Key Yachting Ltd would like to offer you the chance to buy tickets for the Southampton Boat Show at a discount:

Prices for the Show: 

To book your tickets now, please just click here: http://www.seetickets.com/boatshow/?pass=S42

Key Yachting Ltd will be exhibiting the following boats at Southampton Boat Show on marina berths 343 to 347. The J/95 will be available to sail at the show on the Try A Boat Feature

Grand Soleil 46

The European Yacht of the Year 2009/2010 makes her UK debut at the Southampton Show. 

Grand Soleil 45

The boat we will be showing at Southampton is available for sale. She is straight from the yard, and just needs sails and instruments.  

The J/95

This 31 foot J Boat is the one with the twin rudders and a lifting centre-board. She is fast, exciting and supremely manageable. You can sail her yourself at the show because she will be based on the Try A Boat feature. 

The J/97

Our 31 foot IRC performance cruiser-racer, winner of Class and Black Group overall at Cowes Week 2009, there is a growing fleet of these in the UK now and we plan class racing in 2011.

The J/80 Sportsboat

We are expecting a good deal of interest in the J/80 at Southampton. The UK Nationals will be held in Dartmouth in 2011 and then the World Championship will be held there in 2012. The J/80 Class will be ramping up in preparation for these major events.  

The J/122

This forty foot asymmetric cruiser-racer has a fantastic race record both inshore and offshore. She is the smallest boat in the J Boat range with three cabins. She is fast and fun and manageable.

J/24 Legends Regatta

Big J/24 event of the Year!!

(New South Wales, Australia)- Leave it up to the fun-loving Australians for more out-of-the-box thinking and generate lots of enthusiasm for their ever-expanding J/24 program in Australia.  For starters, the J/24 Australian NSW State Championships will be racing October 2-3.  But, perhaps more importantly the Australian J/24 class is hosting the J/24 Legends Regatta on Monday 4th October 2010 at Gosford Sailing Club (e.g. like the 12 Meter “Legends Regatta” being held at New York YC’s Harbour Court in Newport, RI this September).  Here’s your chance to have one of Australia’s J/24 Sailing Legends sail on your boat as either skipper or crew. This will be the most amazing collection of past and current World Champions and National Champions the J/24 class has ever brought together for a day of racing and conviviality. Immediately following the State Championship, this one day regatta will become the stuff of Legends itself. If you want to meet and talk with, sail against and have a beer with Australia’s Sailing Legends, you need to book early and be at the Legends Regatta.  

Invitations to the J/24 Legends Regatta event include World Champions, National Champions and Women on Water winners and supporters.  The evening’s Master of Ceremonies will be ex-J/24 sailor and “Master of the Universe”, Rob Mundle.  They already have Legends Mark Bethwaite (yeah, same family who helped create a bunch of Aussie 18s, the International 49er and 29er classes), Ian MacDiarmid, Garry Geitz, David Suda, Sean Wallis, Sean Kirkjian, Hugo Ottoway, Steve Girdis and Rod Waterhouse confirmed.  BTW, are Ken Read, Morgan Larson, Terry Hutchinson and Ed Baird invited, too?  Some say they are distantly related to a few “ex-convicts” (a few dozen generations back) and qualify somewhat tangentially as “Aussies Too”.    If you are interested in entering, or being involved, please contact Terry on 0413 876184 or Paula on 0404 539176.  They’ll be filling the ballroom pictured here!

J/Regatta News

The Sun Never Sets on J’s Sailing Worldwide

August ushered in with a bang for sailors worldwide, especially in Europe.  The sailing conditions for England’s Cowes Week were great for sailing around the shoals and crazy Solent currents.  The J/80s in France enjoyed their Deauville Open.  The J/22s in Travemunder Woche in Germany had some special guests from The Netherlands.  In the America’s, sailing took place at the world’s highest regatta (the mile high club) on Lake Dillon in Colorado as well as down along the coasts.  The J/30s held their North Americans in Marblehead, MA; the J/80s and J/24s had some great racing on a windy Buzzards Bay Regatta; and the J/105s sailed the third and final leg of the J/105 Narragansett Bay Championship at Wickford YC’s West Passage Regatta.  Finally, don’t forget to read the J/Cruising Community section below.  Read on! More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it or upload onto our J/Boats Facebook page!  Below are the summaries.

Regatta & Show Schedules:

Aug 13-20- J/24 Worlds- Malmo, Sweden- http://www.j24class.org
Aug 17-22- J/22 North Americans- Buffalo, NY- http://www.j22.com
Aug 20-22- Verve Cup- Chicago, IL- http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org
Sep 9-12- J/80 North Americans- Marion, MA- http://www.j80.org
Sep 10-19- Southampton Boatshow- Southampton, England- http://www.southamptonboatshow.com
Sep 11-12- Larchmont NOOD Regatta- Larchmont, NY- http://www.sailingworld.com
Sep 11-12- J/109 East Coast Championships- Larchmont, NY- http://www.sailingworld.com
Sep 14-19- J/24 UK Nationals- Cornwall, England- http://www.royalcornwallyachtclub.org
Sep 15-18- J/105 North Americans- Chicago, IL- http://www.j105.org
Sep 16-19- Rolex Big Boat Series- San Francisco, CA- http://www.big-boat-series.com/
Sep 18-19- J/Fest Newport Beach- Newport Beach, CA- http://www.balboayachtclub.com

For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar

J/109 JEROBOAM Wins Cowes Week

J/122 JINJA 2nd IRC 2

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Racing conditions for this year’s Cowes Week could be described as challenging interspersed with “champagne sailing” for those sun gods and goddesses looking to enjoy the “southern climate” of England; enjoying all the Solent could possibly muster over the week long event.

At the end, the J/109s proved they’re the class to beat.  With excellent one-design competition, it was clear it would not be a “cake walk” for the winners atop this class.  Nevertheless, the mid-week leader continued to sailing consistently to take first– Rick Garret’s JEROBOAM won with a convincing record of 1-3-1-2-1-2 for ten points to finish 13 points clear of second place finisher Adam and Helen Wright’s VELVET ELVIS (7-4-2-3-6-1).  Third was Mike Smith’s ZELDA with a 8-9-1-5-1-3 record, fourth was Matt Boyle’s SHIVA and fifth was Glyn Locke and Gill Ross’ JAMBHALA.

After a slow start, the RAF J/80 Team started firing their gatling guns (firing off a few rounds of bullets to dazzle their competitors!).  Simon Ling’s RAF SPITFIRE crew sailed a very strong series to dominate their class with a 1-1-1-1-2-1 record for seven points, well clear of second place finisher Sebastian Ripard’s AGAINSTMALARIA.COM (a family crew from Malta).  Third was John Cooper’s OI! and falling off the pace a bit towards the end was early series leader, Thor Askeland’s ELLE S’APPELLE, dropping to fifth.

The J/122s were quite successful racing both handicap and one-design class within IRC 2 Class.  On handicap, Ian Matthews’ JINJA climbed into second overall for the series and Rodolphe Marchais’ JOLLY JOKER hung onto their mid-week position of sixth overall.  In one-design class, JINJA, JOLLY JOKER were first and second, respectively, followed by David Richard’s JOLLY in third, David Hunt’s JACOB’S LADDER in fourth and Robin Myerscough’s MINT JULEP  in fifth.

In IRC 5, J/97s seemingly dominated their class dueling it out with ex-J/39 owner Adam Gosling on YES!  The J/97s had taken mostly firsts, seconds and thirds. Grant Gordon’s FEVER ultimately got second place with a fantastic tally of 1-1-2-2-2, just one point from first place!  Lying fourth was Jim Dick’s JACKAROO with a 3-3-3-7-3 record, losing on a tie-breaker for third overall.

In conjunction with Cowes Week, the J/92s were running their J/92 Nationals.  The new class Champion is Steve Etheridge and Andrew Roberts’ JUST IN TIME finish first with a solid 1-2-2 record.  Second was Andrew Dallas’ HULLABALOO with a 4-3-1 tally and third was Mark Lloyd’s JUNGLE FEVER with a 5-1-5 score.

Racing in IRC configuration, the J/92’s sailed six races.  The winners were Dallas’ HULLABALOO (4-3-1-5-3-1) followed in second by Greenhalgh and Bexon Taylor’s J’RONIMO (3-6-3-4-1-9) and third was Pip Tyler’s NEILSON REDEYE (7-4-4-1-4-9).   For more Cowes Week sailing information.

BABY J Wins J/80 Deauville Open

(Deauville, France)- The fifth round of the Coupe de France J/80 has been largely dominated by the crew from Nantes- BABY J. With a whopping six races won and three second places, there was no doubt who had won the event. In the lead from the first day on Thursday, the winners from the Loire-Atlantic were able to figure out the conditions on the waters off Deauville better than anyone else.

“We still had to deal with many weather changes throughout the four days. The chop bothered us the most, because it was suddenly longer than usual and much higher,” stressed skipper Jean Francois Guionet.  “We had to fight and play hard in order to do well.”

Deauville and local fleet President Laurent Chauvin, who managed to get two wins, finished third.  The Deauville J/80 fleet did very well in the event, with a fifth place for the other crew Philippe Szellos. As always, the skillful sailors from the Cherbourg J/80 fleet have placed one of their own time to be amongst the fleet leaders.  Second from  La Trinite-sur-Mer was LDT DEMOLITION skippered by R. Paternot, fourth from CN Cherbourg (the Cherbourg Navy), was G. Rizzolo.   For more J/80 Deauville Open Sailing information.

LITTLE FEAT Wins J/80 USA Tour #5

Buzzards Bay Regatta Breezy Affair

(Marion, MA)- The annual Buzzards Bay Regatta was hosted this year by Marion Yacht Club; they also provided support as for the fifth stop of the J/80 class USA Tour.  It was nearly postcard perfect conditions, with the warm weather feeding the strength of the thermal breezes, making for classic Buzzards Bay conditions– short steep chop and steady 15-20 knot winds.  The regatta also served as another “warm up” event for the upcoming J/80 North Americans in Buzzards Bay in September and the J/80 World Championship in Newport later in October.

