J22 2025 result files

Weekend of May 24, 2025

We had a fantastic opening day full of camaraderie and sailing, but first some housekeeping:
This Saturday is a race date. Our rules for the fleet mandate 3 boats must race to score a race. After racing last week, a couple of boats mentioned they were unable to make Saturdays racing. So, I need a head count for Saturday. Skippers, if you are planning to race, please reply all to this email with that statement and your sail number.
USA 1552 is not able to attend.
Makeup dates are always tough to schedule as some can make one date and others cannot. With the busy schedule we have a couple options:
July 12
July 19
We can choose to race on a Sunday, such as June 8, 2025.
Again, skippers, talk with your team and reply all on your choices for a makeup date in order of preference.
USA 1552 Prefers: 1) July 12 2) Sunday June 8 3) Saturday June 28, 2025
I hope you can all respond to these requests in the next day or so and then if you happen to race this weekend, I can assign RC, and buoy boats. If we don’t race this weekend, it might be a fantastic option to go out and do some training on the bay, get another boat and practice. I can direct to which boats have buoys in them.
Sailboat fleets are like the water level, they go up and down as people’s lives change, or they get older or kids start doing different things… Fleet 44 is no different except that we are in Tawas and 90% of our fleet does not live here, we lack a youth program at TBYC and the majority of members are from down state. It makes it very difficult to maintain and grow a fleet. We have had some really great years (10 boats) and some lean years (3-4 boats). This year looks to be a great year with a lot of new faces and one of our best opening day attendances in years. Pushing the date back one week helped, even with the cold temps, cold water and chance of rain, we got 5 boats out racing with 4 new folks and 3 kids (2 adult variety college kids and one 12 year old). Add to that our fleet Obi Won Coberly and we have a hell of an age spread!! We already have another boat in the parking lot and the Carroll clan should have their boat up before we race next.
The group helped each other get masts up and rig all the boats. We held a short and unusual meeting with the fleet before going out. Some felt with all the new faces we should introduce ourselves. I thought it was refreshing and a great start to the season.
Saturday was cool. No shorts and foul weather gear all around. The forecast was for light and for it to die to nothing by 2pm or 3pm. So, we set closer to TBYC than normal in case we had to paddle or skull the boats back into the harbor.
Winds were light from the NW. Not the most stable direction on Tawas Bay. We were setting the race course up, I had a feeling we would be moving buoys a few times during the day. Shockingly, we did not. Yes, we got some big rando shifts, to both directions, but by the time it was ready to start the next race, the winds had gone back to mean or at least what we set out course up to. Bill Coberly, The Other White Meat, USA 275 (with Paul, Jason and Matt on board) was the weather mark, We were start boat and Mike Carr’s boat with Tyler, Greg and Cindy aboard were the pin boat. I think the line was pretty darn right, not too long, not to short and the boat end was in my mind just a little favored.
Winds were shifty, but in our minds the way forward was to find more wind and connect the puffs. This is not our forte on USA 1552, Evil Dr. Pork Chop, but Jenna and Jennifer did a nice job all day of keeping up moving and letting me move us around when I had an idea. Race one for us was not the greatest first beat. USA 430 (Pygmalian, possibly to be renamed?) with David Diehl, Melissa Headland chartering the boat for the season, they had rock star Jake Hilger on board and his Dad, Grant. That was a great combo as Jake and Grant were able to share their immense experience and get the boat set up correctly and going well. They jumped out to a big lead on the first beat followed closely by USA 695, This Little Piggy, with College Sailor Hannah Monville driving and Terry Monville in the middle- and first-time sailor Nicole Murley doing bow, USA 275, USA 48 and finally USA 1552. Finding pressure was key and we kind of leap frogged the middle of the pack and got inside at the leeward mark to round behind USA 430 but well behind. We stayed conservative and just wanted a chance and we got a small one on the final run. As we rounded 2nd, we noticed a puff behind us and to the right. We Gibed our spinnaker immediately and were able to gain on USA 430 to sort of make it interesting at the finish.
Well done, David, Melissa, Jake and Grant on taking the first Bullet of the season!!
Race two was similarly light. After brushing off the rust from race, our boat seemed to get their act together. I think race two was won for us on one small tack up the first beat maybe 3-4 minutes into the race. We were in controlling situation of the boats on the left, and I saw what I thought was an opportunity to leap over to the middle of the course with little to no consequence. It was a short tack and then into a headed puff and a short tack back that gained us a cushion we never let up. Jennifer, Jenna the badger and I got the second bullet of the season, followed by the whole fleet finishing in a pack behind us.
Race three may have seemed a carbon copy of race two expect there was a lot more drama. With Usa 430 sitting at 1, 2 and USA 1552 at 2, 1 we knew it would be a fun third race and Pork Bellies was a point or two behind as was The Other White Meat and This little Piggy. Jennifer tossed me a beer between races and then told me three or four times, don’t be nonchalant on the start, stay focused… I totally blanked out at the start, and we came in so late and behind at the boat it was embarrassing. However, we were able to keep just off USA 275 to our leeward and work to weather of them and the boats down the line were not moving as quickly. A minute or two after starting and small wind line appeared to our right, we led the fleet to it and we were able to stay in the line of wind the rest of the leg, with only a couple tacks. All of the other boats fell out of it once or twice which made it look like we had a sizable lead. We did not rest on that laurel, and kept grinding, had a decent run and another good beat connecting the puffs to win our second bullet of the season. That was from the front. In the back, it was almost a repeat of the first race for us. USA 430 was DEEEEEP. Somehow, they wiggled their way through the other boats and finished second in a great debut outing for David and Melissa! This race was probably the lightest at times, but it had the most passing.
Scores May 24, 2025
USA 1552 Evil Dr. Pork Chop 2 .75 .75 3.5 points total
USA 430 Pygmalion? .75 2 2 4.75
USA 275 The Other White Meat 3 4 3 10
USA 48 Pork Bellies 5 3 4 12
USA 695 This Little Piggy 4 5 5 14
After sailing we all enjoyed hanging out in the dry sail area talking about the days sailing, enjoying cold beverages and snacks and catching up with our College sailors and the newbies. Everyone was very excited for the next racing date as we should have two more boats on the line.

