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Dave and Bill here wishing everyone a Happy New Year! What a year for the J/30 class in 2011! We noted 75 official active class members, 51 US Sailing members and have captured fleet information for 518 J/30 hulls. Our fleets continue to be recognized across the world.
The word ca•ma•ra•de•rie means: Mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. We are very proud of our class as we have developed a sailing leadership image over the years. We have overcome our differences of opinions through various levels of diverse thinking. Across the nation, we have developed a lot of lifelong friends in our class. We are thankful to have the best people with a focus of family. When we disagree, let’s refrain from using Sailing Anarchy and pick up the phone to talk to one another – like in the old days before social media. With a goal to keep the costs of our sport low, let’s work together to produce a class built on the basic foundations of sportsmanship and camaraderie. We are like a softball league on water. As the economic times improve and the new sailing season begins, give yourself a pat on the back for creating a world in which we compete, laugh, collaborate and succeed on and off of the water.
In 2012, goals include more forum, blog and video coverage of regattas, renovation projects, racing tips and tricks. Examples: cross sheeting, launching the spinnaker from the front hatch, main sheet systems, vang systems, deck layouts. After reading Nicholas Hayes book Saving Sailing, it is clear that we need more families sailing together. Let’s host more junior regattas and act as mentors to younger sailors. The J/30 is a perfect boat to help Save Sailing.
Here are a few topic of focus:
RECOGNITION J/30 President’s Recognition Awards
North Americans – David McConaughly with Hampton based crew aboard White Boat
Newest Member to Finish Top 5 at NAs – Whitney Kent with Team Raiki
Media – Molly Winans for coverage of multiple J/30 events in Spinsheet Magazine.
Funniest Video – Bob Rutsch http://j30.us/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12454/2011_J_30_NA_s_Race_4_video_of.html
Sailor Recruitment – Vic Farmer who created a youth sailing program in Naples
Training Videos – Vic Farmer – check many of them out on the J/30 forum
Innovative Story – Dell Todd – check out his story on the J/30 website http://j30.us/blog/?p=1148
If you would like to recognize a J/30 class member for accomplishment visit this forum thread. http://j30.us/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12778.html#Post12778
NORTH AMERICANS
Congratulations to White Boat skippered by David McConaughy who made the trip from Hampton, VA to win the North American Championship hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club. Steve Buzbee and the Blue Meanie crew finished second. Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello’s team sailing BeBop finished 3rd. The 2012 North American Championship will be hosted by New Orleans Yacht Club in October 18-21. NOYC posted the NOR one year in advanced of the event. Please register early if you are planning to race. Stay tuned for exciting sponsorship and event announcements in the near future. The J/30 North American Championship continues to be the largest venue of J/30 sailors sharing ideas and stories.
COMMUNICATIONS
The level of discussion on the J/30 forum has continued to increase with sailors from all over the world exchanging sea stories, getting maintenance tips, coordinating cruises and scheduling races. Don’t forget to check out the discussions on the district forums that are local to your area.
Since our boats are one year older, there are many who have taken extra steps to preserve the legacy and material condition of their boats. There is a wealth of information on the J/30 forum made possible by people who have share information on core replacement, engine rebuilding, running rigging upgrades, deck repair, and the list goes on. If you have not registered on the J/30 forum, you’re missing a great resource available at no cost for your use.
Don’t forget to engage and speak to your district governors and ask “what do you want” so the J/30 class can serve you better. Create opportunity to meet and connect with other J/30 owners in your area.
MERCHANDISE
The J/30 Class continues to partner with V-Sport, the J/Boat licensed apparel supplier to offer member discounts on J/30 logo merchandise that can be personalized for your boat. The class has also partnered with North Sails to offer J/30 flags available for purchase online. We are now selling large battle and smaller back stay flags. We are also offering a 20% US Sailing membership discount through the Membership Partner Program – those who pay J/30 class dues online and enter their US Sailing number get a custom link to get this discount with their data already entered.
Finally, we will be sending out an email with a request for 2012 class dues by the end of January. Class dues will remain at $50 for each owner/co-owner and $25 for associate membership (crew members). If you have not received an email message by 1 February, please contact us to be sent a custom registration link for your boat. We ask that everyone please support the class and pay dues, so we can continue to build the momentum with resources such as the web site, forum and National Championship.
Happy Sailing!
