J/111 Reflections on Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

Journey Maker II at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week © Rick Tomlinson

There may be reasons for choosing not to sail on a J/111 but the list is a lot shorter after what we learned at the 2015 Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week Regatta.

We arrived expecting competitive class racing between the 7 J/111s' and we were not disappointed. However, considering the relatively large size of our IRC handicaps and the relatively small size of our boats we did not expect to be competitive in IRC1 and so we were delighted with 3rd and 4th in class by the end of the week. It is also a delight that 3 of our fleet are raced by husband and wife crews and 3 of us also sail with some or all of our children onboard. So off that list of reasons must come the scary handicap of the J/111 and also off that list must come any notion that you need to have a testosterone fueled semi pro sailing crew to tame the scary J/111 beast.

The J/111 Euro Cup was awarded for best aggregate results from the first 4 days of racing. A formula that we pioneered last year and works well for crews that can race seriously for some of the time and then spread "the J/111 love" with other colleagues and friends and family throughout the rest of the week. Last year the Euro Cup was a key step in the preparation for the J/111 World Championships and it will also be part of our J/111 2016 World Championship schedule when that event returns to the Solent on August 1-4th. As our race commentator Stu Johnstone recorded, the opening day on Saturday was bathed in unbroken sunshine, with a fickle breeze that saw racing postponed for two hours. Shortly after 1100 the first signs of a fitful east-south-easterly appeared off Cowes, but the big question was how long it would take to become established as a consistent sea breeze.

With few signs of thermal clouds building over the mainland there was still a chance of a long wait ashore and the Cowes coffee shops enjoyed brisk trade as competitors relaxed in the warm sunshine. Shortly after midday, once the east-south-easterly breeze in the mid-Solent had built to 8-9 knots, race officials got the start sequences under way. It made for a crazy day of racing since the classic WSW seabreeze on the Solent fought the ESE that developed in the Western Solent. For our IRC 1 Class it was a case of the "haves" and "have nots"— those who stayed along the Isle of Wight shore for the third leg or those who chased the old ESE into the middle of the Solent against adverse tide. In the end, Cornell Riklin's JITTERBUG crew stuck along the shore and led the fleet home, followed in 2nd by BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER skippered by Brian Thompson and in 3rd by Louise Makin & Chris Jones' JOURNEYMAKER II.

The second day on Sunday delivered perfect conditions, with bright sun and decent winds. A west-south westerly breeze built gradually through the day to give gusts approaching 20 knots by early afternoon and with 30-degree wind shifts at times. For competitors in the early starts on the two fixed lines a strong west-going tide made it imperative not to start early. It was Martin & Sammy Dent's crew on JELVIS that sailed a brilliant race and won by a good margin over Tony & Sally Mack's McFLY and the Makin/Jones duo JOURNEYMAKER II. As a result, JELVIS held a slim one point lead over JOURNEYMAKER II and just two points over the fast-pairing of BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER and JITTERBUG.

After two brilliantly sunny days, Monday morning saw increasing cloud over the Solent, accompanied by a band of rain that provided competitors with interesting and challenging wind shifts. Our Black Group yachts in the Western Solent saw winds of up to 17 knots. The start for IRC 1/ J/111s was a westbound current of 3.0 kts pushing the fleet over the line with the first weather mark nearly 7.0nm off into the western Solent. Remarkably, the fleet started clean and the race was on for the very tightly-packed J/111 fleet. We experienced all manner of windshifts, foul current and inter-class incidents that helped some and hindered others. Jelvis will forever wonder why they were pushed back onto starboard tack by a boat already well over the layline and it is amazing how much of a wind shadow an old Swan 65 generates! In the end Tony & Sally Mack's McFLY won the race, followed by Makin/Jones' JOURNEYMAKER II and the late, but fast-closing, BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER in third.

As a result, the J/111 EuroCup was won by the same duo that took the remarkably tough endurance contest, the "Three Peaks Race" in 2008 in their J/105 by the same name- Makin/ Jones on JOURNEYMAKER II. There's was a story of consistency, tenaciousness, and the ability to make lemonade out of lemons when the timing was right. Making the most out of similar situations was the BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER team skippered by the famous UK offshore sailor Brian Thompson (also a J/24 UK champion back in the day). For most UK sailors, Brian needs no introduction, having won the Trans-Atlantic Race recently on the MOD 70 PHAEDO and numerous other offshore races far too long to enumerate here. Their 2nd place with a 2-5-3 record was well-deserved. Past Solent J/111 champion Tony & Sally Mack on TEAM McFLY took third with an 8-2-1 record on a three-way tie for the bronze! After convincingly winning the first race, JITTERBUG skippered by Cornel Riklin, fought back hard to stay in contention to also end up with 11 pts, but having to settle for 4th on the tie-break. Likewise, Martin & Sammy Dent's JELVIS may have to be the winners of the "heartbreaker" award; for having been nearly in the lead on the first leg of the first race, a string of unfortunate circumstances saw them fade from contention into a 6th place and take 5th for the series.

The remainder of the week was no less competitive with the J/111 having extracted results each day and our growing awareness that we were consistently scoring well in IRC1 despite our moderate expectations. On Wednesday we had 5 J/111 in the top 10 in IRC1. On Thursday as we dodged the thunderstorms, the fleet was reduced to 4 boats whilst the others prepared for Fastnet and we were again all in the top 10. On Friday there were 3 of us in the top 6. Apart from Sunday when there were medium breezes' and a reaching course we had a J/111 on the podium in every race. After a discard the final reckoning was that Tony & Sally Mac on TEAM McFLY were third in IRC1 and also finished as top J/111 on extracted results over the week with Louise Makin / Chris Jones in 4th. A fantastic achievement and final proof that our J/111 are fully competitive in handicap racing.

We had Stevie Morrison join JourneyMaker II for some corporate racing on 2 days. It was fantastic to see a master at work and in his subsequent interview with YachtsandYachting.com he was kind enough to suggest that not only can any dinghy sailor learn and enjoy Cowes Week, but that he had found the experience helpful and wished he had taken the opportunity to do more yacht racing in the past. You are welcome back any time Stevie, as long as you sail on my boat!

The 2015 Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes week has been a great festival of yacht racing and this year we solidly reinforced the involvement of the J/111 as a flagship class up at the top of the handicap categories. If you like J Boats and you like to yacht racing then put a J/111 on your christmas list. Now we can start to look forward to 2016 when the J/111 World Championships return to the Solent. With the J Cup, a number of other dedicated J/111 Class events as well as the normal Solent regatta schedule, 2016 will be the best year yet to have a J/111 in the Solent.

Chris Jones is co-owner of Journeymaker II and captain of the J/111 UK Class Association.