In sports, coaches always say that every point matters. That was certainly the case at the J/22 North American Championship hosted by Buffalo Yacht Club in Buffalo, NY. Chris Doyle’s The Jug 4 1 went into the ninth and final contest in third place, four points behind Travis Odenbach’s HoneyBadger. Doyle did his part by scoring a bullet, and paired with Odenbach’s fifth-place finish, the local team of Chris Doyle, Will Harris and Adam Burns took the Championship with 27 points on a tie-breaker over Odenbach. Jeff Todd’s Hot Toddy, the day two leader, won Sunday’s opening race, but added a 13 in the final battle (their discard) to end with 29 points and third place.
After Todd won race eight in winds around 6 knots, teams waited for breeze for about an hour. “The nice Northwesterly came in, but sailing here for a few years, we thought it would go southwest,” summarized Burns. Their local knowledge paid dividends, especially in race nine. “The RC started at 275, and we just knew it would go back to the true 260. So we started right near the pin. Travis was to windward of us, but we got lucky that he went after Jeff Todd, and we just sailed our race. This was not Chris Doyle weather,” joked Burns, referring to his skipper’s knack for excelling in heavier breeze.
The event included four teams in the Doyle family: Chris, brothers Kevin and Peter, plus Kevin’s son Jacob. All four placed in the top eight overall. Also competing was the current recipient of the US J/22 Class Association scholarship boat program from Jacksonville University, led by David Hein. They finished as high as second place in race eight, and ended 14th overall.
The top five:
- Chris Doyle, The Jug 4 1, 2-1-4-5-7-1-6-[8]-1; 27T
- Travis Odenbach, HoneyBadger, 3-2-6-2-1-[8]-3-5-5; 27T
- Jeffrey Todd, Hot Toddy, 1-3-5-9-3-5-2-1-[13]; 29
- Mike Marshall, Bad News, 5-[19]-8-6-9-7-4-10-3; 52
- Zeke Horowitz, Uncle Fluffy, 22-5-2-1-5-2-7-[24/TLE]-15; 59
Thirty teams competed in the three-day event. Photos are available on the J/22 Class Facebook page, and complete results are available at www.j22na.com.