J/125 Owner Dr. Laura SA Interview

Dr. Laura- the renowned radio talkshow psychologist, has entered her J/125 on the Cabo San Lucas Race and offered some good thoughts for those people (women in particular) as to why she enjoys racing offshore on her J's.  Sailing Anarchy's Editor, Scot Tempesta, had this interview with her recently:  "We like Dr. Laura. No, not her politics, nor her radio show, but the woman? She's a delight who we have spent some quality time with and gotten to know fairly well. So when we heard she was racing her J/125 on the 600 mile Newport to Cabo race, we had to ask her why. She explains...

Six or seven years ago when I bought my first sailboat (J/80 THE DOC) I had no intentions to race.  I just wanted the wind in my face and the quiet swoosh of a sailboat's wake soothing my ears.  I got dragged into racing by being told, "If you want to really learn to sail well - racing is the way to do it."  And that was correct.  It took two years for my heart to not race in total fear steering the starts with boats going every which way and me not even having a great sense of where the start line was.  From that to steering in frequent 6-8 foot swells and gusts to 30 knots two weeks ago...and I only rounded up twice in several hours!  I was so excited and proud of myself - as the first time I was in those conditions I relinquished the helm and cried all the way to Ventura Harbor - totally terrified.

I enjoy a challenge.  I never considered myself an "inshore racer" - those are just the races that can be squeezed in on an afternoon or weekend and then back to the Yacht Club for wine and home for a shower.  I saw the movie, "Bucket List" and decided (having just turned 63) that I didn't want to have anything on mine.  And the imagery of sailing the open sea with the stars above and critters below seems thrilling.  When I mentioned Transpac to my crew and sailing buddies they all told me..."Yeah, on a bigger boat!"  Well, I don't have a bigger boat - so I went to a smaller race: Cabo.

As far as changes on the boat: we had to fulfill all the requirements so we have satellite radio/phone, water maker, etc. but I drew the line at the freeze dried dinner - tried it and my stomach threw up a protest flaq!  I guess it is good I love hard-boiled eggs and peanut butter and jelly...

My crew:  Kevin Miller, Kit Forbes Will (Remember the Disney movie 'Morning Light'? ...that Kit Will!), Paul Wolthausen, Sam Solhaug, Eric Bohman and me.

I am very excited about this...I am the only ocean racing newbie on the boat...I am sure I will have some rude awakenings...but I bet when we arrive in CABO I'll be ready to do it again.

The main point is to have an adventure. I'll let you all know how it went! Jump in the J/Boat Anarchy forum to comment.

J/80’s Are Back on Long Island Sound!

(NY/ CT)- J/80’s are one of the most exciting one-design boats to sail, but, previously, if you wanted to race one-design on the Long Island Sound, you either had to sail dinghies or buy a larger boat like the J/105.  There always were a few J/80’s around, but split in two different groups: the one-design travel boats and the local PHRF racing boats.  Among the travelers, some of the best crews in the country, if not the world, call the Long Island Sound their home. The more prominent boats are Kerry Klingler’s LIFTED and John Storck, Jr.’s RUMOR who probably both don’t need any further introduction to the readers of this newsletter. On the other hand, there have always been various J/80s scattered about in clubs like AYC, LYC and Centerport that mainly sailed PHRF in club races. But, until this year, the local boats did not come together as a fleet.

This February, representatives from nine boats got together at Larchmont Yacht Club to meet each other, organize and reaffirm that western Long Island Sound was ripe for J/80 one-design events.  Five more boats joined Fleet 17 since the word got out bringing the total count of boats in the area up to 14 and at least two more are expected to join soon. The newly invigorated fleet agreed on three local races for this year to complement the full 2010 USA Tour schedule.  These events are:
May 22-23    Lloyd Harbor YC Spring Race for the Case (of Rum)- Lloyd Neck, NY
Jun 6-7         Cedar Point YC One Design Regatta- East Norwalk, CT
Sep 25-26    American YC Fall Series (1st weekend only)- Rye, NY

In addition, the fleet is planning to launch an annual J/80 Long Island Sound Cup – “J/80 LIS Cup” – which will be scored similar to the J/80 2010 USA Tour with a combination of qualifying local races. For more information on the fleet and how to get involved, please contact J/80 Fleet#17 rep Ansgar Chorhummel (ansgar@kiaora.us) of  or go here-  J/80 Fleet #17 website.

