We caught up with the team after their win, and confident they’ll be an excellent addition to the Caribbean Championship lineup.

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FINAL RESULTS

Brothers Mike and Bob Kirkman and the crew of the J/120 Hot Ticket are used to pressure. In fact, they’re better under pressure, says Bob Kirkman, and today’s outcome in Detroit’s ultra-competitive one-design keelboat class stands as a perfect example. After two days of battling for the overall class lead against their rivals on Charlie Welsh’s Funtech, Mike Kirkman drove the team to a runaway race win in the first of the day and then sealed the title in the next.

“We knew they were going to be covering us and just used boatspeed, jumped out and got ahead in the first race to lead all the way around that one,” says Bob Kirkman.

Hot Ticket’s third in the second race to Funtech fifth was enough to guarantee the win by 3 points.

“We gave up a lot of points to cover them in that race, but that’s what it’s all about. Racing in this class is always tough and the Funtech team is a great rival. Like last year, it came down to the last day, which is how we like it.”

A similar battle had been playing out in the J/111 fleet as well between Brad Kimmel and Steve Young’s Diablo and Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal, and while the two teams were mere boatlengths apart for the first two legs of the day’s first race, a mechanical failure with a forestay fitting on Black Seal on the third leg had them scrambling to keep the mast upright. They were able to reconnect the forestay and finish the race, but it came with a cost of 6 points. Diablo won the final race to win the series with five wins over nine races.

Meanwhile, William Widner and his talented crew on the J/35 Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride sailed to its fifth consecutive race win to earn the class’s Great Lakes Championship title. The growing J/35 fleet, of which Widner is a longstanding member, produced incredibly close racing behind Widner with second through fourth places boats only separated by 5 points after seven races.

Chris Benedict’s Shape solidified its Santana 35 class North American Championship title after trading race wins with Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. After seven races there were only 2 points between these friendly rivals in the classic 35-footer.

While the final races of the offshore circle were ultimately abandoned as the wind died later in the afternoon, the regatta’s smaller one-design classes reached their maximums with Dan Cheresh’s team on the S2 7.9 Extreme 2 easily winning the series by an 8-point margin over John Spierling’s Rebel. Extreme 2 won seven of eight races.

In similar fashion, Peter McClennan’s Gamecock team closed out the series with a 10-point win in the Melges 24 fleet. McClennan, of Newport, Rhode Island, sails about 200 days a year, and has been the top team on this year’s Melges 24 winter racing circuit, but the fast-learning helmsman continues to refine his technique it the boat and this weekend picked up a few key pointers from his all-star tactician Jeremy Wilmot.

“He’s the best at moding,” McClennen says. “And this week he changed a few things I’m used to. I always drive seated, but he forced me to stand up downwind so I can see better, which was true. In the big breeze yesterday, we were pushing it really hard downwind and hit like 18 knots. The cool thing about this venue was the waves. A lot of the other places where we race the Melges 24, the water’s generally flat. So, I hadn’t sailed the 24 in waves like that in a more of a year.”

The Cal 25s, which raced Saturday and Sunday only, were a small but mighty fleet that was no match for the expertise of the father/son team of Paul and Ross Nuechterlein’s Never Alone. With Paul on the bow and Ross on the helm, they got around the racecourse fast and clean, winning all but the final race. Their class win put them in the running for the regatta’s overall title and a berth at the Caribbean Championship, and at the end of the day, the team earned the berth for the championship in the BVI in October.

Paul, who bought the Cal 25 to race with his friends and his son, says there’s not much to making the Cal 25 go fast other than new racing sails, and a simple tactical approach to every race: “If you can make it to the weather mark in only two tacks, do it,” he says. “You don’t want to take these boats. What it takes are some good sails and good people.”

Nuechterlein’s tactician and friend, Ron Sherry, says the team invested in the prep for the regatta, participating in provided morning weather briefings, improved their jib-sheeting technique and put race electronics on the boat. “We put it all together and it really worked well,” he says. “The sails from Quantum especially made a big difference.”

On winning the Caribbean championship berth, the team were excited and looking forward to it. “I’ve been to the Caribbean three times and they were the best times of my life,” Nuechterlein says, “so I’m looking forward to going down there and having a little fun.”

After a wild and windy distance race on Saturday the regatta’s ORC and PHRF fleets set off on a kinder and gentler long course that had a balance of upwind and downwind legs. Jake Thomas’ JPK 10.80, Smoke Show, Saturday’s ORC A race winner was plenty fast in the moderate wind as well and won today’s race by nearly 2 minutes over its much larger competition—Tim LaRiviere’s Italia 14.98 Eagle One.

“We’re one of the smallest boats, and certainly the shortest mast of our fleet, so it was all about just getting free and getting clear air,” says Smoke Show tactician Andy Camarada. “The nice thing with the long courses is that we can get separation and sail our own race which we were able to do again today.”

While winds in today’s race average only 10 knots, Camarada says the boat was plenty quick, but not nearly as exciting as Saturday’s blistering distance race. “It’s crazy how much sail area this boat can carry. We just keep piling more sail area on it and the boat just goes faster. The boat is stable at speed, has a lot of power, and we have a great team to manage it.”

Chuck Storms’ Italia 9.8 won its second distance race to win ORC Class B and William Parkolab’s Kirby 25 Go Train was the top ORC C team with a win yesterday and a second today.

In the PHRF fleets, clear air off the start was the key as well and that’s how Jim Weyand’s turbo 1D35 got away to its second distance race win. Same for Harald Kolter’s Hobie 33 Das Boot, which won the windy one and posted a second in today’s race to win PHRF Class B.  

“Win the start and extend, and we do well at that,” Kolter says. “Our approach was to get the windward end at the start and be the first boat to tack. It’s better for us to go for clear air and let everyone else play. With this boat we need to sail our own angles because it doesn’t sail upwind like other boats—I need to foot more.

“Today I felt comfortable with where we were and we sailed our own boat for a clean race, and yesterday was all I bargained for. It was the windiest day I’ve ever sailed in this boat. Before I didn’t have much confidence sailing this boat in that much wind, but now I do.”

Brian Geraghty’s C&C35 MKI Siochail won today’s race to win in the tiebreaker with Alan Tecmire’s Tec Offensive in PHRF Class C.

The regatta’s Youth Keelboat Invitational series also came down to a tiebreaker after a second day of racing on the Detroit River, this time using the Ultimate 20’s spinnakers. The racing was fast and furious again, and after 15 races, it was Macatawa Bay YC’s juniors with the win.

“We really focused on learning about the boat ahead of time, reading up on it online,” says the team’s skipper Lucas Nykamp. “We studied the currents and the waterway, and just wanted to go out and put it all on the line.”

Nykamp and his teammate Cameron Bert race VX One sportboats at their home club, and experience with the high-performance asymmetric spinnaker boat contributed to their win. “Having the asymmetric sailing experience really helped out,” says Nykamp. “The racing on the river was tricky and fast paced. It was 70-percent the start. We focused on having a clear lane and space from the other boats so we’d be able to make the first move.”

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PRELIMINARY RESULTS

The locals of the Detroit yacht racing scene know that Lake St. Clair can be feast or famine and on the second day of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series hosted by Bayview YC, the sailors feasted on a blustery 20-knot northerly for an action packed day of racing for all one-design fleets and the ORC and PHRF distance racers, which quickly disappeared over the horizon after their early morning start.

The big boats of ORC Class A were the first to set off, and mixed in among them was Jake Thomas’ JPK 10.80 Smoke Show, a shorthanded offshore weapon that’s built for reaching. And off-wind sailing is what the fleet got after a short beat to the first mark of the course. And reach is what Smoke Show did across the finish line off Bayview YC on the Detroit River. First to finish and now first in their eight-boat ORC A fleet. 

“Beat, reach, reach, reach, that’s what this boat is made for,” says Smoke Show’s tactician and sailmaker Andy Camarda. While some teams were conservative with offwind sail selections and deployments in the morning’s gusty winds, Smoke Show used practically everything in its quiver. “Code Zero and spinnakers,” Camarda says, “we used them all and it was a quick race for us.”

Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.98, DeTour—another modern design and proven winner in the ORC world—finished the day atop the ORC B fleet standings and Jeff Sampson’s Nelson/Marek 30 Peacemaker corrected out to the top of ORC C. For PHRF A, Jim Weyand’s turbo 1D35 Chico 2 got the win and Harald Kolter’s Hobie 33 Das Boot leads PHRB B. Alan Tecmire’s Tec Offensive, an Abbott 33 custom, made quick work of the course to correct to the top of PHRF C.

While the distance racers sprinted around their Lake St. Clair course, the full complement of the regatta’s one-design classes stepped up their series. Yesterday’s classes, the Tartan 10s and S2 7.9s were joined on their course by the Melges 24s and Cal 25s, which are racing Saturday and Sunday only.

In the highly competitive J/120 fleet, the battle for Bayview’s “J Dock” supremacy continued between arch-rivals Funtech and Hot Ticket. After three races today, which brings the series to seven races thus far, Funtech padded its lead by another point, but still, the delta is only 2 points. For Funtech skipper Charlie Hess, the day’s focus was all about staying close to Hot Ticket, no matter what. 

“That was more important than playing wind shifts,” Hess says. “We were in cover mode all day. We just wanted to stay in front of them.”

The first race of the day set the stage for this two-boat battle, with Hot Ticket finishing ahead of them. “They just had a great downwind,” Hess says, “and after that race the whole thing was tied and it was back to square one.”

In the next race, he adds, the day’s strategy remained the same. “We were super focused on being fast and staying ahead of them, and in that race were able to get ahead and stay ahead.”

