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Lake Minnetonka, MN (September 12, 2008) Tim Healy had won the J/24 North Americans before, and was poised to do it again. All that stood in between him and the prize was the one race – the final race – scheduled for Friday. He was guaranteed second, and only a bullet by John Mollicone’s team could change his happy ending. There had been good breeze all regatta, not quite windy enough for jib conditions, but plenty of upper genoa range. The event venue, Lake Minnetonka, had been playing fair too, with both sides of the course working, and lots of shifts for the astute tactician to work his or her way to the front of the fleet. For just one race on Friday, he liked his team’s chances.

The only problem was that for the final day of the event, the wind was zero with puffs to 6 knots. Not exactly the kind of conditions where it was easy to control the only boat you had to beat. Healy’s team could have focused only on Mollicone, match raced him at the start, and forced him into one of the numerous bays along the 140 miles of lake shoreline. However, that’s not his style, and instead allowed Mollicone to start near the pin while Healy would set up more toward the center of the line and protect the favored right side. Of course, when the wind glassed off around Healy, all bets were off and the scramble began.

As had occurred all regatta, both teams found themselves in the top ten at the first windward mark, but when Bob Harden’s team on Mr. Happy worked out into a distant lead over both of them, ultimately winning with a leg lead, Healy knew that the threat was over, and went on to enjoy the most pleasant 18th place finish he ever recorded during his ten year career in the class. — Results: http://www.j24northamericans.com/pages/J24Results.html