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San Juan 24 North Americans

Sponsored by Ullman Sails

Mon, 18th Jun 2012
By Chuck Skewes


San Juan 24 North Americans Sponsored by Ullman Sails

The 2012 San Juan 24 North Americans had 24 boats sign up and 20 start in beautiful Oak Harbor Washington. Boats from Vancouver BC, Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellingham and Oak Harbor showed up for the 40th anniversary of the San Juan 24. A few of the boats have been meticulously restored and some are in their original colors and configurations.

The first day of two was light with 6-8 knots of wind with fairly large tides.  The wind was out of the south so the course was in Saratoga Passage.  Ken Johnson with Graurer Geist celebrating his 38th year in the class won the battle of the lead changes taking the first bullet of the regatta and his first win at a North American Championship.  He was followed by Dave Steckman in Renaissance.  The second race was in a dying breeze and again had several lead changes with Mitch Rinnella on Skamokowa working their way through the fleet and coming in first.  The third race was abandon after the wind shifted 45% and died to almost nothing.

The fleet celebrated the 40th Anniversary with a great dinner party at Oak Harbor Yacht Club and a talk with question and answer session with Chuck Skewes of Ullman Sails and former San Juan 24 North American Champion.

The second day of the regatta started out with perfect condition and held all day with 15 to 18 knots of wind and smooth water.  Graurer Geist the first day leader won the start and lead the fleet to the favored right side but went too far and ran aground and had to withdraw from the race.  Mitch Rinnella and his crew on Skamokowa didn’t make any mistakes and started the way the ended the first day with a bullet. Ekono Juan owned by Ryan Forbes showed great decision making by winning the next two races in a row but in the last race Skamokowa put the nail in the coffin by winning the last race and winning the 2012 North American Championship followed by Ken Johnson in Graurer Geist for second and Mark Bradner in Return for 3rd.
Here are pictures of the event.


This article was posted on Mon, 18th Jun 2012