In the next and final race, Funtech led the fleet at the first weather mark, “but there were about 8 boats that rounded the mark together.”

Funtech was pinned outside the group and unable to jibe when they wanted to. “We got strung out way to the outside and over-stood the layline by a lot,” Hess says. “That really put us behind, but we were able to get back into the race with a good shift and finished right behind them.”

Remarking on the quality of racing, Hess says his team enjoyed the conditions immensely. “It’s rare to have an 18-knot northerly day on Lake St. Clair. It was beautiful. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see a few of the other boats do really well.

With Sunday’s forecast for winds to moderate, however, Hess and his teammates are under no illusion that it will be easier. “It will be game on, for sure,” he says, “and we’ll be ready for it.”

A similar scenario awaits the J/111 fleet, which has Brad Kimmel and Steve Young’s Diablo now with a 2-point lead over Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal. These two fiercely competitive but friendly class rivals were locked into their own day-long battle. Black Seal won the day’s first race after an intense jibing duel on the final leg, but Diablo nailed the next two.

“The goal for the day was no unforced errors,” Kimmel says. “Basically making sure the crew was ready for everything, talking though maneuvers and sticking to the game plan of covering Black Seal and making sure we kept the other boats behind us.

“The big thing was minimizing errors in the big breeze and waves and keeping the boat moving fast by changing gears because there were big lulls mixed. We got better as the day went on. “The crew work was great and the front of the boat did really well.”

One import adjustment after the first race, Kimmel says, was changing their jibe technique. Rather than pulling the new sheet aft and down hard while exiting the jibe, which is the technique in lighter winds, they pulled it aft only. “Once we did that our jibes were much better,” Kimmel says.

For the Santana 35s contesting their North American Championship, Chris Benedict’s Shape won two races to firm up their lead over Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. And for the J/35s vying for their Great Lakes Championship, Bill Wildner’s experienced team on Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride were masters of the big breeze, winning all three races by significant margins. 

On Division C, Paul and Ross Nuechterlein’s Cal 25 Never Alone was untouchable, winning all three races, but only after a hard-fought battle with the all-women team on Erin Colpaert’s Gill Galls. Colpaert’s team were plenty fast upwind, but having broken their spinnaker pole in the first race, they were unable to match the downwind spinnaker speed and handling of Never Alone.

In the S2 7.9s, Dan Cheresh’s Extreme 2 went undefeated and doubled its lead to 7 points over John Spierling’s Rebel, which posted a pair of seconds and a third. Two teams opted to sit out the day’s windy conditions, which opened the starting line with plenty of room for Cheresh to get away clean in every start. With tactician and sailmaker Tac Boston on top of their boatspeed, Cheresh says, they were fast upwind and downwind and plenty comfortable in the conditions. 

While the circle’s displacement boats were rocking and rolling downwind under symmetric spinnakers, the Melges 24s were in sportboat heaven. With upwind legs lasting about 10 minutes and downwind legs about 5 minutes, the race committee was able to give them four races. Peter McClennan’s Gamecock won two of them, and Dan Berezin’s Surprise bagged one to keep the series to 2 points. 

While Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan looked to have command of the Tartan 10s after the first light-air day, the big breeze was in the wheelhouse of Hanson Bratton’s team on Taz, which won two of three races to bring themselves to within a point of the lead going into the final day.

On the Detroit River, off the deck of Bayview YC, the regatta’s first-ever Youth Invitational Keelboat Championship fleet put on a thrilling exposition of stadium-style racing in the club’s Ultimate 20s. After 12 races, the team representing Detroit YC, led by skipper Graham Rebain, sits atop the standings, tied with the from Macatawa Bay YC, led by Lucas Nykamp.

The post Detroit Special Delivery appeared first on Sailing World.

Preliminary Results

At the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Detroit the J/120 fleet put on a show once again on the opening day of the regatta. It was just the sort of day where “anyone could have gone out there and won,” says Charlie Hess, skipper of Funtech, which leads the class in the overall standings, although tied with their Bayview YC J-dock neighbors on Mike and Bob Kirkman’s Hot Ticket. The four-race opener for the J/120 fleet was a light-air affair, putting a premium wind shift awareness and fleet management.

For Funtech, the first race revealed the cruel business of racing on Lake St. Clair.

“We got off to a nice lead through the first three legs,” Hess says, but a critical call ultimately cost them the race win. “We decided we really like the pressure on the right—and to not cover our competition that’s all going left.”

The consequence of the call was immediate.

“We lost Hot Ticket on that one decision and finished second,” Hess says, emphasizing the cutthroat nature of this Great Lakes racing group. “You don’t get to make an error and not pay for it in the J/120 fleet.”

Funtech’s second race followed a similar pattern, Hess says. “We were late on Leg 1 to get to the pressure on the right, and the boats that “bailed out to the right” reaped the benefits of better breeze. Still, Funtech finished second, a keeper for the first of this three-day regatta.

