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They Call Him J-Lube

Latitude readers may remember John Lubimir, the likable singlehander from the East Coast who came to California in 2012 to sail in the Singlehanded TransPac. Just two days after John and his beautiful blue Quest 30 Flight Risk crossed the finish line in Kauai, Lubimir helped recruit the chartered fishing boat that enabled the rescue of Bela Bartok. Her Canadian skipper, Derk Wolmuth, had fallen ill with staph and was rescued by a freighter, leaving Bela adrift.

Lubimir — dubbed J-Lube during the TransPac — is back at it, this time in the Gulf Stream-warmed waters of the Atlantic Ocean. How does first in class and first overall in the “1” leg of the Bermuda 1-2 sound? Provisional results haven’t been posted yet, but based on some rough math, J-Lube looks to have crushed it on the first leg of the biennial race aboard Flight Risk. Taking sailors more than 600 miles solo from Newport, RI to Bermuda before returning doublehanded, the legendary race is currently in its 19th running and represents the longest singlehanded and doublehanded race on the East Coast.
 
Starting in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Andrea, which made landfall in Florida the day before the race started and dumped record amounts of rainfall on much of the East Coast, some two dozen yachts set sail singlehanded for Bermuda. With everything from a Tartan 30 to a custom 63-footer and a sprinkling of Class 40s in between, it looked to be anybody’s race. After the Class 40 Gryphon Solo 2 turned back for Newport, Lubimir inherited the overall lead, boat for boat, despite the fact that Flight Risk is a 30-footer. The custom Paris 63 Kiwi Spirit (which owes John more than two minutes per mile) eventually overhauled Flight Risk and held down the position to claim line honors, while John came screaming in just behind. The J/122 Resolute finished 10 minutes later, rounding out the first three to finish. 
 
In other Bermuda 1-2 news, the crew of the new all-carbon Columbia 32 Solid Air believes that the boat lost its keel last night. Skipper Jan Steyn put out a mayday to other skippers in the fleet and was picked up by fellow competitor Halcyon, a Hallberg-Rassy 49. Solid Air’s tracker is still transmitting and Jan says that he is doing fine aboard Halcyon. This incident comes just a couple of months after the new Columbia 32 Uncontrollable Urge lost her rudder in the Islands Race, leading to a series of events that contributed to the death of crew member Craig Williams.
 
Keep an eye on www.bermuda1-2.org for full results.

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