The 2016 J/30 North Americans blew through Annapolis over the weekend of September 22-25, bringing 19 boats to race out of Eastport Yacht Club under fair skies and pleasant winds. Coming out on top in the regatta was Zephyr 2.0, a New Orleans-based crew with Scott Tonguis at the helm.
Tonguis was driving for David Erwin, Zephyr’s skipper and also the J/30 class president, who spent the weekend in support duties instead of racing. The boat was loaned to Erwin by Michael Ruzzi, who came aboard as crew for the weekend. In addition, Erwin brought along Benz Faget, Brent Barnett, Dennis Bartley, RJ Trejo, and Huey Kliebert. Half of the crew was native to New Orleans, while the rest was picked up along the way.
“This year, we added Dennis, a past J/30 president and US Sailing judge to leverage his music skills and rules risk management,” Erwin says. “Dennis replaced our long-term crew member Donnie Brennan, who was not available as he was in Rio serving as the US Olympic team boatright.”
Despite the lack of a formal introduction, the Zephyr 2.0 crew quickly fell into a rhythm on the water. “We have a rule on Zephyr,” Erwin says. “If you are going to yell something, yell something nice.” Whether there was excessive “nice yelling” or not, the crew quickly started racking up the wins. And this was to be expected, to an extent. The Zephyr crew has won the national championships six times now since 2001. “We’ve been sailing together for over 30 years now. We lost our J/30 during Hurricane Katrina, and it took us ten years to get the program in a winning mode again, at the national level.”
Erwin says that the competition in Annapolis did take him by surprise, though. “Annapolis is by far the toughest place to win. Bebop, Blue Meanie, Cannonball 2.0, and Wildcat are tough to beat! We were impressed with the first-time North American team Total Mayhem this year, and then we found out that the helmsman and boat owner was a former Olympic competitor.”
You never know who you’re going to face off with in the J/30 class. Erwin himself counts Terry McDermott as one of his regular New Orleans crew—McDermott, if you remember, finished in second place on the third season of NBC’s The Voice. “Whether we’re racing or cruising, don’t be surprised to see a guitar down below,” he says.
Erwin has both the ability to make sailing fun and win regattas, and he says that the J/30 class is the perfect place to do both. “The J/30 is great because you can race a one-design with 20 boats, or cruise with eight to 10 people. But as a number one priority, we have fun. Winning is what we call ‘lagniappe’ in New Orleans. It translates to ‘a little extra.’”
Chesapeake Bay J/30 sailors should start to look forward to that “lagniappe” next year, as the 2017 J/30 North Americans will be held in the Big Easy. Dave Erwin is looking forward to hosting the whole fleet.
