Dana Point Series #5 Re-loaded

Windy and wavy day in DP!

By Bruce Cooper / Ullman Sails

The Dana Point Series has had 2 of the 5 races so far re-scheduled due to lack of wind and too much wind. Race #5 was rescheduled from March 17^th to April 14^th and was facing some top wind and wave conditions as another storm blew through SoCal at the end of the week.

Graham Forsyth, David Bolton and Cindy Wynne monitored the forecast and actual conditions carefully to determine the fate of the rescheduled race #5. Racers arrived to the Dana Point Yacht Club watching the wind driven waves pound the outer breakwater and the 25 plus knots of wind rip white caps across the water to the horizon. The breeze was on! Was the race on? Bahia Corinthian YC in Newport had cancelled their Angelman Series race earlier in the morning. In year’s past, mast have broken, sails have blown apart, what would the race committee decide to do?

With confidence after hearing the wind and wave report from the J105 Legacy, who had just came down from Newport that morning and placed an inflatable buoy at the location of the missing “L” mark, the DPYC race committee decided the 20-22 knots of wind with higher puffs and 5-7 foot waves did not scare them and the race was on!

The 17 racers were all out before the 11:55 warning deciding whether a reef in the main was the best trim while checking various sail combinations to give the best performance and balance in the big wind and waves. Every one looked a little scattered and wild as all the boats figured out their best trim in the high winds.

Viggo Torbenson’s J125 Timeshaver loaded the boat with thirteen crew members to counter balance the healing of the wind and led the Class “A” boats from the start and stretched an incredible lead on the slightly slower boats in her class. The bigger Sydney 41 Twister stayed in front of the J105 Legacy and IMX 38 Showdown to cross the line ahead, but could not save the handicap time owed to the smaller boats.

In Class “B” the Olson 30 Grey Goose and the Santana 3030 Schockwave battled tight upwind to the new “L” mark, but the speedy downwind flyer Grey Goose opened up with the spinnaker pulling and led the rest of the race to take the bullet in first place.

The class “C” boats were a little off the pace of the bigger boats when sailing upwind against the big waves and wind, but had a great race with their class. Doug Hosford sailed his J24 Super Strings to a first place ahead of Mark Downey’s Capo 26 Orski and Carol Maxwell and Glen Everroad’s orange Lindberg 26 Beaver.

The non spinnaker boats and the Catalina 30’s kept their racing closer to the harbor and did not go up to “L” mark and stayed in the consistent strong Westerly wind under the Dana Point all day. Leading the way in the Catalina 30 class was Rick Caselli on Bon Vivant. He and his family have been racing this same boat for almost two decades, way to go!

The non spinnaker fleet (who needed spinnakers on a day when it was blowing 20+!?!) was led by the Catalina 320 Trofina 2 owned by Anna & Ueli Scharer. In second place was the biggest boat of the fleet. Dave Stege and crew sailed the mighty Tarten 3700 Vinciamo with the rail down and spray flying to stay ahead of the third place finisher Dave Griffin sailing his Newport 28 Fair Havens. Dave wisely switched to his smaller Dacron Roller Furling genoa before leaving the dock, he said this definitely was a game changer for Fair Havens. Way to go Dave!

Thanks to the Dana Point Yacht Club for holding the race and letting the sailors relish in the big winds and seas. The competitors all sailed their boats to the speed and comfort level they felt best for the conditions and safety of their crew. No blown sails, no broken mast, lots of seasick chowder over the side with the only true causality being one sunk / lost inflatable buoy with anchor, rode and one extra cast iron Christmas tree stand for extra ballast. It was a great day with stories for years to come of the Dana Point Series Race #5 re-loaded.
-J105 w/ spinnaker Video
-RESULTS-

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More from the J-105 Southern California Championships

