to boot (rumor has it).

5 boats was a nice (still early) turnout. "I'm NOT going to let the 22 run my life...." meant one boat got left on the dock this week, but we know they will be back next week! Two more boats go in this week with maybe a third, so we are getting to that 10 boat day soon! For those of you who have not made it yet, you've missed more sailing so far then we did in all of June last year! For those who want to try and get out please email me. We will find you a boat or a ride!

See you all next week. Gary and Wes say, "There will be free beverages and chips at the Wad club after sailing next week." Please stop by for post race merriment's and boat drill downs.

Click here for race by race results!

June 17th Results

2007-06-19T16:57:00.000-04:00

For those of you who missed it, the day was just about perfect. 12-14 knots, sun, nice course, a perfect way to start the season. The Maxwell family made a strong showing with a family member on every boat! Racing was really tight with a few early season kinks (bad starts, hitting marks, shrimping chutes, mainsails falling, and even a woman overboard.... hint she was a Maxwell). But after 5 starts, 12 mark roudings, approx 18 jibes and 30 tacks each.... It was the Scram team that came out on top with the fewest mistakes for the day.

Sad to see a few boats left on the dock... Robbie... we were waiting for you! Gary... a blue Welcraft is not the choice in 12-14 knots! But we look forward to 5 boats for sure next week, with more to follow.

Be sure to come by the Wad club after racing next week for free beer, beverages and snacks after sailing! Any and all welcome!

Click for a Table of Race by Race Results