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By Ken Johnson
Six SJ 24s competed in the 2010 North Americans held on Puget Sound just off the Shilshole Marina in Seattle, with Snappy Tom (Gil Lund, skipper) coming out on top with consistent racing in wind conditions ranging from light (practically drifting at times) to 15 knots against a strong flooding tide.
The championship was held in conjunction with the Sperry Top-Sider NOOD regatta, May 14-16. We generally encountered light air from the north in the morning with an ebbing tide to the north against the wind, slowly building with the stronger northerly winds coming in around 2-3 in the afternoon after the strong flood tide (about 1.2 knots) started. Except for a 2-3 hour delay on Saturday after the morning winds died and before the winds rebuilt, we had some wind all the time, it was warm and we had no rain!
Photo by Jan Anderson
Manhattan Transfer Leads Grauer Geist down wind during the San Juan 24 North Americans.
Over three days of racing (May 14-16) we had 14 races, all of which were highly competitive. During the regatta, four boats had at least one first place finish, and the remaining two had a second and third.
At the end, Snappy Tom won with consistent results in the variety of conditions - 7 firsts, 6 seconds and one third; in addition to Gil, Snappy's crew included Erik Lund, Mark Bunker, Paul Karas (Saturday and Sunday) and Dalton Bergan on Friday. Close behind Snappy was Ekono Juan that Ryan Forbes trailered down from the San Juan Islands to Seattle. Ekono Juan was the fastest boat, coupled with great pointing ability, in the lightest airs, and kept pushing Snappy Tom throughout the regatta.
Grauer Geist from Seattle (Ken Johnson) and Wiki Wiki (Steve Felton), a beautifully restored SJ 24 that sailed up from Tacoma, battled for third, with Wiki Wiki sailing faster in the lighter airs and Grauer having an advantage in the higher winds. On each day of racing, Wiki Wiki took over third in the morning with Grauer able to recover when the winds built up in the later afternoon.
Fancy (John Schwab) and Manhattan Transfer (Mike Irish) were also back and forth for fifth, with Fancy putting together a solid performance on Sunday (tying with Grauer and Wiki for the day's results) to take fifth.
More information, with lots of photographs, can be found on the NOOD website.
SJ-24 Results