J.R. MAXWELL WINS 2016 J/22 MID-ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP
CONGRATULATIONS JR MAXWELL, WINNER OF THE 2016 J/22 MID-ATLANTICS
The 2016 J22 Mid-Atlantic Championship was one for the record books. Competitors could not have asked for a better weekend for sailing. Annapolis delivered unbelievably beautiful sailing conditions for a Halloween weekend regatta.
Seventeen J/22’s went out on Saturday morning and sailed three spectacular races in a Southerly breeze that came in at about 9-14 kts. Regatta chair Jason Goscha worked with the J/24 fleet to organize a stellar team of volunteers from the Severn Sailing Association who ran absolutely perfect races. The J/24 and J/22 fleets mingled together for the post race festivities which included a daily debrief hosted by Mike Marshall and Zeke Horowitz from North Sails.
The Southerly was back in on Sunday morning and while it was a bit lighter than Saturday it hung in there long enough to get three more fantastic races. Boat speed and execution was the name of the game all weekend. The left side of the course seemed to be favored on almost every beat so whoever could start well, go fast, and get left tended to be in top group at the weather mark. JR Maxwell and his crew on “Scooby” put on a speed and execution clinic as they were able to get punched off the line and let their boat speed shine – winning 4 of the 6 races in the series.
J/22’s and J/24’s weren’t the only boating enthusiasts enjoying the beautiful weekend though. Dozens of power boats were out on the bay as well and that led to “washing machine” type wave conditions for most of the series. At one point we saw the front of the keel on “Hot Toddy” as Jeff Todd’s team skipped over the wake of a 60 footer down wind!
TIP OF THE WEEKEND
A very important factor to get through the big chop going upwind is where to put the traveler. On “Uncle Fluffy,” we adjusted the traveler fairly often to make sure it was high enough to allow a slight ease of the main sheet to twist open the main and help accelerate if we had a bad set of chop. Having the traveler in the right place also enables the helmsman to pull on the main sheet and load up the helm a little bit which can help the boat power through some of the nasty chop.
Congratulations to J.R. Maxwell for the dominant win and a huge thank you to Jason Goscha and all of the volunteers at SSA for a fabulous weekend of racing. The J/22’s in Annapolis are now on to “Frost Biting” for the rest of the year… Here’s a tip for those that will be competing in their own local “Frost Bite” series: Make sure you have a cup holder in your cockpit big enough for a full thermos of hot chocolate (whiskey optional)!!
North-powered boats finished 1,2,3,7,8,9 at the 2016 J/22 Mid-Atlantic Championship.
