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Aunt Jean Wins 2000 North Americans!

Well we just got back from the J35 North American Championships hosted by New York Yacht Club and Rolex...What a blast!! The first day started off with fifteen to eighteen knots of breeze and the beat favoring the right side each time. How'd we know? We didn't. I got a second row start on the first race had to clear right, by the time we cleared JB (our illustrious tactition ... click here to see his thought process ) said "believe it or not we're looking pretty good on the guys to the right. So we went all the way to the corner and led the rest of the race. After that we basically did the same thing the next two races and ended the day with three firsts. Needless to say we felt pretty good.

The next day was shiftier and lighter (10 to 13kts). On the first race we missed a couple shifts and went around the top mark in third. Downwind we were being covered pretty bad by White Heat and decided to jibe away...into less pressure. All we could do was try to protect the inside on the second line of boats at the leward mark. There were five bots clearly ahead of us (read no room) and we were inside the second line of four boats. So all we had to do was take the transom of the first line of boats jibe on to port and follow in putting us at sixth....Well... Split Decision was on port, we were on starboard asking for room to clear the stern of the first line of boats should have been a no brainer except Split kept coming (it looked like he wasn't getting room from whomever was outside him) We were F*****d. We spun the boat hard left to avoid Split and the inside boat (Smuggler) of the first line of boats. Well this also put us inside on the first line of boats which of course is a foul, so we protested Split as Smuggler protested us. We went on to finish third in the race but decided to take a six point penalty in order to avoid the protest room. The next two races were very close and we missed a couple shifts which was all it took to go from first to fouth and second respectively.

The final day started with us having to cover Mohawk Warrior and not let more than one boat get between us. We got off to a good start and were leading her after the first lap. Then on the second upwind leg Mohawk went hard left, we covered and when we came back not only had Mohawk gotten ahead of us..my fault.. but most of the fleet was now leading both of us. At the final windward mark Split Decision was in first winning the regatta with Mohawk in second and us in third overall. We pulled every trick we could think of to get old Aunt Jean going on the final downwind leg and passed seven boats. At the leward mark, with the final quarter mile to go upwind we had to pck off one more boat between us and Mohawk to win the regatta. Our crew work paid off our kite came down smoothly during our jibe around the mark alowing us to drive right through the boat ahead of us which allowed us to win the regatta with a fourth in the race.