Prevailing in these conditions were the family team of Jeff and Rod Johnstone racing their J/80 LITTLE FEAT to a very consistent score of 2-5-1-1-2-4-4-1-4 for 19 points, prevailing over a strong contingent of twenty-seven boats, including past J/80 World and North American Champions such as Jay Lutz and Kerry Klingler.  Second in the regatta was Kerry Klingler with a 4-3-3-8-1-6-dsq-2-2 score of 29 points.  Third was the team of Jay Lutz and Gary Kamins on FIRED UP, sailing to a 1-4-5-10-6-1-10-7-1 for 35 points.  J/80 Class newcomers Will Crump on GULDFAXE and Brian Keane on SAVASANA are rapidly rising the learning curve and were strong contenders throughout the series despite a few missteps early in the series, getting 5th and 6th, respectively for the series.

The J/24s had a strong, very competitive 16 boat fleet.  Ryan Walsh sailing SKETCHY AT BEST won by just four points despite nearly dominating the series with a 1-1-2-2-1-1-1-1-3 record for 10 points.  Just behind giving them a serious run for the money was John Van Dalen sailing ARNOLD GOES TO HOLLYWOOD with a 3-2-1-1-2-2-3-2-1 tally for 14 points.  Third was Margaret Borden sailing HEFFAH with a 2-3-3-5-4-4-4-3-6 score for 28 points.   For more Buzzards Bay sailing information.

J/22 Travemunder Woch Regatta

JABBADABBADOO Wins The Party!

(Travemunder, Germany)- in the first weekend of August, the J/22 German class hosted their renowned Travemunder Woche Party— er, sailing regatta.  Here’s an amusing story from Team JABBADABBADOO that hail from the Netherlands J/22 fleet, daring to venture across the border, trailer their boat after the J/22 Worlds to parts unknown up north where different tribes of J/22 sailors lurk, awaiting in the shallows to launch an ambush on unsuspecting sailors who haven’t cracked a smile in weeks (if not years!).  Here’s JABBADABBADOO’s report-

“From all the German J/22 sailors, we had heard that we had to go to the Travemunder Woche to party and sail this huge event. So nicely convinced by them, we packed our JABBADABBADOO! and went to Germany!

We even convinced our favorite German sailor to join us (and even more important) to train us- “Welcome on board of the JABBADABBADOO Mssr. Falko! And training we needed, from rigging to trimming to maneuvers.

The first day brought wind, a lot of wind– our cowboy attitude in hoisting the spinnaker was instantly punished– we broached big-time, and we went swimming (a complete Stan and half a Nadine), “J down for the count”, we’re in the water, but Falko was already at the spinnaker halyard, rescuing us, our J/22 and keeping our third place in the race! Lessons learned– release the spinnaker, don’t panic, and enjoy the ride, the J will be up in 20 seconds!

With a third and a ninth place we were completely happy with that day, having already exceeded all our expectations. Time to celebrate with all the other J sailors on board the beautiful four-masted ship PASSAT and later for cocktails and music to the Travemunder Party (all promises proved true– it is an excellent place to sail AND to party)!

Two more days ahead and we started the second day again with more wind than predicted (but thankfully a bit less than the day before). After a 5th place (involving some more swimming crew-members) we went on with a steep learning curve, leading to an incredible (for us) second and first place in our J/22.

We celebrated this in all forms at the end of this day with a BBQ organised by the class association (yummmy, such nice Bratwurste) and well deserved German beer!

The third racing day brought no wind and we could just enjoy the sail (and tow back).

It was such a great weekend, a superb party, a fantastic sail and even more important great company on our boat, but also on shore with all the other J/22 sailors!

And we know that we have so much to “thank” Falko who coached us perfectly and proved to us that our boat can be fast and point! The race results were great, but the learning curve thanks to Falko’s training was much more important to us. Thank you!”  Most respectfully, Team JABBADABBADOO- Nadine Fritz, Audrey Paterson, Stan Heltzel und Falko Braun- pictured here.  Team website- http://jabbadabbadoo.eu/   For more Travemunde Woch Regatta sailing information.

ECLIPSE Wins West Passage Regatta

J/105 Narragansett Bay Championship Event #3

(Wickford, RI)- The final race of the West Passage Regatta marked the end of the Narragansett Bay Championship as well.  With good breezes both days, the eighteen boat J/105 fleet enjoyed great racing on the northern part of Narragansett Bay sailing just off the Quonset Naval Air Station.  The strong southwest thermal breezes were shiftier than normal and made it difficult even for the local sailors to divine the best tactics and strategies all weekend long.  Congratulations to the Wickford YC for conducting an excellent event, with eight races run in two days- four per day!

Damian Emery has been on a roll recently.  After slowly getting started in the SailNewport Regatta back in June, Damian’s ECLIPSE team took the New York YC Race Week in J/105s and has now “sealed the deal” to not only win the Wickford Regatta (1-2-5-4-1-1-2-1)  but win the first Narragansett Bay Championship as well.  Well done mates!  Second was Fred Darlington on TONTO with a great series, sailing to a 5-3-1-2-3-2-5-2 record.  After a strong start and leading after the first day, it appeared the wheels fell off the shopping trolley of Bruce Stone’s POWER PLAY– starting with a 2-1-2-1 score, then fading to a DSQ-4-9-5 record on Sunday to finish third.  Class leaders Joerg Esdorn and Duncan Hennes on KINCSEM sailed consistently to finish fourth, just two points clear of Andrew Kennedy’s BAT IV who finished fifth.  BAT IV came on strong on Sunday with a 2-3-1-3 record, but it wasn’t enough to crack the top three and get the podium finish.

In the end, Damian’s ECLIPSE team were ecstatic to have earned a brand new NORTH SAILS VMG J/105 Asymmetric Spinnaker as part of the spoils for winning the regatta.  With a big, cheshire cat grin, Damian was heard remarking, “this will only make us go faster next time!”  That may, or may not, be good news for their competitors!  For more J/105 Wickford Regatta and sailing info.

BLUE MEANIE Wins J/30 North Americans

(Marblehead, MA)- This past weekend, the J/30s hosted their North American Championship in Marblehead, hosted by the Boston Yacht Club. Marblehead is one of the premier sailing centers of the east coast and conducted an excellent North Americans, a great venue for a classic, fun one design class.  

In what may be a record turnout in recent years for the J/30s, seventeen boats showed up for the NA’s for some great racing.  The top three spots were hotly contested with only six points separating the top three at the end of the seven race (one throw-out) regatta.  The winners, Steve Buzbee’s well-oiled machine on BLUE MEANIE, sailed well to consistently place in the top five, garnering a 1-2-1-1-7-1-5 record.  Second only two points back and coming on very strong in the later half of the regatta were Bengt Johansson’s cast of characters on FUZZY WUZZY, racing to a 4-1-6-2-1-2-3 score.  Rounding out the top three were Bill Saltonstall and gang aboard ARABELLA, sailing to a 2-5-3-4-3-3-2 tally.

The J/30 Class has gotten well-organized and have made great efforts to ensure J/30 owners are having fun and enjoying the camaraderie of one-design class racing– taking a few pages out of other J One-design organizations like the J/24 Australian Class and J/80 class, the J/30s are providing a great class website along with forums and current news and information about class members and their activities aboard.  BTW, the artwork is credited to long-time J/30 sailor, Martha Quigley– she was part of the Starlight Express crew that to this day still holds the fastest time to finish in the Marblehead to Halifax race. She also has a history with the J/30’s in that her brother had one for a number of years here in Marblehead and she spent quite a bit or time racing on it.  See Martha’s gallery of work at- http://www.landfallgallery.com/   Read more about sailing the J/30 Class and their NA’s

Dillon Open Regatta- World’s Highest Regatta

J/22s, J/24s, J/80s Need Oxygen Masks?

(Dillon, Co)- On the first weekend of August, the Dillon Yacht Club again hosted the world’s highest regatta at 9,017 ft above sea level.  Racing was held on beautiful Lake Dillon in Dillon, Colorado (a town about 70 miles west of Denver high-up in the Rocky Mountains) where the sailors enjoyed sunny days, insanely shifty, puffy winds (vertical micro-bursts?) and spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains ringing this spectacular lake.

Participating in this years regatta were one-design fleets of J/22s, J/24s and J/80s, with a total of 25 J’s participating– a huge turnout for such rarified air!

In the J/22s, Bill Darling sailed his CAMPROBBER to six firsts, dominating the eleven boat J/22 fleet and winning by 12.5 points.  Second was David Baker sailing the appropriately named UP FOR AIR (remember, they are sailing over a mile high in the air!), sailing to a 3-3-2-4.5-3-3 record for 18.5 points.  Third was Lyn Nicks on WALK OF SHAME (who as the inspiration for that name?) with a 2-4-4-2-5-4 tally for 21 points.  The J/22s had a great time and it’s wonderful to see the fleet continue to grow.

The J/24s are one of Lake Dillon’s oldest one-design keelboat fleets, having been formed back in the late 70s with luminaries like ski-boot legend Denny Hanson racing avidly over the years.  Still hanging tough and having a wonderful time sailing Dillon’s crazed wind patterns were ten boats from around the Rocky Mountain states.  This year, Greg Johnson sailed PINOTAGE to a pretty convincing win with a 4-1-1-1-2-1 record for 10 points, nine points clear of second place.  Jill Nelson (you go girls!!) was second sailing FLY MO’Js with a 1-2-5-2-5-4 score for 19 points.  Third was Matt Weiler on SHOOTING STAR, starting out slow but finishing with a flourish, getting a 7-4-2-5-1-2 tally for 21 points.

The J/80s are beginning to build their class on the lake and this year saw four boats entered.  In the end, Kurt Vanderwall traded off 1sts and 2nds with David Leavenworth to determine the regatta leader.  After the smoke cleared, it was Kurt’s HENDRIX that took it with 5 firsts and a second over David’s HARMATTAN with five seconds and a first.   For more Dillon Open Sailing information.