There were 17 boats at this year's J105 SoCal Champs, with a boat from as far as Mexico. It was a great weekend for the fleet. We had 3 totally new boats there. Fleet 8 hasnt had that many new boats at a regatta since 2006. There is so much experience in this fleet and the teams are really fun. The conditions were pretty typical for Long Beach - windy and relatively flat water. The wind was light to start with, but by the end of the day it had built to 16-18 knots both days. Team Off The Porch had a great time on and off the water. This was the first time the 6 of us had raced together, but we managed to stay in sync with each other most of the time. Our first start left a lot to be desired, but even after being the last boat off the line we were still able to catch up and have one of our best finishes. Everyone on the boat was really good about not letting our bad start cloud what needed to be done to make the boat go fast. This is critical to doing well. Its all about who makes the least amount of mistakes, so its important to be able to move on. The rest of our starts were spot on and we were able to focus more on tactics, rather than playing catch up. I think our upwind boat handling was on par with most of the boats around us, but our downwind speed and tactics were what allowed us to pass boats. We just stayed out of the gybing wars and stayed in clear air. The last race on Saturday was one of our better ones. We were able to change gears and keep the boat going fast without being too overpowered. I think we all learned a lot this weekend, and I know the boat is on its way to moving up in the rankings.

Thanks to Long Beach Yacht Club and the Race Committee for putting on a great regatta. Congratulation to our new J105 SoCal Champs, Current Obsession II, they sailed a great regatta. I think everyone was very pleased with how the regatta went, and that the wind was much higher than the forecasts! The J105 is truly a fun fleet to be apart of, and I look forward to the next event.

Thanks to Rachel Ellis for the report

*Off the Porch uses Ullman J-105 sails

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J-105 2009 SoCal Champs

post#69

Long Beach, CA
Southern California's J-105 fleet 8 has had a terrific season of racing this year with Ullman Sails customers taking the top trophies at all the races all year! LBYC hosted the J-105 SoCal Championships with boats coming from Santa Barbara to San Diego to compete in the hopefully big breeze of Long Beach.

-click here for more report-

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2009 Lipton Cup is sweet for SDYC and U/S

post #54
San Diego, CA

San Diego Yacht Club won the 2009 Lipton Cup, led by Commodore/Skipper Andy LaDow, defeated some of SoCal's toughest Yacht Club teams! Defending Lipton Cup champion Southwestern Yacht Club finished fourth while Balboa Yacht Club with Chris Nesbitt at the helm took second place and Cortez Racing Association with Rick Goebel (owner and skipper of Sanity) took third place. -results-

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Racing J-105's Texas Style

post #44
Galveston Bay, Texas

One plane ticket, two days of racing, three boats to race on, four meals at Bee and Kevin's favorite restraunt and five J-105's makes for a great weekend! Racing in the Galveston Bay Cruising Associations race this Valentine Day weekend was a treat for me. I raced with Bee Bednar on his J-105 "Stinger", Bob Crutchfield's J-105 "Elixir" and Bill Lakenmacher's J-105 "Radiance".

Bee Bednar's J-105 "STINGER"

If you ever get an opportunity to come race in the Galveston Bay area and meet the local sailors, you will have friends for life and some great racing. The weather was a little stormy, but the wind was solid and the sun did pop out on Sunday for the last race!

GBCA runs the most races in the area; you could be racing almost every weekend! Bee and Kevin Bednar do race their J-105 in all the races and have many trophies to show for it! The experience in the fleet ranges from new racers to seasoned veterans who have campaigned locally and nationally.

Overall, the racing is serious and fun and the post race festivities are fun with some serious rum. Definitely a great place to sail and race!

-click here- for the race photos!

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J/Fest is Coming! Join the winners who sail with Ullman Sails

Post#16

Ullman Sails Newport Beach is proud to be a sponsor of the upcoming J/Fest at Long Beach Yacht Club on September 26-28, 2008.

Ullman Sails customers have been dominating the local J/Boat racing this year with the fastest sails on the planet!