The turning point for the team came in the third and fourth races as the wind got lighter and the shifts more dramatic. In the fourth and final race of the day, especially Hess says, they had a good start, got ahead, and having learned from the earlier race, “we were a little bit more careful to cover.”

His tactician, Greg McCliment, “just did an awesome job calling some great laylines and for once, I listened to him.”

A similar scenario played out among the regatta’s J/35 teams, 10 of which are contesting their Great Lakes Championship. Starts and mark roundings were plenty busy, but with wind shifts coming into play, there were ample opportunities to make—or recover from—mistakes.

Back at their slip at Bayview after three races, Filthy McGyver skipper Jake Wonly and his crew were happy to be sitting atop the standings with a 1-2-3 scoreline for the day.

“Strikes and gutters,” says Wonly’s teammate Ian Pouliot, recounting the day’s wild ride. The first race was a difficult start to the regatta. What could have been a race-winning pin-end start went south and they found themselves ducking the entire fleet after the start. But with speed, determination and good boathandling, they clawed their way back.

“We were fourth, then second, then first,” Wonly’s teammate Denny Meagher says. Throughout the day, the left side of the racecourse was their salvation whenever they needed it. The fourth race was particularly chaotic. A collision while battling for the pin end once again had them doing penalty turns—no fast feat in the J/35—which promptly had them escaping right even though they wanted to go left. But again, their boatspeed got them out of trouble.

“We’re definitely winning an award for passing the most boats today,” Pouliot joked.

Meanwhile the six-boat J/111 fleet was on the hunt of Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal all day. Two race wins of four has them 1 point ahead of Brad Kimmel and Steve Young’s Diablo, which also won a pair of races.

Chris Benedict’s Santana 35, Shape, won two of three races, the last one by mere inches over their rivals on Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. The two boats with matching spinnakers were at each other’s transoms all day and are only 1 point apart in their battle for the class’s North American Championship title.

“We swapped leads with them a bunch of times in that race,” Benedict says, “when it’s that close, it’s like who can fool who and we decided let’s see if they chase us to the finish on the last jibe to the finish and they didn’t do it soon enough. It was back and forth all day, great racing.”

On the regatta’s second circle, with the Tartan 10s and S2s, the T-10 action was all Hooligan Racing, which won two of three races to put a 2-point buffer on Hanson Bratton’s team on Taz. Hooligan skipper Trey Sheehan put the wins on all the shoulders of his crew, and the goal was to simply focus on clean starts and clear air. Nothing more.

The six S2s enjoyed close racing, but Dan Cheresh’s team on Extreme 2 were always a step ahead off the start and put a 2-1-1 scoreline to lead the fleet, followed by John Spierling’s Rebel, 3 points behind.

Saturday’s racing brings 34 additional teams to Lake St. Clair with the distance races for ORC and PHRF divisions, as well as five youth teams, which will be vying for the inaugural Youth Keelboat Invitational trophy using Bayview’s fleet of Ultimate 20s. The Melges 24s continue their Great Lakes Championship tour and the post-racing social will then feature the remote-control racing of the DragonFlite 95s, the smallest boats of the regatta at only 37 inches.

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• FINAL RESULTS
• REGATTA PHOTO GALLERY

As the late afternoon southerly streaked out of the Detroit River and blue skies returned, the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta’s distance race finishers trickled past host Bayview Yacht Club to conclude three days of excellent racing and the return of the regatta series after a 14-year absence. By all accounts it was a perfect weekend of racing and socials hosted by Bayview Yacht Club.

The sailors of the local J/35 fleet put on quite a show with its growing fleet. Most of these now decades-old 35-footers have been returned to racing form, and the top three of this fleet were locked in boat-on-boat battles all weekend. At the start of the final race, Mike Welch’s team on Falcon was sitting on a 1-point lead, but an OCS had them clawing their way back through the fleet to win the race and the series by 2 points over their arch rivals on Bill Wildner’s Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride.

 “That was quite a comeback and there’s definitely luck involved,” Welch said. “When you’re over early, the wind literally goes out of your sails, but our crew kept it together and stayed positive. Our main trimer and tactician, Jim Allen, who is a very experienced sailor noticed better pressure left. He called that. There was pressure on the left side of the course and the class went right downwind. We got a little bit more pressure out on the left side of the course and then we got a nice 15- to 20-degree wind shift, which really helped.” 

With this weekend’s J/35 class win to add to Falcon’s trophy cache, the team was also selected as the regatta’s overall winner, earning a berth to represent Detroit at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Caribbean Championship, a battle of class champions in the British Virgin Islands on Sunsail-provided monohulls. The regatta is scheduled for late October where overall winning teams will race against the 2023 defender.

“I’m going to bring the A team,” Welch said. “We have nine people on our boat, a very talented crew, and a lot of us have been together for 20-plus years, so we’ve got a talented group. But we also have a very fast boat. So that helps, too. We’ll bring the team and it will be fun. We’re really going to be looking forward to it.”

