30th Charleston Race Week– J/Boats Dominate Across Multiple Classes

(Charleston, SC)- The 30th anniversary Charleston Race Week enjoyed great weather over four days. Hosted on the USN Yorktown, a World War II aircraft carrier, organizers were pleased with three days of excellent racing in Charleston Harbor. High tides at 8:30 AM kicked off the first day. From Friday to Sunday, it was mostly an “ebb tide” regatta. This had a big effect on the typical southerly sea breezes sailors expect. The tide fought the breeze, delaying the seabreeze on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, a cold front brought shifty north-northwest winds. Here is how it went for the J/7s, J/22s, J/24s, J/70s, J/105s, and the PHRF and ORC divisions. Read on to see the action on Charleston Harbor.

Day 1
Patience was the name of the game on Friday as the full fleet was sent out on the water. Principal race officers on the three harbor courses had to wait for conditions to stabilize, as a northwesterly wind battled the sea breeze. Circles 1 and 2 were postponed for a while in the morning, while Circle 3 started a race that was abandoned!

Most classes completed one light-air race before the sea breeze stabilized, bringing strong, steady south-southwesterly winds in the mid-teens.

“We were excited to get going once the sea breeze arrived and brought great pressure,” said Luca Hynnek, skipper of ORC B’s Maggie. “It was a fun, exciting day.”

ORC A and B raced twice on a short course as the Sportboat North American Championships hit the midpoint. Mike Beasley’s J/80 BLACK SHEEP led ORC B—winning both buoy races after a distance race win.

The J/70s — the largest class at Charleston Race Week with 31 entries — was loaded with talented teams featuring notable professionals.

Texas skipper Bruno Pasquinelli and his STAMPEDE team have done quite well in this regatta over the years, capturing consecutive J/70 championships in 2021-22 and multiple other podium finishes. The Dallas resident was off to another strong start after steering STAMPEDE to a superb 1-5-2 score line in three races.

Competition is typically tight, with just nine points separating the first and sixth-place boats. WICKED, an Annapolis entry skippered by Arthur “Jib” Edwards, held second place in the overall standings — three points astern of STAMPEDE.

This marks the fifth time Edwards has competed in the J/70 class at CRW, and Friday marked by far his best performance as WICKED posted results of third, second, and sixth.

“We were able to get clean lanes coming off the starting line and had good boat speed,” Edwards said. “We didn’t make any big mistakes or take any risks; just kept it conservative and stayed in phase.”

Danish professional Joachim Aschenbrenner, a World Match Racing Tour veteran, called tactics for Edwards. North Sails-Chesapeake pro Jeff Hayden and Canadian Drew Mitchell joined the WICKED team. They have benefited from training against skipper Paul Green and the PROGRESS program.

“Paul has really helped me up my game,” Edwards said. “It’s fun to be beating PROGRESS early on, but we need to keep our heads down and not look at the results. We have to keep working and try our best to stay consistent.”

Six of nine boats in the PHRF Inshore class are J/7 daysailers. The new design performed well out of the gate. Skipper Henry Brauer won two races and took second in the other. J/7 entries are first through sixth in the standings.

Brauer is the current president of US Sailing. He is a former Tufts classmate of Stu Johnstone, tactician for his father Bob Johnstone. Bob is the co-founder of J/Boats and a National Sailing Hall of Fame inductee. Johnstone is also skippering a J/7 entry. The J/7s are sailing without spinnakers at CRW.

“Bob is trying to build the fleet down here in Charleston, and I’m trying to help him with that effort,” Brauer said. “It’s a fun boat to sail and easy to handle. We were faster than the PHRF boats that were using spinnakers, which shows these boats perform quite nicely.”

Veteran PRO Bruce Bingman gave the ORC Offshore class an action-filled day. Two windward-leeward races took place in medium breeze off Rattlesnake Shoals. Later, a southerly wind built to 10 knots, allowing a third race. This race sent four boats around an offshore turning mark, with the finish inside Charleston Harbor. Skipper Matthew Schaedler of Toledo, Ohio, led J/122 BLITZKRIEG to a strong 2-1-1 score and an early lead.

