J/109 Class Association News

GOSSIP Takes AYC Fall Series

J109 Class Association — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:32:50 +0100

Steve Kenny and Greg Ames on GOSSIP posted a string of bullets and dropped a second to win the six race American YC Fall Series, held over two September weekends. Rick Lyall's STORM finished five points back.

Make your plans for Key West

J109 Class Association — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:41:26 +0100

Planning to attend the class midwinter championship? Then it's time to make plans. Rentals, dock space, and airplanes all fill up fast for Key West Race Week. If you are planning to attend, please contact Rick Lyall so he can coordinate a class start at the event.

Larchmont NOOD is taken by STORM

J109 Class Association — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:36:44 +0100

Despite the threat of Hurricane Hanna, the Larchmont NOOD went off as planned. Rick Lyall on STORM beat out nine other entrants to take the five race, no throwout series. Al Minella's RELENTLESS finished two points back.

GUT FEELING does it again!

J109 Class Association — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:04:58 +0100

Following up on their North American championship, Ted Herlihy and crew on GUT FEELING took the J/109 East Coast championship during the Buzzards Bay Regatta. Ed Dailey and Wiley Wakeman and their mates sailed RAPTOR to second place. And James and Michael Feeley sailed LADYLOVE in third place.

GUT FEELING takes the North Americans

J109 Class Association — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 04:06:15 +0100

July 27 - In a highly competitive 15 boat fleet, Ted Herlihy sailed GUT FEELING to the J/109 North American championship in Newport this weekend. Just four points separated the top three boats. Steve Kenny and Greg Ames took second in GOSSIP while Don and Nicolas Filippelli took third in CAMINOS. The NA's were sailed as part of the ROLEX New York Yacht Club race week. Conditions were typical of the Southcoast and Narragansett Bay in summer - light breezes to a 40kt squall.

BIG EAST COAST REGATTAS

J109 Class Association — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:25:08 +0100

The J/109 North American Championships will be part of New York Yacht Club's Race Week in July. Check in is Wednesday, Jul 23d at SAIL NEWPORT. See the website, nyyc.org. The Buzzards Bay Regatta follows, hosting the J/109 New England Championship, beginning August 1st at Beverly Yacht Club, Marion. See the website, buzzardsbayregatta.com

Pacific NorthWest Championship goes to IT'S ONLY ROCK n ROLL

J109 Class Association — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:43:05 +0100

"It's only Rock n Roll" wins 1st annual PNW Championship Bob Arney & crew on "It's only Rock n Roll" won the J/109 Pacific Northwest Championship regatta, held in conjunction with J/Fest in Seattle. They overtook Jim Prentice's "Diva" in the standings in the last race, to win by 2 points. Stuart Burnell's "Tantivy" placed third. It was a tight regatta all around, with only 16 points separating 1st through 8th after 5 races. After dealing with fickle wind all weekend, the breeze filled in to a steady 10 knots Sunday afternoon, allowing the RC to get 4 races off. Those that were able to get to the favored side were generously rewarded, and flyers were punished severely. The racing was pretty exciting, as any boathandling mistakes meant losing places and the pack was always tight. And for a pleasant Seattle surprise, there was sunshine all weekend, so all the crews were looking pretty tanned and happy at the awards presentation.

BLOCK ISLAND RESULTS

J109 Class Association — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:43:35 +0100

Greg Ames and Steve Kenny in GOSSIP held off perennial power Ted Herlihy in GUT FEELING by one point and Bill Sweetster in RUSH to win Block Island Race Week. See results at www.blockislandraceweek.org

Fleet 10 Schedule posted

J109 Class Association — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:00:53 +0100

Hi all, I hope you are all looking forward to the 2008 season as much as I am. I have posted the 2008 schedule; go to racing and choose "documents" from the dropdown menu. Our series begins in a little over a month at AYC Spring Series. We have added a couple of distance races this year with the Edlu Race in May and the Vineyard Race at the end of August. We had a good turnout at the Distance Racing Seminar (8 J109 owners out of 50 total owners) in January so there appears to be interest in expanding our agenda from just doing buoy races to include distance races. Let's see how it goes and we will continue to refine the schedule based on the fleet's preferences. At this point I honestly don't know if we will be racing one design in these regattas or competing using our IRC ratings. If you have some thoughts you'd like to share, please pass them along. You will also note that we have scheduled a J109 Rendezvous on July 19-20th in Stoninington, CT. We are hoping to attract both racers and cruisers to the event so we can get together and learn something from each other. Plans are still being developed but we will likely have a BBQ and some festivities on Saturday after everyone arrives and then hold a fun race/cruise to Newport to position boats for the J109 North American Championship which begins the following week at New York Yacht Club Race Week (Wednesday registration, racing Thursday-Sunday). This event will be followed the next weekend (Friday-Sunday)with the J109 East Coast Championships at the Buzzards Bay Regatta. If you want to have a lot of fun and get some great racing in, put these events on your calendar now and start to make arrangements! When it is convenient, I'd appreciate hearing which events you plan to support this year. I look forward to seeing many of you next month at American Spring Series. Don't forget to pay your class dues before the regatta! All the best, Rick <> _

December 2007 Letter from Class President Rick Lyall

J109 Class Association — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:59:20 +0100

