J Cup at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club

by Becci Eplett 23 Aug 2005 17:14 BST 18-20 August 2005

Action from the J Cup at Torquay © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

J Boats head West in search of Silver

The J-Cup 2005, the prestigious and increasingly popular annual regatta for all J Boat owners, was hosted by the Royal Torbay Yacht Club from the 18th to the 20th of August.

J-Cup competitors race to win a number of significant prizes for both class and one-design racing, awarded by a number of generous sponsors of the fleet. The most hotly contested are the coveted J-Cup itself, the B&G J-Cup Prize, and for the first time in the history of the event, the Dubarry Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Presided over by PRO Martin Wells-Brown, the J-Cup 2005 attracted a record entry of 33 boats: nine different models, racing in three classes. Class 1 was the fast handicap which comprised J/133s and J/120s, Class 2 was the J/109s which were racing one-design under Class Rules, and Class 3 included J/105s, J/92s, J/80s, J/110s the new J/92 S and the new J/100.

Seven races were scheduled across the three day event with two races due to be sailed on Thursday. Glorious sunshine was abundant but breeze was in extremely short supply and the Race Officer did a great job to get Race 1 underway in a North to North Westerly of three to six knots. In Class 1, Jump, the J/133 of Stewart Hawthorn (winner of the J-Cup 2004) excelled, with Neil Martin’s J/133 Jammy Dodger in second and the J/120 of Ian Matthews, Jinja, in third place. The J/109s were lead by newcomer to the fleet and Westcountry local Peter Johnson in Waverider, followed by Nigel and Suzie Brook’s Jalapeno, and then Zelda, raced by Ben Richards and Michael Ewart-Smith. Mike Riley in the J/110 Jammin earned his first place in Class 1 in the dying breeze. Marie-Claude Heys sailed the J/92 S into second and third were Robin and Jill Stevenson in Mojo, their J/92. With no chance of getting Race 2 away, the fleet and the race committee headed home to enjoy the B&G cocktails at the Commodore’s Reception in the club-house.

The fleet were greeted with a much more promising 10 to 19 knots on Friday and the PRO called for Race 2 to be sailed prior to the scheduled Races 3, 4 and 5. In Class 1 Friday became the battle of the J/133s Jump Robert Davies’ Roxy 11, each scoring two firsts and two seconds. Boat of the day in the J/109 Class was Zelda with two bullets, but Waverider and Jalapeno scored a win each in Races 4 and 5 respectively. Greg Burgess and his team in Blue Jay achieved commendable placings for the day with 2, 3, 5, 2, all the more impressive considering this was the first time Blue Jay had lined up against the other J/109s at a one-design class event. In Class 3, Kevin Sproul and his J/80 crew scored four convincing wins in the Silva Dream Machine. Jammin held it together with two seconds, as did J/92 Mojo. The rest of the spoils were split between the boys and girls on Nick Martin and Gary Fry’s J/105, Diablo J, who scored their best result so far with a third place in Race 2 and another in Race 5. Pete Tyler in the J/92 Neilson Redeye earned their third in Race 3 and the local boys Martin and Tom Bloomfield were third in Race 4 sailing Wizard, their J/92.

Saturday morning was always going to be tricky for some, having sailed four bruising races on Friday and having taken full advantage of the half price bar, courtesy of North Sails, in the evening! A blustery 10 to 16 knots tends to deal with most malaise, one way or another, and with no class result yet decided everyone on the water wanted the last two races to count. In Class 1, Race 6 was won by Jump, second was Roxy 11 and Jinja took third. Race 6 belonged to Roxy 11, with the J/120 Mojo, of Adrian and Kristin Crook in second and Jump in third. The J/109s saw some fabulous racing with Race 6 going to Waverider, Zelda second and Blue Jay third, but in Race 7, Chaz Ivill in Johnny Blue finally found his predicted form to win convincingly. Andrew Given’s short-handed but highly skilled team took second in High Tension and third place went to Zelda. In Class 3, Jammin sailed intelligently and won both races, with Mojo second and Jive Talking third in Race 6. Silva Dream Machine secured a ‘safe’ second and Jive Talking a third in Race 7.

The J-Cup Gala Prize-Giving Supper was held on Saturday evening with 200 J sailors present to enjoy the complimentary wine from Sobstad Sailmakers and to ensure that the evening was lively enough!

The J-Cup was awarded to Kevin Sproul and the team from Silva Dream Machine who had achieved the lowest points score across the three classes at the event. The B&G J-Cup Prize was awarded to Stewart Hawthorn and crew in Jump who had beaten Roxy 11 by a single point (actually just one second on the racetrack) and the Dubarry Trophy for Outstanding Achievement was presented to Michael-Ewart Smith and Ben Richards in Zelda who not only won their class at the J-Cup, but who have also scored an impressive list of results throughout the year, including a Class win at Cowes. The prize awarded for the best results across the whole 2005 one-design series went to Nigel and Suzie Brook and crew on Jalapeno.