There are four classes doing pursuit racing under the PHRF rating system, and there were double winners in each on Friday. In PHRF Spinnaker A, Martin Zonnenberg’s J/111 QUICKDRAW swept both races.

Day 2
It was “moving day” for competitors and teams in several classes, who put forth strong performances on the water to set themselves up for ultimate success.

Saturday is traditionally when teams try to move up in this three-day regatta. Securing a shot at the title on Sunday depends on Saturday’s position.

There was a slight twist on that tried-and-true tradition for competitors in the ORC Sportboat North American Championship, which added an extra day of racing. However, Saturday was still important for those two classes as it marked the second of three days of short-course, multi-race, windward-leeward action.

In ORC B,Mike Beasley’s J/80 BLACK SHEEP led from the start. The smallest, slowest boat in class B, BLACK SHEEP, posted 2-2-1 and leads by five points.

On Saturday, race officers for all three inshore courses issued a postponement, so boats stayed at the dock. Racing for nine classes began between 1 and 1:30 p.m. after the sea breeze arrived. Competitors praised the race officers for fitting in three starts that afternoon.

“Everyone will admit that it was extremely challenging conditions today. It demands that everyone have their head out of the boat looking for wind,” said one competitor on Circle 3. “It’s very much about keeping your eyes on the puffs as far away as possible to see where the wind is coming from.”

There was a swap atop the J/105 standings with Bill Zartler leading DEJA VOODOO to a pair of first-place results sandwiched around a second. The Houston-based boat now has a low score of eight points, just one better than the College of Charleston entry ZEPHYR.

ZEPHYR, skippered by John Polek, is the defending champion in the J/105 class. DEJA VOODOO was victorious in 2024, so this marks the rubber match between the two.

“I think the College of Charleston team is very talented and is sailing their boat very well. It’s been fantastic sailing and great competition so far,” Zartler said. “It’s been a lot of body blows back-and-forth the last two days, and it’s kind of a dead heat going into tomorrow.”

Zartler acknowledges that DEJA VOODOO has been fortunate, such as in the last race on Saturday when it rounded the top weather mark in sixth, then found a clear lane on the downwind leg and moved into the lead.

Competition is typically tight in the talent-laden J/70 class. Texas skipper Bruno Pasquinelli and his team aboard STAMPEDE maintained the overall lead after getting the gun in two of three races on Saturday.

Jackson Benvenutti was an All-American sailor at College of Charleston, while trimmer Patrick Wilson has lived in the area for several years. “I’ve got two guys that are really familiar with the venue and sailing here. Having the local knowledge has really paid off,” Pasquinelli said.

STAMPEDE was sailing in fifth place in Race 8 on Saturday when a pileup at the windward mark enabled Pasquinelli to sail around four boats to take the lead, which he held. A victory in Race 6 came after the Dallas-based boat was over early and had to restart. Benvenutti decided to split with most of the fleet and chose port tack, which paid major dividends.

“We’ve definitely had some big breaks that we took advantage of,” Pasquinelli said.

Jeff Todd and his HOT TODDY team have won five of seven races, but are just three points ahead of James Pine and the SALTLINE squad in the J/22 class. Todd has been racing the J/22 for nearly three decades, while Pine is a highly decorated youth, high school, and college sailor from Mount Pleasant.

“We have good boat speed and boat handling. We don’t always go in the right direction, but we’re going fast,” said Todd, a former professional with the North Sails loft in Annapolis. “I’ve been impressed with how well SALTLINE is sailing. It will be a real battle tomorrow, which should be fun.”

Skipper Amy Woodard and her all-female crew aboard J-MAGIKK are showing great form in the J/24 class, winning two races and finishing no lower than fourth. This team has been together for four years, and the five Charleston-area residents are all part owners.

Mary Corbett is calling tactics for this regatta and is doing a “fabulous job,” according to Woodard. J-MAGIKK has competed at Charleston Race Week a dozen times, with the best result coming last year when it was runner-up.

“Course awareness was important in the first race today. We recognized that the course was pretty skewed, so we started on port at the committee boat,” Woodard said. “I think we transitioned really well in the second race. We found a great wind line and read where we needed to be on the course. I think we generally did a good job of reading where the wind was and wasn’t today.”

