Darden/Hillard win J/70 Midwinter Championship

St Petersburg, FL (February 28, 2016) – It may have been just their second major J/70 regatta, but Glenn Darden and Reese Hillard on Hoss controlled the competition at the J/70 Midwinter Championship (Feb 26-28) to earn the title. Darden, a J/80 World Champion, was at the helm with co-owner Hillard, Jonathan McKee and Karl Anderson.

“I have a fabulous team,” praised Darden, who has been sailing with Hillard for over 20 years. “We added Jonathan who is a Gold medalist, and I’d never sailed with him before the last couple regattas. He’s helped us get up to speed.”

Hoss was able to throw-out a 13 from the final race, keeping a line of 3,6,2,2,1,2,2 for 18 points. The second place team, Will Welles’ Sea Bags Sailing Team, was 17 points back. Allan Terhune’s Dazzler completed the top three with 41 points. The top Corinthian team was William Ballard’s Snaproll.

Darden credited PRO Todd Fedyazyn and the Race Committee, saying “They did a wonderful job. It was tricky, very puffy and shifty, even in the bigger breeze. We got a variety of conditions.”

Sunday saw the lightest winds of the three-day event at about 6 knots. The day’s race winners were John Brim and Geoff Becker.

Final Results (Top 10 of 46; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. Hoss, Glenn Darden/ Reese Hillard , USA – 3 -6 -2 -2 -1 -2 -2 -[13] ; 18
2. Sea Bags Sailing Team, Will Welles , USA – [13] -2 -1 -3 -2 -10 -13 -4 ; 35
3. Dazzler, Allan Terhune, Jr. , USA – 1 -3 -7 -1 -[23] -7 -7 -15 ; 41
4. USA 25, Geoff Becker , USA – 2 -1 -9 -[29] -4 -14 -24 -1 ; 55
5. Rimette, John Brim , USA – 17 -12 -3 -8 -7 -[25] -1 -10 ; 58
6. Catapult, Joel Ronning , USA – 10 -4 -6 -9 -9 -[29] -12 -8 ; 58
7. Reach Around, Thomas Bowen , USA – 11 -13 -5 -6 -5 -[22] -14 -6 ; 60
8. Menace, Kerry Klingler , USA – 20 -[50] -4 -7 -3 -3 -10 -16 ; 63
9. Zounds Hearing, Jay Lutz , USA – 5 -5 -10 -5 -14 -17 -[19] -11 ; 67
10. Soul, David Koski / Maciej Zawadzki , USA – 6 -11 -14 -12 -12 -4 -11 -[25] ; 70

Event details – Scoreboard – Facebook – Photos

Source: One Design Association Management