J/70 Fleet 1 - Annapolis, Maryland USA

A picture-perfect night for some J World Thursday Night Racing. The J70s got some air time and so did the Naptown Brass Band!??

J World Thursday Night Racing 2024 Series 2 Night 4 J World August 1st. Just about as good as it can get on the Severn as the J80s, J70s, J24s, and J70s battle it out in great sailing conditions.

ISO cat 1 female sailors for the J105 Women's Regatta in Annapolis 9/1. Hosted by the Sailing Club of the Chesapeake. I'm matchmaking for boats who are looking, so text or pm me your experience/preferred roles!

Check out the racing action from the J World Thursday Night racecourse last night! 😍 Ashley and Bruce from T2PTV Sailing on Demand were out on the Boatyard Bar & Grill film boat thanks to a private patron. Lights… cameras… ACTION!

J World Thursday Night Racing 2024 - Series 1 Race 4 J World May 30th. Wow! A perfect night on the water as we join the J70s and J80s for a couple of their races at the mouth of the Severn.

The 2023 J70 World Championship hosted by

5 Fleet One teams competed in 10 challenging racing over 5 days. With windward legs occasionally exceeding 2nm and a starting line that felt just as long, there was plenty of race course to win (or lose) big.

Starts were chaotic - windward legs required excellence from each team member - mark roundings were ripe with opportunities - downwind legs burned the shoulders and arms of the trimmers - finishes were exciting. Nothing about the racing at Worlds was easy and each team displayed an impressive amount of grit, determination, and fight. 💪🏼

In the end Cate Muller-Terhune’s Casting Couch finished in 13th, with four top 10 finishes including a 3rd!🎉

James Goldan’s Derecho finished 3rd in the One Pro division, including two top 20 finishes!

Jim Gary’s Ayacucho and Dave Schoene’s Uno Mas finished in 14th and 16th, respectively, in the Corinthian division!

Taz Coffey’s Danger Mouse won the inaugural Mixed Plus division, including a 14th place finish! Arguably the Danger Mouse team also won the party and the best costume award 👨‍✈️

Full results can be found here: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=15594 and if you’d like the daily recap emails written by please DM us with your email.

We would like to thank the St. Pete YC for hosting a fantastic regatta. It isn’t lost on us how much work goes into hosting an event like this and we are so thankful to the staff and volunteers that made this possible!

The Race Committee also deserves a heartfelt “thank you”! Without PRO Mark Foster and his team the racing simply wouldn’t have happened.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you and up for so beautifully covering the event. Both of you are true artists and we appreciate your time, effort, and dedication to the fleet ❤️

J70 Worlds Day 1

The day started with an on shore AP to allow a weak cold front to bring us some much needed wind 💨.

RC got off two solid races in a building northerly, each averaging 90 minutes long. The breeze was fairly light in the first race. As conditions improved, wind built from the top of the course, compressing the fleet at the leeward marks…which was exciting 😬

As the breeze built more and more teams utilized “the wing” downwind. It wasn’t uncommon to see boats winging for the entire leg.

As of Day 1 and team Casting Couch are in 4th, and team Derecho are in 21st (2nd in One Pro), and and team Uno Mas are in 37th (5th in Corinthian)!

Good luck to all teams on Day 2!

📸: the real MVP

Next up on our “Fleet One Takes on Worlds” series…

James Golden has been sailing on a J70 since he was 13 years old, and a lot has changed since he started out on the rail. In the beginning, James had to earn his way up the ladder on his dad's boat, first by taking on trimming responsibilities and then occasionally getting the chance to drive. Fast forward to 2019 and James was leading his team to a win in the J/70 US Youth National Championship in St. Petersburg, FL.

James qualified for the Worlds via the petition process, submitting his request in March of this year (James recommends getting petitions in as early as possible) and since that time he gone on to win the Silver Cup which is the Under23 Finn Worlds, and then backed it up with a 505 Worlds Under25 win. That's right. He won two World Championships this year... But wait, there's more. James was just asked by Paul Cayard to join the Stars Sailing League (SSL) which races the SSL47.

