Spectacular, fun Red Fox Regatta at Charlevoix Yacht Club
by J/Boats 12 Sep 2023 10:56 NZST
Red Fox Regatta at Charlevoix Yacht Club © Charlevoix Yacht Club
The annual end-of-summer sailing season classic in northern Michigan has been the Labor Day regatta on Lake Charlevoix called the Red Fox Regatta.
Hosted by the Charlevoix Yacht Club, the regatta includes a Friday evening "beer can" race as a warm-up to the main event on Saturday and Sunday. The event essentially starts in Charlevoix on Saturday morning and a course is determined by wind conditions to go around a variety of marks before ending up at the far eastern end of the 17.0nm lake in Boyne City. That evening is great entertainment, a party, and an outdoor cookout for the fleet. Then, on Sunday morning the fleet races back west across the lake to Charlevoix for the awards, more entertainment, food, and a party. It's a fun, laid-back regatta designed for the sailors accustomed to racing offshore in the various Mackinac Races to celebrate another long season of sailing in the Great Lakes.
The regatta has been popular with J/sailors over the years, with boats ranging from J/22s up to J/120s! Here is how it all went down in each fleet.
PHRF overall
While there is no official overall trophy for the two races, since there is such a wild disparity in boats ranging from J/22s up to a custom Farr 49 footer, it is interesting to note how some J/teams faired in those circumstances. Tied for first with a Melges 24 was George Golder's J/111 TERRIER with a 3-4 tally for 7 pts. They missed winning outright by only 5 seconds corrected time after a Beneteau 40.7 deliberately "face-planted" a tack on top of TERRIER while sailing on lay line into the final windward mark. Meanwhile, a very well-sailed J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE, sailed by Keith & Karen Attee, had a 10-1 tally, winning the last race despite having blown up their beautiful red spinnaker on the way home and flew the remaining 5 feet of what was left of it from the masthead for over 1/3 of the race! They ended up fourth overall!
The "big boat" PHRF 7 division of seven boats saw George Golder's J/111 TERRIER win the tie-breaker on 4 pts with a 3-1 scoreline. Their very tough, well-sailed competition included a Melges 32 and a Cape 31, as well as a custom Farr 49 and Sydney 41.. pretty "heavy metal" for that little Lake Charlevoix!
In the half-dozen boat PHRF 6 Division, Keith & Karen Attee's J/120 ROCKET SCIENCE walked off with their title posting a 2-1 for 3 pts.
The eight-boat PHRF 4 Division had several J/crews doing well. Second went to the all-women's team on Libby Tomlinson's famous J/92 KNOCKOUT from Traverse City, MI. She's run a top-notch program for years with a well-practiced, talented women's crew. They won their final race, added to a 5th in the first race. Just behind them was Justin Acker's J/88 McQUEEN, the Chicago Mackinac Doublehanded Division winner. Then, Ben Poucher's J/95 WARRIOR SAILING J95 team took fourth with a 1-6 for 7 pts.
Doing battle in the half-dozen J/22 fleet were several perennial rivals. In the end, it was Thomas Barnes's RECKLESS again assuming class domination with two bullets to take an emphatic win. Second was Robert Camp's SKADOOSH with double deuces, then Dan Tosch's SAIL CHARLEVOIX crew took third place with a 3-4 for 7 pts.
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