The Royal Torbay Yacht Club has to be one of the most welcoming clubs in the country and they hosted a superb regatta with exemplary race management. We will be back. Next year however, the J-Cup returns to the Solent and indications are that the regatta will continue to grow and develop as the UK J sailor’s ‘regatta of choice’. This is in part due to the competitive spirit, friendship and camaraderie typical within the fleet but also due to the continued support of generous and visionary sponsors. The J Boat fleet would like to thank the event sponsors B&G, Dubarry, North Sails and Sobstad Sailmakers. Prize Sponsors included The Clothing Room, The Volvo Ocean Race, Silva, UK Sailmakers, Yachts and Yachting, Dolphin Sails, Bonne Bouche, Hyde Sails, Grapefruit Graphics and Quantum Sails.

Overall Results:

Class 1 – Fast IRC
Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Type	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	GBR133L	Jump	J133	Stewart Hawthorn	1	1	2	1	2	1	3	8
2	GBR1633R	Roxy II	J133	Robert Davies	6	2	1	2	1	2	1	9
3	GBR5433R	Jammy Dodger	J133	Neil Martin	2	3	3	5	6	4	4	21
4	GBR3949R	Jinja	J120	Ian Matthews	3	4	6	3	4	3	5	22
5	GBR8415R	Mojo	J120	Adrian & Kristin Crook	5	6	5	4	5	7	2	27
6	GBR8581	Jalfrezei	J120	Gareth Thomas	4	5	4	6	3	5	6	27
7	GBR955R	Marionette XII	J120	Chris Dunning	7	7	7	8	8	6	7	42
Class 2 – J/109s One-Design
Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Type	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	GBR8809R	Zelda	J109	Ben Richards & Michael Ewart-Smith	3	1	1	2	3	2	3	12
2	GBR1509R	Jalapeno	J109	Nigel & Suzie Brooke	2	3	2	3	1	4	4	15
3	GBR109L	Waverider	J109	Peter Johnson	1	7	6	1	4	1	7	20
4	GBR1609R	Blue Jay	J109	Greg Burgess	7	2	3	5	2	3	6	21
5	GBR4909R	High Tension	J109	Andrew Given	5	6	4	4	5	7	2	26
6	GBR5809R	Johnny Blue	J109	Charles Ivill	6	4	7	6	7	6	1	30
7	GBR9109T	Red Arrow	J109	Rich Steel	8	5	5	7	6	5	5	33
8	GBR6909R	Jugular	J109	John Pickles	12	9	9	8	8	11	8	53
9	GBR2709R	Jumping Jellyfish	J109	David Richards	10	8	10	11	9	14	9	57
10	GBR2L	Beth of Five Star	J109	James George	9	11	11	14	10	9	10	60
11	GBR8709R	Jetstream	J109	John Prideaux	11	12	8	9	12	10	12	62
12	GBR2068R	Joker	J109	Ian Parfitt	14	10	12	10	11	8	11	62
13	GBR4809R	Jacob's Ladder	J109	David Hunt	4	14	13	12	14	14	14	71
Class 3 – Slow IRC
Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Type	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	GBR724	Silva Dream Machine	J80	Kevin Sproul	4	1	1	1	1	4	2	10
2	GBR9791R	Jammin of Poole	J110	Mike Riley	1	2	4	2	5	1	1	11
3	GBR9290R	Mojo	J92	Robin & Jill Stevenson	3	5	2	4	2	2	11	18
4	GBR2092R	Jive Talking	J92S	Marie-Claude Heys	2	6	5	5	8	3	3	24
5	GBR9201	Wizard	J92	Tom & Martin Bloomfield	5	7	6	3	4	6	4	28
6	GBR8272T	Neilson Redeye	J92	Pete Tyler	11	4	3	8	6	5	5	31
7	GBR9205R	Diablo J	J105	Nick Martin & Gary Fry	6	3	11	7	3	9	8	36
8	GBR9596R	Slingshot	J105	Shaun Murphy	10	8	7	9	14	10	6	50
9	GBR1605R	Juneau	J105	Mike West	9	11	9	6	7	11	14	53
10	GBR9002	True Love	J100	Colin Wall	7	10	8	10	10	12	10	55
11	GBR7005R	J - Dream	J105	David & Kirsty Apthorp	12	9	10	12	11	7	9	58
12	GBR726	Swan Song	J80	Peter Chester	8	14	14	14	14	8	7	65
13	GBR9588R	Jacana	J105	Daniel Sheehan & Peter Sandover	13	12	12	11	9	13	12	69