Tag: J99

jboats J99 Sailing

The Annapolis to Bermuda Race is a 753-mile offshore race that begins with approximately 120 miles down the Chesapeake Bay before turning east for another 630 miles across the Atlantic to Bermuda.

Our race weekend began in Annapolis with the Eastport Yacht Club’s skippers’ briefing. That evening we took Bay Retriever out for one final practice sail before gathering for a crew dinner, watching the sunset over the harbor, and finishing the last of the provisioning. After weeks of preparation, everything was finally ready.

Bay Retriever is a 2019 J/99, one of the newest and smallest boats in the fleet. Although only 33 feet long, the J/99 was designed specifically for offshore racing, with a simple sail plan and equipment built for long passages.

This wasn’t the boat’s first offshore challenge. Bay Retriever had already completed the 2024 Annapolis to Bermuda Race, the 2025 Annapolis to Newport Race, the Around Long Island Race, Block Island Race Week, and thousands of miles of additional offshore sailing.

Our crew of five brought a wide variety of experience. Sean has sailed to Bermuda multiple times and has years of experience as a professional sailing instructor and delivery captain. Ian combined offshore experience with dinghy racing and J/105 sailing. Cameron had sailed nearly every one of Bay Retriever’s 9,000 miles. Jon has extensive Laser experience and time on a J99 as well as completing last year’s Annapolis to Newport Race.

With 13 boats in our class, we knew our biggest competition would come from boats sailing at similar ratings, while several larger boats would likely finish well ahead of us.

FRIDAY

Race morning brought calm conditions and plenty of excitement around Annapolis Harbor. Spectator boats filled the water, the Pride of Baltimore was nearby, and family and friends watched the livestream from home.

Our plan was simple: start conservatively, and sail our own race. Instead, everything came together even better and Bay Retriever won the start at the committee boat end of the line, putting us immediately into clean air and allowing us to choose our own course through the light breeze at the top of the Chesapeake.

The forecast called for light upwind sailing down the Bay before reaching the Atlantic sometime the following afternoon.

As darkness fell on the first day, we were passing Solomons Island and settling into our watch schedule. Sean and I stood the first overnight watch while the rest of the crew tried to find sleep aboard a heeled-over race boat.

SATURDAY

By sunrise we were off the mouth of the Rappahannock River, making good progress south while the breeze held. We knew lighter conditions were expected later in the day, so we took advantage of every bit of wind we could.

Eventually the forecast caught up with us.

Near the mouth of the Chesapeake, the wind faded dramatically. Current became the dominant factor, and progress slowed to a crawl. At one point we even deployed the anchor in an attempt to avoid being swept backward. Whether it fully set or not, it reflected just how little wind remained.

The final miles out of the Bay became a frustrating series of tacks through shifting current and light air. What might normally take far less time stretched into nearly 30 hours before we finally cleared Cape Henry and entered the Atlantic.

Once offshore, the breeze steadily returned. We hoisted the Code 0 as the sun began to set and worked our way through commercial shipping traffic entering and leaving the Chesapeake.

Gradually the constant chatter on VHF radio faded as the shoreline disappeared behind us. The boat settled into a comfortable rhythm, and for the first time it truly felt like we were offshore.

SUNDAY

The wind increased into the 20-knot range, and the seas built quickly as we approached the Gulf Stream. Much of the day was spent reaching under a triple-reefed mainsail and jib, occasionally surfing down waves at speeds approaching 18 knots. The motion below deck became challenging, and not everyone escaped the day feeling their best.

MONDAY

Monday morning began with a squall slowly building on the horizon.

As it approached, we reduced sail until we were carrying only a triple-reefed mainsail. Heavy rain swept over the boat while lightning flashed in the distance. Once the squall passed, it carried the wind away with it, leaving us briefly drifting in light air before the breeze gradually returned. By afternoon we were back under the spinnaker and making good progress once again.