J/105 SoCal Winners in 2008:
SoCal Midwinters "Current Obsession" Gary Mozer
SD NOOD "Invisible" Jeff Janov
Yachting Cup "Pholly" Bill Logan
Cal Race Week "Current Obsession" Gary Mozer
Ullman Sails LB Race Week "Free Enterprise" Alex Rasmussen
Santa Barbara J/105 Regatta "Invisible" Jeff Janov

J/120 SoCal Winners in 2008:
Yachting Cup "Caper" John Laun
Ullman Sails LB Race Week "Caper" John Laun

J/80 SoCal Winners in 2008:
Ullman Sails LB Race Week "Tiamo" Glenn Darden
North Americans "Tiamo" Bruno Pasquinelli

You still have time to get new sails, tune-up's and repair, contact Ullman Sails today!

Join the winners who sail with Ullman Sails!!

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J/105 San Francisco Bay Sail Testing

Post #6Masquerade USA-111 showing upwind speed with Ullman Sails SF Main and Hvy Jib

July 14 & 15, 2008: San Francisco, CA

Ullman Sails Newport Beach arrived at St. Francis Yacht Club for a two day sail testing session that was held in perfect conditions! Tom Coates' J/105 Masquerade USA-111 and John Horsch's J/105 Rhymenocerous USA-581 were rigged and ready Friday afternoon. Many thanks to both Tom and John for having their boats available and in perfect condition for our testing.

Chris Perkins (from Good Timin and Masquerade) helped with our StFYC coordination, thank you Chris!

Our testing used sails from Ullman Sails, North and Quantum. The goal was to check the new Ullman Sails SF Main (v4) and the SF Hvy Jib (v3) against the current competitive sails in San Francisco. The results were great and very promising for Ullman Sails customers gearing up for the 2008 J/105 NA's at StFYC in late August, 2008.
Day 1 Crew: John Horsch, Chris Perkins, Rob Cooper, Brent Vaughan, Henry Brown, Bruce Cooper, Ben Lakin, Josh from J/World

Establishing a base line to test the new Ullman Sails proved successful with Masquerade and Rhymenocerous testing North against Quantum on Friday.

Day 2 crew: John Horsch, Mike Kennedy, Rob Cooper, Henry Brown, Howard Bentley, Joe Andresen, Kaersten Hill, Courtney Smith, Bruce Cooper, Josh Butler, Kevin Sullivan, Ben Lakin, Steve from Mike's work.

Saturday testing provided excellent results for the new Ullman Sails Hvy Jib, the new jib never lost a testing session.

USA-581 won every heat with the new Ullman sail and USA-111 won every heat using the new Ullman Sails Hvy Jib, beating the North Jib that dominated Friday against the Quantum Jib!

To reset for our upwind main and jib testing, we sailed downwind with the Ullman Sails AP spinnaker and the Ullman Sails RUN spinnaker. In the couple of downwind sessions, we found the Ullman Sails RUN spinnaker was easier to rotate and expose maximum area when we were deep running without any speed change. Both crews were amazed that there was another Ullman Sails spinnaker that would out sail the hugely successful Ullman Sails AP spinnaker! The RUN spinnaker has been taking it's fair share of trophies this year in SoCal Fleet Eight racing!

We will be expecting great results at the 2008 NA's this summer!

Masquerade USA-111 flying a Ullman Sails RUN Spinnaker during SF Sail Testing
Breeze USA-120 flying a Ullman Sails RUN spinnaker during the 2007 BBS

For a look at the J/105 SF Sail Testing results: please click here:
http://www.ullmansailswestcoast.com/J-105SFSailTestingResults2008.xls

Thank you again for the SF boats and all the sailors who helped make this a very successful sail testing weekend from the J/105 Team from Ullman Sails Newport Beach!

Please contact Ullman Sails if you have any questions about sail testing or your J/105 sail needs.

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J/105 "Free Enterprise" Wins U/S LBRW!

Post #4Congratulations to Alex Rasmussen and crew for taking First Place in the highly competitive class at Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week! Alex sailed with all Ullman Sails and a brand new AP Fiberpath Jib. Free Enterprise showed great speed and pointing!

(picture shows Ullman Spinnaker on Zuni Bear leading the fleet at KWRW)

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