Rossi Milev’s Clear Air Captures J/24 Midwinter Championship

Rossi Milev Clear Air

Mar 14, 2019
Clean Air at the 2017 Worlds in Toronto

2017 J/24 World Champion Rossi Milev of PCYC, Toronto, on Clear Air, hoisted another Class perpetual trophy Sunday, taking the 2019 J/24 Midwinter Championship at Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, FL. With crew Dan Borrer, Gayle Gray, Vince Somoza (boat owner) and Mark Goodyear, the Ontario Canada-based helmsman led the team to net scores of 2,1,3,7,5,1,4 for 23 points. Carter White’s YouRegatta paced solid scores all weekend, earning him the silver position with 26 points. John Mollicone’s Helly Hansen came on strong in the latter races to clinch the bronze spot with 28 points.

Twenty-nine teams completed eight races from March 1-3. This event was Milev’s first since winning the 2017 Worlds. “It felt great to be back,” said Milev. “We didn’t have the gears since we haven’t sailed for a while, but every day, we got a little better.” Although Gray and Goodyear were part of the World Championship crew, Borrer and Somoza were newcomers to Clear Air, yet “clicked from the get-go.”

The blue skies, solid seabreeze and temperatures hovering around 80 degrees were a welcome relief to the sub-zero conditions in Canada. About Davis Island, Milev summarized, “The breeze this weekend was unbelievable. I’ve sailed here a lot of times, and this is the steadiest I’ve ever seen it. On Saturday, we had 15 minutes on one tack, and we never got a shift.”

Top five:

1. Clear Air, Rossi Milev, CAN 2 -1 -[14] -3 -7 -5 -1 -4 ; 23

2. YouRegatta, Carter White, USA 1 -[12] -6 -4 -3 -6 -3 -3 ; 26

3. Helly Hansen, John Mollicone, USA [24] -8 -4 -6 -2 -2 -5 -1 ; 28

4. Bangor Packet, Tony Parker, USA 11 -11 -1 -[12] -5 -1 -4 -6 ; 39

5. Angel of Harlem, Robby Brown, USA 7 -2 -3 -2 -11 -7 -8 -[30] ; 40

Related Articles

Video Gallery

Bennington 22 MSB

By Andy Adams

If you’ve already had firsthand experience with a pontoon, you will easily understand the appeal of the Bennington 22 MSB. But if you haven’t, let’s start by reviewing a few of the reasons why pontoon boats have become top sellers in markets across North America.

Pontoon boats began in the early 1950s as basically four steel drums lashed to a frame. They were not unlike the log rafts of ancient cultures and not much more sophisticated at first.

Read More

Destinations

The Best of Two Worlds

By Mathew Channer

Interior British Columbia might not be as famous for recreational boating as Canada’s Great Lakes, yet it is no less a world-class boat­ing destination. The mountains offer their own flavour of marine adventure with their series of long, deep ribbon lakes, and there is perhaps no area that embodies this more uniquely than the iconic Okanagan basin in southern B.C. One could be forgiven for assuming this valley was purpose-built for nautical fun, with a few delightful perks thrown in to make the area entirely irresistible (wine-tasting, anyone?).

Read More

Lifestyle