J/Teams dominate Annapolis to Newport Race

J/Teams dominate Annapolis to Newport Race © J/Boats

The 2021 edition of the Annapolis to Newport Race had nearly 50% more entries than the previous edition of the 473.0nm race! Eighty-four enthusiastic offshore sailing teams started off Annapolis, MD and headed south down the Chesapeake Bay.

In reality, there are two overall winners, as the smaller boats started Friday, larger boats on Saturday. After exiting Chesapeake Bay under the graceful Bay Bridge spanning the Bay from Virginia to Delaware, the teams headed north-northeast offshore into the Atlantic Ocean, headed for Block Island and the finish off Castle Hill Lighthouse on the approach to Newport, RI.

Six classes consisting of sixty-one boats started on the first day in a southerly breeze of 4 to 6 knots. Later in the afternoon the breeze kicked in just past Cove Point and the fleet started to make fast progress to the turn at Chesapeake Light offshore. Thereafter, all night and for most of the race, the fleet had mostly southwesterly winds at their back for most of the Atlantic Ocean passage.

Friday start

In a stunning performance, loving the sybaritic weather and sailing conditions, were a pack of J/Teams that collected a lot of silverware. Leading the charge and winning both ORC 3 Division and ORC Overall was David Cielusniak's J/122 J-Curve; theirs's was a commanding win with a 1 hr 25 min handicap lead. It was nearly a clean sweep of the top five.

Third was Chris Lewis' J/44 Kenai, fourth Todd Berget's J/120 Skadi, fifth the US Merchant Marine Academy's J/44 Vamp YCC, sixth Richard Born's J/120 Windborn, seventh Rick Hanson's J/120 No Surrender, 12th Ashley Maltempo and Bill Wiggins' J/121 Wings, 13th Jim Praley's J/120 Shinnecock, and 14th Bill Ingraham's J/124 Tenebrae. It was an outstanding performance for these offshore teams, occupying six of the top seven slots in ORC Overall!

In ORC 4 Division, Albert Bossar's J/42 Allegiant managed a fifth place in a hotly contested "cruising" division. In the ORC Doublehanded Division Robert Dunigan's J/124 Jane Says took third place. Then, in ORC 5 Division, Lynn McClaskey's J/110 Cimarron took fourth place.

In the PHRF Division, David Esseks' J/109 Twiga finished fourth, Tom Sa's J/33 Blink was fifth, and Dan Lewis' J/109 Skoot placed sixth.

Saturday start

Like their Friday starting colleagues, J/Teams also had outstanding performances starting on Saturday. Winning ORC 2 Division and second ORC Overall was Bob Manchester's J/133 Vamoose. Another J/133, the US Naval Academy's Wasp took 10th and Len Sitar's J/160 Cougar ended up 13th.

J/120 Division

Winning the J/120 class was Berget's Skadi, followed by Born's Windborn in second, and Rick Hanson's No Surrender in third place.

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