Mike Ingham wins J/24 Midwinters

Indian Harbour Beach, FL (February 12, 2017) – Mike Ingham earned his first J/24 Midwinter Championship, topping the 31-boat fleet after eight races.

Going into the final day, Ingham and Travis Odenbach’s Honeybadger was initially tied on points but a scoring penalty was later posted, leaving Odenbach with 29 points and second place.

Both John Mollicone’s Helly Hansen and Carter White’s Sea Bags Sailing Team also tallied 29 points, with Mollicone clearing the tie-breaker for third place. Will Welles’ Bogus captured the fifth position with 41 points.

When the wind failed to develop today, the results from the previous two days became final.

“It was really hard to be consistent,” shared Ingham. “It was too shifty. If you got out of phase, it was really hard to get back.”

Ingham, sailing with Tucker Gilliam (bow), Scott Smith (mast), Scott Griffin (tactics) and Paul Abdullah (trimmer), received the Lambert Lai Trophy, named in honor of the previous USJCA President who passed away in 2014 and also raced in the Rochester, NY fleet.

Team Tarheel was previously led by Peter Bream, who died last October. Ingham has sailed the boat for the last two regattas. “The fun thing about this is it’s the Tarheel team, which was really Peter getting these guys sailing when they were younger,” explained Ingham. “I had this feeling that I needed to do him proud. And I don’t mean winning. I mean just being a sportsman because that’s the way he was.”

Final Results (Top 10 of 31; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. Tarheel, Mike Ingham[P], Rochester Canoe Club, 1-3-[16]-1-2-2-9-5- ; 23
2. Honeybadger, Travis Odenbach[P], Rochester yacht club, 2-1-5-[16]-5-11/SCP-1-4- ; 29T
3. Helly Hansen, John Mollicone[P], Sail Newport, 5-5/RDG-4-[11]-4-1-3-7- ; 29T
4. Sea Bags Sailing Team, Carter White[P], Portland Yacht Club, 6-5-2-4-3-6-[8]-3- ; 29T
5. Bogus, Will Welles[P], MDICSC, 14-2-1-6-[20]-9-7-2- ; 41
6. Lifted, Evan Petley-Jones[P], RNSYS, 4-6-7-8-[17]-3-4-10- ; 42
7. Long Shot, John Poulson[P], DIYC, 15-11-[18]-2-1-10-5-1- ; 45
8. Jesus Lizard, Daniel Borrer[P], Borrer Yacht Racing, 3-4-12-[13]-6-4-10-12- ; 51
9. BASH, Ron Medlin[P], Waccamaw Sailing Club, 8-12-13-[18]-8-13-6-9- ; 69
10. Muy Muy, Patricio Sly[C], US Sailing Miami, 13-8-9-7-13-[15]-11-14- ; 75

Event details – Scoreboard

Source: J/24 Class