J/Community

What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide

* Australian J/24s Show The Bigger Boats How It’s Done!  The Winter Series at Middle Harbour Yacht Club only had one J/24 entered this year Brett Hudson’s WILDFIRE skippered by Grant Dawkin– and boy, did they show the bigger yachts how it’s done!! Over 10 races, WILDFIRE produced 3 wins and 2 thirds (lovely Henri Lloyd jackets for all the crew!), taking them to an overall series win against the bigger boats!  A generally light wind series allowed the Js to pull away from the big boatS– let’s hope more J/24s decide to enter next winter and really show the fleet how its done!! For more news from J/24s sailing Australia- http://j24australia.com.au/

* J/80 Gotland Runt Reports- back in July, a J/80 crushed the fleet in the huge (800+ boat) Gotland Runt Race in Sweden.  It’s a popular race, in fact, the most popular offshore race all summer in Sweden.  Our J/80 friends produced an amusing report of their escapades on the J/80 Sweden site- here’s the translation:   “After an amazing second place in the MP Race, we had to ask ourselves if we’d do the Gotland Runt. Well, when we mess with the port security guards, we always get a good place at Lokholmen. Since this was our fifth round Gotland with the J/80, and we had a proven track record, we did nothing about the boat in Mandan, so went and bathed in the sauna instead as preparation for the race!!  On Tuesday, Pete scrubbed the boat inside so that it would be livable for the race. Roffe came with the raft and rockets and with Thomas to replace Lucas in Gotland Runt. Floating objects were taped with MK-tape products, our home-built kitchen was mounted on the mast and the radio was tested. It did not work. Hah! Some channels worked, but not others. But after successfully going out and trying the radio on open water, we were ready for inspection. The inspectors were zealous. But we had an eye on the rules and came through with a clean protocol.

Now it was time to provision the boat with water, food and clothing. Someone ran around an island, someone drank a beer or two and someone else cooked. All drank rose wine. Skippers meeting did not mean much but we met many new acquaintances. Quickly back to the Onions for SM champagne, grill and rodtjut. Then, sauna (again) and early to bed.

Full speed on with wind and sun. We decided to leave as late as possible to reduce the stress of the sun. We started 12:15 in the second start, SRS Alpha 2 class. We started almost at the top of the windward jib-top. I went there to keep the height so we had to quickly switch to the jib. The start was decent but not great. We were a bit ahead of the second J/80, Bjorn Nabben. Small boat and light winds. In order to sail undisturbed, we chose the right edge. The wind would turn against the West as it seemed clear as a bell. I turned the other way as 200 boats safely drove us on the road to Alma. After Alma was the first single reach, but then opened it up and we sat down and then jib-top gennaker. We again chose the right edge. In the dark at Gotska Sandon it blew fresh. We topped the 13.8 knots on flat water, beautiful. Now we cooking against many boats. When it brightened we saw Bear Nabben behind us with jibtop. They quickly switched to gennaker. Good speed down to Faro. The distance to the Bear Nabben increased. After Faro it would promise to be a hard leg.  We sailed well against a lot of big expensive boats. No one could go down and rest. Nuts and candy on the edge. We were near shore so we could download status and saw that we were 9th at Faro.  Fantastic!

In the afternoon, after Gotland southeast coast, we continued at first to sail on boats before but Faluden turned it against and it faded out briefly. First jibtop and then jib. Some of the larger boats we sailed against were now caught up. But we did a nice, tight rounding of Hoburgen and sat again. We know now that we have been 4th at Ostergarn. We walked along the Charles Islands, including 39 footer who started 15 minutes before us. We gave ourselves room far out on the route to Visby, jibe quickly and cut out to sea again. We aimed to go up to 5nm west of rumbline to avoid expected Bleken north breeze off Gotland. It turned, however, so we ended up on the east side of  rumbline instead. We switched to jibtop and fought to get onto rumbline again. We could now see 3-4 boats in front of us and two behind. Given that this was a J/80 weather, we knew we sailed fast. We put the “pedal to the metal.”

At the finish, we could see a nearly empty harbor! We picked a case of beer and clean clothes from the motor boat on Lokholmen.  After we submitted our finish papers, it was soon clear that we would win our class at the estimated time. We are led by more than 4 hours at Gotska Sandon. Sauna, beer, dykarbar, swagger and bragging on Almagrundet. We fried them! Sandhamn Fried them! We won our class, we had also won the second Lysklassen on the short course!

At the winners banquet for our class, they described us with these words- “The Winner-in-class SRS alpha2 Is a J/80, a small boat with a tremendous speed.” After the ceremony we went full speed for Viggbyholm Batlyft. What a fantastic week!!  For more Swedish sailing sea stories and Swedish J/80 News- http://www.j80.nu

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The J Cruising community continue their adventures around the world, below are a selection of most excellent “blogs” written by their prolific publishers.
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* The J/42 JARANA continues their epic voyage around the Pacific. Continue to read about Bill and Kathy Cuffel big adventure cruising the South Pacific headed for New Zealand.  Their blog is here: http://www.svjarana.blogspot.com/
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* Prolific writers, Bill and Judy Stellin, sailed their J/42 JAYWALKER around the Mediterranean and Europe and back across the Atlantic for nearly three years.  Their blogs/journals can be found at- http://blog.mailasail.com/jaywalker.  The earlier journals have been compiled into two self published books which can be found at: http://www.blurb.com.  Search for “SEATREK: A Passion for Sailing” by Bill Stellin or William Stellin.”  Fun reading when rocking back in a chair watching your storm-lashed windows take a beating in the gale roaring outside and listening to the crackle of a roaring fire.  It is winter “down under” you know.  The Argentineans are freezing.
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* John and Mary Driver are sailing their J/130 SHAZAM for extended cruising in the Atlantic basin. At this time, John and Mary will have just finished their double-handed crossing of the Atlantic, landing in Portugal on their J/130 Shazam. Read the latest news at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/shazam/.
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* Several J/160 owners are island hopping across the world’s oceans, fulfilling life long dreams to cruise the Pacific islands, the Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean and all points in between.  Anyone for Cape Horn and penguins??  Read more about their adventures and escapades (like our J/109 GAIA, J/42s PAX and JAYWALKER and J/130 SHAZAM friends above).  SALACIA, the J/160 owned by Stephen and Cyndy Everett has an on-going blog describing some of their more amusing experiences (http://www.salacia1.blogspot.com).  Susan Grun and her husband on the J/160 AVANTE are also sailing in the Pacific archipelago, read more about their great adventures on their blog (http://web.me.com/susangrun

After three quick successful sails, hull #1 is nearing final commissioning before coming down to Newport for several weeks. The following report will be out in today’s J News edition. We’re scheduling photo shoots of sailing and deck and interior for next week. Call Laura and Kendra to schedule a visit/sail even if without a client. This boat is well worth the trip!

J/111 Sailing Fast!

This past weekend, the J/111 was launched in Barrington, RI in northern Narragansett Bay. Sailing on the 111’s maiden voyage was Joe Pimenta of builder CCF Composites, Ben Hall and Corey Butlin of Hall Spars, Didier LeMoal of JB Composites (J builder in France), designer Alan Johnstone, and other J family members including Rod, Stu, Jeff and Matthew.

The weather forecast was partly cloudy with spotty ESE breezes from 0-12 knots, which is exactly what we saw for the 111’s first quick shake-out.

It was a good initial test of the boat’s balance and acceleration capabilities in the low wind ranges. As designer Al Johnstone commented, “even with a #3 jib flying, we could tell right away that the J/111 has all the elements we were hoping for in terms of speed, acceleration and a feather light touch on the helm both upwind and downwind.”

On day 2, the full Doyle weaponry (including #1 jib) was bent on and a five person crew took the J/111 upwind in a steadier 12-16 knot southerly to test the balance, responsiveness and stability. Grins all around as the J/111 sliced effortlessly upwind with minimal wake and very easy steering/trimming with helmsman able to drive and play the mainsheet (fine-tune) like a J/80. Two people could handle the tacking duties, and the jib trimmer was in heaven being able to freely adjust the fore/aft/inboard jib leads with the cockpit led controls.

Jeff Johnstone added “we then hoisted the large A-Sail (130m2) and took right off. The boat balanced great and we felt we had equal opportunity to either go deep and rotate the kite out, or heat up to double digit speeds. We threw in several jibes, including a double-handed one in

15-17 knots with Rod on helm and mainsheet and Al on both kite sheets.”

This week the commissioning continues with sailing electronics install, engine trials and final commissioning at Bristol Marine with sailing starting again this weekend in Newport.

J/Boats News is a digest of worldwide events, regattas, and news for sailing enthusiasts and members of our J Community. Contributions regarding your racing, cruising or human interest stories on-board J’s are welcome- please send to “editor@jboats.com“.  For you globe-trotting J cruisers, please keep us up-to-date with your travels- for a great example to chronicle your adventures, see the J/109 GAIA’s blog. 

August 4th, 2010

J/111 Sailing Fast!

(Bristol, RI)- This past weekend, the J/111 was launched in Barrington, RI in northern Narragansett Bay.  Sailing on the 111’s maiden voyage was Joe Pimenta of builder CCF Composites, Ben Hall and Corey Butlin of Hall Spars,  Didier LeMoal of JB Composites (J builder in France), designer Alan Johnstone, and other J family members including Rod, Stu, Jeff and Matthew.

The weather forecast was partly cloudy with spotty ESE breezes from 0-12 knots, which is exactly what we saw for the 111’s first shake-down sail. It was a good test of the boat’s balance and acceleration capabilities in the low wind ranges. As designer Al Johnstone commented, “even with a #3 jib flying, we could tell right away that the J/111 has all the elements we were hoping for in terms of speed, acceleration and a feather light touch on the helm both upwind and downwind.”

On day 2, the full Doyle inventory (including #1 jib) was flown and a five person crew took the J/111 upwind in a steadier 12-16 knot southerly to test the balance, responsiveness and stability. Grins all around as the J/111 sliced effortlessly upwind with minimal wake and very easy steering/ trimming with helmsman able to drive and play the mainsheet (fine-tune) like a J/80.  Two people could handle the tacking duties, and the jib trimmer was in heaven being able to freely adjust the fore/aft/inboard jib leads with the cockpit led controls.

Jeff Johnstone added “we then hoisted the large A-Sail (130m2) and took right off. The boat balanced great and we felt we had equal opportunity to either go deep and rotate the kite out, or heat up to double digit speeds.  We threw in several jibes, including a double-handed one in 15-17 knots with Rod on helm and mainsheet and Al on both kite sheets.”

This week the commissioning continues with sailing electronics install, engine trials and final commissioning at Bristol Marine with sailing starting again this weekend in Newport.

With the schedule beginning to fill up in August/ September for the Newport demo sails, please be sure to contact your J Dealer soon to get a taste of J/111’s sweet sailing experience.  For photos of the first sail, please go to the J/111 photo gallery.

