J/24 Easter Regatta

The J24 Easter Regatta Started last Weekend On Friday, April 6. 25 Boats attended the event and Friday was shaping up to be a stress free day with the first gun at 12:30.  The weather was perfect with 14 to 18 knots of breeze for the first race. We set our rig up at 27-24 for the first race and with the trend being left at the start we headed for the pin. Chuck Allen was our tactician and as he always says, “cross the fleet when you can so we did”. By the last leg of the first race we were battling it out with Tony Parker all the way to the finish. We crossed the finish line inches ahead of him which is normally not the case. He is a very quick downwind sailor. As the day went on the breeze went down and so did the rig tune. We ended the day at 20-15 on the shrouds and we seemed to move fine the whole day. Tony Parker was very consistent though keeping all his finishes in the top five and was leading the regatta by the end of the first day.

The second day the weather did not cooperate as we hoped it would. It was Very hot and muggy and after sitting out on the water the race committee decided it was time to get out of the sun. Although there was no racing for the regatta that day the fleet made a very big effort to keep everybody involved. The race committee set up a fun race in which the a chosen crew member had to drive a boat. The owners had to crew. It was an excellent idea and we got one nice race in. Patrick Wilson on Honey badger took the race. All in all it was a good save to a very long day.

The last day of the event was an early start at 9:30. The breeze was out of the south west at 10 to 15. Knowing that the wind was going to die we set are 24-21 and the boat felt just fine. Once again the closest shore to the starting line was left and knowing lakes very well we decided to start at the pin and charge left. As Chuck thought the left had pressure and a lift while on port tack and we carried that all the way to the windward mark. That was typical for the rest of the day. Unfortunately by the last race the wind was down to 4 knots. This is very tough breeze to handle mentally since the boat feels very bound up all the time. We put our rig to 18-10 and the boat felt very fast at this setting. The last race was a true “ Roll the dice” kind of race. It was not good to be in first at the weather mark. Downwind the fleet inverted and it was We were stuck on the wrong side of it. At least we had 3 races that day.

The top 5 ended up being Mike Ingham, Tony Parker, Travis Odenbach, Peter Bream, and Roger Dougal.  North sails 3DL Genoa’s were 2 and 3. Tony Parker was top amateur. As usual it was a great event and I look forward to doing this again next year. Thanks to All of the Volunteers in the race committee, and also Roger Dougal and Charles Bumgardner for making this another great event.

Learn more about the North products for the J/24 class.