J/Domination in ORC 1, IRC 2 and ORC/IRC Doublehanded Classes!
(Harwich, England)- Fine weather and solid breeze provided fast downwind and reaching conditions for the fifth race of the RORC Season's Points Championship. The 180.0nm race from Harwichport, England to Scheveningen, The Netherlands was a very closely fought race as there were not many places to hide, just set it and forget it and go like hell!
The seventy-nine-boat fleet started at 1100 BST on Friday 31 May. Hosted by the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, the North Sea Race started outside Harwich and meandered around the Galloper wind farm before heading north to Smith’s Knoll Buoy and across English Channel to the famous sailing city of The Hague and the Scheveningen Yacht Club.
Close to a dozen J/teams are participating in ORC/ IRC and the Doublehanded divisions in the race, including most of the top Dutch and Belgian teams that won their Benelux doublehanded championships in 2018. Many of them reveled in the fast-sailing conditions.
IRC Two and IRC Double Handed was won by the J/122E AJETO, sailed by Robin Verhoef (NED) & John Van Der Starre (NED). The Dutch duo scored a memorable victory in IRC Two finishing ahead of the fully-crewed, all-pro, JPK 11.80 Courrier Recommande, sailed by the famous French offshore champion- Gery Trentesaux (FRA). Third was yet another J/122 duo on JUNIQUE/ RAYMARINE SAILING TEAM, also sailed Two-Handed by Chris Revelman (NED) & Pascal Bakker (NED). AJETO also scored a notable win over one of the Netherland's top short-handed sailors, Erik van Vuuren (NED) racing the new W36 Hubo. Fifth in IRC 2 was Wim van Slooten’s J/109 FIRESTORM.
“Gery Trentesaux and Erik van Vuuren are two of the world's best. However, that will not stop me telling my grandchildren about this victory,” smiled AJETO’s John Van Der Starre. “As always, we pushed AJETO really hard together. It is wonderful to race with Robin; the atmosphere when we sail together is just fantastic. We will be racing in our fifth Fastnet later this year. It will be a really tough competition, but win or lose I know we will both enjoy the challenge.”
In the ORC Doublehanded Class, the J/teams nearly swept the class. Winning was the J/122E AJETO, followed by the J/122 JUNIQUE/ RAYMARINE SAILING TEAM in 3rd, Michel Hof’s J/122 AMBITION in 4th and the J/109 FIRESTORM in 5th. In the ORC 1 Class (both full-crew and doublehanders), the J/122E AJETO took 2nd, the J/122 JUNIQUE 3rd, the J/122 AMBITION 5th. In ORC 2 Class, the J/109 FIRESTORM was 2nd and Rutger Krijger’s J/109 JACK RABBIT was 4th. Then, in ORC Overall, the finished in the same order, but taking 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 7th, respectively. For more RORC North Sea Race sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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