J/109 J-DREAM Wins Class(Hamble, England- July 4-5)- The second Women's Open Keelboat Championship on the weekend of 4th and 5th July proved as exciting as the inaugural event last year. The J/109 J-DREAM came second overall and first in J/109 Class and the J/97 J/UK/ COFFIN MEW was third overall and second IRC Class. The event was again hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club at Hamble.
140 women crewed at WOKC this year, including Marie-Claude Heys, Lucy Burn, Colette Blair, Charlotte Lawrence, Liz Savage, Sarah Allan, Ursula Bagnall and, of course, Louise Morton. Of the seventeen boats represented in this wonderful event, it was apparent the J Owners in the UK are incredibly supportive of such programs helping women-- fully 50% of the fifteen boat fleet was J's- seven J/109 One-Designs and one J/97 taking 4 of top 5 spots!
Competitors were set imaginative and challenging courses mainly windward / leeward in nature. The final race encompassed a windward mark rounding of West Knoll buoy close to the Brambles bank down tide at low water, encouraging navigational and tactical decisions. Conditions were consistently light for the first day providing an agreeable introduction for the relatively light crews with the wind between 6 and 11 knots whereas on the second day the wind rose up to 17 knots. 6 races were completed in 2 days.
J-DREAM sailed by Kirsty Apthorp and Lucy Burn dominated the J/109 fleet from the start despite the slight hindrance of hot, hot pink tutus and legwarmers as their chosen crew uniform! They won 4 out of 6 races and therefore the overall class by 7 points from their nearest competitor. Further down the class Gillian Ross's boat Team Breast Cancer Care had a scratch crew some of whom joined only 12 hours before racing began. Gillian took home the fantastic Dubarry of Ireland bronze boot as winner of the Spirit of the Event Award. Gillian's boat was branded for Breast Cancer Care and her efforts in supporting the event, giving women new to sailing a chance to compete, and fundraising for the chosen charity were all well recognised.In the IRC fleet the J/97 J-UK/COFFIN MEW presented the ultimate winner, ESPADA, with cause for concern as the races went on, so that by the penultimate race the J/97 was less than one minute behind Espada on corrected time and on the last race Marie-Claude Heys and Sally Pike raced J-UK/COFFIN MEW to only 30 seconds behind on corrected time. Had there been a third day's racing, Marie-Claude and crew might have been knocked off their first place spot.
