StFYC J/22 July Summer Series Brings Fun Vibes and Good Racing

Wednesday night racing is a long-standing summer tradition at the St. Francis Yacht Club (StFYC). When one thinks of the StFYC Wednesday racing, likely the first image that comes to mind is of the classic wooden Knarr and Folkboat fleets crashing through chop out in the ebb, or short-tacking up the Cityfront.

Another fleet you’ll see over the summer is StFYC’s J/22 fleet, which sails almost every Wednesday night. During June and August, the J/22s are usually the third start after the two wooden fleets (of note, this year is the first year in which the J/22s are also competing with the Knarrs and Folkboats for the summer series Degnan Trophy). July, however, is when the 22s get the Wednesday night spotlight to themselves.

With the old wooden fleets taking a break, the J/22 fleet sails a very different type of Wednesday evening series. Instead of the one long race that constitutes most beer-can-style races, the July series has two, three, four, or even five races in one evening, making for an evening series that completes 12 races over four Wednesday nights. Needless to say, the races are quite short. Reminiscent of college or high school dinghy racing, each race is just about 15 to 20 minutes in length — sometimes only a start, windward mark rounding, and finish.

“It’s a very competitive series,” Michael Coholan of team Cookie Skillet tells us. “Skippers and many of the crew are primarily former and current college racers. We’re grateful for the use of the StFYC member-owned boats and the opportunity to race them, even for those of us who don’t have college-level racing experience.”

After the 12 races were completed, Katie White’s team of herself, Hope Wilson, Chris Long, and Kate Shiber was victorious in the series, totaling 19 points. The team finished outside the top two in only three races in the entire series. On a personal note, this writer would like to thank Katie’s team for pulling him out of the water during the last race of the series, after he unexpectedly became detached from his own boat (causing the final race to be abandoned). Should readers want to hear that story, they will have to track him down in person and ask for it.

“The Wednesday J/22 racing is low-key but competitive racing with a variety of levels,” White says. “The series encompasses highly skilled high school racers, collegiate racers, new racers just wanting to learn the finer details of racing, and a lot of old timers out there that just want to have a good time. There can be some squabbles on the course, but everybody is very supportive. I would love to see a small meeting after each race to see what everybody thinks they did well (or not), and ask about rules and what they can improve on. The volunteers and race committee are awesome, and none of this could happen without them!”

Alberto Rivera, whose team finished third for the series, adds, “They were great summer racing conditions with enough wind to keep things sporty but manageable. The series got increasingly more competitive every week as crews gelled together and got comfortable with the J/22 and the sailing conditions in the Bay.”

You can see the full results for the J/22 Summer Series here.