J/80s & J/24s Grand Prix du Crouesty

(Crouesty Arzon, France)- It was a busy day for the 113 competitors in the Grand Prix when they started the regatta, nearly 50% of the fleet were J's- 42 J/80s, 7 J/24s, the J/97 J-LANCE in IRC 4, 3 J/109s in IRC 3 and the J/122 JOLLY JOKER in IRC 1.  "We are satisfied with the number of boats. We have very high quality sailors here, the best are present in J/80 and with 42 boats it should be very good racing," said Jacques Fily, President of YCCA.

The weather was absolutely perfect for the sailors.  Saturday, there were 3 races that were contested in a wind of ten knots and under a bright sun. The race committee abandoned late in the day the fourth race due to an unstable breeze.  For Sunday, there were 3 races also in a wind of between 15 to 25 knots and large seas, offering magnificent surfing downwind.  By Monday, there were two more races to settle out the winners in the Grand Prix, sailing in winds of 8-10 knots, a masterful job running the races by PRO Jean-Paul Vallegand.

For the J/80s, it was clear the fleet was decidedly too eager to do battle on Saturday. First start was a general recall, then black flag with eight competitors having to pay the cost, including Eric Brezellec's Interface Concept 2.  Under these competitive conditions, consistency is an important asset and it is no surprise that Voilerie All Purpose, led by local Sylvain Pelissier was the winner of the first day with two second places and one fourth place. They were followed by Atlantis (Laurent Sambron).

By Sunday, it was clear that Pelissier's team were not going to easily sail away with the gold medal.  Laurent Sambron sailing ATLANTIS sailed beautifully on the windy Sunday to tie Pelissier with 12 pts after six races.  Lying with striking distance of these two was Eric Brezzellec on INTERFACE CONCEPT 2 with 9 pts.

However, on Monday the VOILERIE ALL PURPOSE team skippered by Sylvain Pelissier with crew Sébastien Simon, Damien Changey and Joris Cocaud were going to win by sailing so consistently compared to their competitors.  The ATLANTIS crew of Laurent Sambron and INTERFACE CONCEPT 2 sailed by Eric Brezellec completed the podium.  "For us it is a fantastic opportunity to sail with Sylvain, he teaches us so much each year," said the crew made up of youth aged 20 to 21, who usually sail F18, 420 and match racing . "We won only one race, but it pays to be consistent," says Sylvain, who won only  b a little bit, but fully enjoying the pleasure of beating the invincible Eric Brezellec, the early favorite to win the regatta.

In the J/24s, is became a "jackpot for MARTA".  At the beginning, MAJIC sailed by François de Herce was an early contender for the lead, having won a race on Saturday.  However, Pierre-Antoine Lemaistre and his classmates sailing MARTA were eager to get going on Sunday morning to enjoy the big breeze and big waves.  Sure enough, they won three straight races. With big smiles on their faces, Pierre-Antoine commented, "We had top speeds of 12 knots, we were never getting in trouble at the roundings. First race? Impeccable. Second race? Impeccable. Third race? Impeccable! Yes, it was an impeccable day! For us, it's conditions we dreamed about! The race committee was really great, we wish to take our hats off, it was just a fine day!"  After that extraordinary day of sailing, MARTA ended up winning the J/24s in "grand prix style".

Also sailing impeccably was Didier Le Moal on-board his SPI Ouest-France winning J/97 J-LANCE-R.  Didier's team started out winning the first race on Saturday and never looked back.  J-LANCE-R won their IRC Class 4 in "grand prix style" as well, winning their class by a large margin.   For more Grand Prix Crouesty sailing information

  

Coors Light Island Double

J/133 JAMMY DODGER Leads Fleet Home

(Southampton, England)- It's 30 years since Neil Cox of Solent Rigging organised the first Double Handed racing at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club. Since then the series has continued without a break and grown in popularity.  And, it has to be one of the most challenging of the famous "around island" races anywhere in the world, especially shorthanded.

