Peter Duncan's Relative Obscurity Goes on a Tear

It's been a productive start to 2025 for Peter Duncan in the J/70 in his boat Relative Obscurity. First they won Event #2 of the Bacardi Invitational Winter Series (they didn't participate in Event #1) in January against 41 boats, then they won the Bacardi Cup Invitational in early March against 50 boats, and finally they won the J/70 Midwinter Championship in late March against 50 boats. As Peter put it, "We've been on a bit of a tear."

This team is no stranger to success. Joining Peter was Victor Diaz de Leon, Jud Smith, and Willem Van Waay. When they last raced all together, they won the 2017 J/70 World Championship. Peter noted, "We're a group that has great chemistry; we leave the egos at the door when we go sailing. Some people don't recognize how much of a team sport sailing is, but it's all team."

As you can see in Hannah Lee Noll's photographs of Midwinters, shared here, it was windy, with breeze in the high teens pushing into the 20s. "Even though there was a lot of breeze," Peter said, "the sea state was very chopped up and very irregular on wave patterns. We had to really pay attention to steering, easing, looking for a flat spot to tack. Adding to the challenge, there was a tremendous amout of weed in the water. It's amazing how quickly you start going slow. You can solve the keel weed by pulling it up and down, but we had to use a weed stick on the rudder even during racing."

With constant pressure at Midwinters from two strong Brazillian teams, particularly Ralph Rosa's MINDSET, Relative Obscurity had to stay on their game right until the end. Dropping their worst score of 10th place, they went 1, 2, 2, 1, 4, 2 to take first in the regatta.

We asked Peter what was next in store for him. "I'll be doing Etchells North Americans in San Diego," he said, "then the big J/70 events in the US and two in Buenos Aires in advance of Worlds." The team has certainly kicked off 2025 with a bang. "We didn't think we would come out of the blocks as well as we did," Peter said. "We were happy to see that but it's like everything — every day is an adventure. That's what makes sailing great. It is never easy."

Special thanks to Hannah Lee Noll and her WindDance creative agency for permission to use her fabulous photographs in this post.