A third day of light to moderate winds allowed nine one-design fleets to complete as many as eight races for the series while two ORC divisions and one PHRF fleet completed their second distance race.

Today’s distance challenge was a 20-miler won by James Cresswell’s 1D35 Katana. The crew of Tim LaRaviere’s Sydney 41 Eagle One tried their best to beat Katana, but Creswell’s squad was fast and Eagle One didn’t do themselves any favors.

“We worked hard,” said Eagle One’s Greg Hummel. “But today’s highlight was also a lowlight in that, at the second turning mark we missed a shift and didn’t do a good jibe. We coughed up a lot of spots right there, but we got around the second mark and got back in the groove. Hats off to the Katana—they’re an excellent team and they get more out of that boat than I think then we get out of ours.”

James and Paul Kraft’s Corby 33 Powertrip won the day’s race and the ORC B division with a second in Saturday’s distance race. Mike Wedwins Dehler 44SQ, Notso EZ Money won the day’s distance race in the PHRF division, but was sitting on a sixth from yesterday. In an unpredictable twist of fate, Cameron Paine’s team on the C&C MK2 Underdog, yesterday’s race winner, finished sixth today and as the last-race winner, Notso EZ got the best of the tie-breaker.

Tod Sackett’s team on USA 313 won the J/70 fleet and the inaugural J/70 Mixed-Plus National Championship. Perrin Fortune’s Airforce was the top Melges 15, and in the seven-boat J/111 fleet Jeffrey Davis’ team on Shamrock put up a convincing win ahead of this summer’s active class championship schedule with seven wins in eight races.

The big battle of the regatta, as expected, was in the nine-boat J/120 fleet where four teams were sitting on race wins, and after eight races, only 2 points ultimately separated the top-three. Mike and Bob Kirkman’s Hot Ticket got it done with a hard-earned second in the final race.

“We love sailing together,” said Trish Kirkman, whose husband Mike is the helmsman. “We had a fantastic day today. We kept our heads in the game and you just can’t count us out.”

Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.8 DeTour was the only undefeated team of the regatta, winning all six of its races in the ORC Division, and on Division C, Keith Ziegler’s Thor had won all of its races until the final, where a bad start put them on the back foot. The best they could do was fourth, but that was good enough. “It was a good day for us,” Ziegler said. “It was good close racing and we had a great weekend. We were fast and had the right rig tension.”

Bruce Ayeres’ Monsoon found themselves recovering from a bad start in the final race as well, but 4 points was enough to seal the class win given the seven races they’d won already. In the end, it was a 7-point difference between Monsoon and Dan Berezin’s Surprise, the class’s top Corinthian team.

Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan Flat Stanley Racing closed out the regatta with an 11-point win in the ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet. “It’s tough competition,” Sheehan said. “These T10 guys don’t give an inch. They mix it up and it is game-on every race. We had a ball, good weather and it worked out great for us.”

The Santana 35’s proved their competitiveness as well, and this five-boat victory came down to the final race for Andrew Morlan’s Avatar. A third in the final race was enough to seal the win over Chris Benedict’s team on Shape—only 2 points was the difference.

The post Regatta Series Detroit Overall Goes To Mike Welch’s J/35 Falcon appeared first on Sailing World.

• Saturday Results
• Saturday Photo Gallery

This is the summer of distance racing on Lake St. Clair and the sailors of Detroit have one big challenge ahead of them next month when more than 300 teams will sprint a couple hundred miles to Mackinac Island for the 100th edition. To prepare both boats and crew this year they’ve got the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit and two days of distance races, the first of which set off this morning under sunny skies and moderate but shifty winds.

Twenty-seven teams in total set off on a 22-mile race, led by the nine-boat ORC A group. Tim LaRiviere and his team on the Sydney 41 Eagle One were one of the early boats off the dock this morning, and with a good start that followed they were on their way to a race win to put their first keeper score on the board.

David Bauermeister’s small and sporty Donovan 27 was first across the finish line off host Bayview Yacht Club’s yardarm, followed by James and Paul Kraft’s Corby 33. Cameron Paine’s crew on the C&C 35 MK2 Underdog was the top PHRF finisher in the 10-boat fleet, and were quick to celebrating at their slip at Bayview. “The day was pretty awesome,” Paine said. “There was plenty of wind—12 to 15 knots—which is perfect for our boat. A happy crew is a happy boat and a happy boat is a fast boat.”

While the day felt and looked tropical, the easterly wind direction blowing across the Canadian shore kept the race committees busy all day as they hustled to deliver as many as four high-quality races for the regatta’s one-design fleets. PRO Matt Bounds was as whipped as they sailors by the end of the day.

“It was a tough day with the wind oscillating from anywhere from 160 to 200. Trying to get four fleets off with wildly different speeds was tricky. The call of the day was getting off starts between the fleets, which worked most of the time.”

