J92 National Championships at Poole Yacht Club Overall

Poole Bay was the venue for the inaugural J/92 national championships on 5th and 6th May, sponsored by Kleinwort Benson and run by Poole Yacht Club in conjunction with Poole Yacht Racing Association’s Spring Regatta.

The event attracted 11 entries from the West Country, Chichester, Poole and the Solent, with 10 boats turning up to enjoy the five races in fresh and gusty north-easterly winds. Shifts of over 30° on occasions kept the tacticians on their toes, as did the handicap factor; with various combinations of sail plan and keel configuration represented, the class opted to race under IRC rather than on a level rating. As a result, the highest-rated boat – David Moore’s ‘Vampire II’ – gave ‘Beau Jest’ (James Campbell) 20 points, though the on-the-water tussles at the front of the fleet appeared to lose none of their intensity.

In fact it was a skirmish at the very first windward mark that set the pattern for the weekend. A port-and-starboard incident between ‘Jammin’ (Mike Riley) and ‘Jazz’ (Stephen Hills) saw the latter disqualified after sailing on to take line honours, leaving Riley to claim top spot on both elapsed and corrected time ahead of Andy Bird’s ‘Jambalaya’. Riley stamped his authority on the fleet in similar fashion in the following two races, ending the day with a clean row of bullets despite trying to fly his kite on an impossibly shy reach along the ‘figure-four’ course of race 2. His closest competitor going into the second day was Trenter and Debbie Ellis’s ‘Perfect J’ – level-rating with ‘Jammin’ on 0.993 – whose third in the first race had been followed by two seconds. Their chance to close the gap came in the first race on Sunday, when Riley went back after being OCS and finally started some way behind the rest of the fleet. At the front, meanwhile, ‘Jazz’ (rating 1.000) dominated the proceedings to finish ahead of ‘Perfect J’ by 17 seconds, but the results were reversed on corrected time to give the Ellis crew their first victory. ‘Jammin’ managed to pull back to fourth, behind ‘Jalabeano’ (Kevin Jones).

Despite feeling the ever-improving ‘Perfect J’ breathing down their necks, team ‘Jammin’ made sure of overall victory in the final race by finishing 12 seconds behind ‘Jazz’ on the water and 9 seconds in front after the number-crunching. Debbie Ellis drove ‘Perfect J’ into a close third to clinch second in the championship, leaving ‘Jalabeano’ to pip the higher-rated ‘Vampire II’ and secure fourth overall by two points from ‘Jambalaya’.

Thanks to the excellent sailing conditions, the variety of courses set by Principal Race Officer Jim Macgregor, the hospitality of Poole Yacht Club, and the support of both Kleinwort Benson and J distributors Tangent, the competitors voted their first J/92 event a great success. A British class association is now being formed with a view to attracting more members and coordinating future events.

Overall Results:

More Information:

• YachtsandYachting.com J92 Page
• Poole Yacht Club