J/Regatta News

The Sun Never Sets on J’s Sailing Worldwide

The world appears to be experiencing a welcome reprieve from the summer long heat wave.  In Europe, the sailing conditions for England’s Cowes Week continue to improve, recently providing “champagne sailing” for the 700+ boats and 3,000+ competitors attempting to divine the mystical Solent currents.  The week before, women J sailors came out in force to support Breast Cancer Care in the Women’s Open Keelboat Championship in Hamble, England.  In the Americas, Santa Barbara hosted the start of a West Coast summertime offshore classic, the Santa Barbara-King Harbor Race with a large J contingent participating.  The J/22s had their J/22 Canadian Championship on Lake Ontario; the J/120s and J/105s sailed one-design in St. Francis YC’s Aldo Alessio Trophy; J/105s sailed the New England Solo/Twin in Rhode Island Sound; and a fleet of J/105s had fun at the Youngstown Level Regatta in New York.   Finally, don’t forget to read the J/Cruising Community section below.  Read on! More importantly, if you have more J/Regatta News, please email it or upload onto our J/Boats Facebook page!  Below are the summaries.

Regatta & Show Schedules:

Aug 1-7- Cowes Week- Isle of Wight, England- http://www.cowesweek.co.uk
Aug 6-8- J/30 North Americans- Boston, MA- http://j30.us/na2010/
Aug 6-8- J/80 USA Tour/ Buzzards Bay- Marion, MA- http://www.j80.org
Aug 13-20- J/24 Worlds- Malmo, Sweden- http://www.j24class.org
Aug 17-22- J/22 North Americans- Buffalo, NY- http://www.j22.com
Aug 20-22- Verve Cup- Chicago, IL- http://www.chicagoyachtclub.org
Sep 9-12- J/80 North Americans- Marion, MA- http://www.j80.org
Sep 10-19- Southampton Boatshow- Southampton, England- http://www.southamptonboatshow.com
Sep 11-12- Larchmont NOOD Regatta- Larchmont, NY- http://www.sailingworld.com
Sep 11-12- J/109 East Coast Championships- Larchmont, NY- http://www.sailingworld.com
Sep 14-19- J/24 UK Nationals- Cornwall, England- http://www.royalcornwallyachtclub.org
Sep 15-18- J/105 North Americans- Chicago, IL- http://www.j105.org
Sep 16-19- Rolex Big Boat Series- San Francisco, CA- http://www.big-boat-series.com/
Sep 18-19- J/Fest Newport Beach- Newport Beach, CA- http://www.balboayachtclub.com

For additional J/Regatta and Event dates in your region, please refer to the on-line J/Sailing Calendar.

Cowes Week Update

J’s Sailing One-Design Having Fun!

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Of all 700+ sailboats participating in this year’s renowned Cowes Week, surely the thirty-five boat J/109 class has to be one of the most fun and competitive classes going, if not the largest offshore one-design keelboat class going by a country mile.  At this stage in this ginormous class, Rick Garret’s JEROBOAM is leading, followed by Mike Smith’s ZELDA, Matt Boyle’s SHIVA, Adam and Helen Wright’s VELVET ELVIS and Glyn Locke and Gill Ross’ JAMBHALA in the top five all within eight points of each other!  The “tale of the tape” will be told in the last three days in this closely fought and very competitive class.

The racing conditions have been challenging with the fourth day of racing producing some “champagne sailing” conditions.  A patchy early-morning westerly wind built into a 15-20 knot south-westerly by lunchtime, giving perfect racing conditions.

The inshore end of the line worked for the J/80 start. Simon Ling’s SPITFIRE expertly snaked through from behind the slower-moving boats on the line to pop out ahead of the pack. Within five minutes he’d caught up with the back markers in the Daring fleet that had started 10 minutes earlier. Ling crossed the finish first, two minutes 20 seconds ahead of Robin Fielder’s WARP FACTOR lX, in his third win of the regatta. Sebastian Ripard’s AGAINSTMALARIA.COM was third.  At this stage of the racing, the J/80 Class leader is Sebastian Ripard’s AGAINSTMALARIA.COM (a family crew from Malta), followed by Thor Askeland’s ELLE S’APPELLE and Simon Ling’s RAF SPITFIRE.

By late morning as the larger handicap classes started, the champagne sailing conditions kicked in.  The wind in the central Solent rose to a solid south-westerly of 15-20 knots, giving an increased tempo and energy to the short tacking and progressively more anxious calls for water as all boats headed upwind to the first markers.  In IRC 1, the J/133s are having a good time racing against both handicap boats as well as sailing in one-design configuration.  So far, it’s Fiona & Malcolm Thorpe’s KING LOUIE, Yves Grosjean’s JIVARO and Herman Bergshaven’s SOLNESS III rounding out the top three in J/133 class.

The J/122s are racing both handicap and class within IRC 2 Class.  On handicap, Ian Matthews’ JINJA is in third and Rodolphe Marchais’ JOLLY JOKER is in sixth.  In one-design class, JINJA, JOLLY JOKER are first and second, respectively, followed by David Richard’s JOLLY in third.

A surprising top five leader in IRC 3 class is the extremely lightweight, fast (very NON-IRC design) 30 footer, JOE 90, the McDonald clan’s J/90 with Duncan McDonald guiding them very fast around the track.  Surely, the conditions on Wednesday were to their liking as the long, broad reaching conditions would see the J/90 rocketing downwind at speeds in excess of 20 knots.

In IRC 5, J/97s are seemingly dominating their class and dueling it out with ex-J/39 owner Adam Gosling on YES!  The J/97s have taken mostly firsts, seconds and thirds.  At this stage, Grant Gordon’s FEVER is tied for first with YES!  However, Mike and Jamie Holmes’ JIKA JIKA started amongst the leaders with a 4-6 then took two DNS’s for next two days.  And, Jim Dick’s JACKAROO has a 3-3-34-3 record.  We hope both JIKA JIKA and JACKAROO round out their weeks with strong finishes and that FEVER gets hot and takes over the top of the podium.

In conjunction with Cowes Week, the J/92s are running their J/92 Nationals.  After four races, the leader is Steve Etheridge and Andrew Roberts’ JUST IN TIME, Andrew Dallas’ HULLABALOO and Mark Lloyd’s JUNGLE FEVER.

Racing in IRC configuration are more J/92s.  In the J/92 IRC class, the leaders are HULLABALOO, JUST IN TIME and Pip Tyler’s NEILSON REDEYE.  For more Cowes Week sailing information.  Sailing photo credits- Rick Langford- Ocean Images

J’s Love Women’s Open Regatta

(Hamble, England)-  It was a weekend of awesome sailing for this year’s Women’s Open Keelboat Championship, with the top J being the J/105 JOS of Hamble, skippered by Clemency Ives, coming in third overall.

One hundred and sixty women from all over the UK and abroad took part in the event, with J’s being by far the largest brand (over 50%!!) supporting Breast Cancer Care for Women in the U.K. (the charity that is the beneficiary of the WOKC event).  The regatta was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble and supported by championship sponsor Coffin Mew LLP, race sponsor Dubarry of Ireland and drinks sponsor Wight Vodka. Six races over two days were split into three classes – IRC1, IRC2 and J80.

Participating J’s this year included the J/105 JOS (Clemency Ives), the J/105 JOURNEYMAKER 5 (Louise Makin), the J/109 JAMBHALA (Gillian Ross), the J/80 SWALLOW (Vicky Lincoln), the J/92 WIZARD (Cathy Vise), the J/109 J2EAU (Jody Windmiller), the J/92s NEILSON REDEYE (Marion Piper) and others.

SWALLOW, skippered by Viks Lincoln, came out on top in the J80 class in the inaugural year for one-design racing at the event. She also managed to finish fourth overall behind much larger boats.  

Racing in the Solent was challenging with competitors having to contend with gusty winds of 22 knots on Saturday afternoon and the postponement of racing for an hour due to light winds on Sunday morning. Peter Bateson (PRO), from the Royal Southern Yacht Club, set a series of challenging courses accommodating the range of boats participating and creating some exciting mark roundings.

One of the event’s organizers, Jody Slater, commented: “It was a fantastic weekend, with all the competitors really getting into the spirit of the event, whether at the front or back of the fleet. It was also great to see the Championship so well supported by both our sponsors, but also other sailors. The Frock’s & Flip-Flops Party was a great success, attracting lots of sailors from the local area, and raising £800 for Breast Cancer Care, a charity that WOKC is proud to support.”

Several other teams took awards including Cathy Vise’s J/92 WIZARD, named “Most Improved Team.”    For more WOKC Sailing information.  Sailing photo credit- Rick Langford- Ocean Images UK

McIlquham Wins J22 Canadians

(Port Credit, Ontario)- Port Credit Yacht Club put on a great 2010 Canadian Championship regatta from July 10 – 11. Despite fairly light wind, the Race Committee did a fantastic job and were able to get seven races off.  

Newcomers to the fleet, Gord Mcilquham, his wife Maryann Turcke, and their 2 daughters, Emily and JJ, showed us all how it’s done, walking off with the trophy sailing PRUDENCE to a solid 6-3-1-1-2-3-2 record for eighteen points.  It was pretty clear they were learning the ropes as they went along, starting out slowly but finishing with a flourish!  Second just five points back was Travis Odenbach sailing INSTIGATOR sailing to a 7-2-2-2-8-1-1 record, nearly pulling off the Championship themselves excepting a “hairball” fifth race where they got in trouble and dropped off their regatta winning pace.  Third was American Kevin Doyle sailing  MO’MONEY.

The Canadian J/22 fleet continues to grow on Lake Ontario.  Join them and have some fun! A few new boats showed up this year: the winning boat PRUDENCE from Royal Canadian YC, Jerry Wendt from Niagara YC, SPACEBALL from Nepean (Marg Hurley) and ECLIPSE from BHYC (Brian Young). Thanks to EVERYONE for coming out!  For more J/22 Canadian Championship sailing info.

J/29 RUSH STREET Dominates SB-King Harbor Race

(King Harbor, CA)- In the 81-mile Santa Barbara to King Harbor (Redondo Beach) Race raced last weekend the J/29 RUSH STREET not only won the biggest class in the race- PHRF C, for the fourth straight time, but they finished before a whole bunch of bigger boats that started up to half an hour earlier; this included a Farr 40, a Farr 49, a Santa Cruz 52 and a ULDB 60! Yet another incredible performance by the extraordinary Larry Leveille from Santa Barbara YC.