When considering how to approach the Worlds, James had a choice to make. One could imagine he could easily ask Cayard and friends to show up for the event, but instead James went back to where it all started, and decided what he really wanted to do was to race this event with his dad, Jim. Their Corinthian team also includes local rock star Jeff Todd and Mitch Powwell who coaches at AYC. While each person on the boat has sailed at a high level in the sport individually, this will be the first time they come together to compete as a team. In preparation for the event, they decided one of the most important things they could do was get the Derecho sorted. So, the keel and rudder will be faired according to the rules, and the mast centered in the boat. James feels these changes will help unlock the next level of boat speed they will need to keep pace with the competition.

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Credit: Paul Green

Continuing with our “Fleet One Takes On Worlds” series…

The Danger Mouse, whose name was inspired by the British cartoon character, is owned and skippered by Taz Coffey, a newly retired 25,000+ hr. Delta pilot and expert purveyor of dad jokes. Taz started sailing J70s over a decade ago. When he first bought the boat, Taz decided to charter the Danger Mouse to JWorld and would fly from his home town in Atlanta on Thursday mornings to sail in the Thursday Night Races. Since then Taz had been a regular participant in many J70 events up and down the east coast.

Taz Coffey has always been a supporter of female participation in sailing, and long before there was a division called Mixed-Plus, Taz was leading the way in providing on the water opportunities to women in the sport. You could say, Taz was country before country was cool. Shannon Lockwood, Erin Sprague, Stacey Gartner, Casey Firth, Jane Millman, Marybeth Parkerson, Cassie Todd, Liz Dubovic, Maura McCarthy, Rebecca Hoffman, Martha Parker, Racheal Daye and Alli Gutenkurst have all sailed on the Mouse over the years.

Taz was selected to compete in the Worlds via the petition process based in part on his rich history of participation in the class. Taz said "when I was considering going to the Worlds, my first conversation was with Kristen Berry (KB)" he continued "if I could secure KBs support for the event, I would feel confident we could compete." Together Taz and KB assembled a five person Mixed-Plus team including Casey Firth, Alli Gutenkurst and Catey Nolan. The newly formed team has been practicing here in Annapolis by sailing 2-3 hours, twice a day for the past week and has plans to continue practicing locally through the end of next week. "Annapolis can be very similar to St. Pete and since many of the team members have full time jobs, it's more convenient for us to train here than in FL."

The team has had several discussions about what success at the Worlds will look like…

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Credit: Paul Green

Next up on our “Fleet One Goes to Worlds” series is and team Casting Couch!

Cate Muller-Terhune started sailing on J70s about 8-9 years ago in the Chicago area. She was on the helm of a friend's boat at first, but decided to change boats and move to a crew position so she could sail with her now husband Allan Terhune. Cate said "sailing with Allan is a great experience because he helps bring the boat up to the next level." Cate's first J70 was the Murder Hornet (USA 385), and it was around the time she bought the boat that she started to sail with Nick Turney and together they started grinding their way to the front. When the opportunity came to purchase USA34 she jumped at it, selling the Murder Hornet to make room for the new boat.

Cate's Team qualified for the Worlds by taking a 2nd place finish in the 2022 North Americans in Canada in only the 2nd event they had sailed in together. The power packed team includes: Jackson Benvenutti, Nick Turney and Jeff Hayden. Cate was quick to say, the support she receives from her friends and family make it possible for her to compete at this level. "Alan is always there with an encouraging word, and if it wasn't for Sophie Podlich (who watches Mac, her dog) I couldn't do what I do."

Cate and the team have been preparing for the event by sailing together every month. Cate said "I don't have an unlimited budget, so I told the guys we're going to have to be really smart about how we use our resources." Being smart includes maximizing the value from every time the team sails together, and they've done this by developing a database of notes and settings on what makes the boat fast. "Nick has the lead on tracking and managing this information, his attention to detail makes him the perfect person for the job." Cate and team recently traveled to St. Pete for the pre-Worlds where they concentrated on "trying to survive in tight lanes, and making everything they can routine."

When I asked…

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Credit: Paul Green

The next Fleet One team heading to Worlds is team Ayacucho helmed by Jim Gary!