Sailing World NOOD- St. Petersburg

Tim Healy's J/24 Wins St. Pete Overall

(Feb. 12-14- St. Petersburg, FL)- This year's SW NOOD St. Pete was an excellent kickoff to the nine-stop 2010 NOOD Regatta series, with ninety six keelboats boats contesting six quality races—which is pretty good considering the light-air conditions that have challenged this regatta venue over the past several years.  Of the ninety six keelboats attending, the largest sailing fleet were the J/24s with twenty-three racing around the track, followed by the fifteen J/80s participating in the second stop of the J/80 USA Tour and four happy-go-luck J/22s enjoying all the festivities.  In short, with forty-two J's sailing, they constituted 44.0% of the SW NOOD fleet-- nearly a J/Fest Southeast!

As the final day of racing progressed on Tampa Bay on Sunday, the towering smoke stacks on the eastern shore hinted at what was to come: the morning's horizontal streaming plumes slowly giving way to vertical trails. Luckily, the 0930 warning signals at the Sperry Top-Sider St. Petersburg NOOD Regatta's three circles allowed the race committee to squeeze in two more races before it all went kaput.  And in the dying northeasterly that defined the day's sunny but cold conditions there were all sorts of puffs, lulls, shifts, and holes and to avoid. There was no predictably to the breeze whatsoever. Even a few competitors that came out on top in the day's races admitted that conditions were of the mind-bending sort.

For the J/24s, one smart move by Tim Healy netted his team the overall win in St. Pete and a trip to the Caribbean later in the year for SW NOOD Championships.  Healy, a sailmaker with Quantum Sails, Rhode Island, went into the last race with a slim lead over Argentinean champion Joaquin Doval sailing U2 for YCA (Yate Club Argentina in Buenos Aires), and approached it with a pretty simple plan: beat Doval and keep his nose clean in the process. That later element would later be critical.  "We didn't want to be over early or hit anyone," says Healy. "We just wanted to be conservative."

Healy, with crew John Mollicone, Steve Lopez, Dan Rabin, and Gordon Borges, got a decent jump on Doval's U2 squad on the first beat, but their focus on the Argentineans almost cost them the regatta. "We sailed ourselves pretty deep into the fleet, and we gave them the opportunity to put a lot of boats between us," says Healy. "We should have sailed our own race and just stayed in phase with the shifts."

At the ensuing leeward mark rounding, some heads-up logic saved their bacon. Approaching the mark on starboard, and with inside rights on a multiple-boat pile-up, they quickly realized that taking advantage of their right-of-way wasn't going to do them any good. "We would have stuck it in there and either hit the mark or other boats," says Healy. Instead, they sailed around the entire pack and got in on the tail end of the pinwheel. "It definitely got pretty bad."

He estimates they rounded 20th (while Doval was top-five), but they worked the right side of the race course hard on the following beat, where they were banking on better pressure. They passed enough boats to make it nearly impossible for Doval to put enough points between them, and Healy's eighth to Doval's fourth gave the New Englanders a 1-point win and a trip to the Caribbean in November to the Sperry Top-Sider Caribbean NOOD Championship.  Finishing just behind these two were another Argentinean Champion Nicolas Cubria racing JESUS LIZZARD for Real Club Nautico, winning the last race but not nearly enough points to knock the other two off the podium.

For the J/80 class, J/80 champion Kerry Klingler won this important tune-up regatta for the October J/80 Worlds in Newport. After establishing primal supremacy over the fleet, starting off with two bullets, Kerry and crew onboard LIFTED rattled off three thirds and a last race first to win the regatta by a healthy margin of six points.  Two fellow Long Island Sounders also sailed solid series to further establish the primacy of their light air, shifty wind sailing skills.  In second was John DiMatteo racing CHRISTE and just off the pace in third overall was John Storck and family sailing RUMOR. 

The J/22s apparently had some fun despite the low turnout.  Everyone won races and in the end they nearly all finished tied!  How's that for some healthy racing!  Nevertheless, it was a tie-breaker for first place with Jackson Pentith sailing DELERIUM winning the regatta by having more first places.  In second on the short end of that stick was Jim Chorostecki racing THREE'S COMPANY.  Finishing third was Daniel Kresge on board JABBERWOCKY.  Photo Credits:  Tim Wilkes   For more Sailing World NOOD Regatta and sailing information.