J/Teams sweep ORC offshore division at Smokes Harvest Moon Regatta
by J/Boats 28 Oct 2019 09:48 NZDT
10-13 October 2019
J/121 Smokes Harvest Moon Regatta © Event Media
The weather forecast for this year's Harvest Moon Regatta race, hosted by Lakewood Yacht Club south of Houston, was either intimidating to some, or a thrill for others.
An impending front that ultimately produced deadly tornados north in the Dallas/ Fort Worth region also produced 5-10 foot steep Gulf of Mexico "chop" with 23 to 45 kt winds. Not exactly a recipe for a family's "walk in the park", a 150.0nm race from Galveston Bay to Port Aransas down south towards the equally famous Corpus Christi region of the Texas Gulf Coast.
According to Scott Spurlin, "in the 60+ boat fleet, it was Forbes Durdin and his brand new J/121 Bear that took line honors, won the Bacardi Cup in the ORC fleet overall, won their division and received the first annual J/Boats Award (courtesy J/Boats Southwest). The brand new J/99 YOLO finished 2nd in their ORC Division. Great showing by the two J/46's, the J/105's and the J/120!"
Reflecting on their fun-loving performance, Forbes Durdin had this to say, "great weekend aboard Bear in the 2019 Harvest Moon Regatta. Monohull line honors— 16 hrs 22 minutes— Bacardi Fleet (ORC) win, matching division win and J/Boats Trophy. Water-ballasted J-121 is a rocketship! Love it!"
Perhaps, what was more remarkable was the fact that in the 22-boat ORC Division, by far the biggest in the regatta, was that J/Teams took six of the top seven places overall! Here is how that panned out: the J/121 Bear in first, then Jim Demarest's J/46 Sodalis III in second, Albrecht Goethe's J/46 Hamburg II in third, JD Hill's J/122 Second Star in fourth, John Barnett's J/105 Pesto in sixth, and James Liston's J/120 Aeolus seventh. Congratulations to all on such a remarkable performance!
In the class breakdowns, ORC A was won by the J/121 Bear, with the J/122 Second Star in second. In ORC B class, first was the J/46 Sodalis III, second the J/46 Hamburg II, fourth the J/105 Pesto, and fifth the J/120 Aeolus.
In the ORC C Class, second was the J/99 YOLO, followed by John Bell's J/105 Kinderspiel 2 in third.
Finally, in the 13-boat PHRF Fleet, third in PHRF A Class was Rob and Stephen Epstein's J/120 Scout, and taking fourth PHRF Overall. An excellent outcome for J/Crews across the board offshore in the Harvest Moon Regatta!
More information at harvestmoonregatta.com