When Jim purchased USA2 he had never actually sailed on a 70, but his son Eddie had sailed the boat and loved it.  Together, they decided this was the right choice for them because the boat not only had an active local fleet, but would also provide access to a strong and growing traveling fleet.  Since they purchased the boat, they have campaigned her as planned in no less than 36 events since 2019, with over 1/2 of these events in large fleets (more than 20 boats registered).  Another part of that master plan must have been bringing the entire Gary family together because over the last two years, one of their annual family vacations has been to Key West, FL where Jim and Eddie could race during the day, and then join the family for a poolside cocktail in the evening.  The word genius comes to mind...   

Team Ayacucho qualified for the Worlds at the North Americans in Toronto in 2022 where they finished 5th in the Corinthian division.  Jim pointed out "while we finished 5th, the boats that were in front of us had already qualified for the Worlds, so we were able to get the spot."  This will be the first Worlds event that Jim has competed in and he and his team, which includes his son Eddie Gary, Brendan Read and Travis Carlisle have just completed the pre-Worlds Tuning Regatta in St. Pete where they earned a 7th place finish in race five of the warm up event.  Jim and team have been discussing their specific goals for the event, but at a high level Jim said "we want to be extremely competitive in the Corithian division and scare the pros some.  A top 10 finish in the Corithian division would be very nice."

Jim had some excellent advice for teams who wish to compete at a high level in the sport.  He encourages teams to find the harder races, and sail against the best in the sport.  He recommended the Marblehead NOODS…

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Credit: Paul Green

Fun fact, Fleet One has more boats registered for the 2023 Worlds than any other fleet! SO COOL. So, we’re spotlighting each of the teams heading to Worlds starting with Uno Mas!

Uno Mas is owned and skippered by Dave Schoene who bought USA68 in 2015 after only sailing on a J70 twice. Dave had caught the bug sailing on a friend's boat at a Davis Island event. While Dave had experience racing other Jboats, moving to the J70 put Dave in the driver's seat of a fast boat in a growing class. The name Uno Mas was inspired by the spirit of "race one more race, meet one more friend, and together have one more beer."

Dave qualified for the Worlds by finishing as the top Corinthian team in the 2022 Annapolis NOODs regatta which was a Worlds qualifier. While this will not be the first time Dave has raced in a Worlds event, it will be the first time to race in the J70 Worlds. Dave and team, Josh Raymond, Tyler Mowry, and John White will be competing in the Corithian division and have been getting ready by sailing together as much as possible in local regattas and Thursday Nights. Dave said he put a lot of thought into whether to sail in the Worlds, and despite the fact that it requires considerable resources (both time and money) he felt that if he let this pass him by, he would look back and regret that decision, so he decided to seize the opportunity and race "one more race..."

Team Uno Mas' goal for the regatta is to do as well as they possibly can, enjoy the event but not obsess over the results. When asked what advice would Dave have for teams that aspire to follow in their footsteps, Dave said "Surround yourself with the best people as possible. On the best teams, everyone in the boat can do everyone else’s jobs which helps the team know how to help each other if and when they need help. If you want to get better, you have to be a sponge, listen to people who know more than you, take it in and try it."

Congratulations to Dave and team for qualifying for the Worlds! We wish you the best of luck!!

Credit:

📸: .photography

It’s been a busy month for Fleet One sailors!

Cate Muller’s Casting Couch and Paul Green’s Progress traveled to Chicago for the 2023 J70 North Americans hosted by Chicago Yacht Club. After nine races (most of which were started under the black flag 😬), team Casting Couch finished 4th, only six points off the podium! Well done team 👏🏼! Team Progress had moments of utter glory and pure heartbreak, it was a challenging event. But, we learned a lot and came away a better team. More congratulations to Annapolis local Ian Coleman for winning race 8 and the final day of racing; and congrats to Team Empeiria and another Annapolis local Zeke Horowitz who won the 9th and final race of the regatta!

Next up we had AYC’s Fall Series! 10 boats competed in five races in tricky NE breeze. In the end team Progress finished on top, followed by team Ayacucho and team Wild Child! Shoutout to team VooDeux for a great showing! They had great speed and seemed to be in all the right places, just missing a podium finish by a tiebreaker.

Next week, six Fleet One teams head to the J70 World Champs hosted by St. Pete Yacht Club!

📸: .photography y’all are the real MVPs, without you I’d have zero content for this page