(Charleston, SC)- The 29th edition of Charleston Race Week was held April 10-13 with entries spanning 18 classes across six courses. There was a robust turnout in several J/one-design classes- 29 boats in J/70s, 16 in J/105s, 14 in J/24s, and 10 in J/22s. In addition, there was a strong contingent of J/crews in the offshore PHRF and ORC Divisions. Here is how it all went down throughout the three-day regatta.
Day OneIt was a spectacular start on Friday with sunny skies, warm temperatures, and solid wind. Competitors on Circle 1 completed four races, while those on Circle 2 got in three. A robust breeze offshore enabled ORC A to have three windward-leeward starts, while the three pursuit classes enjoyed excellent racing.
“We had a great opening day here in Charleston,” said Taran Teague, overall principal race officer for the regatta. “It was picture-perfect weather and we had good wind in the morning. We were able to get in some great racing, so we’ve got a lot of happy sailors here.”
The J/22, J/24, and PHRF Inshore classes had an action-packed day and sailors no doubt came off the water sore and tired after four races.
Jasper Van Vliet steered EVIL TWIN to a pair of bullets and added a third in taking the early lead in J/24s, which has 14 boats. Robin Van Vliet called tactics for her husband of more than 30 years on a day when winds ranged from 5 to 20 knots from the southwest to the northwest.
“We were very happy with our day overall because it was hard. This is our second time here in Charleston and I don’t remember seeing this particular weather pattern. It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth,” said Jasper Van Vliet, who hails from Mill Valley, California. “I guess the best thing we can say is that we stayed alert, kept our eyes open, and made decisions on the spot. We were very happy with our results.”
VELOCITY, crewed by four high school sailors, posted a terrific score line of 2-3-1-1 to take the early lead in the 10-boat J/22 class. James Pine is steering and has twin brother Nathan Pine aboard as a jib trimmer. They are juniors at Lucy Beckham High in Mount Pleasant. Logan Marz from New York is the bowman, while William Baker from Texas is trimming the main and spinnaker.
“We just stayed consistent. Our starts were all good and we tried to stay in the pressure and play the shifts as best we could,” said James Pine, noting there were 30-degree wind shifts later in the day. “Our boat speed and crew work was pretty good today.”
On Circle 2, the J/70 class saw west-northwest winds ranging from 7 to 12 knots to start the day. A sea breeze filled in during the afternoon and negated the westerly, with the velocity dropping to 4 to 9 knots for Race 2 and 3 to 7 knots for Race 3.
The J/70 RELATIVE OBSCURITY came into Charleston Race Week at Patriot’s Point on a roll after dominating the J/70 Winter Series. However, owner-driver Peter Duncan had a conflict arise and was unable to make the regatta, necessitating a last-minute replacement. He found a good one in Marcus Egan, a New Orleans resident with plenty of experience on the Grand Prix circuit.
It helped that RELATIVE OBSCURITY crew members Victor Diaz de Leon and Willem Van Waay have sailed many times with Egan, winning the 2003 J/80 World Championship together.
“Marcus is an amazing sailor and did a fantastic job today,” said Diaz de Leon, the tactician. “We had a nice vibe onboard and complimented each other very well.”
RELATIVE OBSCURITY got out on the race course a few hours earlier than normal to do some practicing and help Egan get familiar with steering the J/70. He started strong by winning Race 1 then added a couple of thirds for a low score of seven. Bryce Kalow and the KID’S TABLE team also had a good day and are just one point behind in the 25-boat class, the largest of the regatta.
“It was a great day sailing in Charleston. It was very tricky as usual with the current and shifty winds. That’s what makes it so fun racing here,” Diaz de Leon said. “We tried to sail conservatively, keep it simple, and stay out of trouble.”
On Circle 3, an anchor issue with the signal boat delayed the starting sequence and ultimately led to the J/88s and J/105s completing only one race. The starting area for that course was set just north of Fort Sumter and a three-knot current was a factor where the Ashley River and Cooper River converge.
Andrew Graff, who sailed EXILE to victory in J/88 class, said the wind was slightly north of west with an average wind velocity of around eight knots. There were lulls as low as four and puffs up to 12. “There were a lot of rapid-fire shifts, so being able to change gears was important,” said Graf, who had Chris Werner aboard as tactician.
