Brewin Dolphin Jersey Regatta 2009 - Overall
by Bill Harris 17 Sep 2009 11:45 BST
11-13 September 2009
The use of the word ‘excellent’ would be no exaggeration in describing the combined yacht clubs’ spectacular Brewin Dolphin Jersey Regatta held over the weekend. Winds gusting to well over thirty knots through Friday and Saturday provided some very lively sailing in St Aubin’s Bay and further to the south of the Island. With the wind set in the north-east, plenty of warm sunshine and no swell, the Bay provided an ideal setting for this showpiece event, attended by a record number of boats including strong contingents from France and Guernsey and UK sailors guesting on local boats. Spectators whether afloat or ashore must surely have been greatly impressed by the treat of a true spectacle of action and colour against this beautiful setting.
The Regatta opened with the customary welcoming reception at the Royal Channel Islands YC on Thursday evening and racing started on Friday morning with a Round-the-Island race for the cruiser classes and three back-to-back races for the sportsboat and quarter ton classes in the Bay. This was stunning stuff. The fetch across the Bay was just enough to allow sizeable waves to develop, making life much more interesting for boats as they sped under spinnaker towards the leeward mark, the three Guernsey Melges 24s touching 20 knots at times. Jamie Hamilton’s Mad Cap won both sportsboat races ahead of Henrik Asplund’s Tant M. French visitor Laurent Beaurin’s Farr 727, 45o South, won all three races in the quarter ton class, the best Jersey performance being that of Julian Barber’s Farr 727, Super Q. Alex Ohlsson and Neil Maclachlan’s new J-109, Jai Ho, claimed victory in the Round-the-Island race in just under six hours.
The Friday evening programme saw just the Class 5 sport-catamarans racing, racing for the dinghy classes having been abandoned due to high winds. Despite some spectacular capsizes, one of which involved a Hobie Tiger flying vertically through the air, the race resulted in a win for Jeremy Smith and Darren Stower sailing the Hobie 16, Double Trouble. A tough but exhilarating day’s sailing and a foretaste of what was to come on Saturday.
The day dawned bright and beautiful, with just a moderate north easterly breeze. The race committee’s hopes of a quieter day were quickly dashed, however, when almost coincidentally with the warning signal, the wind reverted to its old habits and a strong gusty wind settled in for the day, kicking up a pretty respectable sea. This was to be an action-packed day!
As usual, the Regatta fleet was split between two committee boats, one running the sportsboat and cruiser classes in the south of the Bay and offshore whilst the other controlled the dayboat, dinghy and sport catamaran racing closer inshore. Once again, the strong winds provided some spectacular action with the race patrol boats being kept very busy looking after the small craft and the young sailors sailing their unusually large fleet of Optimists. It was a day that saw a number of spectacular broaches, particularly amongst the quarter tonners, a sign of the competitive spirit that dominated the whole weekend with crews not being at all reluctant to have a go. Not unsurprisingly, breakages and bruises were much in evidence but nothing that the single-minded and highly motivated skipper and crew could not sort out in time for Sunday’s racing. The keenly fought day day produced clean sweeps for Jamie Hamilton’s Melges 24 Mad Cap in Class 0, Laurent Beaurin’s 45oSouth in Class Q, Rhys Perkins and partners Archambault 35 Abracadabra in Class 1, Vince Smith’s Laser 28 Shasa in Class 2 and Darren Stower’s Hobie Tiger Bath Tub in Class 5. Other winners on the day were Daniel Le Marquand sailing his Sunlight 31 Jasine II in cruiser Class 3 and Elizabeth Ellison, last year’s winner, sailing her Optimist Whatever! in Class 8.
Saturday evening gave a welcome respite as competitors, sponsors and organisers met up for the Regatta Party Night, always a great opportunity for visitors to get to know their competitors that much better, swap experiences of the day’s hairy sailing and strike up new friendships.