Weekend of June 14, 2025

What a fantastic day of sailing this past weekend. Every boat in the yard was out there sailing and PigPen showed up as we were putting boats away, so hopefully we will get 7 boats for our next racing date which is July 5th.

The morning started out chilly and the water is still very cold for this time of the year. I am not sure we got into the 70’s while sailing, but once you got moving in the boat it was comfortable temp wise. Winds were 8-14 knots from the NE, water was smooth. There were oscillations and plenty of puffs coming over the point from Lake Huron and hitting down just above the weather mark and working down the course.

Course was set up with the buoy toward Tawas Beach Club and it was a pretty fun day with boats passing each other depending on where you were in regard to the puffs coming down. USA 48 Pork Bellies led us all to the weather mark followed by USA 454 Squealer. We all kind of bunched up downhill, but USA 1552 was able to sneak to the inside and round in front of USA 48. From there it was risk management, or loose cover, although we were the first boat to tack out, but it worked out for us. We rounded the final weather mark in front and enjoyed a quick run to the finish.

Race two was the same course. Starting lines were crowded and fun. A couple boats bounced over to the right and found some magic. USA 275 led the rest of us around the marks onto the run. A good set and an early gybe got us back out front. From there it became evident that the wind had backed about 25-30 degrees, so we were able to round the leeward mark, and it was a pretty one sided beat back up, and we held on for the finish with USA 275 coming in behind us.

Race three had the same pressure but we moved the course to square it up in the new wind. Of course it had the same challenges of the first two, do you look for the shift or sail to the puffs. We chose dark water, and it seemed to work. Of course, the wind near the end of this race tried to shift back to it original axis, but overall, it was a really good day of sailing with mostly 3 up hiking and going fast.

Our decision to go for dark water seemed to work, and we tried to make good decisions for positioning when we could. Our biggest asset right now is the 19 years we invested into Jenna Princing and our boat handling is just good. Sailing with her on the boat after she spend a year in college sailing is different too, in a good way, it is a lot of fun!

The scores were really all over the place. Every boat had a good race and most had a Uh Oh race. That just speaks to how even these J/22’s are. Currently sitting in second place for the season Is David Diehl on Pygmalion who along with Melissa and Terry/Grant have a total of 2 days sailing the boat. They did have some growing pains this weekend, but it is fun to see them in the hunt along with 4 other past fleet champions. A shout out to This Little Piggy as well. Hannah Monville is driving the boat; Terry is middle and Nicole on the bow has sailed a total of two days in her entire life! How fantastic is that. Hannah is also the Commodore of the Michigan Tech Sailing team, so her and Jenna compete against each other in college and the J/22 fleet.

*****Race 1****Race 2****Race 3**** Total
USA 1552 – 0.75******0.75******0.75****2.25
USA 454 – 4.0****** 3*******3 *****10.00
USA 48 – 2.0****** 4*******5 *****11.00
USA 275 – 3.0****** 2*******6 *****11.00
USA 695 – 6.0****** 5*******2 *****13.00
USA 430 – 5.0****** 6*******4 *****15.00

A little reminder, Jennifer has offered to hop on board with anyone who wants some help with crew training. She is just about the best at this and we can always throw a couple boats in the water and do some training with a couple of buoys.

July 5, 2025

Good morning sailors. Race date three wrapped up this weekend. We finally got “Tawas” conditions.

It is great to see 7 boats in the parking lot. Unfortunately, only 5 made it out to arguably the best racing conditions we have had all year. It was a great day to be out on Tawas Bay. It was very hot and humid and being offshore on the water made it very comfortable.

For the early part of the season, we have been sailing in uncharacteristic Northerlies. But the forecast for Saturday showed promise for our first chance at a Seabreeze for the 2026 season. It did not disappoint. To call it “epic” may be an understatement. We set up out to the NW of buoy 4. Almost immediately the Seabreeze backed the wind, and we quickly reset the course axis to make a square playing field. The line was short and slightly pin favored, so for all three starts there were lots of action down at the pin.

Winds were southerly, we saw 175 – 185 for all three races, and I don’t think it fluctuated that much, I think it was more our compass… Racing was sailed in anywhere from 8-10 knots of wind probably up to 15 knots for race three. 90% of the time is 3 up hiking. Sunny and lumpy. Most of the early lump was from power boats crossing our race course to get to the swimming hole at the point, but as the wind built, the waves did as well, and by race three, there was a definite shift in the wave pattern, where we could just get up on surf occasionally.

After thinking back on the races, it seemed better to get off the line than to try and win the favored side of the start. Clear air was key, and we also thought the left side was smoother upwind, so we seemed to favor that if all else was even. On our boat, Jennifer and Jenna looked for wind and waves and just kept me updated. We are trying to be more proactive and no reactive and it has positive results and seems “calmer” ha! on the boat. We are also trying to stay flatter than we sailed last year, on port tack into the waves I was trying to hammer flat spots as long as our speed was up. Pretty fun to steer a J/22 in these conditions. Our confidence in our upwind speed is very high and downwind it was all about positioning.

There were lots of close mark rounding’s as always, but these were at speed and leeward marks get tricky. We actually had a couple of boats hit marks. I am guilty, we hit the weather mark in race one because I looked down to do something and pulled the tiller a little towards me and we got it. It made for an interesting re-rounding of the mark for us, as Jenna had the pole in mid-flight and she just hung on as Jennfer and I whipped the boat around in a gibe and then a tack. A couple little squeals out of both girls and we rounded and went right up with the spinnaker. I am definitely reaping the rewards of all the great training Jennifer has given Jenna!

Really fun day to sail little boats in the clear clean fresh water of Tawas Bay. The results from the day were close with a lot of place changes and in our overall season standings we have a new boat sneaking up into second place and third place.

https://tbyc.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-scoring-as-of-july-5-2025.xls

Email July 28, 2025
Racing starts up again this Saturday. There are still 4 dates left:
August 2
August 23
August 30
September 13

Racing starts at buoy 4 at the noon hour. The weather looks good, sunny, mid 70’s and ENE winds around 8 knots.
Evil Doctor Pork Chop (USA 1552) will miss the next two race dates. They currently lead the standings, but the next two dates are great opportunities to catch and pass them.
Work together to figure out start boat and buoy boats for the next two dates please. All buoys are in the boats, there is no buoy in USA 1552.
Send me the scores when you can. See you all for the August 30th race date if not before.

Email August 2, 2025
Good morning, J/22 family. I hope you are all well. So much going on, where to start…
How about the old man… Obi Won Coberly, underwent a government sanctioned surgery, which rebuilt his knee with machine parts making him cyborg like. They enable him to have super human strength and speed as well as other powers as he battles evil and for the good of mankind. So put Bill in your prayers for a speedy recovery. They will do side B when he recovers from this.
Lightning Districts regatta this weekend. I know a lot of the fleet is helping out.
Mackinac Races in the books. A few of our fleet raced, I can’t wait to hear the stories. Bayview involved MOB’s and rescues.
Our own Carroll family, USA 538, Pig Pen, have their own harrowing story of courage and seamanship. I won’t spoil the details, because Derek needs to tell you the story, but short version is, they saved a man’s life on Sunday off of Oscoda in adverse conditions while traveling on their Tiara 37 from Harrisville to TBYC. This man would not be with us if it were not for DC, Monica, Jacoby, Tristan and Ashton. Buy them a drink and ask for the tale.
Finally, some good racing was done two weekends ago. Two new race winners in the fleet for 2025 season. I don’t have the story but it looked like good racing by the scores. Congrats to Pork Bellies (USA 48) for winning the day and also to Squealer for winning race 1 of the day. The points are very close for the season with only 6 points between 2nd and 4th. 9 races left, it is still anyone’s championship!!!

