On May 11th and 12th, DCYC hosted the third circuit stop of the Texas Circuit. This was also one of two Area F Qualifiers for the US Adult Championships that will take place in August on J/24s at the Rochester Yacht Club.

Saturday's wind predictions were supposed to be pretty light, but by the time racing began winds settled in nicely at about 12 knots. By the end of the first race winds began increasing and for the next two races, boats were on the blade as winds hit up to between 16 and 18 knots. The last race found almost all of the boats back on genoas as we ended the racing day with winds about 10 knots. In First place at the end of racing on Saturday was Bryan Dyer and Team RumLine with 8 points, and with 9 points each, but the Second place boat breaking the tie was Stuart Lindow and Team Tropical Aggression and in Third place Kelly Holmes-Moon and Team Bad Moon. 

Sunday was expected to be another light wind day, but for the first race, the winds held steady, albeit shifty, between 10 and 12 knots. By the time the last race of the regatta began, winds were dying to between 3 and 6 knots. Being in the wind was imperative! 

After some great racing, Bryan Dyer and Team RumLine dominated once again and won both the regatta and the Area F Qualifier. Team RumLine will be representing our area at the US Adult Championships in August. Great job Team RumLine! 

Top 5 Finishers were: 

Bryan Dyer, Team RumLine (14 points)
Stuart Lindow, Team Tropical Aggression (15 points)
Kelly Holmes-Moon, Team Bad Moon (18 points)
Natalie Penner, Team GIGGLES (29 points)
Robert Cummings, Team Fast Lane (36 points)

CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM RUMLINE, winners of the 2013 Southwest Championship. Team RumLine has won a berth to the 2014 Worlds to be held in Newport, Rhode Island. The win was not an easy one!

On Saturday, as the boats headed to the start line, the winds were nice and solid at about 10-12 knots. With shifty winds, the races got off a little late and during the race the winds began to get light.

After three races, with shifty winds ranging between *almost* 5 knots and at times 8 knots, the top three boats were pretty tight with Natalie Penner and Team GIGGLES with 6 points in First place, Bryan Dyer and Team RumLine with 9 points in Second place and Robert Cummings and Team Fast Lane with 13 points in Third place.

Sunday did not look promising in the wind department and boats were postponed ashore until the winds finally started filling in only 20 minutes before the time races would have been cancelled for the day.

The boats headed out to the start line with a little under 5 knots of breeze that continued to die and fill throughout the one race we were able to get off and completed. Being in breeze was key and Team RumLine found that breeze throughout the race to move into First place on a tie, breaking the tie breaker. 

Top 5 boats were: 

Bryan Dyer, Team RumLine (12 points)
Natalie Penner, Team GIGGLES (12 points)
Stuart Lindow, Team Tropical Aggression (15 points)
James Freedma, Team Freedman (17 points)
James Kondziela, Team Odalisque (19 points)

Team RumLine were also winners of the 2012 Southwest Championship. Congratulations again for your much deserved win!

What a great start to the 2013 Circuit! Once again the first stop of seven on the J/24 Texas Circuit was at the HYC Elissa regatta. With 14 entries, the J/24 class was by far the largest and most competitive. As expected of J/24 racing the starts, roundings and finishes were full of close action. Many roundings were congested and tested the crew work of all in the regatta.

The weather was perfect for sailing with windy conditions on Saturday that had most using the Jib. Class stalwart Stuart Lindow on Tropical Aggression quickly figured out the right side of the course to be the favored side and used it to his advantage to win several races convincingly.

Sunday was slightly less windy and warranted the Genoa. After two days and six races Stuart Lindow and Team Tropical Aggression walked away with 1st having 13 points, Jim Kondziela and Team Odalisque with 14 points, Natalie Penner and Team GIGGLES was third with 17 points and close behind was Kelly Holmes-Moon on Team Bad Moon with 19 points.

HYC has always put on great events, and we came in after racing on Saturday to a great band and boiled crawfish. Also on Saturday after racing, the J/24 class handed out the awards for 2012 and things started to get exciting when the "shot boom" came out. A truly remarkable device that allows an entire crew of 5 to bond as they take shots at the same time from a damaged J24 boom. (photographs have been withheld to protect the innocent!)

We hope that the this good participation will carry over to the next circuit stop, which also serves as the J/24 District 14 Southwest Championship, a 2014 World qualifier, coming up April 27th and 28th at Fort Worth Boat Club.

Special thanks to District Governor Charlie Singstad and Tonja Holmes-Moon for helping to organize the J/24 End-of-Year Awards event, and to all the competitors for attending. Without great organization and participation the class would not be half as fun as this first circuit stop of the year!

Results can be found on the link to the left.