Lakewood Yacht Club’s annual J-Fest Southwest Regatta began on Saturday, November 2 under Northerly winds in the 20-25 knot range producing the usual big chop. Sunday’s 16-20 made for somewhat better conditions for the 59 J-Boats registered.
The largest class was the J/24s with 13 - Bryan Dyer’s RumLine came out on top with 13 points, followed by Stuart Lindow’s Tropical Aggression with 17 points and Bill Worsham’s Happy Dance with 19 points.
The J/70s were the second largest class with 12 - the Pasquinelli/Wilson team on Stampede came out on top with 10 points, followed by Chris Lewis' GB with 18 points and Scott Spurlin's JBoats Southwest with 21 points. Six races were held.
The 8 J/105s on the line survived with only minor damage to sails and hardware. Saturday saw Bee Bednar's Stinger hold on to first place with Matt Arno's Blue Flash in second and Uzi Ozeri's Infinity in third. Sunday's 16-20s made for somewhat better conditions but resulted in a reversal of fortunes for the top three boats. Infinity came out on top with Blue Flash in Second and Stinger in third. Six points separated the top five finishers.
The J/80 and J/22 classes were both represented by 7 boats. For the J/80s, the GC/Quantum Races team of Terry Flynn and David Whelan came out on top with 10 points followed by Luke McAllum's Parson's Project with 18 points, Kurt VanderWall's Hendrix with 19 points and Forbes Durdin's Mojito with 20 points. Kurt VanderWall also won the regatta's Road Warrior award for bringing his boat down from Colorado's Dillon Yacht Club.
The J/22 Class was dominated by Casey Lambert's Blackburn Marine Racing with 6 points, followed by Dov Kivlovitz with 13 points, and Chris Morlan's Tilt with 17 points.
There were two PHRF Classes for the Symetrical and Asymetrical Spinnakers. The 5 boat PHRF (Sym) Class was dominated by Chris Alk's on the J/27 Footloose with 5 bullets. Followed by Glenn Stromme's Press to + MECO J/29 FROB with 12 Points.
While in the 7 boat PHRF (Asym) fleet, Kevin Hayes and Mike McGaugh's J/92 finished first with 11 points, followed by Albrecht Goethe's J/109 Hamburg with 16.5 points, and the maiden outing for Rod Johnstone's J/88, It's a Thrill with 19 points.
Once again, Lakewood Yacht Club hosted a spectacular event complete with a "Ragin Cajun" shrimp boil dinner on Saturday night and a raffle that included J/World tuition, Torqueedo outboard, and a Velocitek Speed Puck.
Event website with complete results are here
