(Rochester, NY)- The second annual J/70 North Americans are about to get
underway in Rochester, New York hosted by the Rochester YC. An
enormous fleet of 83 boats are registered, the second straight year in a
row the J/70 class has fielded its first major championship with a
fleet in excess of 80 boats- an unprecedented accomplishment in the
third year for any ISAF International keelboat class.As a precursor for the J/70 World Championship being held at New York YC in September off Newport, RI, this event promises exciting racing for many American teams as well as numerous entries from overseas that are representing Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Brazil, Ireland, Sweden and Great Britain.
So far, the fleet can expect good winds from the WSW quadrants interspersed with wet weather in the beginning of the week; then clearing skies and improved weather with decent breezes out of the WSW quadrants at 6-12 kts for Wednesday through Friday, then the return of wet weather on Saturday and Sunday with light to medium ESE breezes.
If last weekend’s J/70 class at the Bacardi Sail Newport Regatta was any indication of things to come this week, then look for many of these top teams in the top fifteen at the NA’s- Martie McKenna, Peter Vessella, Brandon Flack, Heather Gregg-Earl & Joe Bardenheier (current 2012 J/70 NA Champions), Bruno Pasquinelli & Patrick Wilson, Jen & Ray Wulff, Dave Franzel, Henry Filter, Doug Strebel, Brian Keane, Jud & Cynthia Smith, Will Welles, Joel Ronning and Al Terhune.
For those top teams that missed the 70s in Newport, one should also see several other top American teams in the hunt like Jim Barnash, Jim & Cole Allsopp, Tim Healy, Bennet Greenwald, Mark Ploch and Kerry Klingler.
The top Canadian teams include Stu McCrea, Scott Weakley, Andrew Papierz and Ed Backman. Attending from Brazil is past J/24 World Champion Mauricio Santa Cruz; from Great Britain there are two teams- Ian Atkins on boats.com (third at 2014 J/70 Midwinters and UK National Champion) and Joe Woods on RED; from Mexico is Julian Fernandez Neckelmann & Bernard Minkow; from Puerto Rico is Marco Teixidor; from Ireland is Trey Sheehan and from Sweden is Mikael Lindqvist & Ingemar Sundstedt (J/80 Swedish Champions). For more J/70 North Americans sailing information
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