A busy week for J-boats
by Becci Eplett 29 Jun 2004 00:04 BST
The new RYA J80s out in the Round the Island © Peter Bentley
On the 22nd of June at a press reception at the Royal Southern Yacht Club, the RYA announced the four teams that have been selected for the 2004 Rolex Commodores Cup. Following a rigorous selection process, Jonathan and Lisa Goring’s J/109 ‘Jeronimo’ was officially announced as third boat in the British Red team, along with Kit Hobday and Tim Louis’ ‘Bear of Britain’ and Jerry Otter’s ‘Exabyte 2’.
Having won their class at the Warsash Spring Series the team on Jeronimo have sailed consistently throughout the trials and have trained hard in between culminating in a well deserved win in IRC 2 at the Mees Pierson Yachting IRC Championships, and the some new silverware for Mr and Mrs Goring in the form of the coveted Jackdaw Trophy.
At the same press reception, the RYA also announced the purchase of eight new J/80 Sportsboats to replace their previous keelboat fleet. The J/80 was chosen by the RYA because it was viewed as the best suited all round boat and also because the J/80 has ISAF recognition.
As well as being used for the Volvo RYA Keelboat Programme and the RYA National Match Racing Series, the J/80s will also be campaigned in various other regattas including Cowes Week, but the first outing for three of them came this past weekend when Neal MacDonald, Lisa MacDonald and Ian Williams chose to join the 9 other J/80s racing in the 2004 Round the Island Race.
The J/80 fight was hotly contested but Ian Williams secured the podium position and the in the Sportsboat Class ahead of 52 other finishers. The Edward Heath Trophy (first Sportsboat on corrected time) will now carry the J/80 insignia for the first of (hopefully) many occasions.
And what a race it was for all the other J Boats! Apologies here if I miss any performance of note but there were literally so many. Let me just run through the classes briefly:
In ISC Class E, Nick Fry and Kate Buckingham sailed their J/109 ‘J-XTC’ into second place. Not only was this their first ever Round the Island Race but it was in actual fact their first ever race. A job very well done indeed.
In ISC Class D, Pip and Pete Tyler were third in the J/92 ‘Neilson Redeye’ and this meant that they were the first sailing school boat overall so book your sailing lessons now…
In IRC 5 Mike Riley followed up his Warsash Spring Series victory with another in his J/110 ‘Jammin of Poole’. More room required in his trophy cabinet now.
IRC Class 4 was where most of the other J105s and J109s fought it out. The class was won by Malcolm Jaques in his J/105 ‘J Spot’, second was Shaun Murphy in his J/105 ‘Slingshot’ and Richard Creer was third overall in his J/109 ‘Jo Jo Gunne’. One of the most impressive points here however is that J Boats took every one of the top twelve positions in this class. A really outstanding performance.
IRC 3 provided the testing ground for Chris Dunning in his J/120 ‘Marionette’. Well don to Chris and his team who ably sorted the men from the boys to win the class overall.
Finally, and definitely worth a mention, is that Stewart Hawthorne sailed his brand new J/133 ‘Jump’, only two weeks out of its wrapper and the first J/133 on the Solent, into fifth place. Watch this space for more like this from Stewart and team.
A great couple of weeks work by all!
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