Thanks to Jean Marc Papin for this report: Incredible racing conditions for the 2023 J/70 East Coast Championship, and a great champion with John Gochberg’s team taking USA 551 to first place with the perfect score of 5 points (after throw-out)! Ed Lebens’ Reggaeshark took second place and Jean Marc Papin/Thomas Davy/Thibault Dufour/Melih Baghdati’s Pen Segal completed the podium. Special mention to Jennifer Monty’s Mabuhay who was racing their first J/70 event and took home the prize for first Corinthian! On the first day, a pouring rain didn’t affect competitors’ willingness to race in 10-15 knots conditions from the ENE (typical Long Island Sound choppy conditions, very challenging for J/70 sailing). The Race Committee was able to give us three races. With a breeze slightly dropping off along the day, most of the teams sailed with three different rig tunes. On Pen Segal, we sailed +2, +1, Base. We were a little bit tight on the first race with some lack of power to keep good speed in the chop. The second day saw a shifty Northerly at 9-18 knots. Downwind conditions were very challenging, offering all that a J/70 can offer: displacement mode, wing on wing, lazy planing, planing…all in the same leg! We sailed most of the day with +2.5 and went down to sail +2 for the last race. All of this could not have happened without an incredibly welcoming Larchmont Yacht Club who put together an incredible event onshore and ashore. Thank you Ned Roseberry for putting this together! Thank you to all the LYC team, the Race Committee and the volunteers! Here is a very nice video of the event at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKoiD7bl2N0. J/70 racing is definitely back to the Sound so stay tuned, more to come!