Emoticon crowned J/109 North American Champions
by J/Boats 21 Oct 2022 22:47 BST
October 12-15, 2022
2022 J109 North American Championship © Kennet Murphy
With an outstanding fleet of sixteen boats from across the northeast and midwest, the 2022 J/109 North American Championship benefitted from unusually nice fall sailing conditions on Long Island Sound. Hosted by the beautiful, quaint Pequot Yacht Club in Southport, CT, the PYC RC/PRO team managed to run a nearly full slate of 10 races from October 12th to 15th, much to the delight of the competitors.
Starting with a brilliant run of 6-1-1-1 in the first four races, Jonathan Rechtshaffer's EMOTICON team jumped out to a big early lead against a very talented fleet of sailors. Stumbling a bit in the next four races with a 6-7-2-11, the EMOTICON'ers were looking quite vulnerable against the famously fast and smart LOKI team led by David Rosow that had scored mostly top-three finishes. Then, in the final two races, the winds of fortune switched yet again. Rechtschaffer's EMOTICON team (Matt Breef, Jackson Chabot, Lindsay Doyle, Patrick James, Jim Knight, Michelle Newman, Will Welles) closed with a 3-1 to take the title with 39 pts, crowned as the 2022 J/109 North American Champions. Nearly making it to the top was Rosow's LOKI team (Peter Berridge, John Fallon, Larry Huibers, Kerry Klingler, Adam Klyver, Morgan Simmonds), but their 2-10 final tally in the no-throwout series proved to be their brutal undoing, settling for the silver medal just 5 pts behind.
Rounding out the podium in a bruising three-way battle was Steve Kenny's GOSSIP team (Greg Ames, Luke Babcock, Chris Buncke, Tom Castiglione, Frederic Friedman, Tor Johnson, Joe Waldron) with 57 pts. There's was not an "easy road to hoe", so to speak. The three teams battling for the final step on the podium included David & Maryellen Tortorello's PARTNERSHIP 3, and Bengt & Marie Johansson's ZIG ZAG. How close was it? Enough to create extreme anxiety among the three crews!
In the final race, the final leg determined who got the bronze medal! Just three points separated the trio in the final standings. Opening with a 16-8-7, the PARTNERSHIP 3 team sailed a strong series to close with a 5-2 to snag a fourth place. Similarly, the ZIG ZAG'ers had a less than illustrious opening series of 8-6-6-6-7-8-12, they then closed the series with a mind-numbing, eye-watering fast 2-1-3 to scream up the leaderboard into a respectable fifth place in the end... incredibly just two points from the podium!
Corinthians Division
Winning the Corinthians was Johansson's ZIG ZAG, followed by John Greifzu's GROWTH SPURT in second, and Ted Herlihy's GUT FEELING in third place.
Click here for more J/109 North American Championship sailing information.