Chester Race Week Preview
by J/Boats 8 Aug 2022 02:00 BST
August 10-13, 2022
Farr 30 fleet-racing action at the 2017 Chester Race Week © 2017 Tim Wilkes /
www.timwilkes.com
For the first time since the pandemic hit, the Chester Yacht Club is back in action again with its famous Chester Race Week, sailing from August 10th to 13th. It is a gorgeous body of water to sail amongst the bay and the archipelago of islands...hopefully, you can see them as fog can often "throw a curveball" at the fleet... a region notorious for heavy, thick fogs off the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. Looking forward to the start of the regatta with great enthusiasm is a small J/Navy.
In the nine-boat PHRF 1 class are two J/133s (Ray Rhinelander's BELLA J & Matt Stokes' BLUE JAY III), Keith Amirault's J/130 DRAGONFLY, Richard Calder's J/120 BRILLIANCE, and Chris Campbell's J/44 SPICE.
A quartet of J/100s is racing in PHRF 2 class, those teams are Paul Rafuse's CROWS, John Rankin's WINK, Larry Creaser's YOUNGBLOOD, and Terry McKenna's DOG PARTY. Joining them are a pair of J/35s (John Traves' CRACKERJACK & Todd Wilson's FALCON).
A quintet of J/29s is racing PHRF 3 class, they are notoriously good sailors and have swept the podium in the past. Will they be capable of repeating that performance this year? Time will tell. The 29 teams are Terry Schnare's HEAD GAMES, Chris Power's JAEGER, Paul Fillbee-Dexter's PAINKILLER, Chris McDonald's SCOTCH MIST IV, and Don Williams' PARADIGM SHIFT. Joining them are Collin Mann's J/92 POOHSTICKS, Bernd Hackstein's J/27 BUZZ, and Mitch Horn & Randy Stevens' J/70 GREAT WHITE.
The lone J/24 BARE LEG, skippered by Sarah Flanagan, will be taking on the ten-boat PHRF 4 class loaded with a bunch of old C&C 27s.
A pair of J/30s will be taking on all comers in the PHRF Inshore 1 class of eight boats. Those teams are Jordan MacNeil's FLUX and Jesleine Baker's JUST ADD WATER.
Finally, a five-boat J/105 one-design class will always look forward to spirited racing amongst friends and family off Halifax. Those teams include Carl Davis' JAHMON, Sean McDermott & Rory MacDonald's McMAC, Jim Mosher's MOJO, John Sapp's VTACK, and Capt. Bradison Boutilier's SHIPYARD J105.
More Chester Race Week sailing information here...