Closest racing yet

The J/109 fleet assembled last weekend for their Spring Championship

Fourteen J/109s assembled in the western Solent at the weekend to compete for the J/109 Spring Championships. The PRO for this, the first J/109 Class One-Design Event was George Chapman and he and his team did a great job setting and relaying as required, some great courses in Christchurch Bay where tides are much less than in the Solent.

A 40 minute postponement to allow a 6-8 knot easterly to settle, a lack of radio warning and particularly quiet starting cannon caught half the fleet with their engines still on during the start sequence for race one. As a consequence, there was a flurry of penalty turns being taken right after the start. John Perry and Philip Smith’s new Firestorm were on the ball and made a great start at the committee boat end. A very close battle ensued, with Michael Ewart-Smith and Ben Richard’s Zelda as well as Chas Ivill’s Johnny Blue II working their way through the fleet to take first and second ahead of local boat, Malcolm Thorpe’s King Louie. Fourth was Mike Jones’ Joyride and in fifth was the ex Prima team on board Firestorm.

A raft of J/109s at the committee boat end lead to Johnny Blue II being called OCS and having to round the committee boat to restart in race two. Steve Main and Jodie Windmiller (who are converts from the X332 fleet) wisely avoided the bunch in J 2 Eau and made a superb start below the pack. They worked the left side of the beat well and led from first mark to the finish. Andrew Given’s Hamble based High Tension sailed well for second, followed by King Louie, Zelda and then the winners of this event in 2005, Nigel and Suzie Brooke in Jalapeno.

For the third race of the series the PRO opted for a change of course, with an old style Olympic replacing the windward-leewards of races one and two.

With the breeze increasing to 12 knots, Jalapeno switched to a smaller headsail and demonstrated great height to round the windward mark, hot on the heels of Zelda and just ahead of Johnny Blue II. At this point, Johnny Blue II alone opted for a reaching spinnaker which quickly pulled her past Jalapeno. However, the second reach was now a run and this proved a disaster for Johnny Blue II who were forced to perform a bare headed spinnaker change, dropping to ninth as a result, such was the close grouping of the fleet.

Zelda led the pack down the left hand side of the final run only to see Johnny Blue II finding enough pressure on the right hand side of the course to enable them to move from seventh right through to first. Jeremy Christey (sailing Jamie Arnell’s Brighton based Jeez Louise) moved up to fourth by employing a similar tactic, Zelda were second with King Louie taking yet another third place. Jalapeno scored another fifth.

Sunday dawned with less wind than Saturday, initially a North Westerly gradient wind started and built only to be cancelled and then replaced by a six to eight knot southerly.

The order at the top mark was Firestorm, Jalapeno and then J 2 Eau. Johnny Blue II rounded in sixth place and Zelda in eighth in race four. On the subsequent run Zelda split with the pack and passed Mike and Sarah Wallis’ Jahmali and Johnny Blue II. On the second beat Johnny Blue II worked the left, moving up to fourth with Zelda fifth. Firestorm led the pack down to the gybe lay-line, only to find Jalapeno gybing simultaneously and rolling into first place. Johnny Blue II did the same to J 2 Eau, thereby moving up to third.

Race five saw J 2 Eaufirst to the windward mark, closely followed by Johnny Blue II. On the second beat Johnny Blue II made a passing move and went on to win from J 2 Eau and Zelda. Beth (sailed by James George and team) along with Alistair Ray’s Jumunu, both sailed a good race for fourth and fifth places respectively.

Nerves on edge throughout the fleet, race six saw the first general recall followed by a deft employment of the black flag. In deference to the PRO’s use of the flag, Johnny Blue II started near the pin with Jahmali. This pair were first and second respectively at the top mark and Johnny Blue II led to the finish. Warsash Spring Series winners, Jahmali, were back on top form and pushed Johnny Blue II very hard all the way. In third place was Firestorm followed by Jalapeno and J 2 Eau.

This was the closest one-design racing yet seen by the J/109 Class. In previous seasons the lead bunch would usually break from the pack but now the fleet is very tight with new boats and new sailors joining all the time. The twelve new boats that have been delivered into the UK this Spring takes the UK/Ireland fleet to 62 boats in total and a further expansion of the one-design series is planned for 2007.

Results:

1-Johnny Blue II, 8 points
2-Zelda, 15 points
3-King Louie, 21 points
4-Jalapeno, 23 points
5-J 2 Eau, 23 points