Thanks to Jay Leon for this report: At the first ever J/70 Mixed-Plus US National Championship, it came down to the very last meter. Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle hosted the event June 13-15.
Sailing fans got to watch a great contest between Boris Luchterhand’s team Riff and Dalton Bergan’s team Mossy, a rivalry started in March at the POD when Riff very narrowly won in the eighth and final race. This was no different as the teams started the day tied at 7 points with Riff ahead in the tie breaker.
At the start of race six, Mossy had a clean lane one boat up from the pin, and Riff was in the middle of a pack in the middle of the line. Riff put on a master class on hanging in a thin lane, but Mossy had more room to work with and had gained enough to tack and cross Riff and the rest of the fleet three minutes into the beat. Keith Whittemore’s Rodeo Clown, who would go on to win the race going away, tacked a bit farther to the left, and Riff a bit more left than that. Everyone now had wide lanes and started to stretch their legs. At the first weather mark, it was Rodeo Clown, Riff, then Mossy essentially overlapped. Mossy gybed first, and had squeezed in front of Riff by the time they got to the gate, Mossy turned left and had to sail through the throng of spinnakers while the other two turned right and missed the bad air. It seemed like a questionable call, but Dalton made it work, and when the boats came back together Mossy was only just ahead and clamped right on Riff who tacked immediately, match racing style. Two tacks later, Riff decided to tack a third time before getting fully up to speed and Mossy let them go.
When they came back together, Mossy was on starboard and Riff could not cross, but Mossy tacked in front of Riff instead of letting them duck. Thirty seconds later, Rodeo Clown tacked upwind of both of them, and probably hurt Mossy more, making the rounding order the same at the second weather mark, but with a bit more space between the boats. In the run to the finish, Mossy squeezed up to the stern of Riff, simul-gybed, and forced Riff to gybe away. They probably should have waited just a second because they gybed back right into Yolanda‘s dirt and that was that. Finishing order: Rodeo Clown, Mossy, Yolanda and Riff. After six races, Dalton Bergan’s team Mossy led the regatta with 9 points to Boris Luchterhand’s team Riff with 11 points.
As race seven started, the places were similar, Mossy at the pin, Riff midline. This time when Mossy tacked, they could not cross, and Riff clamped right on them, and they immediately tacked back. This scene was repeated a couple of times until Mossy had been driven back into the next group. Rodeo Clown was again out front on the left, Yolanda in the mix as well. While this was consuming all of the attention, War Canoe, BammBamm and Lift Ticket had picked up some nice pressure on the right and came back ahead of everyone. So at the first weather mark, it was Mike Goldfarb’s team War Canoe launched by several boatlengths, followed by Rodeo Clown, BammBamm, Jabberwocky, Riff, Lift Ticket, Mossy, Yolanda, Rosemary and then the most incredible port tack layline cluster munch you have ever seen that somehow went off without anyone getting a scratch.
For those of you keeping score, with Lift Ticket in between them, Riff and Mossy were tied again, with Riff ahead and therefore winning the tie breaker. Mossy had the added problem of the throw outs. Since Riff had thrown out a fifth, any worse finish would be replaced by the 5. Mossy did not have that luxury, having thrown out a seventh. So Riff could take risks that Mossy could not, and when everyone including Mossy gybed onto port, Riff kept sailing on starboard for several minutes. It seemed like quite a risk until the throw-out math was considered. They were in fourth and could not get worse than fifth. The left turn at the gate was favored so it was easy to tell the order of the boats: War Canoe, Rodeo Clown, BammBamm, Riff and Mossy who had gotten past Lift Ticket and was back into the lead for the regatta—and just had to hang on to Riff for one more lap.
Meanwhile, while everyone was playing the right side because it had worked so well on the last beat, Jabberwocky took the unfavored right turn at the gate and went left, got some pressure and a bit of a shift and came back right in between Riff and Mossy, putting Riff back in the lead for the regatta. Then Riff and Jabberwocky passed BammBamm, adding to their lead. At what would turn out to be the final weather mark rounding of the regatta, it was War Canoe by a bunch, then Riff, Rodeo Clown, Jabberwocky, BammBamm, and then Mossy. Riff needed one boat between them and had three. And Mossy was in a pack with other very fast boats on their tail including Dime and Lift Ticket.
Just like in the POD regatta in March, Mossy was far enough behind Riff that they could get a split pretty easily, and so they gybed right away, and in minutes had more than enough leverage to make something happen, and somehow also had plenty of space without being harassed by the boats behind. OK Mr. magician, let’s see what you have in that hat! Then, things got kind of crowded over by Riff. Then Rodeo Clown and Jabberwocky took themselves out by carrying on too far to the west. Then BammBamm squeaked by Riff by, I don’t know, 2 meters at the finish line. And presto, Mossy finished right behind Riff to win the regatta. What a show!
The first ever J/70 Mixed-Plus US National Champions: Dalton Bergan, Lindsey Bergan, Ben Glass and Regan Edwards.
Thank you to Jim Murray for donating the perpetual trophy!
Runners up: Boris Luchterhand, Ron Rosenberg, Emmett Beadnall and AnaLucia Clarkson
Third Place: Michael Goldfarb, Julia Mamen, Alyosha Strum-Palerm, Jen Glass and Farzana Mohamedali
Ron Rosenberg has made the Pacific Northwest into world-class center for J/70 sailing and has created an open and welcoming regional team with a significant focus on learning and improvement. In addition to great watching for the fans, the sailors got seven fair and professionally run races by PRO Charley Rathkopf and the terrific CYC Seattle Race Committee. The environment created by the regatta organizers paid off for everyone as Paul Garner, helmsmen of Jabberwocky, said, “The daily progression we all experienced from Friday morning to Sunday evening was remarkable! We all learned so much and improved and incredible amount.”
Finally, visiting pro sailor Tommy Dietrich remarked, “I cannot believe how deep and talented this Pacific Northwest group of sailors has become. We had so much fun racing.”
Event page: https://www.yachtracing.tv/events/2025-j70-us-nationals-mplus
Full Results: https://cycseattle.org/regatta/NKTnExPJRb/results
Dennis Pearce photos: https://www.dennispearcephotography.com/Sailing/Sailing-2025/2025-J70-Mixed-Nationals-