Only forty-six boats sailed this year’s race…it was forecast for light and variable.  And, sailing around the first “mark”, the chain of Channel Islands 25 miles offshore, it was sure to be light and shifty with huge streaks along the backside.  However, the fleet experienced intermittent but reasonably good breeze for most of the race, playing gybing angles all the way southeast to Redondo Beach.  A large, competitive fleet of thirteen J’s participated (27% of the total sailing!) in this summer offshore classic race off the California coast, including Larry’s J/29, Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s J/100 PERFECT, two J/33s (Fred Kottrell’s TIGGER and Messenger/Colgan’s NITRO), Charlie Underwood’s J/92s STING, two J/109s (Tom Brott’s ELECTRA and Bryce Benjamin’s PERSISTENCE, Eric McClure’s J/35 MACS, Bill Webster’s J/37 SIDEKICK, two J/120s (Gary Winton’s SHENANIGANS and Tom Cullen’s BLUEBIRD, Charlie Browning’s J/130 BEBE and Gil Maguire’s J/133 TENACITY.

In PHRF B, Bill Webster’s J/37 SIDEKICK sailed a terrific race to beat some other very-well sailed so-called “racing boats”, getting second in class and beating Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s J/100 PERFECT by just nine minutes.  Sixth in class was Fred Cottrell’s J/33 TIGGER.

Most of the J’s were sailing in the PHRF Sprit Division.  The two J/109s out-sailed their sprit stablemates with Brott’s ELECTRA winning by 25 minutes over Benjamin’s PERSISTENCE in second.  Third was Winton’s J/120 SHENANIGANS, just eight minutes behind PERSISTENCE on corrected time.   For more Santa Barbara- King Harbor Race sailing information.

J/105 BLACKHAWK Wins Aldo Alessio

CHANCE Wins J/120 Class

(August 1, 2010) – The Aldo Alessio Perpetual Trophy Regatta was held at the St Francis Yacht Club over this past weekend, one of the premiere trophy races hosted by StFYC every summer.  While the usual summer “nuclear conditions” did not prevail, as usual San Francisco Bay can be relied upon to provide challenging sailing conditions and plenty of breeze so long as it’s partly cloudy and the valleys to the east of the Bay heat up at least 20 F. degrees warmer than the Bay.

Enjoying the nice sailing conditions were the J/120 and J/105 classes, the two largest classes sailing in the regatta.  For the highly competitive eight boat J/120 class, Barry Lewis sailing CHANCE won with very consistent 2-2-3-1 record to win by two points.  John Wimer’s DESDEMONA sailed to a 3-3-1-3 record to snatch second from class-leader Steve Madeira sailing the famous MR. MAGOO, which had an uncharacteristically slow start, getting a 5-4-2-2 score.

The J/105s saw some class veterans dueling it out with one another for the top three spots in the eighteen boat class.  This time it was Scooter Simmons racing BLACKHAWK that took home the big jug of silverware, taking first by virtue of a tie-breaker over Bruce Stone’s ARBITRAGE!  Third was Phil Labin and Richard Pipkin’s RACER X.  The other regatta leader, Rolf Kaiser’s DONKEY JACK sailed a regatta-winning record of 1-2-2 in the last three races but had to count a DSQ (17 points) to still finish fifth.    For more St. Francis YC Aldo Alessio sailing information.  Sailing photo credit- Erik Simonson

J/105 Wins New England Solo/Twin

(Newport, RI)- Nelson Weiderman and Jim Heagney won Class 1 of the New England Solo Twin aboard their J/105 KIMA, defeating 11 other boats in their class including two other J/105s, DARK & STORMY (winner in 2009) sailed by owner Michael LaChance and Eric Irwin and JADED, sailed by Joe Cooper and Emmet Todd.

The double-handed race took the entrants 94.1 miles around Block Island’s R4, to Nomans Island’s R2, to the Racon off Newport and finished at Castle Hill Light.  

The predictions were for light wind, but the wind kicked up and held throughout the night.  The second place boat finished just 37 seconds behind on corrected time and boats were still overlapped at the second mark after sailing 62 miles.  The race started at noon on Friday July 30 and finished in the early hours of Saturday morning off Castle Hill….too bad the Newport Jazz Festival and the James Montgomery Band weren’t the welcoming reception!

For more New England Solo/Twin Sailing information and results.

J/105 Youngstown Level Regatta

(Youngstown, NY)- The Youngstown (NY) Level Regatta fielded a fleet of 177 boats including six J/105s. After seven races, Peter Hall racing JAMAICA ME CRAZY won with 11 points, followed by Stuart Kilpatrick on PLANET B (14 points), and Terry Michaelson on THE USUAL SUSPECTS (21 points). Hall finished all races in the top three, including four bullets.

J/Community

What friends, alumni and crew of J/Boats are doing worldwide

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* Frank Kern’s J/120 CARINTHIA keeps an on-going blog of their sailing experiences and regattas.  After seeing them win the Chicago-Mackinac Race the week before, it’s clear why they have enjoyed a lot of fun sailing with one another over the years– they have fun and make sure those around them are also having fun.  Kudo’s to Frank and the gang for making “sailing fun” and always reaching out to the kids in their Bayview YC youth program, family and friends to bring them along.  Enjoy reading some of CARINTHIA’s blogs over the years since 2000!
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The J Cruising community continue the adventures around the world, below are a selection of most excellent “blogs” written by their prolific publishers.
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* The J/42 JARANA continues their epic voyage around the Pacific. Continue to read about Bill and Kathy Cuffel’s big adventure cruising the South Pacific headed for New Zealand.  Their blog is here: http://www.svjarana.blogspot.com/
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* Prolific writers, Bill and Judy Stellin, sailed their J/42 JAYWALKER around the Mediterranean and Europe and back across the Atlantic for nearly three years.  Their blogs/journals can be found at- http://blog.mailasail.com/jaywalker.  The earlier journals have been compiled into two self published books which can be found at: http://www.blurb.com.  Search for “SEATREK: A Passion for Sailing” by Bill Stellin or William Stellin.”  Fun reading when rocking back in a chair watching your storm-lashed windows take a beating in the gale roaring outside and listening to the crackle of a roaring fire.  It is winter “down under” you know.  The Argentineans are freezing.
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* John and Mary Driver are sailing their J/130 SHAZAM for extended cruising in the Atlantic basin. At this time, John and Mary will have just finished their double-handed crossing of the Atlantic, landing in Portugal on their J/130 Shazam. Read the latest news at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/shazam/.
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* Several J/160 owners are island hopping across the world’s oceans, fulfilling life long dreams to cruise the Pacific islands, the Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean and all points in between.  Anyone for Cape Horn and penguins??  Read more about their adventures and escapades (like our J/109 GAIA, J/42s PAX and JAYWALKER and J/130 SHAZAM friends above).  SALACIA, the J/160 owned by Stephen and Cyndy Everett has an on-going blog describing some of their more amusing experiences (http://www.salacia1.blogspot.com).  Susan Grun and her husband on the J/160 AVANTE are also sailing in the Pacific archipelago, read more about their great adventures on their blog (http://web.me.com/susangrun).

Today Black Group sailed in the western Solent, with classes starting on the Royal Yacht Squadron line heading east, while White Group headed downwind towards the east. After starting from the Black Group committee boat in the western Solent, Charles Dunstone’s TP52 Rio took a fourth win to secure the overall series in IRC Class Zero from Sam Laidlaw’s Farr 52 Bob. At the start of the day, Ian Matthews’ J/122 Jinja was leading by two points from Peter Morton and Andrew McIrvine’s First 40 La Response in IRC Class 2. However, Matthews was forced to count a sixth place today, while Morton and McIrvine’s first place secured their victory in the class by three points.

In IRC Class 4, Philippe Bourgeois’ Marine Diffusion Dunkerque was forced to count her fifth place today, while a first place for Tom Snowball’s Mongoose left the two boats tied on 15 points, with Bourgeois winning overall on countback.

Starting mid-line on port tack, two boats in IRC Class 5 – Bob and Jon Baker’s X332 Brightwork and M Brown, J Leese, S Elliott’s Beneteau Figaro Black Diamond – took a large lead, appearing to be almost 10 lengths clear ahead. However, Adam Gosling’s Corby 30 Yes! again proved to be invincible, taking her third win of the event and the overall class title.

In IRC Class 6, John Brattan and Andrew Lambert’s Sigma 362 Software Mistress Team 88 made another good start, along with the Linton/Apps/Jackson team’s UFO 34 Westerner. Both found clear water to the south – and therefore to windward – of the bulk of the fleet to start on port tack ahead of the pack. The first two boats to cross the line today, Stephen James’ Jacobite and Ian Braham’s Enigma were at the top of the leader board on corrected time. They also topped the fleet overall, with Braham two points ahead of James.

Tie breaker

The two boats at the head of IRC Class 7, Madelaine and Isobella Donald’s Folkboat Madelaine and Paul Blower’s Impala Patriot Games, were tied on points going into the final race. The majority of the fleet opted for the north end of the start line, allowing James Gibbs’ J/24 Wild Thing to find plenty of clear space for a port tack start that gave her a big advantage in the early stages of the race. As the fleet tacked along the north shore, David Kirkley’s 39ft Nicholson Conteza had pulled ahead to lead the fleet, with Patriot Games second on the water, and Wild Thing third.

Patriot Games maintained this position at the finish, crossing the line three minutes after Wim Driessens’ Bolderik. These two boats took first and third on corrected time, with Madelaine second, giving Madelaine the overall class win by a single point.

The Quarter Ton class revelled in today’s winds, with more of the very close racing for which this fleet has become famed. Rob Gray’s Aguila took her first win of the series, just five seconds ahead of Louise Morton’s Espada. There was even closer racing further back in the fleet, with places six to eight separated by only five seconds. Morton took first overall by three points from Howard Sellars’ Bullet, with Aguila just half a point behind in third overall. In the Contessa 32 class, another win today for Ray Rouse’s Blanco saw her take the overall win again.

The front of the Sunsail fleet is very closely fought, although it has again been dominated this year by The Listening Company. Today’s start was won by National Grid and Sunsail 30, both at the southern end of the line. Sunsail 30 had a reef in and, surprisingly, no crew on her rail, allowing National Grid to pop out ahead from under her lee. However, by the time the fleet started short tacking towards Stansore Point, Red Funnel 1, The Listening Company and Deloitte had gained a slim advantage on National Grid.

At the finish The Listening Company was two minutes ahead of Red Funnel 1, securing her overall win in the class for a second year, and an impressive overall win in Black Group.

