EAORA Janes Cup
by Tony Merewether 3 Jun 2013 15:29 BST
1 June 2013
Mike Dennehey and Paul Wood's SJ35 'Erotic Bear' wins Class 3 at the EAORA Janes Cup © Tony Merewether
The fourth race of this year's EAORA Championship, the Janes Cup from Burnham on Crouch to the Medway started early on Saturday morning at the Branklet buoy. Class two and three started together with shy spinnakers in a light to moderate north westerly breeze, led away down the Crouch by Tony and Chuffy Merewether's Sun Fast 3200 Amazon. From the Crouch buoy Stan Fenton and Nigel Cooks J105, Fay J took up the lead on the water which they held through most of the race.
Class one started ten minutes later with Robbie and Pippa Stewart's Stewart 36, Booty and Alan Bartlett's Humphrey's 36, Inn Spirit carrying asymmetrics all the way to the Whitaker with Ian Kirkpatrick's X37, Fatjax alternating between their code zero and a small running kite.
Fay J still led round the Whitaker buoy gybing their small asymmetric and leading the fleet up the Swin, while Booty was overtaken by Inn Spirit in class one while they sorted out a slow gybe. The sail up the Swin was a close fetch with a mixture of headsails, code zeros and asymmetrics being flown all the way through the Maplin buoys.
With Fay J leading class two and Mike Dennehy and Paul Wood's SJ35 Erotic Bear leading Class three it was only a matter of time before Booty took their rightful place on the water leading class one and the fleet.
Booty led the fleet on the two dog legs across the Thames, up the Kent coast, into the Medway river and towards the finish line in under 6 hours for the 47 mile course, where Fay J managed to clinch overall victory and the Janes Cup by three minutes from Amazon who finished second and Inn Spirit finishing a minute later in third place. A big thank you to Mike Wallis and his crew on Another Diamond for finishing the race and presenting the prizes in the Medway Yacht Club after an excellent meal in the club.
Overall Results:
1st Fay J
2nd Amazon
3rd Inn Spirit
Class One: Inn Spirit
Class Two: Fay J
Class Three: Erotic Bear