J/24 Autumn Cup at Parkstone Yacht Club

J/24 Autumn Cup at Parkstone © PYC

The weekend of the 14th to 15th of October saw twelve J/24s take part in the Autumn Cup, hosted by Parkstone Yacht Club.

Saturday brought a light south-westerly breeze with four races being sailed out of a scheduled five. Apart from race one, won by Roger Morris' Jolly Roger, Nick Philips and his team on Chaotic could not put a foot wrong, winning the remaining three races of the day, with the rest of the fleet having a mixed day.

Jolly Roger was the overnight leader before the discard kicked in. Sunday morning's start of race five at 09.30 saw most of the fleet changing to jibs minutes before the start as the breeze built - only for a number of the fleet to do a headsail change back to genoas on the first downwind leg.

Duncan McCarthy on Madeleine was first to finish, only to find out that they had been disqualified by the 'U' Flag Rule, within one minute of the start (along with Team Impact and Flying Colours), thus handing the lead to Nick McDonald's Cacoon.

Race six and all the fleet were back on genoas with Mark Lewers' Hijinks quick out of the blocks - finding the left hand side of the beat to be favoured and never challenged once they reached the windward mark of lap one.

Race seven was won by Madeleine and Race eight by Andy Taylor's Phoenix. However, consistency paid and the Chaotic team are worthy winners of this year's America's Autumn Cup.

Of note is the ever-improving youth team on Team Impact who regularly pushed at the top of the fleet, perhaps not surprising with the Kuzyk brothers on board - past Topper World, European and National Champions. Also Jack Butters, ex Spitfire National Champion sailing with his brothers Pete and Steve, and their father Dave on Crackerjack.

At the prize giving Chaotic thanked the race officer, Bryan Drake, and his team for an excellent regatta, managing to get in all eight races in what were sometimes tricky conditions.

Overall Results: