Paul Todd / www.outsideimages.com

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As Catapult claims three bullets on opening day of the J/70 Worlds

Wednesday September 10th 2014, Author: Jan Harley, Location: United States

It may have been mostly cloudy for the opening day of the J/70 World Championship presented by Helly Hansen, but one standout bright spot was the performance of Joel Ronning sailing Catapult with long-time crew Victor Diaz De Leon of Venezuela, and San Diego sailors Willem Van Waay and Bill Hardesty – the latter the 2011 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year – Ronning drove to win three out of three races sailed on a lumpy Rhode Island Sound.

New York Yacht Club’s Race Committee started the 86-strong fleet in a 18-20 knot ENE breeze which moderated slightly over the subsequent two races. Between the strong breeze and the sea state – the swells did not subside until the tide change late in the day during the third and final race – competitors were given a healthy workout.

Ronning holds the lead in the standings with three points over local sailor Tim Healy on Helly Hansen who posted a consistent 2-2-2 for six points.

Healy, the current J/70 North American Champion, is sailing with Geoff Becker, Gordon Borges and Paula Abdullah. Having long been a dominant force in the J/24 class, Healy got into the J/70 because of the family atmosphere: “Everyone is willing to share ideas on how to sail the boats better and how we can make a stronger J/70 class. The competition is fierce but the focus for sure is to have fun racing and to make good friends along the way.”

Healy summed up the hurdles facing competitors who will be racing in Newport for the first time during this championship. “The biggest challenge will be figuring out how to sail the boats in the open water of Rhode Island Sound. The current is difficult to figure out (I am not sure anyone has it figured out) and predicting the wind shifts is also difficult. In early September we usually have good wind but it can come from just about any direction. Air temperatures can be anywhere from the high 50s to the low 80s.

“Our biggest challenge will be to keep working as a team through the difficult times,” added Healy. “In a large fleet like this and on a big racecourse, there will be many difficult situations when we will need to stay focused on just getting up the course as fast as we can, and not dwelling on mistakes.”

2013 Bacardi Miami Sailing Week class champion Brian Keane at the helm of Savasana, is one point behind Healy, in third overall, followed by Brazil’s Mauricio Santa Cruz on Bruschetta with 15 points. Rounding out the top-five is San Francisco’s Jim Cunningham on Lifted with 16 points.

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Results

 