Scores are attached. Sailing resumes next Saturday August 23rd. Mike and Mike will take charge again as USA 1552 will not be present.

Click to access j22-results-from-august-2-2025-and-season-results.pdf

Email August 25, 2025
Good morning, J/22 sailors. I hope this finds you well.
This week is the J/22 Michigan Championship up on Lake Charlevoix. There is still time to enter on yachtscoring.com. Right now, 10 boats will vie for the title and try to unseat reigning champ, Tom Barnes. Good luck to all who are sailing!!
Been busy around Fleet #44 lately. Lots of outside challenges. Last weekend posed more as a few boats were unable to attend. The report from Tim Scott:
Windy day on Tawas bay! 4 boats went out, unfortunately 48 had their jib halyard pulling off of the deck, just before race one. Still managed to get a windward mark out for us though. 454 was the start boat, and we seemed to be able to shift gears with the wind speed, and waves well unwind. Downwind was a little different, as 695 having only 2 crew decided not to fly a spinnaker, 275 also put away their spin gear before the race. I know Eli, was a little hesitant about running the foredeck in the wind, (although he would have probably done fine) so when no one else put up a kite, we decided not to a well. It did add a different feeling to the runs, but we managed to hold our own downwind. Anyway three races sailed.
The season scoring is tightening up and it is anyone’s game now. 2 race dates left. August 30, 2025 and September 13, 2025.
This weekend is August 30th. Lets get a roll call for who is attending:
USA 1552 will be sailing
Current forecast is calling for light winds from the NE.
Venetian night is also Saturday on the front lawn. Bring a dish to pass if you’re staying.
Sunday is the Tawas Bay Challenge, JAM race with the other club across the bay. 10:30am skippers meeting, Noon start.
https://tbyc.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/2025-scoring-as-of-august-23-2024.xls

Weekend of August 30, 2025

Forecast was for 5-8 SW. drive into town had no wind on the water and at the club the same. I was guest skipper by default on Dr Evil. I was practicing my “don’t rush no wind, lets not drift” speech on the way in. I show up 10ish and boats all have sails bent on and one is in the water. Beautiful morning 63F but warming quickly. Boats launch so the inevitable launch is due, we are last in the water but not last out. No wind in the harbor, we get to Marty’s boat get a whisper and out we go wind roughly 3-5 kts but filled in. made good time out to a course west of R4 but close enough the sand could have come into play if you wanted to gamble hard. Warning at 12:01 for R1.

R1 WL x 2. Short ass line, maybe 80-100ft. felt it didn’t matter where you got off on the line even thought the boat was favored. Dr Evil had a great start, not sure how with the anti sailor in the back. Nice beat up, beach side favored a bit. Close fleet at the top with Dr Evil barely ahead of Squealor. High running angles, with boat behind driving it up called for a jibe, we chose late and a swimming boat was in our intended path, jibe was sloppy being two handed with super star Jennifer doing everything, Squealer sneaks ahead. We round inside tight and sneak around due to what I overheard “whats the problem? We have an asshole in the kite”. Cover mode and the Dr is fast today (turns taken off by JP prior to start) at the finish its Dr Evil, Sqealer, This Little, Pygmaleon and Pig Pen with team Carroll, all eleven Children and Momma on board.