TUESDAY

Tuesday, our final full day at sea, provided the reward after several days of changing conditions. Sunshine, steady breeze, and relatively flat water combined for fast, comfortable sailing toward Bermuda.

That evening the first lights of the island appeared on the horizon. Through the night we watched Bermuda slowly emerge from the darkness beneath a sky full of stars.

WEDNESDAY

Just after dawn, we called into Bermuda Radio who let us know about several cruise ships and the tall ship Sagres entering the harbor.

At 6:51 a.m., Bay Retriever crossed the finish line, completing 753 miles of racing.

After congratulating one another, we lowered the sails and motored around the island toward Hamilton, tying up at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

With the race complete, we enjoyed a few drinks dockside before clearing customs, cleaning up, and heading into Hamilton for our first meal ashore. That evening, sleeping in an Airbnb after nearly five days aboard the boat felt especially good.

THURSDAY, FRIDAY

Arriving on Wednesday left us with two full days to enjoy Bermuda before heading home.

We explored the island’s towns, beaches, and historic forts, watched a local parade, sampled plenty of great restaurants, and made sure to try both Dark ‘n Stormies and Rum Swizzles along the way.

SATURDAY

The week concluded with the awards ceremony, dinner, and celebration at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

PICTURES | RESULTS | EVENT WEBSITE | TRACKING | VIDEO

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The Magothy River Sailing Association’s Spring Fling brought a difficult mix of light air and strong current on Saturday, reshaping what was intended to be a distance‑style triangle race just north of the Bay Bridge. The J/99 Bay Retriever made the trip up from Back Creek to take part in the event, which allowed boats to start at any of three marks and sail the course in either direction within a set time window.

Early forecasts suggested steady breeze and manageable current, but conditions shifted as the morning progressed. The leftover chop from an earlier 10-15 knot breeze remained, even as the wind faded.

Bay Retriever enjoyed the last of the usable wind during the hour‑and‑a‑half sail to the southernmost mark, sailing mostly upwind and against a strong southerly current. By the time the crew began their race around 11 a.m., the wind had dropped significantly while the current continued to run hard.

The team chose the counterclockwise option, which required two close‑reaching legs partly into and across the current before a downwind leg with the current toward the finish. With only 3-6 knots of breeze, lingering chop, and a strong opposing flow, progress was slow from the outset. After about ninety minutes, it became clear that the first mark was still roughly two hours away, making it unlikely the full course could be completed within a reasonable timeframe.

The decision was made to retire from the race. Once headed home, the crew set the spinnaker in an attempt to keep the boat moving, but even that wasn’t enough in the fading breeze. The kite came down shortly after, gear was packed away, and the rest of the trip back was under power.

Despite the early exit, it was still a welcome return to the water and a chance to shake off the offseason. With spring underway, more racing – and hopefully more wind – awaits.

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Fishing Bay delivered a classic fall mix for the Offshore Fall Series #2 – gray skies, breeze starting in the mid‑teens before easing into the low double digits, and six PHRF‑A boats ready to make the most of it.

Race one opened with a long 1.8‑mile beat and two laps. We got the J/99 smoothly around the course, but the fleet stretched ahead early and never came back within reach.

The second race kept the same course length but only one lap. We were in the hunt while working the left side, but when we split right, the left paid big and the separation showed quickly.

For the final race – a shorter one‑mile, two‑leg course – we committed more firmly to the left. We stayed with the pack off the line, kept our air clear, and held our lane, but still ended up slightly right of the group and watched them slip ahead as the pressure shifted.

Thanks to Todd and crew for having me along!

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We had a beautiful light air day to sail the first FBYC Offshore Fall race day aboard Battle Rhythm.

We were among the 7 boats in the PHRF-A fleet. The first two races were sailed in 7-10 knots.

By the time we got to the 3rd race the wind was 5-7 – enough to race, but not fast. The current helped everyone to a general recall and after we got a successful start the wind continued to drop and the RC wisely shortened the race at the first leeward mark.

RESULTS | PICTURES | VIDEO

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The 3rd Annual Rescue Regatta brought together 30 boats for a day of racing and fundraising off Stingray Point, all in support of the Middlesex County Volunteer Rescue Squad. With sunny skies and steady 7-9 knot winds, conditions were ideal for the pursuit-style race that began at the mouth of the Piankatank River.

Luna firing her cannon as she crosses the starting line.
Luna firing her cannon as she crosses the starting line.

Unlike traditional handicap racing, pursuit races start with the slower-rated boats first and the faster-rated boats later. Finishing order reflects actual placement, eliminating the need for post-race time calculations.

I sailed aboard Battle Rhythm alongside Todd, April, David, Len, Dennis, Dwight, Case, Jen, and Heidi. We were among the last to start, with only one boat –Afterthought– beginning just behind us. Equipped with larger overlapping headsails, Afterthought overtook us early on the first leg.

That first upwind leg stretched more than four miles out into the Chesapeake Bay. As we settled into our pace, we began catching some of the early starters, rounding the first mark just behind a small group of boats.

The second leg-a continued upwind stretch up into the Rappahannock River-gave us a few more opportunities to gain ground. We picked off a handful of boats along the way and ultimately finished in 15th place.

With the race complete, we hoisted the spinnaker for a relaxed sail back around Stingray Point. Back on shore, the day wrapped up with pool time, followed by dinner, a silent auction, awards, and a party at the rescue squad – capping off a great day on the water for a worthy cause.

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We had a classic Chesapeake spring day for the Open House Regatta – cool temperatures, clear skies, and a steady breeze out of the northwest at 6-10 knots. Perfect conditions to spend the day racing on the water.

I sailed aboard the J/99 Battle Rhythm with a solid crew: Chris B, Chris R, Todd, David, April, Jon, and Kevin. This was a pursuit race, which meant the slower boats started first, and the faster boats (like us) started later. We ended up starting near the back of the fleet, side-by-side with Orion, another fast-rated boat.

The course took us from Godfrey Bay into the Piankatank River channel, then out toward Gwynn’s Island. We passed east of Stove Point before turning back upriver and finishing in Fishing Bay. It was a fun, tactical sail – plenty of opportunities to chase down boats ahead and make the most of every shift and puff.

After crossing the finish, the fleet gathered for a raft-up with about a dozen boats tying together – a great chance to relax, catch up with friends, and relive the race. We eventually headed back to the dock and capped off the day with a BBQ dinner at the club.

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I joined Battle Rhythm for their first race of the 2025 season—a gusty, northwesterly day that tested our teamwork and shook off some winter rust. We hadn’t sailed together since last fall, and the breeze reminded us of it. On the line with us were Nanuq, Orion, and Corryvreckan. We had a solid crew of nine: Todd, Jennifer, Holly, Lauren, Tina, April, Jon, Chris R., and Dennis.

We got a decent start at the pin, staying low and ahead of the fleet. When Nanuq threatened to roll us, we bailed early and tacked out toward the layline near Stingray Point. Most of the fleet went up the Piankatank, but our gamble to the north paid off. As we approached the weather mark tucked near Jackson Creek, we were less than a minute behind Nanuq, with Orion trailing another minute or two back.

We set the kite and started the long run toward Gwynn’s Island. That’s when things got interesting. During the gybe, strong breeze and rusty coordination wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay—briefly, but enough to throw us off. We got it flying again and pressed on, only to tangle it again as we tried a weather take down at the leeward mark. We then missed the mark, had to re-round, and lost some time.

On the final downwind leg, a northward wind shift made for an awkward angle. A delayed gybe and another wrap left us low on the course, forcing us to luff hard and nearly broach just trying to fetch the finish.

With breeze still pushing into the low 20s and with no injuries or broken gear, we decided we’d had our fill of fun and headed in before race two. It wasn’t flawless, but it felt good to be back on the water shaking out the cobwebs.

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The final sailing day of the year was a blue-bird day of frigid winter sailing aboard J99 Battle Rhythm at Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Winter Series #3. After the pursuit race against 3 other [crazy] boats we delivered the boat up the Rappahannock to Irvington where it’ll be hauled for the winter.

When I left Richmond in the morning for the trip to Deltaville it was 25 degrees outside. I don’t think I’ve ever scraped ice off a car to go sailing and I’ve never sailed in conditions this cold – not even the limited ILCA/Laser frostbiting that I’ve done. I did come prepared with plenty of layers and all of my heavy weather sailing gear and warm underlayers.

After arriving at the club we all stood in the sun as long as we could before going to boat which sat in the shade given how low the sun is on the horizon at this time. Aboard for the race were 9 of us – Jennifer, Holly, Len, Louise, Abigail, Tina, April, myself and the owner Todd. We had Len at the helm, Todd was up front with April and Abigail and I was in the middle doing tactics and tuning with Holly, Louise and Tina.

The boats we were racing against were Rhapsody, Wendas and Exit Strategy. Being a winter race, there was no race committee so we did a pursuit race around government marks and each boat had their own starting time according to their rating.  As the fastest boat of the fleet, we started over 20 minutes after the first boat to start and 10 minutes after the next closest competitor. The first leg was a bit of a broad reach out of the Piankatank – we set the spinnaker just after starting. Once out of the Piankatank we bore off a little bit for more of a run in the NNW wind of 14-18 knots.  This was definitely a windier day for what we had sailed the spinnaker in and it took us a little while to settle down with the right trim and angles as well as getting the maneuvers clean.

By the time we got to the far mark to turn upwind we were just behind Exit Strategy and Rhapsody. We tacked early to head inshore out of the current and it wasn’t log before we were ahead of both boats and stretching out. I had taken over at the main so I could constantly adjust trim to keep the boat heel and speed up working with Len on the helm. This leg was a little chillier going into the wind and occasionally having some water on deck.  By the time we were approaching the entrance mark to the Piankatank, Wendas was in our sights and still about 1 mile ahead of us when we were at 3 miles to go. The last let was fairly close to the wind and I think we were able to point so much better and held the lay line to the finish. Wendas couldn’t hold the angle we could and got pushed down to Gwynn’s island having to put in a tack to fetch the finish. And with that extra distance we were able to go right around them and finish a few minutes ahead.

Back at the dock we dropped off everyone not doing the delivery and quickly turned around to head up the Rappahannock with Todd, Jen, Holly, April and myself. We did some cleanup/stowing on the way out before we got into the waves and then went around Stingray Point. As we were entering the Rappahannock a tug approached behind us that we needed to avoid by a bit. The rest of the trip was fairly smooth and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we approached the route 3 bridge. We cautiously entered Carters Creek in the dark and when we made the turn to the marina we were greeted with a boat Christmas Light Parade.  We were at the dock just after 6, unloaded and left the boat for the haul out.

That was definitely one of the coldest sailing experiences I have had and a pretty one with the sunsets and light parade. Thanks to Todd for having me along for the day and looking forward to warmer weather again next year!

PICTURES | TRACK | VIDEO

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Jon sailed in FBYC’s closing day race aboard J99 Battle Rhythm with Kevin, Bill, Holly, Todd, and Jennifer.  As is the tradition for closing day, this is a pursuit race with the times calculated based on the distance and the slower boats start first while the faster boats start later. Being one of the faster boats we started about 47 minutes after the first boats to start and we start at the same time as Orien.

The wind was 11-14 at the start and we sailed around until our time came up.  The course was a bit of an out and back into the bay just shy of 20nm.

We started with Orien and sailed to a very short mark just north of the starting line with Orien just to leeward and behind of us. At the mark we tacked for another close hauled course to the entrance of the Piankatank.  The next leg was a reach to the south. We could see that the current was ebbing south and so we took a high line to the north so-as to not sail any extra distance and let the current carry us down.

When we got to the far mark to the south there was a pack of boats just ahead of us. Since we were coming from above and most of them were struggling to fetch the mark, we rounded inside and went right by them.

On this leg we were heading north and would have to tack to fetch the northern mark 2.8nm away.  By this time we were seeing winds as high as 26 and some decent waves rolling down the bay.  We still had a full main and jib and just did our best to work the boat through the waves despite being a little overpowered. Once at the top mark only Wendas was ahead of us when we turn to reach back into the Piankatank. We probably could have carried a spinnaker at this angle, but with winds into the 20s we didn’t try it and nobody behind us did either.

We quickly got around Wendas and reached under full main and Jib as Sting, Afterthought and the J42 all lined up about 150 yards behind us. We kept a close eye on them as they crept up on us and we focused on saying ahead hitting as high as 12 knots through the water at one point.  Once we were in the lee of Stingray Point the wind came down and the angle went a little behind us and we decided to put up the spinnaker. With winds in the teens it was a challenge to control and we almost spun out once. We got the boat under the spinnaker, but would need to gybe once to fetch the finish.  Other boats were setting spinnakers behind us and some were only 5 lengths behind us.

The gybe didn’t go particularly well and we wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay.  Luckly we were close enough to the line that we just went dead downwind spinnaker wrapped and all for the final minute to finish 1st – just ahead of our competition.

We were mostly unaware at the time other than some radio traffic that we didn’t entirely make sense of, but the Trip 27 GOIN’ had a shroud fitting fail and lost the mast out in the bay in the heavier winds. Orien left the race to help, but the club power boat was there to assist by the time they arrived.  Everyone was ok and they got the boat back ashore with a crinkle in the mast just above the deck line and a ripped main.

It was an exciting race and a fun way to wrap up the ‘regular’ season at FBYC.

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Saturday

Saturday’s weather started with sunny skies, temperatures in the 60 and wind around 14 out of the North. We had a good start near the boat in the first race and quickly tacked to port to clearer air. Rick called a great layline and we found ourselves at the top mark behind only Nanuq and Afterthought. We set the A2 spinnaker downwind and had a good run. At the bottom mark we managed to get a jib sheet on the wrong side of the spinnaker which we didn’t realize until mid-tack so we lost some ground having to abandon the tack. The rest of the race was sailed cleanly to a changed weather mark and only Orion got around leaving us 4th over the line and 4th on corrected.

The second race start was a lot more crowded with Tradition trying a mid-line port start. We were a little late in dodging the traffic, but did well to hold our line between Orion and Excitation as we headed up wind. Other than a hiccup with the second spinnaker set, we sailed pretty cleanly in a very competitive fleet. With boats all around us all race we had to settle for a 6th, and were less than 30 seconds out of 4th on corrected time. Sting (J92s) sailed a great race and was on our tail the whole time and we had a few crosses with them. They would end up having to give us room on the pin at the finish and were 4 seconds behind us, but corrected to 2nd.

By the 3rd race the wind came down a few knots and with all of the boats jammed up at the pin, we got out to the boat end to start. From there we worked our way up the right side of the course staying close to Afterthought just to weather of us. We rounded just behind the pack of boats and worked on hitting our targets and numbers. We also cleaned up the timing of our jibes and got it nice and snappy like I used to do on the J70. We would go ono to finish this race in 6th as well and putting us in 6th overall for the regatta. While the result don’t show it, we sailed very competitively and were 1-2 minutes out of 3rd in every race on corrected time.

Sunday

We returned Sunday for what should have been a distance race. Only there wasn’t any wind nor was there forecast to be. After a brief skippers meeting the signal boat and a couple of sailboats went out to explore. Afterthought tried to so some sailing, but there wasn’t enough to consistently keep the sails full. After about an hour racing was called. We were out there motoring around and returned to the dock to do some work aloft and then called it a day.

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

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