Picture: Wilbur Keyworth, Spinsheet Journal
The 2024 Annapolis J/105 Ladies’s Regatta as soon as once more attracted high racing expertise to the biggest cruising one-design girls’s regatta within the nation, and shut competitors was the watchword throughout the occasion over the Labor Day weekend. Along with a tie for second and third place, a number of positions have been separated by a single level.
Eliot Caple led Patriot to victory with two second-place finishes adopted by a bullet. Marie Klok Crump and Ashley Love, winners of the 2022 and 2023 regattas, finished with 10 factors every, with Crump on 4-teenz successful the tiebreaker and inserting second. Molly Wilmer’s Mirage staff was two factors behind the tie, benefiting from a bullet within the first race. Beth Scheidt on Smoke n’Oakum was fifth and the speak of the race committee for her tight begins.
PRO Sandy Grosvenor famous the shut racing: “On two of the three races, we had at the very least two boats that weren’t OCS however have been inside 1 meter of the road. And within the third race, all however one or two of the fleet ‘gated’ inside a minute of the chief.”
Picture: Wilbur Keyworth, Spinsheet Journal
The one-day one-design regatta was hosted by J/105 Fleet 3, with the Crusing Membership of the Chesapeake (SCC) because the Organizing Authority. First held in 2022, this was the biggest version to this point and the biggest regatta of its form, with 131 feminine sailors on 19 boats.
Caple, a former member of the US Crusing staff, skippered at Faculty of Charleston and has been racing on Patriot for 3 seasons. Serving as tactician on Patriot was Maddy Ploch, who sailed in that function on final yr’s second-place finisher and competed on the offshore staff on the US Naval Academy. In line with Caple, their consistency got here down to 2 components: “We sail very, very flat upwind. After which downwind I sail very low, max on the windward aspect. And I might drive decrease than anybody.”
Crump was beforehand ranked quantity two within the ISAF Ladies’s World Match Race circuit, was topped twice as Danish Match Race Champion, pursued an Olympic marketing campaign in Ynglings in 2004, and was a part of the successful J/80 Championship staff in 2021 after additionally having received it in 2013. Love represented the USA on the Ladies’s Radial World Championship in 2009 and has lately been making a reputation for herself on the staff racing circuit, main a staff to a number of podium finishes within the invitational Thayer Trophy and the New York YC Ladies’s Invitational.
Picture Dan Phelps
The highest three finishers all included juniors on their groups, with Crump crusing with 4 juniors and 4 mentors. “I’ve all the time revered this occasion for the tight racing, and this was an incredible alternative to incorporate youngsters, who in any other case don’t get on massive boats, for an awesome studying expertise.” On the awards, Love challenged all boats to deliver a junior for the 2025 regatta.
Picture by Dan Phelps
Along with the juniors, the regatta included a crew of ladies throughout 50 on Sandra Libby’s Go Nil, at the very least one sailor over 70 on Amy Harris’ Break Away, a number of navy veterans, a staff of midshipman from the US Naval Academy on Avenger, and
illustration from throughout North America, together with Sarah Schaill Colarusso’s staff from Charleston on London Calling, and crew from Toronto, ON, on Heather McCann’s Santa’s Reign, Pricey, and Victoria, BC on Alexandra Clary’s Rum Pet.
Picture: Wilbur Keyworth, SpinSheet Journal
Katy Zimmerman’s staff on Firebrand received the inaugural Maggie Flanigan Perpetual Trophy for the “Finest Dressed Crew.” The trophy was devoted to remembering the spirit of J/105 racer Maggie Flanigan, who died on August 17. The perpetual trophy impressed quite a lot of “fits” throughout the racecourse, and “costume adjustments” for the awards celebration. Daryl Weinstein Cooke from Chessie mentioned, “I by no means thought I’d hear, ‘Be sure your tutu doesn’t get caught within the block’ whereas racing.”
Picture: Wilbur Keyworth, SpinSheet Journal
Flanigan was a member of 2023 winner of the Finest Dressed Crew, a trophy that didn’t exist till they arrived on the racecourse, to the delight of the race committee, of their vivid pink and white apparel. Noting Flanigan as a self-proclaimed “Seamstress, Fiber Artist, Costumer, Sailor,” the trophy remembers the enjoyment, mild, and humor which she dropped at her severe pursuits. As Caple mentioned, “It was a fitting tribute to Maggie, and I can’t wait to do it once more subsequent yr.”
Scott Nixon of Quantum kicked off the weekend with a observe session Friday night attended by greater than 10 groups. A number of groups raced within the Annapolis Labor Day regatta on Saturday as observe. The skipper’s assembly Saturday night was hosted by Sandra Ok. Libby.
Picture: Wilbur Keyworth, SpinSheet Journal
Love famous, “The multitude of profitable occasions make the expertise of the J/105 Ladies’s Regatta far more than simply the in the future of racing on the water. The occasion, the observe, and the on-land occasions have elevated my interplay with the J/105 class ten-fold. The expertise pool is rising with the brand new influx of crew, and the sailors who have been already within the class are embracing and mastering extra roles on the water, but additionally behind the scenes. Planning the occasion collectively on land builds our friendships, and the proof of this performs out on the water. Since getting concerned on this occasion as a competitor and now as a part of the organizing committee, I’m a lot nearer with the category, invested in its continued success and cheering for its future.”
J/105 Fleet 3 is the biggest fleet within the J/105 class, and the biggest cruising one-design fleet in Annapolis. This girls’s regatta is a part of an total J/105 class initiative to get extra girls concerned. A number of J/105 girls’s occasions have been held in 2024, together with in Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle, Galveston Bay, and Charleston.
The Crusing Membership of the Chesapeake (SCC) altered the J/105 guidelines for this regatta to encourage all girls groups. The SCC makes a speciality of internet hosting “signature” regattas that every have their very own character, just like the EWE Spirit Regatta, the J/105 Ladies’s Regatta, and the Hospice Cup, to be held on September 14.
Picture by Dan Phelps
Picture by Dan Phelps
September 2024
Trending Merchandise
