2015 Toms River Tune-Up - Report

Sixteen teams attended the Toms River Yacht Club Tune Up Regatta on June 6, 2015 to kick off the start of E scow racing on Barnegat Bay.  The fleet sailed four races in a building north-easterly on the Seaside course.  PRO Chip Hillyer alternated between two and three lap races, each taking approximately 40-50 minutes each. Even with the long courses, the fleet was very compressed at the top mark, which made for some tight (and loud!) first windward mark roundings.

Race 1 and Race 2 saw T-73 Jeff Bonanni and BH-21 Robert Koar trading leads, with T-73 ultimately taking wins in the first two races. It was certainly entertaining for our team to listen to the banter of the all-Koar team around the buoys, and tough to hold them off upwind where they showed great speed as usual.

The breeze built to a steady 15 knots for race 3 with larger variations in direction. The first beat saw an even split of boats drag racing to both corners, with Erik Johnson T-18 hooking into a nice port lift to cross a large pack coming out of the right led by Will Demand T-1. The Showtime T-18 team led wire to wire for the win.

Chad Hillyer T-17 took his first race win in race 4 with his newly launched E scow “Hunter”. The rest of the top 5 shuffled up on the last downwind of a long three lap race, with Jeff Bonanni T-73 grabbing second and Erik Johnson T-18 taking third.

It was an all Toms River Yacht Club affair on the podium, with Jeff Bonanni and crew Mike O’Brien, Matt Goetting and Maggie Condon taking the win for the third year in a row, with Erik Johnson T-18 taking second and Chad Hillyer T-17 taking third.