On the busy Division B circle, the J/35 class is living up to its reputation as a challenging fleet with a lot of veteran sailors. Class stalwart, Bill Wildner’s Mr. Bill’s Wild Ride, put itself atop the fleet with a pair of seconds to take the lead from Sheri Dufresne’s Firefly. But Firefly got the last word for the day with a convincing win in the final race. There’s only 1 point between the top 3 and therein lies the battle.

In the J/111’s Jeff Davis’ Shamrock piled on three more race wins to its scoreline and now has a 13-point lead over their rivals from Cleveland on Black Seal. “Today was fantastic, being here in Detroit and being able to sail here in the southerly breeze was great,” Wally Cross, of Quantum Sails. “I think everyone in our fleet had a wonderful time, but the key today was about sailing the boat fast. Jeff has a great crew and the boat is fast.”

Over two days of racing thus far the J/120 has been producing some amazingly tight racing and today especially boats were overlapped at every corner of the racecourse. Nothing came easy for Greg Baker’s team on Kairos, which went 1-2-4 to lock in the lead by 2 points over Mike Fozo’s proof. But Mike and Bob Kirkman’s Hot Ticket is putting on the pressure, sitting third overall with a win in the day’s final race. “It was a pretty good day for Hot Ticket,” says the boat’s young tactician Michael Kirkman. His teammates praised his tactical calls. “It was just staying in phase and finding the pressure,” Kirkman said.

A four-boat ORC division joined the regatta on the second day as well and Chuck Stormes’ Italia 9.98 went undefeated in three races, as did Keith Ziegler’s Thor in the Cal25 class, which actually won all four of its races. “It was a good day for us because the shifts went our way” said Thor’s bowman Dana Cinquepalmi. “Going far right at the end of the first leg was key. There was shift over there that paid off big.”

Standing remain unchanged in the three other Division C fleets: Bruce Ayers’ Monsoon, Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan and Andrew Morlan’s Avatar lead their Melges 24, T10 and Santana 35 division’s respectively.

Close to the Michigan shoreline, the J/70s added four additional races and the battle continues between Tod Sackett’s 313 and Wes Whitmeyer’s Slingshot: the two are tied with 13 points apiece.

The post Magic Continues at Regatta Series in Detroit appeared first on Sailing World.

• Friday Results
• Friday Photo Gallery

The return of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit was a long time coming, and by all accounts from competitors gathered after racing at host Bayview Yacht Club, the first day of was an excellent and low-key start to a weekend of racing on Lake St. Clair. After a morning postponement ashore, the bulk of the regatta’s one-design fleets enjoyed racing in light and shifting winds that produced tight racing, especially among the regatta’s big three fleets; the J/120, J/111s and J/35s.

Sheri Dufrense’s team on the J/35 Firefly had what she described as a “fabulous” day. “It was a great day,” Dufrense said. “The highlight for us was the teamwork, working together, learning new things and going fast.”

With a second-place finish in the day’s first race and a win in the next race, Dufrense’s Firefly team leads the eight-boat fleet by only 2 points.

Jeffrey Davis’ team on the J/111 Shamrock also has a 2-point lead in its seven-boat fleet thanks to two race wins. This Cleveland-based team is a previous winner of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Chicago, and following a brief absence from the sport, Davis’ and his crew were quickly back on form, pushed in both races by their friends from Cleveland on Kevin and Seth Young’s Black Seal.

Charlie Hess’s Funtech Racing, considered a perennial top team amongst Detroit’s strong and growing J/120 fleet went 3-1 on the day to claim the lead after two races, but Greg Baker’s Kairos went 2-2 to keep the scoreline tied between them. Mike Fozo’s Proof, winner of the first race, stumbled with a sixth in the next, but is only 3 points out of first with plenty of racing to come over the next two days.

On Division C Race Circle, Bruce Ayres’ team on the Melges 24 Monsoon—another past Regatta Series overall winner—won all three races by wide margins. Ayres, from Newport Beach, California, is a longtime Melges 24 skipper, and clearly knows how to get the most speed out of the iconic sport boat, especially in today’s light and flat conditions. With each race, they were quick off the start, quick into the lead and untouchable from there.

The ever-competitive Tartan 10 fleet, which will host its North American Championship in Chicago in August, is using the Helly Hansen Detroit regatta as part of its Traveler Award Series in preparation for its big regatta. Trey Sheehan’s Hooligan: Flat Stanley Racing got off to an early jump in the series with a 1-1-2, but the same top-three boats were battling all day, giving a hint of more to come as the weekend goes on.

Andrew Morlan’s Santana 35 Avatar leads its 5-boat division; Tod Sackett’s J/70 team on 3­13 is tied atop the fleet with Wes Whitmeyer’s Slingshot. Three races were completed for the J/70s on the racecourse managed by Crescent Sailing Club. Jeanne Ehrenberg and Jeff Williams lead the Melges 15 fleet with two race wins.

