Glenn Darden’s Baby Doll bested 29 other teams to secure the 2021 J/22 Midwinter Championship hosted by Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans, LA. All nine scheduled races were completed in mostly breezy and lumpy conditions on Lake Pontchartrain. Darden, of Fort Worth, TX, with crew Marcus Eagan, Jackson Benvenutti and Sarah Raymond won Sunday’s opening race. Travis Odenbach’s Honeybadger, just one point off the pace at the start of the day, placed seventh. Honeybadger stormed back to win the final contest, however Baby Doll placed fourth and secured the Championship with 16 net points (Odenbach ended with 20). Casey Lambert’s Blackburn Marine Racing put together a solid weekend for third place (40 points). Darden’s team members are all in the New Orleans area. He praised them, adding, “Marcus and Jackson are wizards of this lake.” The group practiced last weekend at the local Mardi Gras Regatta. Darden summarized the Midwinters’ conditions as, “Very streaky and shifty all three days. We like the lump with the breeze. We got off the line well, which was probably our key.”
Top Five:
- Baby Doll, Glenn Darden, Fort Worth BC, 2-1-1-1-1-5-[13]-1-4- ; 16
- Honeybadger, Travis Odenbach, Rochester YC, 1-[10]-3-3-2-1-2-7-1- ; 20
- Blackburn Marine Racing, Casey Lambert, Lakewood YC, 6-3-8-2-4-7-5-[21]-5- ; 40
- Pressure Drop, Mark Foster, CCYC, 4-5-[31/RET-BF]-18-9-9/RDG-1-3-3- ; 52
- TILT, Alexander Schwinn, Lakewood YC / Fort Worth BC, 9-[13]-2-5-12-3-8-11-11- ; 61
Photos are available on the J/22 Class Facebook page, and complete results may be found at www.j22mw.com.