The tightest of racing

Three White Group classes concluded their races today. The 10-boat RS Elite fleet has again proved to be one of the most competitive this week, with just five points separating the top five boats at the start of their final race. At today’s start five boats were in line abreast, spinnakers drawing, with nothing to choose between them. However, two boats, Andrew Christie’s Ellanore and McGrigor Bennett’s White Water gradually pulled ahead of the pack, while Steve Powell’s E’tu, leading the class overall at the start of the day, was back in fifth.

Jono Brown’s Aeolus got ahead into a commanding lead, to win from Paul Jenkins and Ernie Hatton’s Activ 3G by a three and a half minute margin, with Crauford McKeon’s Kandoo 3 taking third and Powell fourth. This left the leading five boats just two points apart at the end of their series, with Powell taking the overall win on count back.

The Laser SB3s also had their last day of racing today. A second place helped Nick Phillips’ Chaotic secure the series by a seven-point margin, with Colin Simond’s Doolalli’s seventh place today forcing him to count a fifth place on Tuesday.

With tide and wind carrying them over the line, the Victory class opted for a relatively cautious start. Bill Arnold’s Zarena, Duncan and Carol Evans, Di Corke and Tom Hartridge’s Peregrine and K Taylor and W Bancroft’s Zest were best placed on the line, with Zest pulling well ahead after the start.

At the finish, Jeremy Lear and John Tremlett’s Zinnia – already confirmed as likely overall class winners – led Zest by 29 seconds, with Russell Mead’s Shearwater third. Today’s second place lifted Zest to third overall, two points adrift of Geoff and Sarah Dixon’s Zelia.

TEAMORIGIN defeats BMW ORACLE Racing

The final three match races held this morning between TEAMORIGIN and BMW ORACLE Racing at the 1851 Cup saw the British crew claim victory over their American opponents, with a final score line of 10-4.

Report by Rupert Holmes/CWL

Black Group classes on the RYS line started going west, with spinnakers popping up in the final 30 seconds before each start. The J/92 class held its national championships over the first four days of Cowes Week, but all but two boats are still competing. Today Taylor, Greenhalgh and Bexon’s J’Ronimo started closest to the line at the southern end, but Neilson Redeye was the first of two boats to sail though to leeward with superior speed in the opening 10 minutes of the race.

With the Sigma 33 start having been brought forward to 0930, at the class’s request to give them a six-and-a-half hour race, there was time for an outbound tanker, the 60,000 tonne Navion Akarita, to slip through the line without delaying with the start sequence.

The Contessa 32 class took a slightly more timid approach to the start, with no boats having a spinnaker set at the gun. Ray Rouse’s Blanco, already the top-scoring boat in this class was first away from the start, followed by Simon and Kay Porter’s Equator.

IRC Class 6 saw the fleet spread out across the line, with a trio of boats closest to the committee boat looking good on starboard gybe, while a second group towards the southern end of the line were led by Brian Cooper’s First 375 Little Spirit. Five minutes into the race, however, John Brattan and Andrew Lambert’s Software Mistress Team 88 and Phil Eagleton’s Half Tonner Sevcon Team Chia Chia held an early lead over the fleet.

The final Black Group start on the RYS line was for the OnDeck class, with Spirit of Isis capitalising on an initial advantage to pull out a large lead in the early stages of the race.

Vying for position

The final start of the day, heading west from the inner part of the RYS line, was for the XOD class. This is the largest class at Cowes this year, with 88 entries, although up to 120 are expected for the class centenary next year. Competition is always super-close in this class and, with scores of boats vying for the same spot in the line, it looked as though there was no way a general recall could be avoided with one minute to go before the gun. However, the tide was strong enough to carry the slow-moving mass of boats behind the line and it was clear at the start, with almost the entire fleet towards the offshore end.

Lisa and Stuart Childerley’s Palassie, however, adopted a different strategy, tacking onto port close behind the inner distance mark. It was a perfectly-executed manoeuvre that that gave an impressive 12-length lead in the first 90 seconds of the race. A little further offshore from Childerley, Steve and Peter Lawrence and Patrick Smart’s Catherine also had a great start, with these two boats leading the fleet as they short-tacked past the Green.

Having clean air helps in a big fleet – half an hour and dozens of tacks later, these two boats retained the lead as they passed Gurnard SC. However Catherine now had the advantage on Palassie, as they lined up to follow the rest of the White Group boats short tacking through the narrow passage inshore of Gurnard Ledge.

A quarter of a mile offshore, the Etchells fleet was heading towards the finish under spinnaker, led by Graham and Stephen Bailey’s Arbitrator, Mark Downer’s Moonlight and Robert Elliot’s Esprit. Bailey crossed the line a moment before 1336, to take the first finishing cannon fired for a White Group boat in more than 30 years. Bailey is one of only two competitors at this stage of the regatta to have scored a straight run of firsts, along with Rupert and John Mander’s Flying 15 Men Behaving Badly. Both are confirmed as class winners with a day to spare.

Black Group finish

As they approached the Black Group finish line off East Cowes just before 1500, two J/92s – J’Ronimo and Andy Howe and Annie Kelly’s Blackjack – were almost neck and neck. The Taylor, Greenhalgh and Bexon team on J’Ronimo took the winning gun by a margin of just five seconds, while Andrew Dallas’s Hullabaloo crossed the line seven minutes later to take third place.

Ian Braham’s MG346 Enigma, one of the highest rated boats in IRC Class 6, finished at 1500, taking line honours in the class. Benefiting from her good start, John Brattan and Andrew Lambert’s Sigma 362 Software Mistress Team 88 (which rates the same as Enigma) followed a shade over three minutes later. Both boats were able to save their time on handicap, with third place on corrected time going to Rory Fitzwilliams’ Three-Quarter Tonner Simplicity.

Spirit of Isis retained her impressive early lead in the OnDeck class, finishing almost 20 minutes ahead of sistership Spirit of Juno. Having made the best start of the day in the IRC (no spinnaker) class, Andrew Yates’ Dufour 44 Piccolo crossed the line at 1513, winning on corrected time from Bruce Mauleverer’s Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45 DS Prospero by almost 13 minutes.

Just under 10 minutes later, when the first of the Contessa 32s were approaching the finish, Blanco and Equator had lost their early lead to Michael Hill’s Nimbus and Ken Mizen and Don Laing’s Blue Shark. Blanco’s third place means she remains overall class leader going into the final two days of the regatta.

There are 15 boats competing in the Tacktick Suunto Sigma 33 Class Championship this week, and today was their long-distance race – a 34-mile epic lasting almost seven hours. At the finish only five minutes separated the first seven boats, with three of these – Jeff Worboys’ Workout, Mark Allerston’s Alexa and Mark Watkins’ Spirit of Kudu – just 53 seconds apart in a nail-biting finish. The winning gun, however, went to Richard Puddifoot’s Whippa Snappa, consolidating his overall lead in the class.

Windy White Group Finish

In the western Solent the wind had increased to give gusts of over 20 knots as the first XOD, Steve and Peter Lawrence and Patrick Smart’s Catherine, was approaching the finish just before 1615. The front-runners were well spread out, with Catherine holding a lead of two minutes 22 seconds on James Meaning’s Venus in second place, and a further two minutes passed before the third boat, Barney Sandeman’s Anitra, crossed the line.

After the race Sandeman said, ‘Our third today is certainly going to help our overall score. It’s a tough fleet and difficult to be consistent with so many boats, so many variables and very good competition – you have to keep changing gears. I’m sailing with the legendary Robert Bedford and Jonathan Abbott from Parkstone, Poole.’

At the finish Palassie had slipped to sixth – still a very respectable result in this class. Talking about today’s race Stuart Childerley said, ‘We had a great start, port tacked the fleet and led for quite a while. It took us two laps to get the boat going – it’s all a bit new for us – but eventually we got it going, stopped losing places and pulled back two or three places on the last lap. It was hard out there and now we’re quite familiar with that island coast all the way up past Gurnard. There are some big rocks there, luckily we didn’t hit any.’

In Black Group the overall winners of five classes are now decided. A third win for Rick Garret’s Jeroboam saw him secure victory in the very competitive 35-strong J/109 class. Similarly, a fourth win enabled Carl Hennix’s Seacart 30 True Look take victory in the Multihull class.

Although Willem Wester’s Grand Soleil 43 Antilope slipped to fifth place in today’s race for IRC Class 1, with a run of four firsts and a third earlier in the week her overall win is secure. A fifth place today was also enough for Andy Budgen and Fred Schwyn’s Sigma 38 The Project to secure her overall class title by a comfortable margin. IRC Class 3, a third win for Iain Kirkpatrick’s X-37 Fatjax gained her overall first place in class with just nine points.

In addition to the Etchells and Flying 15s, the winners of two other White Group classes have now emerged. With a string of firsts under her belt, a second place today for Roger Wickens’ Sunbeam Danny took her to overall victory. As in previous years, Jeremy Lear and John Tremlett’s Zinnia has dominated the front of the Victory class, with four wins to add to their aggregate score of 61 Cowes Week race wins at the start of the week.

Extreme Sailing Series at Cowes

Today’s five races resulted in another change in the leaderboard for the Extreme 40s. The Wave, Muscat finished the series 14 points ahead of Mike Golding’s Ecover Sailing Team, with Groupe Edmund de Rothschild in third place overall.

Report by Rupert Holmes/CWL

The first Black Group start was for the big boats competing for the New York YC Challenge Cup in IRC Class Zero. In the first four days of the regatta this class has seen three different race winners. Sir Peter Ogden’s all-black Mini Maxi Jethou, lying third overall at the beginning of the day, asserted dominance from the start, significantly ahead and to windward of her competitors. Next were two TP52s, Johnny Vincent’s Pace and Charles Dunstone’s Rio, the latter making an uncharacteristically mediocre start.

In IRC Class 1, a huge mêlée of assorted boats, from J/133s to 12-Metres, tussled at the inshore end of the line. With the boats to leeward forcing those above them to luff over the line, a general recall was inevitable.

The fleet was much more cautious for the second start, giving Michael Bartholomew’s King 40 Tokoloshe and Andy Middleton’s First 47.7 EH01 ample space to make a great start at the inner end of the line. Richard Rankin’s 12-Metre Italia was right behind them, creating a huge wind shadow for the fleet to leeward as she tacked onto port 20 seconds after the start. However, she was unable to maintain height on the fleet, allowing many of her rivals to climb to windward above her.

