(Hamble, England)- Jumping into the fray and jumble of boats
participating in the AVEVA September Regatta were a half-dozen J/111s
competing for their 2015 UK National Championship. After the two-day
affair in rather sparkling weather conditions, it was Tony & Sally
Mack’s McFLY that took home the title of J/111 National Champion for the
2015 season. Behind them it was an absolute dust-up for the balance of
the podium, indeed the top five positions overall.There was quite the tussle among the ever-competitive J/111 fleet, with three different winners from three races on the Saturday. In the first race, McFLY won, followed by Stu Sawyer’s BLACK DOG in 2nd and Chris Jones & Louise Makin’s’ JOURNEYMAKER II in 3rd. The second race was Martin Dent’s JELVIS win followed by Sawyer’s second 2nd of the day and McFLY in 3rd. For the third race, Jones & Makin’s JOURNEYMAKER II won the final race of the day, followed by Chris Body & Andrew Christie’s ICARUS in 2nd and McFLY collecting another third. As a result, five of the teams had a podium finish in three races! McFLY led with a 1-3-3 on 7 pts, followed by BLACK DOG in 2nd with a 2-2-5 for 9 pts and sitting tied on 3rd place at 10 pts each were JOURNEYMAKER II and ICARUS.
Sunday
would become the proving ground for this white-hot close racing.
However, overnight it was clear one boat got their “mojo” going and
would not look back. A pair of bullets on the Sunday – to add to a win
in the first race – saw Tony Mack’s McFly take the J/111 UK National
Championship title ahead of Martin Dent’s Jelvis and Chris Body and
Andrew Christie’s Icarus.“With three winners from the first three races all credit to the J/111 class, they are all terrific sailors,” said Tony. “Sunday saw more solid breeze and we found it a little easier – if you can make the windward mark first it’s a lot easier than having to battle your way through the fleet. We were delighted, but even if we had not done well what a brilliant weekend to go sailing. It was lovely.”
And he was full of praise for the race organization and the atmosphere within the Club itself: “The courses have been marvelous and really clear. Some places you think they are trying to catch you out, but here it’s been really clear over the radio about what was going on. It’s worked really well.” He added: “In business you get a feel, a smell, an atmosphere of success, and you can also go to businesses and you find the opposite feeling, but the club has that vibrant feel about it everywhere.” For more J/111 UK Nationals sailing information
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