Bill Kneller & Dave Erwin
Photo by Dan Phelps / SpinSheetA surprisingly autumnal northerly breeze blew into town to welcome the J/30 North American Championship Regatta, hosted at Annapolis YC (AYC), September 16-18. The breeze brought along with it an unusual milky mud water color and potentially dangerous assortment of debris—trees, telephone poles, barrels, and more—following tropical storms, flooding, and the subsequent opening of the Conowingo Dam gates. One of the teenagers from Wisconsin who sailed with Team Rafiki said, “It’s not like this sailing at home.” From those of us who live on the Chesapeake, we can honestly say, the water is not like that here, either. Or it wasn’t until the floods. Competitors traveled from as far as New York, Chicago, IL, and New Orleans, LA, with the winning boat, White Boat skippered by David McConaughy, making the trip from Hampton, VA. Sailors worked their way around the debris issue and focused on the serious task at hand: winning the title. Team Rafiki, skippered by 18-year-old Wisconsin native Whitney Kent and crewed by her sister Alison and two sailing buddies Kate and Elizabeth Hayes—ranging in age from 14 to 17—as well as J/30 class president Dave Erwin (New Orleans, LA), were the buzz of the regatta after winning race one of seven. The crew sailed on Bear Away, generously lent and happily crewed by Annapolitan Bonnie Schloss, with Louisianan Scott Tonguis and Chicagoan Dennis Bartley rounding out the team. Although Team Rafiki had two races they didn’t want to talk about, they did score a first, second and third and finished overall in fifth; this was the goal when they hatched the plan to give the sailing-crazy Wisconsin teenagers a chance to compete at the national level. McConaughy and his Hampton-based crew posted three bullets and beat former National Champion Stephen Buzbee of Raritan YC in New Jersey by four points. Following their victory at Annapolis Race Week, Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello and their Annapolis-based team were next in line in third place. AYC hosted a lovely team dinner with paella on Saturday night and hosted a Sunday night dinner and awards ceremony early enough for competitors to fly or truck their boats home. Find complete results at race.annapolisyc.com. Find regatta photos for purchase at spinsheet.com.
Molly Winans, Editor of the SpinSheet included the following article in the October 2011 edition.
Last month, I witnessed a kindhearted, wild-haired sort of idea sprout, magically open doors, and manifest itself into one exceptional sailing weekend. This may be my first and last Milwaukee-New-Orleans-Chicago-Annapolis sailing story with an Oahu twist, so bear with me as I untangle the details.
As co-president of the J/30 association, Dave Erwin (New Orleans, LA) was the first to read a newsletter article about the competitive, all-girl teenage crew who sail the J/30 Rafiki out of Milwaukee, WI. The father of two of the teens and the newsletter article’s author also happens to be Nicholas Hayes, the author of Saving Sailing, a book about how families and communities can carve out time to make healthier choices, namely sailing more together (find his latest article on page 56).
Erwin and his sailing buddy, Louisianan Scott Tonguis, pondered how they could get the all-girl Team Rafiki to sail with them in Annapolis for the J/30 National Championship Regatta September 16-18. Following a Facebook inquiry, parental conference calls, requests for school days off, a borrowed boat, and a second borrowed boat for lodging, and more e-mails than any of the dozen players can count, the idea started to materialize—within three weeks—much to the surprise and delight of all involved.
Hayes forked out frequent flyer miles. Annapolis J/30 sailor Bonnie Schloss offered her boat Bear Away and her local knowledge as a crewmember. A friend of SpinSheet, Michael Jewell, who was leaving for a surfing vacation in Oahu, HI, offered his Eastport-based, 40-foot O’Day Moon Bounce as lodging for the young sailors. Chicagoan J/30 sailor and 160-pounder Dennis Bartley agreed to round out the crew to make weight. A dizzying number of puzzle pieces came together as if magnetically.
I met Whitney and Alison Kent and Kate and Elizabeth Hayes (all between the ages of 14-18) in the marina parking lot next door on a chilly, drizzly September 15 evening, after they had woken up at 4:30 a.m., flown to Baltimore, met Erwin for the first time at the airport (with their PFDs in hand), gotten weighed in, and practiced spinnaker drills on the Bay for a couple of hours. Team Rafiki looked undaunted, yet a little travel-weary. Their eyes lit up when they saw their weekend floating home, complete with heat, a shower, and a stereo with an iPod plug-in. There were smiles all around as I gave them a mini-tour of the boat’s systems and left them alone.
The next day, with 18-year-old Whitney driving, Kate and Elizabeth trimming jib, and Alison working the foredeck, Team Rafiki won the first race and became the talk of the town. Forget that they had a few races they would rather delete the next day. These young sailors captured a first, a second, and a third in a seven-race national regatta and earned a fifth-place overall finish of 19 competing boats (see page 125). They had the time of their lives.
Here’s why this story matters: Team Rafiki’s skipper, Whitney, a college freshman, will turn 38 years old in 20 years. I can promise you she won’t stop sailing in between now and then. She’s going to pull out a can of whoop-ass and win in J/30s and beyond. She will buy boats, organize events, and invite newcomers into sailing. I promise you that Alison, who had “the best sailing weekend of [her] life” will do so, too. Genetically, Kate and Elizabeth have no choice but to sail for life and spread the gospel of sailing.