Ten minutes into the race Tokoloshe was ahead and to windward of everyone else – she was one of only a relatively small number of boats in the fleet to clear Stansore Point without tacking, conferring a useful advantage on the long beat to EchoPilot, off Hurst Spit at the very western end of the Solent. By this stage Richard Loftus’ Swan 65 Desperado had powered through the fleet, her mizzen furled in the fresh breeze, with another First 47.7, Javelin Sailing Promotion’s Moana, a little to leeward. Richard Matthew’s 12-Metre Crusader had also joined the front-runners, having climbed well to windward of Italia.

Class 2 got off to a clean start, with Brian Thompson and Lloyd Hamilton on the Archambault 40 Toe in the Water Too closest to the southern end of the line. A few lengths to the north, Rudi Floridor’s Sydney 39 Allard Natural Stone was sufficiently far ahead to tack onto port in front of the pack. Off Stansore point Peter Morton and Andrew McIrvine ’s First 40 La Response crossed ahead of the fleet on starboard, with Allard Natural Stone sitting just on their weather quarter.

Four First 40.7s were OCS and failed to return at the start, including yesterday’s winner Nicolas Gaumont-Prat’s Tradition Philosophie lV. In contrast to the earlier classes, in which competitors had all tacked onto port to head to the north shore within a minute or two of the start, the 40.7s were soon spread across the entire width of the Solent, with Reter Robson’s Playing Around and Herbert Smith’s Interceptor both passing south of Gurnard north cardinal buoy.

Taking a flyer

In IRC Class 3, Dirk and Dianne van Beek’s Bavaria Match 42 Sabriel went for a port tack flyer at the southern end of the line. With no starboard tack boats in the way, this would have worked perfectly had they not been OCS. With the second-placed boat overall, Michael Brough’s Match 38 Steady Barker also OCS, Phil Farrands’ lovely one-off Humphreys Old Mother Gun was best placed on the line.

The next start, for J/109s, was postponed due to an in-bound bulk carrier, the 44,000 tonne Panama registered Luminous Orange, due to pass through the line a couple of minutes after scheduled start time. However, despite VHF announcements, few competitors noticed the postponement, leaving the line boat, Running Bear, to round up competitors, as the ship sailed through the middle of the fleet.

A number of boats did not return in time for the restart, and of the boats that were on the line, Henry Kevill’s Howden Insurance Brokers was OCS, leaving Pete Walker’s British Police on Stalker best placed on a sparsely-populated line. David McLeman’s Offbeat, a few lengths astern and to windward, was also looking good, and James Arnell’s Jeez Louise was also quickly on the pace.

With the young east-going flood tide gaining strength, the IRC Class 4 fleet opted for the northern end of the line, with Richard Allen’s First 35 Ancasta Boat Sales closest to the line at the gun, and Tom Snowball’s First 34.7 Mongoose also looking well placed.

Thrilling conditions

The wind continued to increase through the morning, with gusts of over 25 knots, giving all classes plenty of excitement on their downwind legs. A weak warm front passing over the Solent just after lunch gave competitors an additional challenge, as the mean wind immediately in its wake dropped to 10 knots, but it soon recovered to its previous levels.

The first of the Black Group finishers were crossing the line just after 1500, with True Look, Carl Hennix’s Seacart 30 trimaran the first multihull to finish, blasting across the line at 1513. Phil Cotton’s Buzz, another Seacart, was second at 1526.

By now impressive rain clouds were building and a thundery shower scattered on-shore spectators at 1532, just as the first Sigma 33, Richard Puddifoot’s Whippa Snappa crossed the line. This cold front was much more active than any of the forecasters predicted at the start of the day, a five minute band of driving rain heralding a sharp spike in the wind speed. In IRC Class 7 Madelaine and Isobella Donald’s Folkboat Madelaine executed a spectacular broach 200m from the finish line, but recovered quickly to win their race.

At the same time, the wind veered by more than 90 degrees, from west-south-west to north-east, and dropped to just 8-10 knots. As the sun returned to the Solent spectators were treated to the sight of Black Group competitors heading east towards their finish lowering spinnakers, while White Group classes, heading in the opposite direction, hoisted theirs.

After the storm

Finishers were now crossing both lines thick and fast, with the RYS cannons firing in rapid succession. Jethou finished at 1549, with no other boats in Class Zero in sight, yet she was unable to save her time on Charles Dunstone’s Rio, who won by an impressive eight minutes on corrected time, despite her unspectacular start.

Tonnerre de Breskens was the first Class One boat to finish at 1622, three minutes ahead of the Richard Matthews’ Crusader, giving Matthews an advantage of more than five minutes on corrected time. Tokoloshe took second in this class on corrected time.

La Response maintained her lead in class two, taking honours in IRC Class 2 just before 1640, with a big enough margin to win her race by six minutes over Jim Macgregor’s Elan 410 Premier Flair. Peter Robson’s Playing Around crossed the line at 1642, to win the 40.7 class from Guy Prest’s Tarka and Pete Newland’s Anticipation.

Four minutes later Bernard Olesinski’s X-40 Xinska took line honours in IRC Class 3, although Lance Adam’s Corby 33 Banshee, and Iain Kirkpatrick’s X-37 FatJax were ahead on corrected time.

Report by Rupert Holmes/CWL

On the White Group start line the Laser SB3 class got away cleanly after a 10-minute postponement. The adverse tide favoured the inner end of the line, but in light wind there were big holes close inshore. 10 minutes later it was very soft for the Longtze class, with only one boat on the line and the back-markers were barely clear a couple of minutes before the scheduled Etchells start time.

The wind increased during the final minute before the Etchells got away, with two boats accelerating over the line early. However, it faded again as the Darings started 10 minutes later – two minutes after the gun, one-third of the fleet was sliding sideways on the tide away from the line.

Division Belle initially looked to have a great start, quickly popping out a couple of lengths ahead of the pack, but with the wind light along the entire line, on this occasion starting at the inshore end paid off. This enabled Hamish Janson and Malcolm Lofts’s Streak to get well ahead in the initial stages of the race and they continued to pull out an impressive lead as they tacked west along the Green.

However, Janson and Lofts weren’t able to hold this lead through the race – at the finish they had slipped three minutes behind Jamie Clark’s Decanter, to finish sixth. Jeremy Preston and Scott Macleod’s Defender was second, just two seconds behind Clark, and Division Belle third.

Expert moves

The inshore end of the line also worked for the J/80 start. Simon Ling’s Spitfire expertly snaked through from behind the slower-moving boats on the line to pop out ahead of the pack. Within five minutes he’d caught up with the back markers in the Daring fleet that had started 10 minutes earlier. Ling crossed the finish first, two minutes 20 seconds ahead of Robin Fielder’s Warp Factor lX, in his third win of the regatta. Sebastian Ripard’s AgainstMalaria.com was third.

In Black Group, tidal planning called for starting at the north end of the line with a long port tack into the relief from the adverse tide. Five minutes into their race, the first four Sigma 38s – Andy Budgen and Fred Schwyn’s The Project, Dave Cooke’s Monet, Chris and Vanessa Choules’ With Alacrity, and Susan and John Rainer’s Light – were separated by only three lengths, with The Project in a commanding position marginally to windward.

Fifteen minutes later, as they tacked along the mainland shore towards Stansore Point, The Project had a lead of a couple of lengths on Light, this pair having pulled well ahead of the fleet. At the end of the four-and-a-half hour race, The Project was almost three minutes ahead of Kevin Sussmilch’s Mefisto in second place, with Max Walker Pavlova lll just 19 seconds behind in third.

In the Quarter Ton class only two boats were on the line at the start – Lincoln Redding’s Whiskers at the northern end and Roger Swinney’s Innuendo as the southern-most boat – with the rest of the fleet being uncharacteristically cautious. However, Louise Morton’s Espada was already moving forward, with noticeably more speed than the boats around her, and within a few minutes had sailed through the lee of Innuendo.

At the finish, however, Howard Sellars’ Bullet had sneaked 20 seconds ahead of Morton, while Rob Gray’s Aguilla was snapping at her heels, just seven seconds behind. The finishing order was also reflected in the corrected times.

The inshore end of the White Group line again looked favoured for the Dragon start, with MD Issaias’ Fanfare executing an impressive wriggle to get into clean air inshore of the inner distance mark (which was a length and a half behind the line) but the wind then filled in for the offshore boats, benefiting the top two boats in the fleet Eric Williams’ Ecstatic and yesterday’s winner, Julia Bailey’s Aimee.

A building breeze

By this time the south-westerly wind had built to a consistent 10-12 knots, with bright sun promising a further thermal enhancement later in the day. The leading SB3s were now running along the north shore past Calshot, with the fleet well spread out. The front runners in the Etchells fleet were among the mid-fleet SB3s, led by two Illusion sailors Graham Bailey, who won yesterday by a whopping 17 minutes, and Mark Downer. Downer, however, was one of the boats OCS at the start.

Although most Black Group starts are for handicap fleets, the bulk of White Group starts are for one designs. The Mixed Dayboat start, however, is an exception – the 29 boats in this start encompass Sonatas, 707s, 1720s, and the Sportsboat class. A high degree of skill is therefore required to manoeuvre among the different boats, with their varying speeds, acceleration and tacking angles. With the wind still increasing, the combined fleets misjudged the speed at which they were approaching the line, prompting the call: ’standby for a general recall’ to come from the RYS Platform a full 20 seconds before the start.

The second start was X-flagged, automatically disqualifying any boat over the line in the final minute before the start. Only one boat fell foul of this – Richard Powell and Andrew Sutherland’s 1720 Rogan Josh. Harry Hall’s This is Jeff was the first 707 off the line, with Jon Powell and Sarah Norbury’s Betty hanging safely back not wanting to risk a second and able to rely on superior boat speed to give them a win.

The RS Elite fleet may be small, but it has built a reputation for impressively close racing. Today was no exception – at the start it was impossible to identify a boat with an advantage. This task was little easier as they approached the finish three hours later – only 30 seconds separated the first four boats, Steve Powell’s E’tu, Martin and Amanda Wadhams’ Joyce, Mike Tong’s Ciao Bella, and Jono Brown’s Aeolus.

Champagne sailing

The wind in the central Solent rose to a solid south-westerly of 15-20 knots for the Sonar start at 1215, giving an increased tempo and energy to the short tacking and progressively more anxious calls for water. The Mixed Dayboats were now heading downwind, fully on the plane on a fast broad reach, but no match for an Extreme 40 that flew past at 25 knots. However, at this time the all-star cast racing around the Island on the six IMOCA 60s in the Artemis Challenge were still struggling for wind off Bembridge.

