J/24 UK Nationals 2019 in Plymouth

J/24 UK Nationals 2019 in Plymouth © PGC Photography

Swedish Team Front Runner was invited to sail the J/24 UK Nationals 2019 and so our 'J/24 Tour 2019' went on to Plymouth, UK.

Our Front Runner team with Per-Hakan Persson, Hans Thulin, Anna-Karin Bergman, Monica Persson and Per Andersson met at Gatwick airport arriving from Copenhagen and Stockholm. We went with a rental car driving on the 'wrong' side of the car, on the 'wrong' side of the road, for 4 hours arriving at Burrator Lodge in the middle of Dartmoor in the middle of the night (2.30am UK time which is 3.30am Swedish time). The GPS was playing us a trick when we were almost there and made us go on the narrowest tiny little forest road down to the 'castle' by the dam. Feeling like going with a 'kamikaze' driver... but we arrived alright for a cold welcome beer.

On the Friday morning we woke up to a beautiful morning with ponies in the garden and a beautiful view of Dartmoor and the surroundings of Burrator Reservoir. We were served typical full English breakfast by our host David Cooper. Then we went down to the Mount Batten Centre where registration and weighing-in was quickly accomplished and our well-prepared borrowed boat the superfast 'Jive' awaited us. After a quick preparation (taking a bucket of water out of the boat - someone tried to slow us down?! - and a minor mast-adjustment, 1 cm forward) we were ready to go out sailing.

Our first impression was that everybody was driving on the 'wrong' side of the road, but they do sail right, and this thing about 'ebb and flood' is totally crazy (>3 m metres!). We were two Swedish teams participating -Team 'Front Runner' and Team 'For Fun' - and we had an absolutely lovely time. Thanks a lot for your kind hospitality David Cooper and Chris Randall.

It started with 'champagne sailing' on the first day in Plymouth Sound outside the breakwater. The wind was stronger than the forecast said and came from the North over Mount Edgecumbe peninsula. A lot of shifty winds, but after a while you could tell the pattern was favourable to the left side, but later not all the way out into the tidal stream. Until 3 o'clock tide was going in and at 3 o'clock it was the high of the tide and it was turning to go out. Three fun races, but in the third race we had a major struggle with the downhaul which got stuck in the genoa sheet so that we could not trim in the starting moment. We are not used to a downhaul so this made a mess for us. Guess we started last but we managed to sail up to a 7th place in this race. We chose the right way all the race and changed side every downwind.

J/24 UK Nationals 2019 in Plymouth - photo © PGC Photography

Saturday we sailed four fun races with good scores and on the last race, race 7, our team lived up to our name and nailed it with a good margin in front of the whole J/24 fleet of 29 boats. A lovely feeling! You could hear our team cheering as we made "the Wave" over the finish line. We won the harbour race too and had some great fun at the regatta tent at the trimming and riding the bull competitions. The simple joys of life!

On Sunday the race course had a different wind direction, from the east. Here we found a nice pattern to follow in this day's three races and we ended with two final nice 2nd places. In the last race the leader must have had a 'mushy brain' since they missed to finish and went on for a third lap. This we saw and headed directly for the goal, which was an exciting 2nd place to end the ten nice races. Once again we won the harbour race. Thanks a lot, David Cooper, for lending us your fast boat 'Jive'!

Team Front Runner made a 3rd overall with same points as 2nd. Thank you to the team and all J/24 sailors for good competition and a lovely regatta!!! We Swedish sailors had a splendid time amongst sailors and the wild ponies on Dartmoor. On our way home we even had time for a quick sightseeing at Stonehenge in the sunset. See you at the J/24 Swedish Open in August - Welcome!

Congratulations to the winners Sam Pearson and team Hustle. Thanks to Plymouth Regatta team and race organising teams for such a wonderful event. Many thanks to all 29 teams coming from UK, Sweden and Ireland making this a wonderful J/24 event.

Photos by PGC Photography with additional photos of the J24 Nationals and Plymouth Regatta available to view at https://pgcphotography.pixieset.com.

Overall Results:
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