R2 WL x 2 wind stays pretty true but velocity is up say 8-10 kts. We see 175 on the boat side of the short line and 185 on the pin end, weird in such a short distance. We want the lift and the pin even thought the boat is favored. Great sporty aggressive start with all boats pushing the line. Dr Evil wins the pin but was 4 seconds too early with P Pen pushing also over early. Quick jibe around pin and head off in the wrong direction. Squealer is in command at this point, great start good speed going the right way. Not sure what we found, but ended up crossing everyone on the tack back but Squealer. To the beach and I believe we tacked inside of R4 to get to the W1 first barely. Fun run, pressure is building. Squealor is on the Dr’s tail and the pack behind is tight. Dr Evil takes down too early and Sqeal catches up but a good tight rounding kept us above but slow as the guy in the back stuffed it….again. Typical TB beat towards the beach looking for the knock, that really wasn’t there all day. Over powered talking about putting turns back and using back stay but the boat is alive, the lulls were crazy how she drove up and squirted (not like a porn start, like forward). Nice lead at W2, bad call on layline (4th missed layline call) tightened it up a bit but Dr Evil takes the win followed by Squeal, This Little, Pyg and the Pen.
R3 WL x 2 wind is up, probably 12-13 steady, shifted right to about 183 and on the pin end was 190+, good course this squared it up almost perfect if you like to run deep. All clear and Pyg gets a great start as did Sqeal, Pen and This. Dr got pinned by Pyg and sailed to the beach. Turned out pretty good, Dr led to W1 with Pyg close behind and Squeal. Great run with a jibe or two and Squeal gets around Pyg by L1. Dr feeling pretty good in cover mode but fleet splits, we opt to cover Squeal and head to the beach which pays great dead down run a bit by the lee to the finish. Dr, Sqeal, Pyg, Little Piggy and the Pen who did not fly a chute but were right in the mix. Jennifer did put the turns back on the rig before R3 and we used quite a bit of back stay at times, popped in lulls and the boat squirts high and fast.
Fun day, I am sore AF today but fun. Thanks Willy an Jennifer for letting me play on the Dr.
2025 J/22 Michigan Championship
The 2025 J/22 Michigan Championship was held this past weekend at the red fox regatta. For those that do not know, you race from Charlevoix to Boyne City on Saturday and from Boyne City to Charlevoix on Sunday. So two distance races. This year however, they were shut out on Sunday, so the winner is a repeat, Tom Barnes is your 2025 J/22 Michigan Champion! Hopefully we can get a write up from Tom to share with all the Michigan folks. 2026 is scheduled to be held in Tawas. Back to a traditional buoy racing format.
USA 275, The Other White Meat, raced the Championship. I have not heard a lot from them, other than Paul telling me the 1.5 cases of beer were not enough for the weekend!!!