J-MAGIKK held a three-point lead over ICE CUBE, a Vermont entry skippered by Michael Quaid, which was the class winner here at CRW in 2023. “I never feel good leading the regatta going into the last day. I tend to overthink things at that point,” Woodard said.

Rick Moore and Ryan Hamm were among the founding fathers of Charleston Race Week way back in 1996. They have raced together in 15 of the 30 regattas held to date and are doing so again this year.

Hamm is serving as skipper aboard KEELFORCE, a J/120 that is leading the Pursuit A Spinnaker class after winning Saturday’s race. There are seven boats in Pursuit A with principal race officer Ray Redniss setting a 17.5-mile course on Saturday. Hamm likes that the start-finish line is set just inside Charleston Harbor.

“We got out into the ocean for about 10 miles or so, take a right and sail another couple miles to the turning mark, then head back home,” Hamm said.

KEELFORCE was winning Friday’s race until it ran aground and was passed by QUICKDRAW, a J/111 owned by Martin Zonnenberg of St. Petersburg, Florida. KEELFORCE starts behind two other J/120 sloops and must pass them on the course before having to defend against QUICKDRAW.

“We’ve got a really good crew and are sailing very well, but that J/111 is pushing us hard,” Hamm said. “Today, we rounded the windward mark that is set offshore in first place, but the J/111 was chasing us down. It was like a match race down the stretch, and really good spinnaker work kept us ahead. We were able to finish with two well-executed jibes right before the finish line.”

Day 3
The finale was marked by a “dry” cold front passing through just as racing commenced on all courses. A cool north-northwest breeze in the 8 to 20 kts range challenged all sailors, 30-40 degree shifts were not uncommon, and it was very streaky as well. In fact, with such a strong northerly settling in as the ebb tide started around 10:30 AM, the current was nearly 50% stronger than normal, ripping out to sea at 3.0 kts or more in some locations!

J/70 Class
Texas skipper Bruno Pasquinelli and his STAMPEDE team added another chapter to his impressive history of top-tier performance at Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point by capturing the J/70 championship for the third time. The Dallas resident steered STAMPEDE to first or second place in five of nine races —totaling 21 points—seven fewer than skipper Paul Green and the PROGRESS team.

“I think the key to my success here over the years is that I’ve always sailed with Charleston locals,” Pasquinelli said.

That was certainly the case this year as former College of Charleston All-American Jackson Benvenutti was aboard as tactician while area resident Patrick Wilson slotted in as trimmer.

“Patrick and Jackson have sailed here hundreds of times between them, and their experience was very valuable because a lot of local knowledge was required this week,” Pasquinelli said. “It was really hard sailing the entire regatta. It seemed like understanding the current was really important in this regatta. The last five years were more of a wind-driven event, but this year was more current-driven.”

Pasquinelli has multiple relatives in the greater Charleston area and has been coming here every summer for years and years. Perhaps that close connection to the city is why he has so many podium placements here.

“Charleston is very dear to my heart and has always been one of my favorite places to sail. It’s a special place and to do well here brings me a lot of joy,” said Pasquinelli, whose repeated prowess at Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point is well known by other skippers in the class.

“Maybe we have developed a mystique about this regatta that puts fear into our competitors before racing even begins,” he said.

Pasquinelli’s STAMPEDE team won with 21 pts net, followed by Paul Green’s PROGRESS in second with 28 pts net. Rounding out the podium for the bronze medal was Brian Keane’s SAVASANA with 34 pts net (a past winner of CRW, too).

The balance of the top five included top woman helm Maggie McKillen and her MAGATRON team in fourth place with 37 pts net, and early leader Art Edwards’s WICKED team ended up fifth with 39 pts net.

J/7 Class
US Sailing President Henry Brauer was the wire-to-wire winner of the PHRF Inshore class aboard RIEVER, one of six J/7 daysailers entered. Ryan Squires trimmed the main, and Olivia Lowthian worked the bow for Brauer, who was on fire in winning six of nine races.