Mount Pleasant resident Joe Pitcavage said local knowledge proved helpful as SPECTACLE won the lone race in the J/105 class. “We were able to port tack the entire fleet because all the other boats got pushed off the start line by the current,” he said.
Skipper Robin Team and his veteran team showed why the J/122 TEAMWORK has earned the Palmetto Cup as the winner of the most competitive handicap class five times. Veteran tactician Jonathan Bartlett made great calls as TEAMWORK won all three races.
Principal race officer Bruce Bingman set windward-leeward courses that were two laps each. Race 1 was six miles in total, while the course was shortened to four miles for Races 2 and 3. Team said a westerly breeze was blowing 6 to 8 knots for the opening race then got a little lighter for the second start. A south-southwesterly wind of 10-12 knots filled in for the final race.
“It was a champagne sailing day offshore. We had great conditions,” said Team, crediting Bartlett with putting TEAMWORK on the correct side of the course in all three races.
“We’ve been sailing together for a long time and everybody knows their job,” said Team, who gave a special shoutout to pit man Drew Niven. “Drew was the MVP of the day. He took control and made sure the entire boat worked flawlessly.”
Dr. Willy Schwenzfeier has competed in all 29 editions of Charleston Race Week, mostly as skipper of his J/35 ARROW. The Charleston resident continued his streak of winning at least one race every year by topping Pursuit Spinnaker A.
Schwenzfeier, who is 80 years old and sailing a 40-year-old boat, credits his crew for the sustained success. Kael Martin has been with the ARROW program for three decades, while Jules Ivester and his wife Rebecca as well as Sam Furr are not far behind in terms of longevity.
“We are serious racers, but we have a different philosophy than most,” said Schwenzfeier, a 1966 Johns Hopkins graduate who played basketball at the renowned Baltimore school. “We don’t worry about the competition. We just sail our race and try to go as fast as we can without interacting with any other boats.”
Day TwoIt was “moving day” on Saturday and that’s exactly what several skippers and teams did.
In the J/22 class, TASMANIAN DEVIL and VICTOR both made a move on leader VELOCITY. Darby Smith skippered TASMANIAN DEVIL to victory in two of three races on Saturday, while Scott Jenson steered VICTOR to a bullet and a couple of thirds. Those two boats are now tied with 19 points, three more than skipper James Pine and his team of high school sailors aboard VELOCITY.
“We had a real good day. Our crew is starting to come together. We’re all getting better at our jobs,” said Jenson, a Napa, California resident who is chartering a J/22 from the College of Charleston. “I think consistency was the key to our success today. We got very consistent starts and were picking the shifts pretty well.”
Jenson said tactician Andrew Kerr is “doing an outstanding job” and praised his knowledge of the J/22. Kerr chose the left side in the second race on Saturday and VICTOR found good wind and current relief on the way to winning.
“We’re going to shoot for more consistency tomorrow. We’re up against some very good sailors, so it’s going to be a challenge,” Jenson said.
RELATIVE OBSCURITY saw its lead in the J/70 class reduced to one point over KID’S TABLE and PROGRESS. Skipper Paul Green sailed PROGRESS to second place in all three races on Saturday and feels good going into the final day of racing. Five-time Olympian Stuart McNay is calling tactics for Green and earned his praise.
“Stu did a brilliant job of leading us today. You had to be able to stay in phase and play the shifts and we did that thanks to him,” Green said. “Everybody just did their part today. We had some clutch boat handling.”
Green is beginning his fifth season in the J/70 class and has been with fellow Annapolis residents Andy Nowak and Ridgely Mackenzie throughout that time. McNay joined the program this year and a fourth-place finish at the Bacardi Invitational was very encouraging.
“I’d say the real magic started this year when Stu came on board. We took a big leap forward as a team,” Green said.
As always in the highly competitive J/70 class, this major regatta will likely come down to the last race with at least four boats still very much in contention.
“It’s one race, one shift at a time. We need to get good starts and execute the fundamentals,” Green said. “We unlocked some speed in the boat today and hopefully we can carry that over into tomorrow.”
In numerous classes, it was a case of the pacesetter simply consolidating their lead. That was certainly the case in J/24 where skipper Jasper Van Vliet and his EVIL TWIN team continued to sail superbly. EVIL TWIN got the gun in two races and finished second in another on Saturday and has a low score of 13 points — 11 better than BLIND DATE and Clemson Sailing Club.