After the Redwing start, White Group changed to a five-minute sequence, starting with the combined start for the Swallow and Flying Fifteen classes. Jeremy Buckwell and Peter Bond’s Swallow Boomerang looked perfectly placed until a moment before the start, when she luffed to close-hauled, taking her a nose over the line with a second to go. This left Anthony Lunch’s Solitude, currently placed second overall, to win the start by what appeared to be a comfortable margin, although within a couple of tacks Tony Glover’s Darter was marginally ahead on her lee bow.

By the end of the 16-mile race Harry Roome’s Skua was ahead of second-placed Solitude, with Darter third, a little over two minutes behind Skua.

The Flying Fifteen start was tighter than that of the Swallows, with Rupert and John Mander’s Men Behaving Badly – the most successful boat at Cowes Week over the past decade – closely pursued by Nick Clarke’s Black and Sam Chan’s Ffreefire 20. With the Manders hiking hard in the gusty conditions, they held the boat noticeably flatter in the gusty conditions than their rivals, and pulled slowly ahead, to win by a margin of almost four minutes ahead of Clarke.

In the Squib class, young Fred Warren-Smith, who has won two races so far this week, made an uncharacteristically mid-fleet start. Chris Gear and Andy Foulks’ Osprey was best placed on the start, with David Longford’s Kestrel looking good just to leeward. Warren-Smith was one of the first boats to tack offshore, gaining clean air in doing so, but when she tacked inshore there were still eight boats in front. Ten minutes into the race Ted Reilly’s Squiblissitude had taken a lead of several lengths.

At the finish, however, Roly Wilson’s Incognito had a 44-second advantage over Stephen Porter’s Polyphagus, with Reilly in third place two minutes behind.

In the Mermaids, Archie Ward, Jack Haigh and Harry Edwards’ Dragonfly had a cracking, though slightly slow start, allowing Anthony Eaton’s Miranda to quickly make up some distance. The order of these two boats was unchanged at the finish, but Richard Prest’s Halluf had sailed through to take the winning gun, 61 seconds ahead of Dragonfly.

Jeremy Lear and John Tremlett’s Zinnia has dominated the Victory class at Cowes for many years. There was frequent place-changing after the start of this competitive class today, with Zest, Ziva and Zircon all having moments of glory. However, it was not long before Zinnia re-asserted her place at the front of the fleet and she went on to win by nearly three minutes from Geoff and Sarah Dixon’s Zelia, with Janet Dee’s Variety in third place.

The 1851 Cup at Cowes Week

Today saw the first of four days of racing between Britain’s TEAMORIGIN and America’s Cup holders BMW ORACLE Racing. The home team won the two match races sailed over a short course in the central Solent today, but an increasing wind forced the third race scheduled for today to be canned.

Extreme results

There was a shift at the top of the leader board after today’s racing, with a first, second and two thirds propelling Groupe Edmond de Rothschild to first place overall, 15 points clear of yesterday’s leader Oman Sail Masirah. The Wave, Muscat is now in third place, with Mike Golding’s Ecover Sailing Team just three points behind in fourth.

Report by Rupert Holmes/CWL

Key Yachting Ltd will be exhibiting the following boats at Southampton Boat Show on marina berths 343 to 347. The J/95 will be available to sail at the show on the Try A Boat Feature

Grand Soleil 46

The European Yacht of the Year 2009/2010 makes her UK debut at the Southampton Show. 

Grand Soleil 45

The boat we will be showing at Southampton is available for sale. She is straight from the yard, and just needs sails and instruments.  

The J/95

This 31 foot J Boat is the one with the twin rudders and a lifting centre-board. She is fast, exciting and supremely manageable. You can sail her yourself at the show because she will be based on the Try A Boat feature. 

The J/97

Our 31 foot IRC performance cruiser-racer, winner of Class and Black Group overall at Cowes Week 2009, there is a growing fleet of these in the UK now and we plan class racing in 2011.

The J/80 Sportsboat

We are expecting a good deal of interest in the J/80 at Southampton. The UK Nationals will be held in Dartmouth in 2011 and then the World Championship will be held there in 2012. The J/80 Class will be ramping up in preparation for these major events.  

The J/122

This forty foot asymmetric cruiser-racer has a fantastic race record both inshore and offshore. She is the smallest boat in the J Boat range with three cabins. She is fast and fun and manageable.

It is only three weeks since the club held its June regatta but in the intervening time the club’s Race Officers and their teams have run the Swallow Nationals and in the past week the Royal Southern Oyster Week. Tony Lovell, who was P.R.O. for this was out again bright & early on Saturday morning to take charge of the Green Line fleets; the J-109s on Saturday, the Laser SB3s and combined J-80s & Sportsboats on both days. Simon Hand took over from Peter Bateson to look after the keelboat classes on the Red Line. 

On the Green line off the Meon shore on Saturday morning there was very little wind at the scheduled time for the first start but by 11:05 there was a strong enough breeze coming from the Needles to get the first set of races away. From then onwards the wind continued to build until by the end of the last race the gusts were hitting 20 kts. Having used a windward / leeward course for the first two races Tony decided to spice things up for the last race and after the first beat all the classes had to reach across to the Simon Vigar buoy, gybe and reach back to Royal Southern before turning up wind at the original bottom mark but a few boats didn’t absorb the new information correctly and decided to retire when they realised their error. 

The J-109s mustered a total of 11 boats, which is their best fleet of the season so far, including Paul Griffiths (ex-J105 fame) on board ‘Jagerbomb’. There are half a dozen boats that are consistently at the front of the fleet but this season no one boat has dominated as ‘J-Dream’ tended to do last year. On the day it was Richard Griffiths helming ‘Outrajeous’ who proved too good for the rest with three straight bullets. David & Kirsty Apthorp’s cause was not helped when they were one of three boats recalled after a premature start in race 3. They recovered to 8^th place but after two 2nds earlier it downgraded their overall result to 4^th behind ‘Jahmali’ (Mike Wallis) and ‘Jolene II’ (Bruce Huber). 

In the J-80 class Simon Stoodley helming ‘Wairua’ rattled off the first two races in fine style but then got caught out by the change in course and was one of three boats in this class to retire. This left Gordon Craigen (‘Swallow’) to improve his overall scoreline to 2^nd, 2^nd, 1^st and the overnight lead, ahead of the R.A.F.’s ‘Spitfire with Tony Hanlon at the helm.  

Further out in the mid Solent, the other side of the large Dragon fleet contesting the Edinburgh Cup, the keelboats had to wait nearly an hour before starting their first race. However with conditions improving all day the wait was worthwhile. PRO Simon Hand set a fairly long course for the first race and after nearly two hours it was Michael Bartholomew’s King 40 ‘Tokoloshe’ that took the IRC 1 gun. Behind him there was only 8 secs separating Ian Dewhirst’s J-133 ‘Jump’ and Peter Rutter’s Grand Soleil 43OT ‘Quokka 8’, with ‘Quokka 8’ taking 2^nd place on handicap. It was a repeat performance in the afternoon for ‘Tokoloshe’ & ‘Quokka 8’ with Paul Waugh’s ‘Vamonos’ in 3^rd place. 

In both races in IRC 2 ‘Stiletto’ (John Barrett & Paul Woodward) established convincing leads over the others but behind them Neville Hodkin helming his Sigma 362 ‘Extra Djinn’ just beat the higher rated ‘Archibeau’ (Barbara Harmer) by a handful of seconds on the water in the morning and was close enough behind in the afternoon race to take 2^nd place on corrected time. This weekend the IRC 3 boats enjoyed some really close racing. With the front runners having very similar handicaps it is not surprising that the on the water racing was toe to toe stuff. Steve Bromley on ‘Aneet Djinn’ took the gun in the morning just ahead of Mike Flood’s J/97 ‘Induljence’ with Andrew Dallas’s J/92 ‘Hullabaloo’ 3^rd. The order of the first two was reversed in the afternoon and because of a slightly better rating ‘Induljence’ led overnight with two wins.

Sunday’s weather gave a much more robust day’s racing. The Southwesterly breeze started at 5 kts at 0800 and built steadily throughout the racing period until, by 14:00 it was 20 kts and gusting over 25 kts. Adding to the general conditions the seas in the middle of the Solent were taking on their usual unpleasant characteristics of a short, steep chop that got nastier as the tide built. The starting line for the keelboat classes was off the western end of the Lee-on-Solent shore. IRC 1 got away cleanly in the morning but there were two premature starters in IRC 2 and neither returned and so didn’t score. This was particularly galling for Barrett & Woodward on board ‘Stiletto’ as it took away any chance of winning the class. Three of the J-109s that had raced as a separate class on Saturday joined the IRC 2 boats and it was David Aisher helming ‘Yeoman of Hamble’ that took the gun in both races. ‘Extra Djinn’ sailed consistently all weekend and took the overall title. The smaller boats in IRC 3 and the Club class found life increasingly difficult and it was with great credit that Mike Flood managed a clean sweep of victories in IRC 3 on his J-97 ‘Induljence’. Club Class leaders Trevor & Philippa Pountain sailing their Impala ‘Implacable’ having secured their overall victory decided that discretion was the best option and didn’t compete in the final race.

On the Sportsboat course Tony Lovell managed to complete his full schedule of races for the the J-80s but it was noticeable that the numbers on the start line had thinned significantly by the start of the final race. In the J-80s Cressida Robson’s ‘Juicy’ won the first race and had a double helping of 2nds in the other two races behind Steve Chappell’s ‘Jango Fett’ but it was Simon Stoodley, ‘Wairau’ who won the class on countback from Cressida. 

There is now a break until the last of the monthly regattas in September but the club will be very busy running seven more major events as well as being heavily involved as usual with Cowes Week. The best advice is to keep looking at the club website for all the latest news and information. 

Overall Results:

IRC 1                   King 40                            Tokoloshe            Michael Bartholomew       

IRC 2                   Sigma 362                        Extra Djinn           Neville Hodkin

IRC 3                   J-97                                 Induljence             Mike Flood

IRC 4                   Sigma 33                         Shadowfax           Andy Johns & David Rolfe

Club Class           Bavaria 35                     Implacable            Trevor & Philippa Pountain

J-80                                                            Wairua                 Simon Stoodley

J-109 Summer Saturday Series

1^st                        Outrajeous                       Richard Griffiths

2^nd                       Jahmali                            Michael Wallis

3^rd                        Jolene II                           Bruce Huber