A lot of sailing was taking place in close proximity in the Great Lakes this past week. For starters, the J/111 World Championship concluded last week for an incredibly tight fleet of twenty-three boats. The regatta was hosted by Chicago YC and sailed on Lake Michigan. The weather Godz threw everything imaginable at the fleet over the four-day event, from calms to storms, sunny skies to lightning-riddled skies! In addition, on Lake Michigan, the Great Lakes J/22 Championship was hosted by Tawas bay Yacht Club in East Tawas, Michigan. After the J/111 Worlds, the Verve Inshore Cup Regatta was hosted by Chicago YC for one-design fleets of J/70s and J/24s. It was the Great Lakes J/70 Championship and also a 2020 J/70 Worlds Qualifier for that event in Long Beach, CA. Moving over to Lake Erie, a fleet of J/Crews sailed the annual Sandusky Night Race, a triangular offshore race that sends the fleet from the Sandusky Yacht Club starting line offshore around a few rocks and islands before returning to the SYC finish line. A J/29, J/34, J/92, and other J’s had a successful outing, to say the least!
Out in New England, the J/109 North Americans was sailed on Buzzards Bay and hosted by New Bedford YC for an eleven-boat fleet. Nearby, the USA J/24 Nationals were held on Lake Ontario, hosted by Rochester YC, with a fantastic turnout of forty-six teams. Just north of that event, the annual Ted Hood Regatta was sailed off Marblehead, MA and was hosted by the famous trio of clubs on Marblehead Harbor- Eastern YC, Corinthian YC, and Boston YC. Sailing were one-design fleets of J/70s and J/105s as well as ORR Handicap divisions that included a J/124, J/122, J/111, J/112E, J/33, and J/40. Then, in the Deep South, a small armada of J/Teams sailed the fun-loving Low Country Hook Ocean Race- a distance race from Hilton Head Island, SC to Skidaway Island, GA. Skidaway Island Boating Club and The Yacht Club of Hilton Head presented the race; sailing were J/24s, J/105s, J/30s, and a J/100.
The blast furnace is at glass-melting temperatures in the United Kingdom, as the international J/70 class is feeling the heat of fierce battles on the Torbay race track last weekend. The J/70 U.K. National Championship was held on Torbay for a fleet of thirty-five teams, hosted by Royal Torbay YC. The mostly light-air affair served as the J/70 “Pre-Worlds”, as the J/70 World Championship will be sailed one week later in the same venue. Over in Ireland, the Irish J/24 Nationals had a great gathering of the Irish clan on Lough Erne, a gorgeous lake in the middle of the country. Hosting the enormous thirty-two boat fleet was Lough Erne Yacht Club.
Finally, a fast, trophy-winning, J/121 offshore speedster sailed the Visbypokalen Offshore Race on the Baltic Sea, a 100.0nm race that finished off Sandhamn, Sweden.