With the addition of the Cal25s, the ORC fleet and two distance-racing divisions, the regatta goes to full capacity for the rest of the weekend, and with favorable racing winds in the forecast, expectations are that the regattas good start will continue. 

The post Detroit Delivers For Regatta Series Start appeared first on Sailing World.

There are two hot items off the Detroit news wire this year. Let’s start with the big one: the reversal of six decades of population decline. Resurget cineribus, indeed. Then came word that America’s biggest and longest running regatta series was returning to the Motor City. What was once the National Offshore One Design Regatta when last held in 2010 is now the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series Detroit.

Like Detroit’s population, sailboat racing on Lake St. Claire is also on the rise. Resurgent navigare, if you will. That’s according to Charlie Hess, an avid one-design sailor and treasurer of the all-seeing Detroit Regional Yacht Racing Association. Hess is one of ten J/120 owners who will be racing the Detroit edition of the Regatta Series over the last weekend in May.

“Participation in all of our events was dropping dramatically,” Hess says. He himself was once in the mix of the nearly 200 boats that would gather to race on any given Saturday during the short season. “It was huge in the 1980s and early 1990s, but it just started going down and down and down.”

Just before the COVID pandemic struck, he says, they were lucky to get 30 boats to show up, and even those were spread across six different types of classes.The Association has been tackling the decline through a number of initiatives, however, and Hess is now bullish on the region’s resurgence.

“Detroit is lucky to have 12 events that are run well and have good infrastructure,” he says. “We’ve got robotic marks, we’ve streamlined our courses and classes. A year ago, we bought in ORC as a standalone class and now we have three ORC classes; A B and C. That was what the sailors wanted and we’re seeing a real and positive trajectory for sailboat racing in Detroit. It’s all on the up.”

Mix of Classes For Regatta Series in Detroit

The Regatta Series’ reunion with its former hosts at the Bayview Yacht Club and its storied clubhouse on the Detroit River, is a long time coming. In the heydays of the nine-event NOOD Regatta Series, this Great Lakes stop was remarkable—and memorable—for its eclectic mix of larger keelboats and level-rated classes, its “warhorses,” emerging one-design sportboats and the classic plastics, the likes of the C&C 35s, Cal25s and Crescents, to name a few. The bigger boats of the era came with sizable crews and their thirst ashore was unquenchable. It was a good run until the club brought the regatta in-house in 2011 with the creation of its own weekend event, the Bayview One Design Regatta, locally referred to as the “BOD.”

The event management team of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series (SWRS) is going all in to bolster Detroit’s season-starting regatta, with Bayview hosting three nights of post-race parties and awards and working with other area yacht clubs for race committee resources on the water. Three race circles spread out across Lake St. Clair will accommodate nine one-design classes (J/111, J/120, J/70, J/35, Tartan 10, Santana 35, Melges 24, Melges 15, Cal 25) and one ORC fleet for buoy racing. Nearly 30 ORC and PHRF distance-race entries will sail long courses over the weekend, with many of these teams honing skills and sails for this summer’s monumental 100th running of the Bayview to Mackinac Race.

The J/111 fleet, with seven entries at press time, is considered the grand-prix set of the regatta, and longtime local racer and class champion Ed Kriese, says he’s looking forward to mixing it with top-level visiting teams from Cleveland, especially Jeff Davis’ Shamrock, the benchmark team of the class these days. “We will be tuning with them,” Kriese says. “Our challenge is to be as fast as them, and it’s going to be fun.”

In preparing for the task ahead, Kriese’s team on Wildcat has been tutored by professional sailor and coach, Wally Cross, who’s name comes up often round the lakefront. He has a reputation for turning upstart teams into winning programs. With Cross onboard Wildcat in 2023, Kriese says, they were the team to beat, but this time, Cross is onboard Shamrock so they have their work cut out for them. Still, Kriese is excited to see—and be part of—the Detroit sailing scene’s turnaround and expects a renewed enthusiasm for the regatta with Bayview’s partnership with the Regatta Series.

“Detroit sailing is definitely stronger today than it was a couple of years ago,” he says. “People are psyched that Helly is here as a sponsor and bringing the good schwag. The more focused teams like ours won’t be pounding the drinks like we used to, but we’ll cut loose on Sunday.”

Resurgent cupiditas. 

The post Detroit Racing On the Rise With Regatta Series appeared first on Sailing World.

Spring sailing in the Midwest is always fun, regardless of the weather —  it feels like opening day at the ballpark, with hopes of a wonderful summer. For many boats, this is their first time sailing together as a team, so any practice prior to the regatta usually pays off.  

Getting Ready

To prepare for a successful race, start by practicing boat handling drills to build confidence in maneuvers like tacking, gybing, and mark rounding. The night before the race, do thorough weather research using sites like SailFlow to understand the conditions you’ll face. Take into account the Detroit River’s east/west current at 0.5 knots, which can impact your travel time to the race circle during the regatta.