Skipper John Polek and his crew of College of Charleston offshore sailors on ZEPHYR have performed well in posting bullets in two of five starts. ZEPHYR was winning the J/105 class until suffering a setback in the protest room and being disqualified from Race 2.
Polek and tactician John McCarthy are hoping to be able to drop that result and get back atop the standings. For now, skipper Andrew Moor and the THUNDERSTRUCK team lead J/105 with 21 points, two fewer than WHISTLER (Ethan Taylor).
“I think the biggest thing in any one-design fleet is starts and we’ve had a lot of good ones. We’ve also been actively changing gears by playing every single control we can,” McCarthy said. “We know we have the crew work and boat speed. This is our backyard so we know the conditions well.”
Polek, McCarthy, and mainsail trimmer Miles Wolff have been collaborating on tactics. “We’re always having active conversations about how we can make the boat go faster. We’re trying to be proactive instead of reactive,” McCarthy said.
Robin Team and company on the J/122 TEAMWORK have been unbeatable in ORC A while sailing offshore. North Sails professional Jonathan Bartlett is calling tactics aboard the Lexington, North Carolina-based boat, which has won all six races.
Day ThreeDarby Smith thought his chances of winning the J/22 class were derailed during the third race held Friday. That’s because the main halyard aboard TASMANIAN DEVIL snapped and the boat was unable to finish. TASMANIAN DEVIL could not compete in Race 4 and those two alphabet results (DNF, DNC) seemed like too much to overcome.
However, Smith and his family-based crew stayed focused despite their disappointment and finished the three-day regatta strong. After repairing the halyard, TASMANIAN DEVIL went out and won two of three races on Saturday to get back into contention.
Smith and company completed an impressive comeback by placing second and third in Sunday’s races. They were able to drop one of the 11ths absorbed on Friday and managed to squeak out an incredibly close victory.
TASMANIAN DEVIL won three races and finished second or third in four others posting a low score of 24 points, a mere three-tenths better than runner-up James Pine and the VELOCITY team.
“Having the breakdown on Friday and taking two big numbers was a real bummer. I was shocked that we were able to come back from that,” said Smith, who started the regatta strong by winning Race 1 and placing second in Race 2. “We knew we had a good boat and a solid team. We went back out there the next day and put up some good results, which gave us a chance going into today.” Smith is a 19-year-old member of the Jacksonville University intercollegiate sailing team. The Birmingham, Alabama native enjoyed a strong junior career in Optimist, Club 420, and Laser. He served as a helmsman aboard TASMANIAN DEVIL with father Fred, sister Isabel, and her boyfriend Scott Busey aboard as crew.
“I think we had a great team that worked well together. There was lots of good communication on the boat,” Smith said.
Smith and the team were rewarded for their perseverance by being presented with the Charleston Race Week Cup as one-design Boat of the Week. “That was awesome and a real surprise,” Darby Smith said.
Darby and Isabel Smith had competed in Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point last year in J/70 class and did not do so well. They returned this year in J/22 class and Darby credited his father for handling all the pre-regatta preparation. “My dad made this all happen by working for days getting the boat ready,” he said.
Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point concluded with two races on Sunday with winners crowned in 18 classes. It was an action-packed regatta with the three circles located on Charleston Harbor completing between seven and 10 races.
RELATIVE OBSCURITY closed out a wire-to-wire win in the J/70 class, the largest of the regatta with 25 boats. Owner-driver Peter Duncan could not attend Charleston Race Week due to business commitments. Marcus Egan, a talented amateur skipper from New Orleans, was tabbed as a last-minute replacement and did a superb job.
Of course, Egan was supported by a world-class team of professionals in tactician Victor Diaz de Leon, headsail trimmer Willem Van Waay, and bowman Jud Smith. RELATIVE OBSCURITY counted all top-five finishes in totaling 22 points — four better than runner-up PROGRESS, skippered by Annapolis resident Paul Green.
Egan is a former College of Charleston sailor and showed his local knowledge by winning Race 1. RELATIVE OBSCURITY also posted a second and a trio of thirds.
“Marcus hasn’t driven a boat in a while, but he caught on quickly,” Van Waay said. “We’re a very competitive team that never lets off the gas. We’re always fighting for every single point.”