Pos Sail no Yacht Name Owner/Skipper R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Tot
1 USA 187 Catapult Joel Ronning   1   1   1 4     7
2 USA 2 Helly Hansen Tim Healy   2   2   2 1     7
3 BRA 403 Bruschetta Mauricio Santa cruz   5 6   4     3   18
4 USA 96 Savasana Brian Keane 1     3 3   2   11 20
5 USA 45 Wild Child Henry Filter 17/ SCP   1     7/ SCP   6   31
6 USA 217 Joint Custody Jenn & Ray Wulff   6 5   12     10   33
7 USA 86 Stampede//Pour Judgement Racing Patrick Wilson   7   12   13 5     37
8 GBR 123 Team RAFBF Spitfire Simon Ling 2     10 11   7   7 37
9 USA 94 Lifted Jim Cunningham 10     4 1   11   15 41
10 USA 246 New Wave Martin Kullman 6     24 6   3   2 41
11 USA 157 Spring Dave Franzel   15   7   12 12     46
12 USA 69 USA 69 Joseph Colling / Lee Sackett   3   21   4 20     48
13 USA 353 Heartbreaker Robert Hughes 7     20 5   14   3 49
14 USA 482 X Dan Cheresh   4   17   27 6     54
15 USA 390 20/20 John Arendshorst 12   7     5   1 30 55
16 USA 49 Relative Obscurity Peter Duncan   25   8   17 8     58
17 USA 179 Africa Jud Smith 14   10     14   20 1 59
18 GBR 557 Boats.com Ian Atkins 4   23     3   5 24 59
19 USA 40 B Squared Bryan Cameron & Brian Elliott   12   5   20 24     61
20 USA 397 Hot Mess Rob Britts   13   11   24 13     61
21 USA 389 Hooligan: Flat Stanley Racing Trey Sheehan   11   34   8 9     62
22 USA 55 Joust Tim Molony 16   2     6   2 37 63
23 MEX 690 Vincitore Erik Brockmann 18     16 7   17   6 64
24 USA 209 Trouble Peter McChesney 5   29     18   9 4 65
25 USA 174 Magic Bus Gregg Mylett   24 17   18     8   67
26 USA 26 Jungleland Chris and Carolyn Groobey 17   11     10   17 12 67
27 CHI 687 Windmade Juan Reid   17   6   16 30     69
28 SWE 601 Rocad Racing Mikael Lindqvist 26   4     7   4 28 69
29 USA 95 MUSE Heather Gregg Earl 23   13     9   11 13 69
30 NED 69 Bliksem Pieter Taselaar   8   14   33 15     70
31 USA 159 Torqeedo Chris Carroll   16 24   16     16   72
32 CHI 680 Flecha Felipe Robles   26 8   14     25   73
33 USA 326 Aquaholiks Martin Johnsson 28   12     11   13 9 73
34 USA 85 Dazzler Allan Terhune, Jr   28 35   2     12   77
35 USA 351 Cake Scott Deardorff   21 9   23     28   81
36 USA 167 Kraken Gary Tisdale / Adam Burns   20 31   9     22   82
37 USA 171 Running Wild Peter Vessella 13   3     23   24 20 83
38 USA 15 Junior Tim Finkle   18   13   31 23     85
39 MEX 526 Lampuga Roberto Escalante   14 35/ ZFP   10     29   88
40 USA 375 Lickity Split Stanley Edwards 8     18 27   10   26 89
41 BRA 493 To Nessa Renato Faria   10 22   28     30   90
42 PUR 391 Cachondo Marco Teixidor   22 19   24     26   91
43 USA 51 Black River Racing Doug Strebel   9 42/ ZFP   26     15   92
44 USA 340 Rimette John Brim 22     15 8   25   22 92
45 USA 59 Jaya Craig Tallman   32   28   15 18     93
46 USA 151 Reach Around Thomas Bowen   27 20   20     31   98
47 CAN 550 CAN 550 Stu McCrea   30 30   21     21   102
48 USA 34 Perseverance Bennet Greenwald 24     9 13   22   38 106
49 USA 199 Mojito Catharine Evans   23 16   34     35   108
50 USA 48 Rascal Will Welles 3   14     19   33 40 109
51 USA 68 Noname Ron Thompson   29   32   30 19     110
52 USA 245 USA 245 Tyler Doyle   19   22   35 35     111
53 USA 11 Menace Kerry Klingler 11   44/ ZFP     36   14 10 115
54 USA 222 Junkanoo Suzy Leech 30     29 22   16   21 118
55 USA 61 Sugar Daddy Mark Ploch 9   44/ DSQ     40   18 8 119
56 USA 99 Nostalgia Blake & Lud Kimbrough 20   18     41   7 35 121
57 USA 073 Occams Razor Walt and Tricia Pletcher   33   26   21 43     123
58 CAN 360 REX Scott Weakley   31 44/ ZFP   15     34   124
59 USA 25 Papawheelie Will Keyworth   40   19   32 33     124
60 USA 153 Surge Geoffrey Pierini 15   34/ ZFP     25   19 31 124
61 USA 243 VitaminJ Ted Johnson 33   21     22   32 23 131
62 BRA 677 Sudoeste Jose Vita   35 27   33     37   132
63 USA 218 Tsunami Thomas Iseler   46/ DSQ 43/ ZFP   17     27   133
64 USA 64 Exit Strategy II Jack Martin 29     25 29   36   17 136
65 USA 220 Phoenix Peter Firey   34   37   37 32     140
66 USA 305 Soggy Dollar Dave Vieregg 32     33 32   26   18 141
67 USA 611 Artemis George Eberstadt   37 32   36     38   143
68 USA 589 Full Monty Latane Montague 27     27 19   41   32 146
69 USA 366 Asteria Holly Fabyan   38 44/ ZFP   31     36   149
70 RUS 6008 RUS 6008 Andrey Samoylov 31   36     29   40 14 150
71 BER 308 Elusive Chuck Millican 39     30 30   28   27 154
72 USA 181 GB Chris Lewis 19   37     26   39 34 155
73 GBR 433 Darwin Property Investment Management Charlie Esse 25     23 40   27   41 156
74 USA 373 Lucky To Be Racing Charlie Henry 42     35 35   40   5 157
75 USA 169 Empeiria John Heaton 21   28     34   41 33 157
76 USA 309 Cloudsourced Stuart Williams   39   40   43 38     160
77 USA 219 GetMyBoat Collin Kirby 37     36 39   34   16 162
78 USA 497 Chinook Frank McNamara 38     38 38   31   19 164
79 NOR 645 Norwegian Steam Eivind Astrup 46/ DNF   24/ ZFP     28   23 44 165
80 GER 252 Rosaroter Pinguin Juergen Waldheim 34     31 37   39   25 166
81 USA 152 Sundog Kathy Parks 36     41 25   37   42 181
82 MEX 686 DemoN Diego Berho 46/ DNF     44/ DNC 45/ DNC   21   29 185
83 CAN 93 Dynamo Anthony Gaffney 46/ DNF     44/ DNF 45/ DNF   29   36 200
84 USA 91 Carlos Mike Sudofsky 35   44/ ZFP     39   42 43 203
85 USA 238 Zuni Bear Rich Bergmann 40   40     42   43 39 204
86 AUS 7 Vamos Tim Ryan   36   39   38 42   87/ DNC 242
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