Sunday dawned much the same as Saturday but, unbelievably, remained at something less than twenty knots throughout the day, providing near perfect conditions. Whilst the previous two days had lost a number of races, everything ran to schedule on Sunday, the white knuckle rides and survival tactics of the previous days giving way to pure concentration on getting the best out of boats and crews with little fear of broaches and capsizes. This also gave those light airs boats the opportunity to improve their overall standing and the all-girl crew on the Farr 727 Arbitrator to bring quarter ton racing to a fitting close wearing their bikini tops. The day saw the tables turned in the sportsboat class with Henrik Asplund’s Melges 24 Tant M winning both races whilst Martin Speller swept the board in Dinghy Class 7 sailing his Laser Radial, Liquid Logic. Honours were shared in other classes with Jai Ho and David Jones’ First 34.7 doing well in IRC Class 1, 45oSouth and Dave Williams’ Conrad 760, Tom Bombadil in IRC Class Q, Shasa and David Myatt’s IOD Marguerite in IRC Class 2, Jacques Morvan’s Sun Legende Moustique and Phil James’ Sun Odyssey 42 Camira in Class 3, Mike Harrison’s La Rocque OD Jigsaw and Ben Jones’ Cornish Coble Baloo in the Dayboat Class, Bath Tub and Gordon Burgis’ Hobie 16 Pure Energy in Sport catamaran Class 5, Lily Carter and Hannah Voak sailing Dragoons in Sport catamaran Class 6 and George Moisan and Guernsey’s Sam van de Velde sailing Optimists.
Surprisingly, considering the racing conditions and the large number of boats racing in the Bay, there were no protests other than two claims for redress over the entire weekend. This allowed the prize-giving to proceed on schedule on Sunday evening in St Helier YC where competitors were most pleased to be joined by His Excellency Lt-General Andrew and Mrs Valerie Ridgway and Brewin Dolphin’s Head of Office, Stuart Sangan, who presented the vast array of trophies and prizes. Mr Sangan, having presented the Best-in-Class prizes delighted everyone by confirming that Brewin Dolphin is looking forward to supporting the Regatta in 2010 and beyond. Regatta organiser, Bill Harris, closed proceedings by thanking Brewin Dolphin, Jersey Harbours and Jersey Tourism for their valuable help and unstinting support for Regatta ’09 and looking forward to working with them to produce at least as successful a Regatta in 2010.
The Brewin Dolphin Best-in-Class prizes for the whole Regatta went to:
French visitor Laurent Beaurin, 45o South in the Quarter Ton class, five points clear of Farr 727 2Farr helmed by Jeff Speller;
Jamie Hamilton, Madcap in the Sportsboat class, just one point clear of fellow Guernsey visitor Henrik Asplund’s Tant M;
Neil Maclachlan & Alex Ohlsson’s Jai Ho in IRC Class 1, four points clear of David Jones’ Jackana;
Vince Smith’s Shasa, four points clear of Kevin Holden’s UFO27 in IRC Class 2;
Phil James’ Camira, two points clear of Daniel Le Marquand’s Jasine II in the Jersey Handicap class;
Mike Harrison’s Jigsaw, one point clear of Ben Jones’ Baloo in the Dayboat class;
Darren Stower’s Bath Tub, seven points clear of Andrew Hart’s Breaching 69 in Sport catamaran Class 5;
Lily Carter & Megan Unwin sailing First Up, one point clear of Hannah Voak and Jamie Sunter sailing Eric Young in Sport catamaran Class 6;
Martin Speller’s Liquid Logic, three points clear of Simon Le Huray’s Huff & Puff in Dinghy Class 7 and Guernsey’s Sam van de Velde sailing Optimist 5897, four points clear of Clementine Thompson’s Optimist in Dinghy Class 8.
The full results have been posted in the yacht clubs and on www.jerseyregatta.com . Photographs will soon be available on www.gppictures.com
A note for the diary - the Brewin Dolphin Jersey Regatta 2010 is scheduled to take place from 3rd to 5th September.