The annual end-of-summer Labor Day holiday weekend offshore classic- the Vineyard Race- saw the small armada of J/Teams faired well across the board in all three of the races that comprise the event, winning five divisions in total and getting on the podium in all eight divisions J/Boats were entered! Hosted by Stamford Yacht Club, the three races started on time Friday evening, September 2nd, 2022.
The three races were: Vineyard Race- 238.0nm- Stamford down Long Island Sound, across Rhode Island to Buzzards Bay Light Tower to starboard, back to start/finish leaving Block Island to starboard. Seaflower Reef Race- 143.0nm- Stamford to "Seaflower Reef" leaving it to starboard, The Cows red bell 32 to starboard, Nun 2 to starboard, and back to the finish. Cornfield Point Race- 116.0nm- Stamford to Cornfield Point Shoal bell 2 to starboard, Lond Sand Shoal Bell 8 to starboard, RG "TE" buoy to starboard, The Cows bell 32 to starboard, and back to finish. Vineyard Race
Sixty-six boats were entered into this race, with 21 of them J/Teams (32% of the fleet). The big story was the domination by the J/111s sailing in both ORC and PHRF Divisions and the fact that J/Teams won FOUR of the ORC/ PHRF divisions! More on that in a moment.
In the six-boat ORC 6 Doublehanded class, the two J/Crews sailed very strong races. In their ongoing battle all summer long, it was David Rosow's J/109 LOKI that took the silver, while their friends on the J/105 YOUNG AMERICAN 146- Peter Becker & Adrien Blanc- ended up taking the bronze medal.
The fourteen-boat PHRF 8 class was blitzed by John Greifzu's J/109 GROWTH SPURT, winning their class by over 1:20 corrected time! Most of the fleet finished well over 2-3 hours elapsed time behind them late Saturday evening. Fourth went to Todd Aven's J/99 THIN MAN.
The ten-boat PHRF 9 class was treated to a 1-2 sweep by talented J/Crews. Winning was William Ingraham's J/124 TENEBRAE, followed by Arthur Hanlon's J/112E DAUNTLESS in second. The two J/120s had a long, long battle over their 30+ hours of racing, having finished just about 5 minutes apart! Winning that cage match was Richard West's CHARLOTTE YC over Bill Klein's SPECK, 5th and 6th, respectively, in class.
The nine-boat ORC 10 class got schooled (or perhaps severely spanked) by Andrew Berdon's J/111 SUMMER STORM. By finishing at 15:40 hrs on Saturday, they won by an hour corrected time and simply smoked the Italia 11.98, XP 38, and JPK 1080 teams that had finished over two hours behind them on elapsed time! Notably, all three of SUMMER STORM's competitors had ambitions and the talent to win the race... as they had been doing most of the summer in the northeast offshore circuit.
The half-dozen boats in PHRF 11 class were witnesses to a complete sweep of the podium by J/Crews! Like their colleagues in ORC 10 Class, Bill & Jackie Baxter's J/111 FIREBALL smoked their class as well, winning by 40 minutes corrected time. Second was the huge family crew on the J/130 BLITZEN, sailed by the incredibly talented Storck family from Huntington, NY. The Storck's are famous for having won the J/80 North Americans, J/80 Midwinters, and numerous other J/80 events over time. Rounding out the podium to earn the bronze medal was Cao Deambrosio & Chris Nichols' J/133 RHIANNON. Constantine Baris' J/122 DIRE WOLF completed the total sweep of the top four!
As the second longest race, there was just one division- PHRF 5. In the end, Jim Farrell's J/35 SAPPHIRE took the bronze medal, while Greg Imbruce's J/109 JOYRIDE was 4th, Steve Chronert's J/109 ZUMA took 5th, and Kevin Marks' J/99 VELOCITY 2 was 6th place.
Cornfield Point Race- 116nm- J/24 Domination!
The shortest race of the three, this race had three divisions. Again, J/Crews podiumed in every division they were entered, an impressive feat! The winning boat in PHRF 1 Doublehanded class was Hamish & Lauren Young's J/24 JAMALA! They completed the course in 30 hrs 53 min and corrected out to a class win by just 3 minutes!
In the PHRF 3 Division, EJ Haskell & Jim Weil's J/92 VIXEN took the silver medal, while their colleagues on the J/30 BOUNCE, skippered by Blaine Davis, took the bronze medal! A great show overall for J/Teams in the Cornfield Point race!
More Stamford Yacht Club Vineyard Race sailing information here.