The tides for this year's Coors light Island Double were more suited to the east-about circumnavigation of the Island instead of the more usual west-about course - If only the boats had enough wind to get over the line. The forecast, and the actual conditions were very light but the Race Committee made the right call by getting the boats away, some of whom were swept OCS by the tide. The fleet of over 100 boats flying spinnakers of all descriptions made a great sight as they ran, slowly, down towards the forts in the bright morning sunshine.

All tactics were used to get down to Bembridge with some boats following the mainland shore and taking a long, wide sweep east and others hugging the Island shore and sometimes getting caught in wind holes from where they watched others further north overtake them.

Once at Bembbridge the very light wind slowly picked up but immediately became so flukey that it was hard to know which sail to hoist or which tack to take. Eventually the conditions settled down with the earlier boats taking full advantage of the favourable tide to make the Needles in two tacks. The later boats were robbed of that option and had to take the inshore route but at least then found the tide in their favour in the Needles Channel.

The western Solent delivered winds that hadn't appeared on any of Friday's forecasts and strengthened the nearer the boats got to the finish where the Race Committee were on station to the south-east of Williams Shipping buoy, setting a line that was a near straight run from Sconce. From there the main question then became, if we raise the kite will we get it down again? The hardy souls that took that risk had an exhilarating, surfing run to line.

Here is Neil Martin's and Deb Fish's report from the J/133 JAMMY DODGER:  "With just over an hour of flood tide left, the race committee sent the fleet East down the Solent for a clockwise circumnavigation. Neil got us a good start at the Squadron end of the line, where we could stem the lighter tide until it was time to turn for the line. Seconds before the start we hoisted the light runner and set off in the forecast light NWly winds. We gybed all down the Solent, generally staying away from the lighter winds on the Island shore and gybing between mid channel and the mainland. The patchy wind became a bit steadier and we found ourselves leading the fleet by some margin by the time we reached the forts. We crept inside No Mans Land fort, deep inshore to get out of the foul tide, and the wind died before shifting dramatically. Fortunately the fleet of Redwings racing off Bembridge allowed Neil to anticipate the new wind, and we soon had the kite down and were beating to Bembridge Ledge.

The wind soon shifted to the SW and built to 17 knots, and we tacked along the middle of the course to Dunnose, trying to keep out of the bays and in the stronger tide, but stay right in anticipation of the wind veering. (At least, we think it was stronger tide - having tossed Winning Tides overboard in the spinnaker drop at Bembridge, we were relying on the tide atlases in the Almanac...) By St Cats the wind had veered and we could just lay the Needles on port tack. Visibility was amazing - halfway between St Cats and the Needles, both looked just a couple of miles away, and we could see Anvil Point and Portland Bill really clearly. The sea had built with wind over tide, so I was in for a soaking on the bow to clip the spinnaker on. I managed to cut my finger, covering the deck with blood - unbelievable how such a tiny cut can cause so much mess. We passed the wreck, bore away and hoisted the kite in 20 knots of breeze. Gybing the light runner on the J133 down the Needles Channel then the Solent double-handed was hard work, with the boat on the edge, but we managed to avoid wraps and stay in control somehow. We still led the fleet around the Needles, but the two multihulls that had been drawing ever closer finally overtook us in the Needles channel.

Conscious of stemming the strong tide in the middle of the Solent, we gybed in to the mainland shore, but I had failed to notice the shallow waters further along our gybe out on the small screen on the hand-held chart plotter and we held our breath as the depth decreased to 0.0m and we touched the bottom with full main and spinnaker up doing 10 knots. Mercifully we got through the shallow patch and out of the other side.

The final drama was finding the finish buoy just upwind of the Bramble bank and getting the kite down quickly (listening at the race committee's urgent calls to one of the following boats to beware the Bramble bank!)."

Besides winning elapsed time overall, JAMMY DODGER also managed to finish fourth in Class 1 on corrected time behind the two well-sailed J/109s.  Finishing second was the J/109 JAGERBOMB sailed by the team of Paul and Mark Griffiths, just missing first place by 52 seconds on corrected time!  Ouch, now how many places were there on the race you could make up 52 seconds?  Just off their pace was the J/109 JANGADA TOO, well-sailed by the team of Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt to get third in class.  Finishing ninth was the OSTAR class winner (and nearly overall), the J/122 JBELLINO, ably sailed by experienced offshore sailing veteran Rob Craigie with Charles Allen as part of his team.  For more Island Double sailing information.  Sailing Photo Credit- Paul Wyeth
  

Sparkling Solent for Warsash Finale

J/122 JINJA Sets the Pace With 2nd, 3rd

(Southampton, England)-  Warsash Sailing Club was a busy place over the weekend of 24th/25th April when the Warsash Spring Series and Spring Championship reached their final stages. Conditions in the Solent were ideal and provided some of the best racing so far this season.

For the second weekend of the Warsash Spring Championship, the J/80s completed 12 races, each of between 40 and 60 minutes. Again there was a distinct winner in John Cooper’s OI! which had never dropped below fifth place. Terry Palmer’s JUST DO IT and Steve Chappell’s JANGO FETT were only five points apart coming second and third. Seven J/109s competed. Although J/DREAM (Kirsty and David Apthorp) counted six first places, Adam Wright in VELVET ELVIS had not dropped below second place and took the Championship trophy by two points.  In the Big Boat IRC division, Ian Matthews' team on the J/122 JINJA sailed well to garner third overall.  Neil Martin's J/133 JAMMY DODGER managed to get seventh followed closely by the J/122 JERONIMO sailed by Jackie and Robert Dodson.

The multi-week Warsash Spring Series finally came to a stunning, gorgeous conclusion, basking in near glam St. Tropez like conditions with sun-a-plenty and good breeze to boot.  At 0830 when the committee boats left the Warsash Sailing Club pontoon for the final day of racing in the Warsash Spring Series the day was grey and drizzly, with poor visibility. It seemed very unlikely that the superb conditions of the Spring Championship the day before would be repeated but slowly, as the first start time approached, the rain died and by 1000 the south-westerly breeze was starting to fill. By midday the Solent was basking in sunshine and the breeze was up to 15 knots – a perfect way to finish the country’s premier early season racing event.

The Black Group race team had a particularly complex day’s racing. Not only was there the normal schedule for the Spring Series, but the Spring Championship was also to be concluded which meant two races for Spring Championship entries in IRC1 and IRC2. The steady wind direction made course setting reasonably straightforward and all classes could share the initial legs on a beat to South Bramble with the tide followed by a gybe at Flying Fish and run to a laid mark. Finishing was also at a common mark and the overall length of course was adjusted as appropriate to the time scale. Going into the final day, only a few classes, including the J/109s,  were a foregone conclusion and even then final places further down were still in contention.

IRC1’s first start was subject to a general recall and postponed until after IRC2 whilst other classes got away cleanly. In the end, Ian Matthews' J/122 JINJA sailed a nice series to get second overall.  Team Jellyfish sailed their J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH into fifth overall after being a contender for top three over earlier weekends.  Neil Martin's crew on his J/133 JAMMY DODGER started slow but picked up some steam to ultimately get eighth overall in a large, competitive fleet.

It was a topsy-turvy day in IRC3. The pre-race leaders like the J/97 JIKA-JIKA (Mike and Jamie Holmes) finished well down the fleet but they were able to retain second place overall.

In the J-Boat one design classes, the J/109 J-DREAM had already secured the series win going into the day but she had a real tussle with VELVET ELVIS (Adam Wright) for the first half of the race before pulling out a four minute lead at the line. OFFBEAT (David Mcleman) managed to overtake VELVET ELVIS for second place.

The first three boats in the J/105 class had been separated by a single point so Rob Dornton Duff’s second consecutive win in JAVA ahead of JOURNEYMAKER 5 (Chris Jones) was sufficient to take the series win. Paul Griffiths’ FAY-J did not compete on the final day but finished third overall.