More on the 2025 Red Fox Regatta amd K22 Michigan Championship:
Friday night was the Nucore Triangle and 5 J/22s participated. This is the warmup race to the Red Fox. Bob Grove on Pale Face Lite hasn’t sailed all season, rigged his boat an hour before race time and went out and won the race in a shifty 5 knot breeze. Chris Shadek on Windy City took 2nd and Bob Molter on Tactful took 3rd. Tom Niles travelled all the way from Mississippi with Ms. Guided to attend and came in 4th. Tawas’ favorite son The Other White Meat got caught on the outside of a shift and came home 5th. Grilled brats at the top deck of the clubhouse, cocktails with friends and a beautiful view down the length of Lake Charlevoix. Not a bad evening.
The light winds continued for Saturday morning’s Red Fox start. The first hour after the start saw huge shifts and big holes. Barnes on Reckless had an early lead with Tactful very close behind at the first mark. Spinnakers up! And then the wind shut down and came in spurts and on the next 1-mile leg, the lead changed at least 3 times, spinnakers dropped and went back up and boats in back caught up. Turning at C mark, Reckless was back in the lead with Windy City close astern. The fleet split and those who went right found stronger pressure and pulled ahead. Three miles down to G mark and Tactful rounded first, Bill English on Commodore from Gull Lake was 2nd and Pale Face Lite third all within three boat lengths. This is another very long spinnaker leg and fortunately for Reckless, the three boats in front all dove for the left side of the course and battled for clear air. Reckless sailed close to the rhum line and gained a small lead. As we rounded I mark, we heard a horn and noticed that the mark boat was there and had shortened course making it the finish. We heard the announcement a few seconds later. So Reckless pulled out the win over Tactful in 2nd and Commodore in 3rd. Pale Face Lite was 4th followed by Ms. Guided and then in a photo finish Abbey Lucas on Dockside snuck across in front The Other White Meat. Windy City finished 8th and Mark Walters (new to the fleet) on Bow Down finished 9th.
The chicken and ribs barbecue was delicious, the drinks flowed, and merriment was had by all. The teams found their way to their accommodations…slept well and arrived by at Boyne anticipating a light air Sunday return to Charlevoix. RC saw that the Boyne City end didn’t have wind and started a slow March closer to Charlevoix. All 9 J22s found tow boats and we enjoyed the sunny 72 degree day. After two false hopes when breeze made some ruffles, we arrived at the Charlevoix end about 1:00 and found still no wind. RC chose to cancel racing for the day. About 2:00PM the breeze filled in too late for any racing…but we looked on longingly.
Boats were hauled and derigged and at 3:00PM the awards ceremony took place in the CYC Events center. I loved getting the win but would have been happier to have had a second day of racing. So, the Michigan Championship will rotate to Tawas Bay for 2026, Gull Lake in 2027 and back here in 2028. We enjoyed hosting…can’t wait to be back at Tawas…and look forward to many of you joining us here in Charlevoix for Arena Sailing (starting Oct 19th) or for next year’s Red Fox. We’ll be in Rochester, NY the first week of October and would love to see our Michigan J22 family there!
September 10th email
Hey sailors. Final race date of the season is this Saturday. Hope to see you all there.
Start boat – USA 48
Pin – USA 430
Weather mark – USA 454
When done racing please help each other getting rigs down and boats tied to trailers. I know USA 1552 will need help.
When all is squared away, please deflate buoys and give them to Jennifer, I will store them again this winter.
September 11th email
I will not be there on Saturday. There is a green mark in my boat. If you guys have time and help, my mast is ready to come down. It would be a great help to me. I’ll will be up on Sunday if there would others around to help.
September 17th email
Hello gang. I apologize for being absent, lots going on in my world… I am looking forward to 2026 and getting back out there.
Here are the results for the season. We had a lot of fun this year and it was great having David & Melissa joining our fleet. They add another wrinkle to the mix and are very competitive right out of the gate.
Youth updates: Hannah Monville is at Michigan Tech. She is commodore of their racing team. She is quite busy as a RA as well on campus. Doing great things.
Lillian – is also up at Tech. I don’t have an update, but maybe she can chime in and give us an update. She is sailing, that is all I know.
Jenna – is at University of Wisconsin. She just sailed her first regatta of the season. She has moved up to Open class and sailed that event on the A boat. Pretty amazing! They finished second in their first regatta as skipper and crew.
Bill Coberly sent a note the other day. Pretty much said the new knee is coming along and if we don’t watch out, he is going to kick all of our asses!! Best wishes for a full recovery Bill.
Finally, I am saddened to share with you the passing of John Johnson. John was a friend of many of us in our fleet and was always willing to lend a hand, even though he was not a TBYC member, he came up and helped us during the 2012 J/22 North Americans. Those of us who knew John, knew he was always willing to lend a hand or a tool when down at Pier 7 and working on boats. Most offend, kicking you out of the way to show you how to do it right!! God Speed JJ!
Next up is the annual fall meeting at TBYC. Not sure of the date, but the club will post that. I will work with Brian Dewyse and get a sailing schedule for 2026 put together before the end of 2025. Editor note: Meeting is on November 1.
September 18th email
Thanks again everyone for putting in the effort to race this year. I will begin a discussion in January to get ideas on how to make it even better for next season. One thing for sure, it is a lot more fun when we get more boats out there. Here is the corrected scoring for the 2025 season. Congrats to Jennifer and Jenna on winning this year.
https://tbyc.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/2025-scoring.xls
October 20, 2025 email 17th email
Good morning, J/22 Fleet #44 sailors. With our boats in storage and winter right around the corner, there is not much action to report. Here are a few things to warm you up on this fall day.
2025 J/22 North Americans were contested in Rochester, NY a couple weekends ago. The winners are very familiar with Tawas and were great lakes sailors from Youngstown, NY, YYC. Adam Burns, John Gollar and Todd Hiller. Congrats boys, this is not the first NA’s or worlds for all of them, they each have won one or more on different boats. I heard it was light and shifty, but maybe we can get Tom Barnes to write up a recap and send it at a later date. He raced and represented Michigan very well. Hopefully we can get a couple TBYC boats to get on trailers and help support this event in the future.
What to do this fall? How about race J/22’s?! The Cranberry Cup is in full swing up in Charlevoix. I believe 9 boats racing week one and this series will sail every Sunday until the last one, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, that is the actual Cranberry cup and the winner is immortalized and praised by all sailors worldwide for eternity! Or… you get a piece of pottery filled with cranberries…. I like the former.. Racing is held on the very protected Round lake and begins at 1pm each Sunday. Space is very limited, so if your interested, get ahold of Tom Barnes early in the week (his email is attached). Sailing pretty much goes on no matter the weather, some of the best racing is when it is blowing and snowing like hell! Don’t be shocked if you have to shovel snow off the deck before leaving the dock.
Finally, a little college sailing news. We have three young ladies who cut their teeth in our J/22 fleet in Tawas, and we also have some new folks down in Bay City learning to sail and race for SVSU. This weekend the moons aligned, and they were all in the same place at the same time!
