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On home lake, Dillon’s Keesling wins Dillon Open J/24 fleet

Sailboats race on Lake Dillon as part of this past weekend's 45th annual Dillon Open Regatta.
Elaine Collins / Special to The Daily

2018 Dillon Open

Race series

Winner Boat Helm Name Total points

CorsairPulse600 Fleet

Goose Chase Chad Clavel 7.00

J-22 Fleet

Baby Doe Mateo Vargas 8.00

J-24 Fleet

The Dumpster Frank Keesling 15.00

PHRF 1 Fleet

Bullseye Scott Snyder 8.00

PHRF 2 Fleet

Wharf Rat Patrick Dorsch 6.00

Pearson Ensign Fleet

Wildcat Gerry Huttrer 8.00

S-20 Fleet

Gerkin Raymond McCleery 10.00

Star Fleet

Quick Feet Paul Kresge 16.00

Small boat results

Race series

Yacht Club Skipper Total points

Laser Full

Denver Sailing Assoc. Carlos Abisambra 11.00

C420

Community Sailing of Colorado Jack David/Allie Kolpak 7.00

RS Tera

Community Sailing of Colorado Will Platten 7.00

Chalk up another Dillon Open Regatta win for Frank Keesling.

Competing on the familiar waters of Lake Dillon, the Dillon-resident Keesling and his crew aboard their J/24 sailboat nicknamed “The Dumpster” sailed to first-place in the 45th annual Dillon Open’s J/24 fleet event.

Using sailing’s low-point scoring system — which awards one point for a first-place finish, and so on — The Dumpster totalled 15 points over seven different races.



The Dumpster got out to an early lead on the rest of the J/24 fleet, winning Saturday’s first and second races to amass a low of two points through two events.

The Dumpster then finished in third place in the third and fourth races, opening up the door for Gregory Johnson’s boat “Pinotage” and Josh Bowens-Rubin’s boat “Zero Gravity.”



Through Saturday’s four races, The Dumpster totaled eight points, the same as Pinotage and four ahead of Zero Gravity.

The three remaining J/24 races took place on Sunday, with The Dumpster sailing to second-, second- and third- places over the final three races.

Entering the seventh and final race, The Dumpster and Pinotage were tied for first-place with 12 points each. And with Pinotage’s fifth-place finish in the final race, The Dumpster and Keesling took the overall victory.

In the competitive J/22 fleet event, Mateo Vargas and his “Baby Doe” boat dominated the competition, finishing 10 points ahead of any of the other 10 boats.

Baby Doe reeled off wins in the second, third, fourth and fifth J/22 races of the weekend while finishing in second-place in the only other J/22 races, to total eight points.

As for the Summit County group of local youth aboard the “Hardcore ‘Pubs” J/22 vessel, the team of Jacob Brewer, 16, of Breckenridge, Rudy Burki, 16, of Dillon, Mason Mitchell, 17, of Eagle, and Thomas Francis, 16, of Copper Mountain, sailed to ninth-place overall of 11 boats in the fleet.

The team’s best finish in an individual race came in the second, fifth and seventh of the seven J/22 races, with eighth-place finishes in each.


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