JAMMIN won the last J/92 race but a second place for Rory and Cathy Staunton on JAYA secured them the series title.  Third was a tie between WIZARD (Bill Howard) and JEKYLL (Dominic Horner) with twelve points a piece, with WIZARD winning the tie-breaker.

On White Group things went straightforwardly with course setting in the steady wind. In the J/80 class, competition has been very close. This weekend saw Ian Atkins back in action with  O.N.B.i.P(Our New Boat is in Poland). They were sailing in a borrowed boat as their new J/80 had been delayed. He proved not to have lost his touch with a 2-1-1 score line for the day. In the overall series John Cooper had a purple patch of four wins on the trot in OI! and that was just enough for him to finish ahead of the RAF boat TEAM SPITFIRE and Terry Palmer’s JUST DO IT.  Full results on the Warsash Sailing Club's Regatta Website      Photo Credits- by Eddie Mays  

Warsash Spring Series Week 4

(Hamble, So'ton, England)- Back after an Easter break, the Warsash Spring Series continued on April 11 with the entries topping 200. There were challenging conditions for Week 4 with the wind ranging between 9-14 knots. The general mean direction was from the northeast, but local conditions prevailed on the three separate race tracks.  Jon Spencer, in charge of the White Group J/80s was closest inshore and reported the wind moving to the east each time it faded. In the middle of the Solent at ‘Flying Fish’ buoy, Black Group CRO David Greenway found the wind sufficiently stable to set the same basic course for all the keelboat classes, with only a minor adjustment for the smaller boats. The only interruption to a smooth start sequence came between the J/109 and IRC3 starts, when a second outer distance mark was laid to achieve a square line.

IRC1 got away on time and JINJA, Ian Matthews’ J/122, took a flyer from the pin end of the line and established a winning lead within the first 10 minutes of the race.   JINJA is the fourth different winner in IRC 1 so the class is wide open with two races to go. Another J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH has sailed consistently well to remain second overall in the series standings.

Unusually, the highly competitive J/109 class was slightly reluctant at the start. This gave David McCleman helming OFFBEAT, who had perhaps been watching the earlier starts, the golden opportunity to grab the favoured position at the pin end. He achieved an immediate lead. David Apthorp on J/DREAM gained on the first beat and, although never far away, could not get close enough to cause danger.  The seventeen J/109s saw Kirsty and David Apthorp's J-DREAM continue to separate themselves from the pack with a 1-2 this past weekend to be ahead by ten points.  David Mcleman's OFFBEAT has jumped into second ahead of James Arnell's JEEZ-LOUISE.

IRC3 and the combined J/105 and J/92 starts were subject to individual recalls. As the wind lightened towards the Island shore, rounding Prince Consort buoy against the tide caused a few problems and the fleet became very spread out.  JIKA-JIKA, the fast J/97, took second place on handicap. Charles Wittam’s Juno has now won three of the four races and holds a good lead in the class. At the back of the fleet Domaine and Gambit ran out of time but benefited from the “out of time” provision in the Sailing Instructions.

The combined J/105 and J/92 starts were subject to individual recalls. As the wind lightened towards the Island shore, rounding Prince Consort buoy against the tide caused a few problems and the fleet became very spread out. The J class was finished early at the last windward mark. Rob Dornton-Duff in his J/105 JAVA ended a run of third places with the J/105 win. Things are extremely tight at the top of the leader board. Anyone who can put together two more good results over the remaining two weeks could change things dramatically.  For J/105s, there is still what amounts to a three-way tie for first place.  And, they're still only separated by a point!  Chris Jones JOURNEYMAKER 5 is now third in a tie for second with Paul Griffith's FAY-J and Rob Dornton-Duff's JAVA that was in third is now first!  The battle continues, more news next week...hold on to those keyboards!

On the same course, the J/92s continue to have very tight class racing amongst the top competitors.  Leaping into the overall series lead after a slow start is Bill Howard's WIZARD.  Yes, it did take some mastery of Hamble/ Solent wizardry to win two races in a row against this hard fought class.  The trio of Andrew, Matt and Peter Campbell sailing JAMMIN are now down to fourth. Dominic Horner's JEKYLL in second and  Rory and Cathy Staunton on JAYA are third.  Anyone who can put together two more good results over the remaining two weeks could change things dramatically.