Van Waay praised Duncan’s commitment to fielding a high-level program and praised the support of coach Chris Larson. “Nothing gets overlooked with our program — the rig, the tuning, the sails… everything is top-notch.”
PROGRESS, which has taken a huge leap forward since bringing five-time Olympian Stuart McNay aboard, won a race and placed second in four others.
“The PROGRESS team sailed beautifully and pushed us to the very last race. They’ve been improving with every event,” Van Waay said. “Charleston is always a super-tricky place and you have to be disciplined and patient. I thought we did a really good job of handling the variable conditions we were dealt.”
Jasper Van Vliet skippered EVIL TWIN to a wire-to-wire victory in the J/24 class, which had 14 entries. Robin Van Vliet called tactics for her husband of more than three decades as EVIL TWIN got the gun in five of 10 races totaling 18 points. J-MAGIK, skippered by Amy Woodard, was a distant second with 33 points.
“It feels great to win such a prestigious regatta. This is a really big boost for our program,” Jasper Van Vliet said. “We’re all a little surprised by how well we did. We’ve all sailed together a long time and that helps a lot. Our crew work was really good. I’ve gotten some coaching this year and it has improved my driving.”
Van Vliet, who hails from Mill Valley, California, and calls San Francisco Bay home waters, said EVIL TWIN “went to school” on the local boats in the class. “They seemed to go left a lot so we just followed them,” he said.
In the J/105 class, skipper John Polek and his crew of College of Charleston offshore sailing team members aboard ZEPHYR absorbed a real body blow on Saturday as a protest changed a second-place result to a 16th. ZEPHYR was disqualified for pulling its spinnaker pole out too early, dropping out of the lead and down to fourth in the standings.
“We got together as a team at 8:30 this morning to discuss what happened and put it behind us. We said ‘let’s keep our spirits up’ then talked about what we needed to do today,” Polek said. “We had a clear picture of what boats we needed to keep an eye on. That brought it down to a four-boat regatta and changed our approach.”
ZEPHYR finished fourth in Sunday’s opening race and was able to throw out the DSQ then closed the regatta in style by getting the gun in the last race.
“They say boat speed is a tactician’s best friend and that was our foundation. If we had a bad maneuver or got caught on the wrong side of a shift we knew we could always make up ground,” Polek said.
This was a J/105 brand new to the College of Charleston and this particular crew had never sailed together. Polek the helmsman, headsail trimmer John McCarthy, and mainsail trimmer Miles Wolff collaborated on tactics. Anna Galli (bow), EJ Boilek (pit), Savannah Hudson (mast), and Thalia Mancini (floater) completed the crew.
Rounding out the one-design winners was skipper Andrew Graff on his J/88 EXILE, which won three races and placed second in three others to top the J/88 fleet. Graff had the luxury of throwing out a third and finished with nine points, six less than veteran skipper Iris Vogel and her New York-based DEVIATION team.
This was the first class victory in seven attempts at Charleston Race Week for Graff, a Chicago resident. EXILE had finished second several times.
“We got great starts and did a good job of changing gears. The shifts were really quick, so you had to change gears a lot in terms of trimming, steering, and crew weight,” Graff said. “This team has been together for quite a while and that helps. Everyone knows their job.”
Kris Werner trimmed the main and called tactics on EXILE with Miranda Madden (bow), Luke LeCoche (bow), Graham Eger (spinnaker trimmer), and Scott Eisenhardt (jib trimmer) making up the rest of the crew.
No boat put forth a more dominant performance than TEAMWORK, the J/122 skippered by Robin Team of Lexington, North Carolina. North Sails pro Jonathan Bartlett was a tactician aboard TEAMWORK, which won six straight races before finishing second in Sunday’s lone start.
TEAMWORK was rewarded for its dominance by being awarded the Palmetto Cup as the winner of the most competitive handicap fleet. This marked the sixth time Team has taken home the Palmetto Cup.
“It was a great week for TEAMWORK and we enjoyed everything about the regatta,” Team said. “We’ve been sailing together for so long that everyone knows their role and does it well. Jonathan put us in the right place all the time and crew work and boat speed were really good.”
A very special thanks to all sponsors, competing teams, volunteers, and partners who helped make Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point a big success. Save the dates for next year, April 16-19, 2026!
For more Charleston Race Week sailing informationhttps://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu/16941
