Santa Barbara YC Hosts 2026 J/70 Nationals
The 2026 J/70 National Championship saw 37 teams from both the West and East coasts descend on Santa Barbara from July 10 through 12 to duke it out in Southern California’s beautiful conditions. Of the 37 boats that competed, 25 of them were in the Corinthian division. When the dust settled, David Janetti’s Odd Racing (Breakwater YC in Sag Harbor, New York) took home the national title.
Janetti and his team of Willem Van Waay, Geison Mendes and James Golden finished with a net total of nine points from seven races. Odd Racing won three of the races, and finished second in three more. The team’s only finish outside the top two would be an 18th in race two, which would become their throwout.
“It was a fight all weekend,” Janetti said of the racing, per the official regatta press release. “”The top teams sailed incredibly well, and Santa Barbara was amazing. We had a terrific time, and we’ll definitely be back”
“Our goal was to get off the line clean, find space, tack to the right side, and manage the fleet,” Van Waay said of the racing, again per the press release. “Everyone stayed calm, trusted each other and just focused on doing their jobs.”
In second place behind Odd Racing was Andrew Loe’s Dime (Seattle YC/Corinthian YC of Seattle), representing the growing J/70 fleet of the Pacific Northwest. Dime never finished a race worse than sixth, and won the third race of the event.
Rounding out the podium and winning the Corinthian national championship (Odd Racing and Dime both had category three sailors on board) was another West Coast boat, Ventura Yacht Club’s DJ, skippered by Ryan Cox and his crew of RD Burley, Mike Uznis and Stanton Smith.
DJ’s net total of 21 points put them just behind Dime. The Corinthian team got off to a hot start, winning the first race of the event and finishing third in the second. From that point on they remained consistent, finishing between fifth and seventh in races three, four, five and seven (while also winning race six), but were not quite able to keep up with the dominance of Odd Racing, and narrowly finished behind Dime.
DJ narrowly edged out a professional boat (Jeff Janov’s Crester (CalYC), who finished with 22 points) for third, and finished three points ahead of the second Corinthian boat (and fifth overall finisher), Dalton Bergan’s Mossy (CYC/SYC).
“I got a boat about five years ago,” Cox said after the regatta, per the press release. “I learned a lot sailing with Team Hedgehog, trimming before moving into the driver’s seat. The goal was always to qualify for Worlds, and now we’ve done that. We’re here quite a bit. They’ve got the best J/70 fleet in California. It’s really exciting to have a national championship so close to home.”
You can find the full scores from the 2026 J/70 National Championship here.