Jarchow Crowned J/24 Florida State Champion

(Miami, FL)- Sailed for over 40+ years, the Florida State Championship has been a summer tradition looked forward to by fanatical J/24 sailors in the southeastern region. This year, the Coconut Grove Sailing Club hosted a fleet of a dozen boats, with sailing taking place on the gorgeous azure waters of Biscayne Bay. 

Over the August 20-21 weekend, the Coconut Grove SC Race Committee and PRO team managed to run six races in two days! The tired, but elated, sailors enjoyed the thrash around the cans. There were no runaway winners, as can be the case in most J/24 regattas where parity had been reached decades ago by the top teams. In fact, it was an epic three-way battle for the top of the podium, all finishing within 4 pts of each other.

In the end, winning was Rick Jarchow’s USA 5333 by the narrowest of margins. It didn’t start that way on the first day! Posting a blistering hot 1-1-3 right out of the box, Jarchow’s crew was convinced it was “easy sledding” to the finish line the next day. However, that was not the case, not by a wide margin. Starting by winning the first race on Sunday, the team faltered and had two mediocre races, a 4-6. As a result, their saving grace was the fact they had a discard, enabling them to win the regatta with 10 pts net. 

Hounding them all weekend was Patrick Frisch’s ZIA from the local US Sailing Center. By winning the last race, they nearly pulled off the big win. Their tally of 3-2-2-7-3-1 was good for 11 pts net to take the silver medal. Rounding out the podium in third position was Eamonn Delisser’s JAM with a 2-5-1-5-1-5 scoreline for 14 pts net. 

The balance of the top five included Patricio Sly’s BITCOIN in 4th and Ricardo Martinez’s ORION in 5th place.  For more J/24 Florida States sailing information