Win for Jenga tacktick

A report from the Sobstad J80 Summer Championships

Twelve J/80s were graced with blue skies over the Solent and light airs on Saturday 11th of June for the first day of the Sobstad J/80 Summer Championship. This six race series was hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club under the expert management of PRO Willie Sanderson and his race team.

After an hour postponement and a game of ‘follow me’ with the Committee boat, a windward leeward course was set and racing commenced on a very busy Solent just off Hill Head. The first three races were sailed in very light airs from the South East, but the wind swung round to the South West for the final race of the day, topping out at about 11 knots.

Four races were sailed and resulted in four different winners: Ruairidh Scott who will be sailing for the RYA in the upcoming Silva World Championships took the first, Jervis Devonshire sailed an immaculate Race 2 and got a well deserved win, Marie-Claude Heys won the third, narrowly beating Bob Napier and Helen Foster and Kevin Sproul and team on Silva Dream Machine.

A very different scenario greeted the fleet on Sunday, with a strong south westerly breeze which built to 20 knots at times on our race area just east of Brambles. Great J/80 conditions and exciting rides all round. Marie-Claude Heys showed the fleet just how to get the most out of the boat in the stronger stuff and won Race 5. A second to Ruairidh Scott in Race 6 was enough to secure the regatta for Marie-Claude Heys and her crew on Jenga tacktick.

Thanks go to Sobstad Sails who sponsored the event and to the race management team at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

	Boat Name	Owner	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Total
1	Jenga tacktick	Marie-Claude Heys	4	4	1	2	1	2	10
2	Key Yachting	Ruairidh Scott	1	2	9	6	3	1	13
3	Silva Dream Machine	Kevin Sproul	OCS	3	6	1	2	3	15
4	Juno	Jervis Devonshire	2	1	5	4	6	4	16
5	Nemo	Peter Henney	7	12	4	7	4	5	27
6	JSM	Stephen Hills	3	7	7	8	5	OCS	30
7	Jura	R Napier / H Foster	9	5	2	10	8	DNF	34
8	Just Savage	Liz Savage	6	8	11	9	7	6	36
9	RYA Keelboat	Helen Brown	5	10	10	3	DNS	9	37
10	Justify	Jeff Dakin	8	11	3	5	RTD	DNS	39
11	Jevan	R & J Fox	10	6	8	11	9	7	40
12	JimBob	James Heath / Bob Hewson	DNS	9	12	12	10	8	51