J/35 North Star Sailing Club fleet announcement

by J/Boats 21 Sep 2020 17:38 BST

The renaissance of J/35 racing continues to expand! All sailors like to race stick against stick and that is exactly what we are doing this coming September 27, October 4th, 11th and the final race day on Sat. Oct 24th. This is North Star Sail Club's premier regatta of the year.

According to J/35 Class leader- Dean Fitzpatrick- of Detroit, MI, "there is, as you know, a lot of pent-up racing enthusiasm this year. The finger is about to be pulled out of the dike and the J/35s are going to be cut loose. This is going to be the most exciting J/35 regatta because we will have ten J/35s registered to race. The J/35s are leading the way for one design racing in this region of the country, along with the J/120s I might add. There are other makes of boats that are now following the J/35 lead and putting in the effort to have their own one-design start.

You know how tough it is to corral crew to be there every week to race. The J/35s at North Star have the pleasure of extra people wanting to be part of the action. That's right, extra! The people at North Star have the leadership to put over 40 new people on sailboats in the past two years. The J/35s are able to take advantage of so many new sailors wanting to race and sailors who want to return to their roots after being away for a while. It is all very exciting for the entire sport.

With strong leadership you can attract people who want to participate. Here are some examples below for you:

• Jim Watts purchased Griffin earlier this year. Jim sold his other boat and joined the J/35 fleet. Being an excellent experienced sailor, Jim has trained lots of newbies on his boat. Jim is nipping really close to the 6-time National Champion Bill Wildner's, Mr Bill's Wild Ride on weekday racing at NSSC.
• Tim and Amie Ross with their newly fixed mast have been racing three times a week on Black Hawk.
• Bill Vogan, is still riding high after winning the Port Huron to Mackinac. Bill and his team on Major Detail like to battle with four-time National Champion Ed Bayer on Falcon.
• Cheryl Miller has the youngest crew on her boat Dean's List. She will be watching the University of Michigan professor Robert Gordenker very close on Time Machine. Robert sails in both Michigan and over in Europe, a very skilled and competitive sailor; which is why he's always in the hunt.
• Dennis Meagher owner of Snipe has his experienced crew on the fast track. Dennis used to own a different sailboat last year, but now he sings the praises of his J/35.

On the last day of racing, when the awards are being announced, we will raise our glasses and make a toast to Rod and Bob Johnstone, creators of the amazing J/35! We will take some pictures and post them for all to see. The J/35 is really a special racing sailboat. It was the first sailboat inducted into the US Sailboat Hall of Fame." Thanks for this contribution from Dean Fitzpatrick, J/35 class principal "cheerleader"!