J/24s at the Plym Yacht Club Not Salcombe Regatta
by Sam Marshall 28 Sep 2020 05:33 BST
5-6 September 2020
PYC Not Salcombe Regatta © Paul Gibbins Photography
Every year the Plym Yacht Club run a race to and from Salcombe. With Covid-19 restrictions, they decided that racing to Salcombe and back would be unachievable and to put on a quiet cruiser regatta for their local fleet. The idea of this was to have around 10 boats sailing together and to have a picnic on Oreston Green after, with racing from the PYC start box. 36 boats and 2 committee boats later this event had turned into a different beast.
Eleven J/24s travelled to the Plym, with seven of them craned in for the event. With 5 races and sunshine forecast for the weekend it was looking to be fantastic. Saturday opened with shifty winds from the West, and the waves of breeze coming down the course brought some swings of up to 60 degrees, which left some crews struggling with the snakes and ladders at the top of the course. The RO set up a course on the Eastern side of Plymouth Sound, and elected to not move the line every time the shifts came, leaving some somewhat skewed startlines. The recently relaunched Phoenix showed strong speed and shift-handling to end Saturday with an early lead ahead of Cacoon, while the middle of the fleet was very congested with 5 boats in realistic contention for 3rd.
Après-race Saturday: free pontoon berthing was kindly supplied by Yacht Haven Quay, and the PYC team were on hand to administer crates of beer and bags of food for the crews, and the fleet enjoyed the evening sun and many beers, before heading to the yacht club to get to work on the supplies of gin and tonic.
Sunday morning came - much brighter for some than other s- and boats headed out hoping to find some wind with a much lighter forecast, and they found it; with a large amount of rain too. Huge swings on the racetrack split the fleet up, and Mojosi held onto a strong lead to take her first race win of the regatta. The sun came out in time to finish the day, and Phoenix got their third first and sealed the win on the first J event of the year, with Cacoon in second and Piglet not having done quite enough to get out of writing the Regatta report in third.
Consistency was key as always for this event, and there was a very competitive fleet, with 7 of the total 11 boats placing in the top 3 at least once. Also, a special mention to Kimberley Noakes and Alex Hirst for competing in their first J24 event. Hoping to see them both at the Autumn Cup.
Boats headed to Plymouth Yacht Haven for crane-out and prize-giving, where PYC and RWYC race officers were present to award Phoenix with the Regatta win. Massive thanks to the Plym Yacht Club and Royal Western Yacht Club for Race Officer teams, Plymouth Yacht Haven for craning and Yacht Haven Quay for berthing, as well as all the sailors for supporting this last-minute event. We hope to see you back in Plymouth next month for the Autumn Cup!
Big thanks to Sam Marshall for all his hard work and organisation to make the event a success for the class!
Regatta photos by Paul Gibbins can be found here.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Boat Name | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 4222 | Phoenix | Izzy Savage | 1 | 2 | 1 | ‑3 | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 4269 | Cacoon | Nye Davies | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ‑6 | 10 |
| 3 | 4239 | Piglet | Sam Marshall | ‑8 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| 4 | 4248 | MaJic | James Torr | ‑6 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 18 |
| 5 | 7207 | Dogs Jorrocks | Steve Wassell | 2 | ‑9 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 19 |
| 6 | 4271 | Jive | David Cooper | 4 | 5 | 6 | ‑7 | 4 | 19 |
| 7 | 4067 | NJO2 | Tim Octon | 5 | 7 | ‑10 | 9 | 2 | 23 |
| 8 | 4260 | MOJOSI | John Allen | 7 | ‑10 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 24 |
| 9 | 5238 | DanJerous When Wet | Mark Lewers | ‑9 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 30 |
| 10 | 4100 | Unity Lets | Alex Hurst | 10 | 8 | 9 | 10 | (DNF) | 37 |
| 11 | 4105 | Juliette | Kimberley Noakes | ‑11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 43 |