04.Feb.15 - Texas Invitational  Galveston Bay Fleet 17 announces the first annual J/105 Texas Invitational March 27-29 at Lakewood Yacht Club. This regatta will feature at least eight locally owned boats with split crews - half from outside Fleet 17's area and half local. Five of the 10 scheduled races will have the local owner on the helm. The other five will feature non local owner drivers. The format is similar to the Bermuda Invitational with emphasis on fun and enjoyment. There are three Fleet 17 J/105s looking for invitees. If you are interested, please contact Bee Bednar at bee @ panoramatech . com.
  Fleet 17 website

02.Feb.15 - GBCA Cruzan Rum Icicle Series  
The fifth and final race in the GBCA Cruzan Rum Icicle Series took place on Saturday, January 31 in 60+ degrees temperatures and 12-17 knot breezes. Some 60 boats started, including J/70s, J/80s, J/105s, J/109s and FT10. Uzi Ozeri's Infinity managed to finish in third place and take the second place trophy in the series. Another beautiful sail on The Bay.

25.Jan.15 - Icicle 4  Another spectacular day on the Bay. GBCA's Cruzan Rum Icicle Series race 4 took place under light 7-10 knot breezes without a cloud in the sky and 60+ degree temps. The J/109 Hamburg was followed by the FT10 ONO, the J/92 77, and Uzi Ozeri's J/105 Infinity, with a J/70 following to collect series points.  Video

25.Jan.15 - J/105 at Key West Race Week  Jon Weglarz of Chicago, IL and his team on The Asylum made the trek south to beautiful Key West for the annual Race Week. Jon placed second in PHRF 2 with 21 points, making him the Midwinter Champion. Ten races were completed. Check out daily report and photos on the  event website.

22.Jan.15 - J/105 at Strictly Sail  
J/105 Fleet 5 had a booth at the 2015 Chicago Strictly Sail Show held at McCormick Place January 14-18. The booth was manned by Fleet 5 members and had the J/105 Bella (Chicago NOOD winner) as the center piece where visitors to the booth could climb aboard and see what the boat looked like. There was also a flat screen with a loop of the 2014 North Americans video running continuously. There was a lot of interest as the Fleet 5 members were enthusiastically talking to potential owners and crew. Fleet 5 grew by three boats in 2014 and is attempting to keep up the momentum in 2015.

22.Jan.15 - Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race  Despite generally light airs with winds reaching no more than 15 knots, three teams have won their skipper's weight in rum for breaking records in the 79th Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race. Peter Lewis on his J/105 Whistler won the 35ft and Under and the CSA divisions said he couldn't have asked for a better day, "It was an excellent race and despite the generally light airs it was a beautiful day for sailing and one of the best on record. We were a bit concerned the big boats would swamp us towards the end, but thankfully we were far enough ahead."  Full results

18.Jan.15 - GBCA Icicle 3  Finally! GBCA's third Icicle race on January 17 saw some 60+ boats find themselves in 64 degree temperatures and mostly sunny Texas skies. The wind gods' decision to provide fluky 2-10 knot breezes made for some extremely interesting sail choices and some very strange position changes along the 8 mile run. In the 14 boat sprit fleet, including J/70s, J/80s, J/92s, J/105s, J/109s, a GP26 and a single FT10, leads changed from last place to second and then back. The FT10, J/109, Uzi Ozeri's J1/05 Infinity and a J/70 followed by Bee Bednar's J/105 Stinger finished in the top five collecting points for the overall series.

14.Jan.15 - Minutes posted  Minutes from the 1/12/15 Executive Committee Meeting are posted.  Class Business page

10.Jan.15 - GBCA Icicle 2  For once, January in Texas took on aspects of that Northern Yankee weather. GBCA's second Icicle began with the temperature at 39 degrees, heavy cloud cover, and high humidity that switched into light rain for the last two-thirds of the race. Twenty-five brave competitors started, but it was to be a J-sprit race with six J-sprits finishing in the top six. Uzi Ozeri's J/105 Infinity took third just behind the J/109 Hamburg and J/92 77. Bee Bednar's J/105 Stinger finished sixth behind the J/109 Harm's Way and the J/80 Doodah. Hopefully next weekend will be more like the usual winter Texas weather with temps around 60 degrees.

03.Jan.15 - The First Icicle  Galveston Bay's first Icicle race on January 3 of 2015 began in gray overcast skies, 10-12 knot NW winds, 58 degree temps, and finished in beautiful warm Texas sun. On the order of 50 boats started with two 105s, a GP 26, two 109s, two J/92s, a couple of J/80s and one FT 10 in the sprit class. The downwind start saw Bee Bednar's J/105 Stinger round the first mark ahead of all but the 80s and the 92s, with Uzi Ozeri's J/105 Infinity just behind. The second and third slightly off the wind legs were almost perfect for the 105s. Stinger managed to roll the GP 26 at the second mark and then fend the light speedster off at the finish. Infinity finished in third.

30.Dec.14 - 2015 Class Rules  The 2015 Class Rules are posted  here.