Kate’s note to me says, “I’ve never had a sailing weekend like that before. Everyone we met was so incredibly supportive and genuinely excited to see us there. Whenever we ate (which we did a lot of), we pulled up extra tables and extra chairs for the sailors who would come visit with us. We were surrounded by a whole bundle of new friends. When I got home, the next day at school, I felt lonely. I was surrounded by hundreds of kids my own age, but it just felt empty without that constant flow of sailors.”
Don’t invite young people on your boat to “save sailing.” Don’t invite them because you want to earn brownie points into heaven as a mentor. Do it for the same reason Erwin did—he thought these young sailors seemed like a breath of fresh air. He felt inspired by them. He thought the girls would be cool to hang out with on a race boat. His hunches were on the mark.
Whitney, Alison, Kate, and Elizabeth call themselves Team Rafiki. Rafiki was the monkey from “The Lion King,” whose name means “friend” in Swahili. Why not give a young person a chance to steer your boat because he or she seems like a neat person you would like to befriend? It worked for Erwin and Tonguis. I had dinner with the motley Milwaukee-New-Orleans-Chicago-Annapolis crew. I know this much to be true: after one unbelievable weekend sailing together on a borrowed J/30, they will always be friends.
by Molly Winans
from the October 2011 edition of SpinSheet
By Sally Heuer – South Shore Yacht Club
Whitney Kent admits she slept through her first several Queen’s Cup races. That’s understandable, considering she was just 4 years old during her first race with her parents in 1997. Her sister Alison (Gator) was 3.
This year, at ages 18 and 17, Whitney and Alison Kent launched their own campaign in the Short-handed Fleet on Rafiki, their J/30. They have probably set a record as the two youngest sailors in the 73-year history of the Queen’s Cup.
Whitney’s idea to do the Queen’s Cup with her sister was sparked in 2009 when she sailed in the Short-handed Fleet on Quicksilver with her mom, Cheri Kent Jones. 
However, Whitney felt that Quicksilver, a C&C 41, was a lot of boat for two teenagers to handle. When she got Rafiki in 2010, it was the right-sized boat, but it wasn’t ready to sail until later that summer. She had another year to make plans for the 2011 Queen’s Cup with Alison.
The next step was to convince the parents this was a good idea. “They quizzed us — what would you do in this situation, what would you do if this happened?” Whitney said.
Stepdad Eric Jones (“Inky”) was finally convinced last winter that the two sisters could safely campaign Rafiki.
Meanwhile, their dad Tim Kent would be racing against them in the Short-handed Fleet on Nemesis, a J/35. “We had a bet going that the losing boat would have to buy dinner for the winner,” Whitney said.
The day of the race — Friday July 1 — winds were 25 knots and gusting higher. Whitney and Alison had some trouble on the way to the starting line. With the apparent wind indicator up to 38 knots in the harbor, the mainsail got stuck on the way up. To make matters even more “interesting,” as Whitney described it, the engine wouldn’t start. These experienced sailors did not panic. They anchored to keep from drifting into the breakwall and called for help. The SSYC tender came to their assistance, and they were able to hoist the mainsail and start the race 20 minutes late. “We made up some time,” Whitney said.
Alison said her first goal had been to beat her dad in the race, followed by the goal of finishing. After the problem at the start, she said her priorities were switched – her first goal was to finish the race!
During the night, each of them took turns at the helm for an hour. “It was a real workout,” said Alison. “I needed both hands on the tiller to steer through the waves.” Their point of sail across the lake was a beam reach. With winds mostly above 17 knots, it was a fast race.
During the night they made two headsail changes. When winds were down to about 12 knots, they shook out a reef and put up the #2 genoa. Later, they put the #3 genoa back up.
How did they feel when they crossed the finish line in the dark at 3:40 a.m.? “Pretty excited,” Whitney said. The excitement quickly turned to focus on finding a tow to the dock. This year was Whitney’s second fastest crossing, finishing in 9 hours 59 minutes. At thirty feet long, Rafiki is also the smallest boat she has sailed in the Queen’s Cup.
“We really bonded,” Alison said about the experience with her older sister. Both Whitney and Alison say they want to race in the Short-handed Fleet again. Also — they beat their dad Tim Kent on Nemesis!
How did the blue-hulled J/30 get the name Rafiki? “When I was little, I watched The Lion King and Rafiki was my favorite character,” Whitney said.
Whitney will be a freshman at UW-Milwaukee this fall, and Alison will be a senior at Brookfield East High School.
Hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club
The 2011 J/30 North American Championship will be sailed 16 – 18 September. Measurement and weigh-in will occur on Thursday 15 September. Annapolis Yacht Club is hosting this event. Please see the Notice of Race for more information, including the loaner boat assignment procedure. The 2011 J/30 North American Championship web page has more information and includes the online registration link.
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