J/24 Spring Cup at Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy

Action from the J/24 Spring Cup at Weymouth © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

Action from the J/24 Spring Cup at Weymouth © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

Action from the J/24 Spring Cup at Weymouth © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

This year is a big year for the J/24 class in the UK. The World Championships are being held in Weymouth this September and the Spring Cup was the last qualifying regatta for sailors to make the qualifying grade. Only 12 slots are given to the home nation making the competition intense. Sailors from as far afield as Yorkshire, Sussex and Cornwall made the journey to Weymouth to take part in this three day event, with plenty of local competition from Castle Cove Sailing Club (Weymouth) and Parkstone (Poole).

As it was, the event didn’t get off to the best of starts. Thick fog blanketed Portland harbour with visibility reduced so much that seeing the boats on the pontoon was impossible, let alone any chance of seeing a windward mark. Teams went out for some practice close to the shoreline as a decent breeze was blowing most of the time. The only other thing to do in the new Sailing Academy was keep the coffee machine running overtime as the teams whiled away the time. Racing was eventually abandoned for the day at 3pm which of course prompted the fog to lift just half an hour later!

Sunday morning dawned with even thicker fog, but the promise and hope of better conditions later in the day. The fog lifted relatively early inside the harbour but the wind was fitful. The PRO Derek Abbott decided to hold the first race inside the harbour, sharing the area with the Optimists holding their selection regatta. Neil Trathen of Saltash Sailing Club lead the fleet, followed closely by Mark Jardine on Stouche, Duncan McCarthy on Madeleine and Nick Phillips on Chaotic. Local boats Joskin 2 (Al Clarke) and Tiger (Barry Grant) sailed well to finish 4th and 6th respectively.

With the Optimists course now taking up most of the harbour racing was moved out into a clearing Weymouth Bay for the second race. Parkstone’s Duncan McCarthy and Nick Phillips battled it out with McCarthy crossing the finish line first. Weymouth's Bob Turner had another consistent result finishing 4th.

A nineteenth and OCS in the third race put McCarthy and Phillips down the leader board to 5th and 8th overnight. Ian Southworth on Hedgehog won the final race of the day with Stouche second. Overnight leader was the consistent Ben Williamson on Rumble with a 6, 7, 3 scoreline giving them a 4 point lead.

Monday dawned without the fog of the previous days, so racing was started early with the first warning signal at 9am. Shifting winds gave race officer Derek Abbott a real headache throughout the day but he had his team well drilled and the course was always rapidly repositioned to the changing conditions.

Gary Denning on Roger Rabbit made up for a poor first day to take two straight wins with Ben Williamson on Rumble keeping up his consistent series with a 5th and a 6th.

Working out the points score going into the final race was extremely difficult with all the other teams having high results to count. As it was Joskin 2, Stouche and Hedgehog were all on equal points going into the last race with Rumble just 3 points behind this group. The wind had dropped across the course and it looked like a heavily pin-end biased start, but breeze was filling in from the right. This gave the group of three at the committee boat end a real head start in the race with Tony Edwards on RSJ gaining the most to take the lead and the race win. Stouche also benefited to take second with Duncan Peace on Reloaded third. Hedgehog and Joskin 2 were amongst the worst hit by the wind coming in from the right and were left languishing on the startline while the leaders pulled away to finish 14th and 20th respectively in the final race.

So Mark Jardine on Stouche took the win with team regulars James Holah and Cassie Richardson onboard and the very able assistance of youth sailors Will Brooks from Falmouth and Tom Way from Weymouth. Ben Williamson’s consistent series gave Rumble second overall with Ian Southworth on Hedgehog third.

Derek Abbott’s race team did a fantastic job in very difficult conditions, boding well for the World Championships in September. The new Sailing Academy is a truly world class venue with excellent facilities, huge amounts of space and easy craning.

Overall Results: