Racing weeks at J World are a fantastic way to advance your racing skills and get ready to be more competitive in your local fleet.  These five day programs cover a tremendous amount of information, from sail trim and boathandling to strategy and tactics.  We just finished up another great week at our Puerto Vallarta location.   While the season is wrapping up down south, we’ll be offering theses sessions into the summer at our San Diego and San Francisco locations.

Here are some shots from the week we just wrapped up…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks everyone for joining us in beautiful Puerto Vallarta.  We anticipate great things for each and every one of this group!  Unsolicited testimonials from this group:

• “Had an awesome week.  It was nice to build confidence in the things I did know, and experience the things I didn’t in an on-water learning environment rather than during a race.”
• “Thanks for a great week!  Your coaches did a terrific job. In Chris’ words, ‘best learning experience I’ve ever had, a coach on each boat giving instant feedback’.”

Don’t miss out on your chance to learn the ropes.  You can read all the books you want and spend years of trial-and-error sailing without nearly achieving the results of five days with J/World.  You spent a lot of money on that smooth bottom and those hi-tech sails.  For a fraction of that, we can get you smarter and faster.  J World has some of the best coaches in the world, and have coached tens of thousands of sailors over more than three decades.  Check out our what our clients have had to say about the best sailing program available here, and more info on our racing courses is here.

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the J/World Team

 

2015 Newport to Cabo Race Wrap Up

Last week, team J World participated in the Newport to Cabo Race aboard our turboed 50 footer Hula Girl, with a crew comprised of three coaches and six clients.

We stated off close hauled, working south and away from the coast, with breezes generally light and variable.  In the evening, as we got south of Camp Pendleton and down to San Diego, the breeze went soft.  The first night was a huge challenge for a group trying to learn how to sail a boat new to them.  The winds were from all over the place, rarely over a couple of knots, and it was dark (a sliver of a moon was mostly obscured by clouds).

In the morning at roll call, I have to say that I wasn’t terribly surprised that many of the other teams had put some miles on us.  The level of talent out there was very high, and most of these teams have sailed together (and done this race) many many times, so our work was cut out for us!  So as the westerly filled mid morning and we got moving southward again, we had some distance to make up.  But we were ready for the challenge (and Jimmy “goose eggs” really wanted to shake his new nickname).

The breeze built nicely, approaching 20 knots.  In the evening, we decided to shift down to a smaller, stronger spinnaker and changed to the 4A.  Good thing, too, as the breeze continued to build.  By around midnight or 1am, we were seeing 25 knots, with the occasional spike to 28, even 30+ a couple times.  It became a wild ride….  and we almost kept the wheels on the wagon.  Almost.  Right at daybreak, we wrapped our brand new 4A around the headstay.  In the effort to get it off, we lost the tail of the mainsheet, complicating the process.  In time, we got the mainsheet re-run, then manually unwrapped the spin from the headstay.  Unfortunately, the sail was torn, and the headstay crushed.  Argh.

So we sailed under main alone to recover, clean up, and consider options.  We set the 3A spinnaker which was less than ideal, but our only real option.  That lasted most of the day, until we blew that sail up too.  Double Argh.  So trailing our fleet with no heavy air spinnakers, we decided not to try our luck with a light air one going into Monday night (wind still 25 knots), and we could not even raise a jib due to the crushed headstay, so we limped along, main only, waiting for the breeze to lessen a bit.

By first light on Tuesday, we were down to 18-20 knots of breeze, so it was back up with the lighter 2A.  The sailing from then on was just perfect.  Everyone aboard got a ton of helm time with the detailed coaching from Jasper and Andrew.  So while yours truly was frustrated at our overall position, I have to say that looking around the cockpit and seeing all smiles was a thing of great beauty.  Thanks team for helping me keep it all in perspective!

We finished Tuesday afternoon and sailed into gorgeous Cabo San Lucas.  I have to say I am really impressed at how well every did, the levels of improvement all around, and the awesome team spirit everyone demonstrated at every turn.  It was an absolute hoot to sail with old friends again, and really gratifying to see those that were new to offshore racing really get into it.  Thanks tremendously team!

Want to live a real world offshore racing adventure yourself?  In September we will be hosting our annual Offshore Racing Seminar, San Francisco to San Diego.  In February of 2016 there is the San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race, and we still have a couple berths left in the 2016 Pacific Cup (San Francisco to Hawaii).

All the best,

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

Well it’s a bit overdue, but I am finally getting around to posting the 2015 Sint Maarten Heineken Regatta wrap up.  I am happy to report the J/World West Coast won our division with an undefeated record!  That’s four races, and four bullets.  We had an absolutely fantastic team who took control in the strong warm tradewinds and showed the international fleet just how it’s done.

Seriously, what a fantastic event!  J/World boats took first and third in class…  and had an absolutely GREAT time doing it.  Many thanks to coach Barry, Dan, Randy, George, Keith, Cathy, and Stephan.  Congratulations, Team!

– Wayne Zittel and the J/World Team

Ok, at the risk of rubbing it in, I have to report that St. Martin is quite lovely at the moment.  Team J World just rolled into the St. Martin YC after spending a couple days over that the beautiful island of St. Barths.  After a few days of soaking in the Caribbean, we are now ready to shift into racing mode and get ready for the start of the 2015 Heineken Cup tomorrow!

One of our J World teams anchored in Gustivia, St. Barths.  That is some beautiful water.

Gustavia.  It’s rare that the 80 footers in the harbor seem small.

Hanging off the hook, happy hour, Colombier, St. Barths.

The trade-winds have been strutting their stuff for the past couple weeks down here, so wind will definitely not be lacking for the races that start tomorrow.  We have a fun fleet of a dozen 50-footers that we’ll be lining up against, and the level of competition across the board is impressive.  There are some of the most beautiful boats int he world convening on the island, and the eye-candy down here is pretty staggering.

More soon…

 

Wayne Zittel and the J World Team

 

 

Earlier this week, we jumped on a rare convergence of ‘gap-in-the-schedule’ with ‘perfect-weather-window’ to run Hula Girl from our SF base to San Diego in anticipation of the 2015 Newport to Cabo Race coming up in March.  We had some nice sailing at the outset, but on day 2 a high pressure down in southern California killed the breeze…  but it also smoothed out ocean and cleared up the skies.  Man, was it beautiful.  Absolutely crazy visibility coming down the coast.  At Point Conception we could see the oil platforms from over 20 miles out.  A ship passed seaward.  AIS showed her to be 12 miles away, but I kept having to do double takes:  she was so clear, I would have sworn it was a 30 foot  model boat 100 yards off (not a 800 foot ship 12 miles away!).  Absolutely surreal.

Then the dolphins came.  We see them all the time up and down the coast, but in the sunset lighting and a glassy sea, this was a great encounter…  this absolutely never gets old.

 

 

So sadly the Cabo Race is full, but we are booking berths in the 2016 San Diego to Puerto Vallarta Race and the 2016 Pacific Cup!