The J/80s are also having some great one-design racing in a wide variety of conditions. Not sailing this weekend was Terri Palmer on JUST DO IT dropping to third in the standings after a dominating performance the previous weekends.  The fly-boys on TEAM SPITFIRE are now in first after some good sailing, just leading John Cooper's OI! John Cooper in Oi! took the first race but the RAF TEAM SPITFIRE made the best start of the second race. They managed to stay ahead of both OI! and Charles Somerset’s LOUDWATER down the run but a poor spinnaker drop let both the others through. At the same time, Katie, working foredeck on Jannine Stoodley’s WAIRUA thought of having a quick swim but after testing the water temperature decided against it and stayed on board. At the end of the third beat, JAVA NANO had made up a large deficit to round the mark in the lead but a poor tactical decision on the final run put her back in the pack. In the end, LOUDWATER took the gun a few boat lengths ahead of OI! TEAM SPITFIRE had their revenge in the final race establishing a small lead to the finish. LOUDWATER and OI! finished virtually level, only two seconds separating them.  Full sailing results on the Warsash Website   Sailing Photos by Eddie Mays  

Close Racing in Warsash Spring Series

J/97  JIKA-JIKA Racing Fast!

(Hamble, So'ton, England)- The third week of Warsash Sailing Club's Spring Series saw the first south-westerly breeze of the season. The wind stayed true in direction with the strength varying from 10 to 14 knots, providing near ideal sailing conditions if still cold. Despite the clocks going forward, competitors were out early for practice with new entries joining the fleets.

The Black Group committee boat anchored near Hamble Yacht Services buoy and used Air Canada, close to the Bramble Bank, as the first windward mark with a finish at East Knoll. Adjustments were made to the lengths of the courses with IRC1 completing 15 miles and IRC3 12.5 miles. IRC4 used a White Group start line but also finished with the other Black Group boats at East Knoll after a course covering over 10 miles. High water occurred during the start sequence, so competitors had the favoured combination of beats with the current and runs against it. Tacticians kept careful watch of the depth to benefit from or dodge the tide.

The number of "Big Boats" competing in IRC1 has increased as their Spring Championship after Easter approaches. In IRC1 the J/122 JOLLY JELLYFISH sailed to an uncharacteristic 7th, but still remained in second overall in the standings.  the J/133 JAMMY DODGER raced by Neil Martin sailed a great race to get a third to move into fifth place overall.

In IRC3, the J/97 JIKA-JIKA sailed by Mike and Jaime Holmes again made another jump up in the standings from this past week to move into second overall!

For J/105s, there was an unprecedented three-way tie for first place last week.  And, in short, they're still only separated by a point.  Chris Jones JOURNEYMAKER 5 is now first one point ahead of a tie for second between Paul Griffith's FAY-J and Rob Dornton-Duff's JAVA.  Bet everyone's relieved to not have to race Easter Weekend!

The J/109s saw Kirsty and David Apthorp's J-DREAM start to separate themselves from the pack by winning this weekends race to be ahead by two points.  James Arnell's JEEZ-LOUISE is now second and moving up the standings with a well-deserved third place was David McGough's JUST SO.

The J/92s continue to have very tight class racing amongst the top competitors.  The trio of Andrew, Matt and Peter Campbell sailing JAMMIN are now in second, just behind Dominic Horner's JEKYLL.  Rory and Cathy Staunton on JAYA and Bill Howard's team racing WIZARD are just off the pace.

The J/80s seem to have a new class standard to live up to since the leader by a wide margin is Terri Palmer on JUST DO IT with twenty one points after nine races, just over a second average!!  The fly-boys on TEAM SPITFIRE are now solidly in second with thirty three points and John Cooper's OI! has dramatically risen in the standings with three firsts this past weekend to jump into third place with forty five points.    Full results on the Warsash Website.  Photo by Eddie Mays- http://www.eddiemays.com.