“We certainly had a very good series. I thought the team did a tremendous job,” the Marblehead, Massachusetts resident said. “I thought we did a really good job of reading the wind in advance and putting ourselves in position to catch the next good shift or increase in velocity. We were also able to position the boat well as far as the influence of the tide and current.”

Squires and Lowthian, former collegiate sailors at Miami (Ohio) and Salve Regina, respectively, teamed up to provide Brauer with wind and tactical advice. It marked the first class victory at Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point for the former Tufts University sailor, who has previously skippered entries in J/70, J/80, and J/111s in CRW.

The balance of the podium saw Tommy Henshaw’s BLUE J take the silver medal with 18 pts net, followed by Bob Johnstone’s WINGS OF THE WIND team taking the bronze medal with 28 pts net. Johnstone- a 92-year-old great-grandfather- was sailing with his son Stu Johnstone, a grandfather himself- notably the average age of their crew was 72 years old!

J/24 Class
Amy Woodard has raced in the J/24 class at Charleston Race Week a dozen times and finally came away with a win this year. The Charleston resident and her all-women’s team on J-MAGIKK counted all top five finishes in nipping ICE CUBE (Michael Quaid) by two points.

J-MAGIKK featured five women owners: Woodard, tactician Mary Corbett, Jennifer Hayes (bow), Gina Shaw (pit), and Katie Johnson-Williams (spinnaker).

“We didn’t have the best racing day, but we managed to maintain our lead. I have to say it feels pretty good to finally pull it off,” Woodard said. “It really was all about consistency. We didn’t have as many bullets as I would have liked, but we also didn’t have any bad scores. We sailed pretty even every day and kept the boat in the top half of the fleet.”

The balance of the podium behind J-MAGIKK, with 25 pts net, was silver medallist Mike Quaid’s ICE CUBE team with 27 pts net. The bronze medal went to the Clemson Sailing Club on BLIND DATE.

J/22 Class
Jeff Todd is one of the most renowned skippers in J/22 history and has a long list of notable accomplishments. The former North Sails professional can now add Charleston Race Week to his championship trophy case.

Todd has competed at CRW in a wide range of classes over the years, but had never before brought his own boat. The Annapolis resident and longtime teammate Chris Ryan made the trip because both of their daughters now live in the area.

Todd, who is 65 years old and on the verge of retirement, showed a fleet of 10 boats how it’s done by winning six of nine races for a low score of 11 points. Mount Pleasant skipper James Pine and the SALTLINE team did an impressive job of keeping pace and finished just two points astern in second.

“Old guys can still get it done. We were going against the younger generation and managed to edge them out,” Todd said. “It was a good experience all around. We were able to go sailing during the day and spend time with the family when we were off the water. We were treated to beautiful weather and good hospitality here in Charleston.”

After HOT TODDY and SALTLINE as 1-2 on the podium, taking home the bronze medal was Jordan Wiggins’s VIBE COMMITTEE.

J/105 Class
There was a terrific battle in the J/105 class between skipper Bill Zartler’S DEJA VOODOO and ZEPHYR, a College of Charleston entry captained by senior John Polek. DEJA VOODOO entered the final day of competition with a narrow one-point lead on ZEPHYR, meaning it was all on going into the last two races.

Tactician Ryan Glaze closed out a strong regatta of dissecting the shifty winds and tricky currents as the Houston-based entry closed the door by winning Race 8 and placing second in Race 9.

“We came out and did exactly what we needed to do today. We were able to figure out the start in that massive current and get the jump on ZEPHYR. They pushed us the whole way, but were able to hold on,” Zartler said. “This crew has a lot of experience together on the 105, so it’s kind of second nature and a really quiet boat. Everybody just does their job.”

Finishing behind DEJA VOODOO and ZEPHYR in the top two spots to take the bronze medal was long-time CRW participant Kristen Robinson on VELVET HAMMER from Annapolis, MD.

The balance of the top five includes Rob & Abby Ruhlman’s SPACEMAN SPIFF from Cleveland, OH, in fourth place and John Wrangle’s WATERMELON in fifth place.