18.Dec.14 - Scimitar Repeats at J/105 Chilean Championship  Over a three-day weekend in December (the 6th to 9th), the last event of 2013-14 Chilean J/105 National Championship took place off Algarrobo. An excellent, highly competitive field of 17 teams were on the starting line, ready to do battle to determine the season-ending leaders for this local offshore fleet. The weekend's weather gods smiled on the sailors, providing them great wind conditions, with a 10-15 knot southwest breezes (the best local wind) and enormous waves over 6.5 feet tall. From the earlier regattas, it was clear the three teams that were dominating those events would have to settle in for a three-way battle for the top spots on the podium. Or, they would have to contend with a late bloomer, a new team ready to ascend the leadership with better tacticians or crew. Repeating as they had from 2013, Team Scimitar skippered by Jose Ugarte, finished in first place thanks to their consistent firsts, seconds and thirds. Miguel Salas' Big Booty followed closely with 34 points to take second overall, but had to win a tie-breaker over the Plan B team skippered by Jorge Gonzalez. Plan B got the short end of that stick due to fewer top three finishes. The Chilean J/105 fleet will race again in the Sailing Week 2015, where many classes and fleets join to celebrate this event. This will take place from January 24-31, 2015 off Algarrobo as well.

14.Dec.14 - Fall Newsletter  Members will receive the Fall edition of the J/105 newsletter via e-mail. It is also posted on the  newsletter page.

12.Dec.14 - Hot Rum Series III  For the three weekends that comprise the San Diego YC's Hot Rum Series, you can expect just about anything weather-wise. For the last weekend, the weather didn't cooperate, with light airs prevailing most all day. Six J/105s took up the challenge in Class 3 with Dag Fish's Viggen taking class honors and second in class. Third in Class and second J/105 was Dennis Case's Wings, losing a tie-breaker with Viggen at 13 points each.
  Hot Rum Series website

03.Dec.14 - Pacific Northwest Snowbird Series #1  Here's Ben Braden's latest report on the first of their Snowbird Series taking place on the Sound: Stellar, spectacular, this is why we do this, I can't believe how nice it was--these comments and more rolled around the boisterous and smiling group of sailors gathered at the Anthony's Bar after participating in the first Snowbird Series race of the year, hosted by Shilshole Bay Yacht Club. Bookending a spectacular week of cool temperatures, sunny skies and strong Northerly winds, Saturday's weather couldn't have been much better. 'Are there really people crazy enough to race in this freezing weather? Hell ya!' laughs Lisa Cole sailing aboard the J/105 with the most race miles under their keel, Last Tango. With a forecast of 5 knots or less and temps in the 40s, the fleet was met with a building 12-14 knot northerly, sunny skies and temps in the mid 40s, but with the sun shining so hard it was easy to stay warm and enjoy the stellar views. One of those dry sunny winter days when the mountains seem so close that you can touch the little bit of white at their peaks. When the lighthouses stretch so tall that you think you're just a few feet away from them and a day the lucky few that came out racing will be talking about for the next month as they await Snowbird Series Race #2 on December 13. Eighteen boats registered for the first race of the series, and the RC broke them up into a NFS class and three Flying Sails classes with remarkably good rating spreads for their Time on Time scoring. As with many of the smaller races over the year, SBYC is bringing out the sub 125 raters with even a class of raters from 153 to 204 in class B flying sails. Class C brought out an Olson 911, Q boat, Catalina 36, J/30 and a Jeanneau 36. Class D has a J/105, Farr 30, Beneteau 44.7, J/35 and a Wauquiez 42. Eighteen boats of amazingly different designs and eras out racing on an amazing PNW cool & crisp fall day. A course area that starts off Shilshole Marina and took racers up to the always elusive Spring Beach spar buoy, back downwind to West Point, through the starting area and up to the NOAA weather buoy and back downwind through the finish was led off the line by the small class of Non-flying sails boats. As they headed out into the sound on starboard, class B lined up with Perfectly Strange hovering in that pin end position, the precursor to the always sought after port tack start. With the perfect left shift holding through the sequence, they nailed it and crossed the fleet while looking back at the international sign of disapproval held high on some of the crossed boats. But their advantage quickly disappeared as the wind shifted back to the right and built on the outside leaving the little Pocket Rocket sailing in the middle of their fleet, losing the gains they made on the port tack start. The final two starts rolled off the line without a hitch and a few tacks in and around Meadow point led the fleet into that long port tack up to the Spring Beach buoy. The Dufour 34, Frog Prints was charging north, out in the front after starting first in the NFS class, but sailing in that unenviable position of having to be the first boat to find the little white spar buoy that so easily gets lost in the background. As the fleet was consistently lifted with the wind shifting to the NW, Frog Prints finally found and rounded the mark causing many to bump out a few inches on their jib sheets as they put their bows down a degree or two towards the first mark in the course. Poles forward for the first few miles of the run with the waves almost big enough to surf, the wind almost strong enough to scoot, and those stellar views all around the boat. The further south the fleet sailed the more the wind shifted behind them and as they got within the last mile of West point the inside boats had the advantage sailing their hotter angle towards the mark. The Farr 30 Deep Pickle led the low road around the mark with the J/105 Last Tango hot on their tail. Deep Pickle kept legging out on the second upwind, and they extended their lead by over four minutes in front of Last Tango at the shorter weather mark (the first NOAA buoy). Behind them Kowloon led the five boats in Class C with Grayling and Outlaw pushing hard up there transoms. Back to the finish, everyone went after rounding the NOAA buoy with Deep Pickle leading the way finishing over 5 minutes in front of the J/105 Last Tango, but not far enough in front to hold their position after correction, leaving Last Tango in first, Deep Pickle in second & Bonni Jean in third. Full results can be found at the Shilshole Bay Yacht Club website, as well as entry forms for the December 13 race.  SBYC Snowbird Series sailing information