J/111, J/35 and J/120 Teams Battle at Helly Hansen Detroit Regatta
(Detroit, MI)- Last weekend, Bayview Yacht Club hosted its big season opener for Lake St. Clair sailors- the Helly Hansen Detroit Regatta. The regatta featured one-design classes for J/111s, J/35s, and J/120s. All fleets got in eight or more races! Here’s how it all went down for those three fleets.
J/111 Class
A passionate fleet of a half-dozen J/111s were treated to the proverbial “schooling” on how to sail eight solid races by the WILDCAT team. Starting out slowly with a 2nd, Ed Kriese’s WILDCAT then proceeded to sweep the next seven races straight, posting seven bullets to win with just 9 pts total.
Sailing nearly as strongly to garner the silver medal was Kevin & Seth Young’s BLACK SEAL. After winning the first race, the posted five 2nds, 3rd, 5th for a total of 19 pts.
After the first two steps on the podium appeared to be determined by the first few races, it was anything but obvious who would earn the final bronze medal. It was a three-way battle between Bill Williams’s CHROMA, James Cooper’s FREEDOM, and Mark Symonds’s PTERODACTYL. Over the eight races, they traded places as all three teams rode their own roller-coasters up and down the standings depending on their finishes. In the end, Williams’s CHROMA team took a 3rd in the final race to grab the proverbial bronze ring (medal)!
J/35 Great Lakes Championship
Nine teams started out the weekend with vaguely serious intentions to compete for the title of 2026 J/35 Great Lakes Champion. However, no one doubted that if the infamous MR BILL’S WILD RIDE team showed up on the starting line, the title was more than likely theirs to keep. Not surprisingly, the very talented Bill Wildner whipped together his equally talented “wild riders”- e.g., “let’s get the party started with us good’ole boys again”- and simply smoked the fleet. Starting off the first race with a bullet, they never looked back, adding three 1sts, three 2nds, a 3rd, and a 6th to finish with 19.0 pts.
Giving the Wild Riders a serious “run-for-the-money” was Mike Welch’s talented crew on FALCON. Starting off with a 2nd and winning the next three races straight, it looked like the FALCON crew had gotten the Wild Rider’s number, so to speak. However, the bloom started to fall off their rose quickly, adding a 4-7-3.5 in the last three races to send their runaway shopping trolley off the rails and into the gutter of despair. Nevertheless, Welch’s FALCON team had a lot to be proud of, having given the Wild Riders plenty to fear about at the outset. In the end, earning the silver medal with 23.5 pts total was a well-deserved reward for their weekend of work.
Rounding out the podium was Terry and Sheri Dufresne’s FIREFLY. After a rocky start in their first three races- 4-4-DSQ – they gathered their team’s collective wits together and added three 3rds and two bullets in their last two races to securely earn the bronze medal with 34 pts total.
J/120 Class
The expected rivalries of Bayview’s J/120s on “J Dock” for last season’s leading contenders never materialized. Mike & Bob Kirkman’s HOT TICKET threw down the gauntlet from day one and proceeded to decimate the fleet to take the gold medal. HOT TICKET’s opening gambit of a 1-3-2 was followed up by a 1-1-3.5-4-1 for 16.5 pts total. A new contender surfaced in the form of Ongena & Ruffing’s NOBODY’S FAULT team. Perfectly matching the scores of HOT TICKET in the first three races- 2-1-3- they could not manage to maintain that same hot pace for the balance of the regatta, adding a 6-3-1-2-5 tally for 23 pts total to take the silver medal. Rounding out the podium was another relative newcomer- Jon Berg & Jim Denner’s LATITUDE- garnering the bronze medal with a 4-2-4-4-4-2-1-4 scoreline for 25 pts total.
For Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta scores
https://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu/50502
For more Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta information
https://www.sailingworld.com/regatta-series-detroit/