PHRF Pursuit- Spin A Division- J/Sweep!
Skipper Martin Zonnenberg led his J/111 QUICKDRAW to first place in the third and decisive race of Pursuit Spinnaker A class on Sunday. This was the Charleston Race Week debut for the St. Petersburg-based J/111, which used this regatta as preparation for the Newport-to-Bermuda Race.

It was a tight battle between QUICKDRAW and KEELFORCE, a J/120 owned by Rick Moore and skippered by close friend Ryan Hamm — two of the founding fathers of Charleston Race Week. QUICKDRAW crossed the line first in Friday’s race after KEELFORCE ran aground, but Hamm and crew turned the tables on Saturday by winning a downwind spinnaker duel into the harbor.

Zonnenberg acknowledged that north-northwesterly winds that steadily increased from 6 to 10 knots favored the J/111 on Sunday.

“We had a lot of upwind sailing today, and our crew did an amazing job. We put in 44 tacks while hugging the jetty and shore going into the finish,” he said. “The current started ebbing just after we started, and we saw as much as four knots at one point. We did a good job of staying out of it.”

QUICKDRAW earned the Palmetto Trophy, which is presented to the winner of the most competitive of the four pursuit classes.

“Scott McGregor deserves special credit as tactician, but it was a total team effort,” Zonnenberg said. “This whole event has been a lot of fun. The racing conditions were excellent, and the course management was outstanding.”

The two boats led a J/Boats sweep of the top five places in the division! Third was Bob Mouser’s J/130 SCEPTRE, fourth was Bill Hanckel’s J/120 EMOCEAN, and fifth was John Keenan’s J/120 ILLYRIA.

ORC A Division- J/Sweep!
Skipper Matthew Schaedler led his J/122 BLITZKRIEG to a dominant victory in ORC A, which raced windward-leeward courses offshore. The Toledo, Ohio resident claimed his second class victory in four years at Charleston Race Week by winning six of eight races. Rick Rothenbuler served as tactician on the J/122, which was coming off a strong performance at the Southern Ocean Racing Conference “Islands in the Stream” series.

“We have a fast boat and a strong crew. We’ve been sailing together all winter and have a lot of time on the water,” Schaedler said. “We had outstanding boat speed and were making our numbers almost all the time. We were fast going upwind and downwind.”

The BLITZKRIEG team led a podium sweep of the division by J/Boats teams. Taking the silver medal was Les Cabiness’s J/111 WIDE LOAD, followed by Willy Schwenzfeier’s locally famous J/35 ARROW on the bronze medal step.

ORC Sportboat North Americans
There was a regatta within a regatta this year as Charleston Race Week at Patriots Point welcomed the ORC Sportboat North American Championship. Organizers expanded the regatta to four days for the inaugural event, which drew 18 boats in two classes.

A distance race around Charleston Harbor on Thursday was followed by three days of short-course, windward-leeward competition. It was a stiff test for participating teams, with skipper Mike Beasley emerging as the first North American champs on his J/80 BLACK SHEEP in ORC B division.

BLACK SHEEP was at a perceived disadvantage as the smallest, slowest entry in ORC B. But Beasley put together a top-notch team that sailed extremely well from the back end of the eight-boat fleet. Joe Gibson trimmed and called tactics for his longtime friend as the J/80 won the distance race as well as three of the windward-leeward starts, amassing 13 points — six clear of the second-place boat.

“For what it’s worth, prior preparation prevents poor performance. We put a lot of time in beforehand just getting the boat ready, and there are lots of people I need to thank,” Beasley said. “I’m just so proud of the whole team. We got better every day, and we just sailed consistently strong. When you have a team that is so committed to winning, it means a lot. I think friendship builds speed.”

Gibson and Beasley, longtime industry professionals from Annapolis, have now teamed up five times to secure class honors at Race Week. “We certainly know the lay of the land down here, and Joe Gibson is just an incredible machine. He’s so darn good at trimming sails and making the boat go fast,” Beasley said.

Jacob Boertlein, Diane Bevington, and Lydia Jabin completed the crew aboard BLACK SHEEP, which placed second in three windward-leeward races with a low result of third. Beasley praised shore manager Kate Chaney for handling all the minute details that lead to on-water success.

For more Charleston Race Week sailing information
Https://www.charlestonraceweek.com