I aim to arrive at the course site at least an hour before start time. Use this time wisely: spend 20 minutes sailing upwind to adjust trim and tune for wind and waves, followed by 20 minutes sailing downwind to find the best angles. Dedicate 10 minutes to researching the starting line and pinging the ends to gauge distances. Finally, take a 10-minute break to relax, hydrate, and discuss your plan with your team. This comprehensive approach will help you enter the race feeling prepared and confident.

Need-To-Know Wind Patterns

On Lake St. Clair, understanding the wind patterns is crucial for a successful race. A light, northerly breeze typically starts with pressure on the left side and later shifts to the east as the day progresses. If a thermal wind kicks in, it will come from the east, but the day must be warmer than 70 degrees for this to occur. During a warm front, expect a southwest wind with early oscillations to the right, followed by a late shift to the left as you approach the top mark by the shore. An easterly wind usually offers the best pressure on the left side. 

The gradient wind, which is predominantly westerly, can shift based on the front approaching. A warm front approaching will shift the wind to the left or south, while a cold front behind will shift it to the right or north. A settled cold front creates ideal racing conditions with an oscillating northwesterly wind. Lastly, a light air day usually ends up with an east wind direction. Understanding these wind patterns can give sailors a strategic advantage on the water.

Wind shear is common in the spring. The cold water prevents warmer air from reaching the surface, causing the wind aloft to be in a different direction than on the water. The direction of the shear often indicates the new wind direction. Understanding these nuances can greatly benefit your podium position. 

If you have any additional questions heading into the regatta, feel free to reach out to Wally Cross at wcross@quantumsails.com. Stop by the Quantum Sails Detroit loft with any other needs!

The post Local Knowledge For Detroit appeared first on Sailing World.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series returns to Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club after a 12-year hiatus, partnering again with the premier Great Lakes sailing club and its annual marque multi-class regatta from May 30 to Sunday June 2, 2024.

“For three decades, Midwest sailors have held this weekend on their calendars for competitive racing on Lake St. Clair,” says Bayview YC Commodore, Mike Helm. “This year, we have a great opportunity to grow our existing successful regatta and build partnerships with Helly Hansen, Sailing World, DRYA clubs and regional enthusiasts to build on this tradition.”

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series was originally created in 1988 as the National Offshore One-Design Regatta Series. It was an immediate success with its three-day concept for larger one-design keelboats, its unrivaled post-racing social experiences and its professional race management. The series grew nationally and remains the largest and only racing series of its kind in the United States.

“The Detroit stop of the regatta series was always a favorite of our event team,” says Dave Reed, Sailing World’s editor-in-chief. “It was so uniquely Detroit in that the sailing season being short, the enthusiasm for the racing, the variety of boats and the parties were second to none on the circuit.”

Today, the Regatta Series now features many different boat types: dinghies, multihulls, and keelboats that race one-design and under established handicap rating systems. Daily distance racing courses have also been added to embrace this growing segment of the sport, particularly in the Great Lakes.

“The freshwater sailors of Detroit represent longevity, commitment and high-level competition in sailing,” says Sarah Renz, Sailing World’s Director of Sponsorship and Events. “We’re pleased to return to Bayview and partnering with neighboring clubs to provide excellent race management.”

With sailors and teams expected from the other popular nearby clubs of Crescent Sail, Grosse Pointe, Port Huron, Detroit, Edgewater, Toledo, Cleveland and Chicago, the Sailing World and Bayview YC teams will be staging three days of buoy and distance races, which will kick off an historic racing season in the Midwest, which features the 100th running of the Bayview to Mackinac Race, a record fleet that already surpasses 300 entries. After-race socials with the Helly Hansen crew and store, Renz says, will be on par with the Regatta Series’ unrivaled onshore experience of food and drinks, music and games, race footage and Helly Hansen merchandise.

“After-race socials with the Helly Hansen crew and store will be on par with the Regatta Series’ unrivaled onshore experience of food and drinks, music and games, race footage and Helly Hansen merchandise.”

—Sarah Renz, Director of Sponsorship and Events

The Detroit edition of the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series weekend will feature several divisions racing on multiple racecourses set across Lake St. Clair. Racing is open to nearly two-dozen one-design fleets including the classic and popular Cal 25s and Crescents, J/24s and Lightnings. The more modern Melges 15s, foiling Waszps and J/70s are expected to draw large fleets. Short distance races will be staged on Saturday and Sunday for the handicap-racing teams, many of whom consider the regatta essential practice for the coming Mackinac race. The J/35 and Cal25 classes, both of which will showcase strong turnouts, will showcase the longevity of these iconic classes that were once the big fleets of the Detroit NOOD.

The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series is held in St. Petersburg, Florida, Annapolis, Maryland, Detroit, Chicago, and Marblehead, Massachusetts, and culminates with its Caribbean Championship in the British Virgin Islands where one selected team from each of the regattas competes against the defending champion and others for the overall title, raced in provided bareboats provided by Sunsail.

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