Quantum J/70 Midwinter Championship at Saint Petersburg, Florida - Overall
by Christopher Howell 27 Feb 2017 02:49 GMT
24-26 February 2017
Quantum J/70 Midwinter Championship day 3 © Christopher Howell
Tim Healy's New England Ropes tied up a 2,1 in the final two contests to secure the Quantum J/70 Midwinter Championship at Saint Petersburg Yacht Club in Florida.
Able to drop a 16 from race one, the team of Healy, Nathan Housberg (bow), Alden Reid (trim) and Marcus Eagan (tactics) kept scores of 4,4,7,2,1 for 18 net points and the victory. Will Welles' Scamp finished a mere point behind Healy in second place, and John Brim's Rimette took third with 28 points. "This is the first time we've sailed together so we were learning the whole time just how to work together and how to get our trim and tune right," summarized Healy. "Slowly, we started to get everything down. We had some light breeze, but today was a little breezier with some chop. We were getting used to the settings so we could power through the chop."
Three more races took place Sunday in breeze between 10-15 knots under clear skies with temperatures again in the 70s. The day's race winners were the Darden/Hillard team on Hoss, Ignacio Perez's Zaguero and Healy. After light and shifty conditions earlier in the event, "Today was beautiful," Healy said. "We got up early, got out early and took advantage of the breeze. The Race Committee did a great job."
This Championship was held with Class Rule C.3 modified so that the entire crew is limited to no more than one member who is classified as ISAF Group 3. The 52-boat fleet was comprised of 20 all-Corinthian teams, won by Andrew & Melissa Fisher, followed by Charles Bayer, Bryan Cameron, David Mendelblatt and Blaire McCarthy. "I prefer the Open and Corinthian because it's a little bit more pure that way, being one or the other," explained Healy. "Leave the Open open and have some really nice Corinthian regattas throughout the country and hopefully internationally."
Overall Results: (top five)
1. New England Ropes, USA2, Tim Healy - [16] -4 -4 -7 -2 -1; 18pts
2. Scamp, USA248, Will Welles - 2 -[14] -7 -2 -4 -4; 19pts
3. Rimette, USA340, John Brim - 1 -1 -9 -10 -7 -[14]; 28pts
4. Reach Around, USA151, Thomas Bowen - [17] -10 -5 -11 -3 -7; 36pts
5. Zaguero, MEX164, Ignacio Perez - [25] -19 -1 -9 -1 -8; 38pts
Photos are available on the J/70 Class Facebook page and complete results may be found here.