Tideway Wealth Management UK J/70 Nationals at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy
by Marshall King 29 Aug 2023 13:28 BST
26-28 August 2023
Brutus Team (l-r) Josie Gliddon, Ben Saxton, Chris Grube, Charles Thompson, Elizabeth Whitener © Noah Fitzgerald / Optical Marine
A high quality UK J/70 National Championships took place over the bank holiday weekend at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.
Twenty-three boats experienced very tight racing in conditions from 5 to 18 knots across the three days with teams from USA, France, Netherlands and Australia supplementing the UK fleet.
Day one delivered three great races in Weymouth Bay with 12-18 knots, streaky wind and significant shifts.
The early pace in the Open Category was set by Martin Dent's team on Jelvis scoring 10 points closely followed by Charles Thompson's Brutus on 11 points. In the Corinthian category, Jonathan Calascione's Calypso topped the leaderboard also with 11 points, followed by Doug Struth's DSP on 16 points.
On day two, conditions were similar. Downwind sailing was especially challenging, with competitors using a mixture of planing and deep running to stay in the gusts.
Brutus made their first slip up, scoring a 12th in race 4, but recovered with a 2 and 1. Jelvis also had one poor race, but also had a bullet and a 6th. Calypso sailed the most consistently on day 2 to finish on 17 points net, but with a better discard than either Jelvis or Brutus. Going into day three, Brutus had 14 points, and Jelvis and Calypso were both on 17 points. All was set for a showdown on day 3.
Monday dawned with very light and shifty winds, with PRO Ian Bullock doing a great job to get the fleet started. After several false attempts, race 7 got under way in a light northerly, and Calypso sailed smartly to a 3rd place finish, with Brutus 4th. Jelvis came 9th, effectively putting themselves out of running for the open title.
With only one race left, owing to their better discard, Calypso could win if Brutus were 11th or lower. Brutus had a poor start and were back in the pack at the end of the first lap, but managed to find a great shift on the right of the second beat and sailed smartly down the run to win the last race and the series, to become 2023 UK National Champions.
Calypso had to be content with second overall, but Corinthian National Champion, with DSP third overall (second Corinthian). Max Clapp's youth team sailing Little J made a strong late run which included two race wins, to finish third Corinthian.
The fleet is now looking forward to the J/70 European Championships starting on September 2nd, also at WPNSA.
Full results can be found here.