(Cleveland, OH)- The Edgewater Yacht Club hosted the 2019 edition of the J/70 North American Championship for the world’s largest and most popular sportboat class from September 24th to 29th. The thirty-five teams from five nations (Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and USA) sailed an amazing regatta on the challenging waters of Lake Erie, famous for its severe chop and rapidly changing winds along their city waterfront. In fact, for many J/70 crews, it was an eye-opener to see gale-force type oceanic conditions with massive chop on one of the big freshwater Great Lakes.
For the three-day event, the Edgewater YC PRO Mark Foster and his Race Committee pushed the sailors to their limits. The first day set the pace for the regatta. The fleet was greeted with postcard-perfect conditions, southerly breeze from 12-16 knots and gusts in the 20s meant perfect planing opportunities. Adding in sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s, everyone relished the three races to kick off the Championship. The second day dawned with grey, leaden skies that ultimately cleared for a spectacular sunny day of racing. As the front and skies cleared, a strong northwest breeze filled in blowing 15-20 kts, with gusts in the high 20s. What made the day an epic experience were the monster waves (e.g. giant 6 to 10 foot chop) that made for some hair-raising, double-digit planing speeds on the downwind runs. After all that excitement in the first two days, the fleet had to contend with a finale that was anything but mind-blowing, concluding with just one light air race on Saturday.
Oivind Lorentzen’s NINE team (Lucas Calabrese, Ian Coleman and Will Felder) started out the first day of the regatta in first place over a stellar, incredibly talented field; the top of the field had multiple World Champions on their boats as tacticians/ main trimmers. Consider that you had Olympic 470 Silver Medallist Lucas Calabrese on the lead boat; J/22 World Champion Allen Terhune on TEAM VINEYARD VINES; Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS with Erik Shampain as Etchells 22 Champion; Keane’s SAVASANA with College Sailor of Year Thomas Barrows; Ignacio Perez’s ZAQUERO with World Champion crew Willem Van Waay; Pam Rose’s ROSEBUD with World Match Race/ Congressional Cup Champion Taylor Canfield; Ryan McKillen’s SURGE with offshore World Champion Tony Rey; Haroldo Solberg’s VIKING with 4x J/24 World Champion Mauricio Santa Cruz from Brazil; John Evans’ AIRPLANE with J/88 and J/111 champion tactician Marty Kullman aboard; and Travis Odenbach’s famous HONEYBADGER with World Star Champion George Szabo and J/88 Midwinter Champion trimmer Michael Booker keeping it going fast. Not exactly a group of “shrinking violets” amongst that fleet of talented sailors, ALL capable of winning Continental or World Championships given the right team, boat and owner/skipper.
Against that backdrop, it was clear that winning this J/70 N.A.’s was not going to be a “walk in the park” for anyone, despite the small fleet size of thirty-five boats. In fact, there was no place to hide! The teams had to be on their game, as the small starting line, and incredibly sharp tacticians, meant you had to be fast, pick your spots, have great boat-handling, and minimize your mistakes that invariably creep into even the most professional programs. In short, with so many good teams, having just one bad race in the ten race series (with one discard) could be catastrophic.
Going into the last day, NINE held a mere 0.7-point advantage over Joel Ronning’s CATAPULT heading into Saturday’s final competition. The main problem for the NINE team was a 18th in race 6, while CATAPULT had all top 6 finishes. The stage was set for the CATAPULT team to bury the NINE team and walk off with an easy, tactical win. Going into the final race, CATAPULT was one of only two teams without a double-digit finish and in a prime position to take advantage of that leverage on any competitors. However, lurking in the shadows with an ability to win overall was also Keane’s SAVASANA, the only other team with all single-digit finishes after nine races.
In the regatta finale, CATAPULT missed their opportunity, while NINE nailed it; earning a second-place finish (to CATAPULT’s 12th) to claim the 2019 title with a total of 26.3 net points. The 2016 J/70 World Champion- Ronning’s CATAPULT TEAM- captured the silver position with 31 points. John Brim’s RIMETTE gained a third in the day’s lone contest, leaping them up to third overall with 38 points. John and Molly Baxter’s TEAM VINEYARD VINES closed the Championship with a bullet, giving them fourth place on a tiebreaker (over Brian Keane’s SAVASANA) at 42 points.
Kevin Morgan’s WILD CHILD with crew Mike Sheehan, Caroline Sundman, Sarah Paisley and Mark Hassett topped the 13-boat Corinthian division. Following them were Martin Johnsson’s AQUAHOLIKS and Charlie Pendleton’s BAD HOMBRES.
“It’s very exciting for me because I’ve been working at this now for a few years,” beamed Lorentzen. “The level of competition makes it so rewarding. Having good crew makes all the difference in the world. The thanks really go to them.” Although Lorentzen has sailed in the Great Lakes before, he’s never done so in Cleveland. “The venue was a pleasure— the wind, the welcoming club. Hopefully, we do it again.”
Willem van Waay, racing on ZAQUERO, summarized this week’s conditions in Cleveland, “15-25 knots, 72-degree fresh water, 5-8 foot waves, 80+ degrees outside. San Francisco is awesome, but this place, this week, was at a different level. It’s like God built a perfect playground for us!”
Photos are available on the International J/70 Class Facebook page. Sailing photo credits- Tim Wilkes For more J/70 North American sailing information