Our Tawas Girls are Hannah Monville (Michigan Tech)(This Little Piggy, USA 695), Lillian Molitor (Michigan Tech)(HogTide, USA 121) and Jenna Princing (Wisconsin)(Evil Dr. Pork Chop, USA 1552). Jennifer Princing drove over to watch Jenna and her friend’s sail. She got roped into doing mark boat for Saturday. She took some photos, and I attached them to this email.
A lot of fun was had, some great racing and Saturday was light wind, but Sunday blew the goats off the rope! When the dust settled, Wisconsin Team 1 won overall. (Jenna Princing, Penelope and Carmen). Jenna ‘s crew also won A division by 14 points, wow! Pretty proud of our girl and her team. Proud of Hanna and Lillian too, their team show improvement and they are getting very fast. Maybe Hannah or Lillian can reply to this and let us know about their experience.
The SVSU team did great! I am not sure who went, maybe Terry can reply to this with a recap for them, but they held their own and beat two teams.
That is all the news for now. TBYC annual meeting is the first weekend in November. 2026 sailing schedule will be out for viewing before the end of the year. If you want to suggest any changes to the way we do racing please reach out and let us know, they group can then discuss and move forward.
J22 NAs email on October 1, 2025 from Tom Barnes
Wednesday, October 1st, 2025
Sister Suz, nephew Jake and I Departed CVX at 8:45 in sunny warm weather. Stopped in Gaylord for lemon pledge. No one is eating any meals as we’re concerned with making our 4-person max weight of 639.5 lbs. Trailer is pulling great and all is good other than Port Huron traffic and rush hour around Hamilton. The US Border patrol lady at Niagara was pleasant and speedy despite this being the first day of Govt shutdown…so she isn’t getting paid. We took the slightly longer route to get a view of the Falls. The 8.5 hour Google Maps drive took 10.5 hours and we arrived just around 7:30PM. Nice little VRBO on a bayou. Suz made white bean chili and Stan arrived about 9:45.
Thursday, October 2nd
Everyone had a good night’s sleep and we awoke to a brisk 40 degree morning. Suz and I cleaned the boat with Lemon Pledge (thanks Bob Molter for the suggestion!). Tummies are growling but the plan is to weigh-in at 9:00 and then get breakfast. Weighed in at 9:15 and made weight by 10 lbs! I was 5 lbs under target…Stan was under. Suz was on target and …and I’m not saying who but his initials are Jake Snyder was over by 3! All good and to celebrate went to Parkside diner …huge praise for the pancakes, bacon, maple syrup, sausages…hoping to find an excuse to get back there!
No sail measurement or boat weighing…so much better than the old days. Rigged the boat and then promptly launched and sailed out the channel to the course. 1300 warning gun and we missed the first practice start, but were at the line for the next start 7 min later. Good breeze about 12 out of the NE. Good practice start and per the Vakaros…we were still 2 meters (6 feet for the metric challenged) behind the line…good speed and we held our lane. Then recalled for the actual practice race. I am forever late on getting onto starboard after my port approach, so we were 5 meters off the line and were not able to hold our lane. We tacked out and went to the right side…found a clear lane and then worked on boat speed. We worked our way back to about the last 3rd by the weather mark. Decent downwind leg and held our position. OK rounding but not clear air and dropped a little further back. At weather mark, tried to lee bow a starboard tacker…did a crappy job and had to double tack to the mark…last downwind leg wasn’t much better…but I am optimistic as we got the “uglies” out of the way. Rochester has a huge yacht club. Lots of buildings for junior sailing, a pool, massive patio, big marina…and their Commodores get hats! Getting ready for dinner which will be the traditional Rochester meal called the Garbage Plate. Delicious and filling, look it up!
Friday, October 3rd
Light air forecast and early wind better than later so RC held a premeeting at 8:30 and we left the dock at 9:00 for a 1000 warning (I know, I’m mixing my time formats!). Great 8 knot breeze, popped the chute and made our way out to race course. Beautiful sunshiny day with 6-7 from the SW at the start. Pin end was early favored and we got onto starboard tack about midline and 1:30 to go. Held our position well and were at about the 1/3 point at the start and less than 2 meters off the line with good speed. Several boats in front were over and dove back. Two boats crossed our bow and were able to clear the fleet. We carried on for about a minute and then crossed to port and crossed any starboard trackers but most boats had already tacked to port for the predicted right hand shift. We looked good in top 10 for the first 1/2 leg then it got fluky and I made some bad calls. (Need to over stand on starboard lay line…as my crew tell me repeatedly.). I hate ducking boats but it’s better to do that than double tack. Came out of the weather mark in about 20th and immediately jibed. Almost all other boats went right and we stayed in pressure and at a better angle. When we got down to 100 yards from the downwind gate, we were in the top 4 but breeze was almost gone. RC abandoned the race. Felt great to have a good start, able to hold our lane, great move on the downwind…Tom still making some bad calls but I promise to learn! Crew is solid and good company!
First Actual race of the day! Wind filled in from the Northeast and would stay there until we reached the dock at 4:30. We started mid-line in the best pressure…we were OCS but quickly ducked and came out clean and fast. We stayed left and came into the top mark in the top 7. Then passed two boats downwind by sailing deep and playing the left side. Held our own for 3/4 of the leg and then we were right side and got a killer shift left. Lost 4 boats, sailed conservative downwind and held on for 9th!!!! It’s good to be lucky and, no matter what, a top 10 was above my best dream for this regatta.
2nd Race…best start of the day…clean, fast, best pressure. We’re top 10 at weather mark and then jibed and the wind filled better from the right (rat farts). Battled up and down a few spots and ended 17th. Disappointing after the great start and previous finish.
3rd and final race, we were again OCS ( Our RC in Arena Sailing gives out rubber ducks for being OCS)…quickly ducked transoms and kept clean lanes all the way up. Once again that dreaded left hand shift came in when we got to the starboard lay line… had to tack out and it cost us about 6 boats. Again we sailed deep but found a lull 2/3 of the way down and just held our position for 13th.
The scores are very tight and the next race could move us up 2 spots or back 5 spots. Either way…best day ever at a North Americans. Stan, Suz and Jake are awesome. Mark roundings almost always gained us boats and I only called them slothful buggers and rapscallions once or twice. I heard some under-the-breath mumbling about my heritage…but since I’m related to two of them I didn’t let if bother me.
Saturday, October 4th
Again, RC sent us out for a 1000 warning. Nice 7-8 knots SW spinnaker run out of the channel. By the start we were down to 4-6 and everyone expecting abondonment after the start. We went pin end and were OCS again but were able to duck hard and still cross the pin boat. One boat ahead of us and we held that tack for about 5 min. Pressure was better as we got to shore and lots of tacking to stay in pressure for us reach the windward mark mid-fleet. Most boats jibed at the mark but we bore off and stayed in pressure. We came out of a very tight leeward mark rounding in 5th place with a whole fleet on our heels. Held our position to the top! We were making only 2.5 knots downwind and were concerned they would cancel. We got rolled by one boat and snuck across for a 6th! This is way better than than we expected and we are excited to be standing in 10th place after 4 races. We are however very realistic in that only a few points separate us for 18th place. We are now on postponement and writing this so we don’t forget the high point!!!