Fellow J/109 Class Members, I thought I�d take this opportunity to write a �state of the class� letter to you as we approach the end of 2007. I�d like to thank my predecessor, Len Siegal, who ably served our class as its first president. Len provided leadership and direction as we drafted the constitution and class rules and worked diligently during our first official year as a class. He will continue as Great Lakes Fleet Captain and I look forward to his ongoing contribution as an active class member. I�d like to welcome Steve Tedeschi as Vice President. As many of you know, Steve has had an extraordinary run during 2007 with victories in the East Coast Championship, Block Island Race Week, Buzzards Bay Regatta, Larchmont NOOD and rounded out the year by winning the J/109 North American Championship aboard Tastes Like Chicken. Steve brings a great deal of energy to the class and I look forward to his input over the next year. I�d also like the express my gratitude to Ed Dailey who will thankfully continue as Secretary and to Barry Gold who has agreed to stay on as interim Treasurer. Both of these gentlemen have worked tirelessly over the last year on behalf of the class and I certainly appreciate their efforts. As some of you may know, Barry has recently purchased a J122 and has generously offered to stay on until we can find a replacement. While we are sorry to see Barry leave, we appreciate his significant contribution and look forward to working with him until we identify a successor. If any of you are interested in becoming Class Treasurer, please let us know. We�d love to hear from you! The J/109 Class exits 2007 with approximately 360 boats in the water or on order. In the US, we had some memorable regattas beginning with Key West Race Week where Gary Moser�s Current Obsession narrowly edged Steve Tedeschi�s Tastes Like Chicken in a tie-breaker and only two points separated the top 4 boats. It just doesn�t get any closer than that! The balance of the year saw some great on the water action in the U.S. with seventeen boats at the East Coast championships and nineteen at Block Island Race Week. The European fleet also had a great season; Cowes Week had an entry of 27 boats and Dun Laoghaire Week in Ireland had 16 boats for the first ever Irish Nationals. There were 18 J/109s at the J-Cup and Deauville International Regatta (the J/109 EuroCup) had an entry of 17 boats. The class continues to turn heads with strong representation at major regattas and close finishes among the top four or five boats at during most races. While we had tremendous success as a class, we also faced some challenges. J/Boats and Pearson Composites identified a weak area in the sump that lead to excessive flexing in the keel and resulted in stress fractures in some US manufactured boats. With the help of third party composite and engineering specialists, J/Boats and Pearson developed an upgrade kit to strengthen the affected area. To date, over 100 upgrade kits have been shipped and all US manufactured boats are scheduled to be retrofit at the owners� option. This has no doubt caused some concern among owners and raised questions with potential buyers. The good news is that the class has met the challenge and is working its way through the solution. We thank J/Boats and Pearson for standing by us and protecting our investment. From my perspective, the future of the class remains bright. We have a great base of support from existing owners. We have an opportunity to expand the current fleets and to form new fleets. Last month we learned that Fleet 14 had formed in San Francisco. There are 8 J/109s in the Bay Area and six of them are interested in participating in local events. San Francisco is a phenomenal sailing venue and we look forward to seeing this new fleet develop and potentially hosting championships in the near future. My objective, as your new president, is to enhance the scope of opportunities enjoyed by class members and to unite the various groups of J/109 owners. The J/109 is an all purpose boat that can succeed as both a racer and cruiser. In this regard, I have three ideas I�d like to share with you: 1. Most of us have become accustomed to regattas consisting of a series of windward leeward courses. This requires skill at getting off the starting line, choosing the favored side of the course, and boathandling at crowded mark roundings. Distance racing rewards navigational skills and understanding tide and weather patterns. Based on what I have seen in the northeast, the vast majority of us have concentrated on racing around the buoys and haven�t had the inclination or the opportunity to experience distance racing. Our colleagues in the Great Lakes turned out twelve boats to race in the 333 mile Chigago to Mackinaw Island race better known as �the Mac�. I propose that we demonstrate the flexibility of the boats by adding some distance races to our current schedule of buoy races. We plan to add some distance races in the northeast in 2008. Some may be low key aimed more at fun and expanding participation with family and friends. I suspect others will be highly competitive. I suggest all J/109 fleets consider adding distance races to their schedules. We can judge the reaction to this �experiment� next year. 2. It is pretty clear that we have two primary groups of owners. Most active class members are racers. There is another group of owners that prefer to enjoy their time on the water by cruising their boats. I suspect neither group knows the other very well. We all own J/109s. Same boat, different priorities. Maybe we can get together by holding a J/109 Rendezvous and see how the �other side� lives. I suggest we try to schedule get togethers on all of the �coasts� in the US: east, west, Gulf and Great Lakes as well as in northern and southern Europe. If not in 2008, then hopefully in 2009. I�m sure there are cookouts to be held, stories to be told and fun to be had. Let�s get all the owners, crews and families together and have fun off the race course! 3. Let�s see. Buoys meet distance, racers meet cruisers. What else can we do? I find it remarkable that we have two large constituents of owners and very little interaction between them. Of the 360 J/109s, roughly half are located in North America and half in Europe. However, other than Ken Grant from Scotland who came to race in Key West in 2006, I�m not sure the North Americans and Europeans have met. I�d like to see the J/109 Class hold a Transatlantic Challenge where teams from Europe visit the US to compete one year and the Europeans host the North American team the following year. Ryder Cup, J/109 style! This obviously won�t be simple as we will need to identify a high level event on either side of the �pond� and arrange for charter boats to be available for visiting crews. This is a test concept designed to unify the class and make it truly global. I think it can work and I suspect there are enough owners on either side of the Atlantic that would be interested in this challenge. Let me know if you might be interested in doing this and we can get the ball rolling. The class has come a long way in the last 12-18 months. Yet we still have considerable opportunity to grow and continue to improve. Let�s continue to compete fairly and set a good example for other one design classes. Let�s expand our activities to introduce events that allow us to develop new skills and meet new friends. Above all, let�s have fun. Isn�t that what this is all about? I wish you all the best for the holidays and the New Year. Best Regards, Rick Lyall J/109 Class President