And indeed…that was the high point. So we finished the first race about 1100 and then sat until 2:30 before the wind settled in. Cover your ears, this is where it gets bad…good breeze and a congested start line. We looked good with a boat slightly bow out on us to leeward…and the Vakaros says “OCS”… ducking back took too long and we end up 3rd row. Did a decent job on the upwind but round about 22nd. Kept clear air (easy to do with no one behind us). Made up ground on several boats and the crew did a great job prepping for the rounding at the right hand gate mark. Stan douses pole, Jake floats chute and and I fly it free, Suz has new jib sheet ready and we looked like a nice tight rounding…bow comes up, Tom slips and falls on tiller, boat rounds up and hits the mark…just shoot me!!! The rest was tepid…caught only 3 boats and finished 22nd. Feel terrible cuz the crew got us into 10th and my mistake got us back to 16th. They got us one more start in good breeze and we got off clean and fast. We were top 10 about 1/3 of the way up the leg and RC abandons the race. It turns out their anchor line broke just before the start and so some boats OCS actually should not have been. End of racing for the day. We need at least one more race to get a drop, but I’ll feel this one for a while.
On the upside, we are fast, we hold lanes, the crew work is tight, our roll tacks are excellent (Jake is violent in his roll tacks…love it!) and we’re having a good time.
Sunday, October 5th
Last day of racing. Well, we have been knocking it out of the park on OCSs! Race #6 we set up toward the pin end and again…looked well positioned. At a few seconds before the start our Vakaros said we had 4 meters(1/2 boat length) and were heading down line to pick up speed and the next second we were OCS flashing red on the display. We later were told by another boat that our Vakaros tracking was off for 15 seconds before the start. We’re thinking this was part of the reason we were over the line (more than once???)..hey, we need an excuse for having 5 out of 7 races OCS. We ducked back across and then took some transoms to get clear air. We got to the weather mark in the back 1/2 of the fleet. Again, the boats ahead all gibed at the weather mark and we went straight and passed several going downwind. A solid upwind and again making gains on the downwind and we held on for 9th place. A good start to the last day.
We sat and waiting for wind until about 1300 when it again filled from the NE at about 7kts. We sailed clean but didn’t get every shift right and took a 16th.
Our last race was pathetic. We picked the last two shifts wrong on the upwind and if it weren’t for a strong downwind leg, we’d have been in the 20s.
Overall position 16th out of 25 but in many ways better than expected. We got to cross tacks with some of the best J22 sailors and beat some of them more than once.
Next years NAs are in New Orleans and the team is enthused. Thanks for reading a long and jargon filled post. We appreciate the support and encouragement from the home base.