JACKPOT Cleans House In Sydney Offshore Series
(Sydney, Australia- Feb. 22)- It seems to be a recurring theme Down Under. Anytime a group of experienced amateur yachtsmen get together and race a J off the famous Sydney Harbour Heads, "magical" things seem to happen. And, this year's winner's circle throughout the summer offshore series off Sydney included the J/35 SOUNDTRACK, the J/109 MAJIKAL and the J/122 JACKPOT.Ray and Sandra Entwistle’s J/122 JACKPOT won the 2009/10 Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Short Ocean Pointscore Series on IRC. The SOPS is an 11 race series which runs from October to February, and is a combination of both windward / leeward courses and short passage races, held on the waters offshore from Sydney. JACKPOT has also collected a 1st in the Gascoigne Cup, 1st in the David Burke Memorial Trophy and a 3rd in the Morna Cup, held throughout the series.
JACKPOT finished 3 points ahead of her nearest rival Ed Salter in his famous AFR Midnight Rambler, completing the series on 17 points. JACKPOT's worst result was a 5th, which they were able to drop. Other than that, JACKPOT finished in the top 3 places for all other races. The top class fleet is a mixture of yachts in the 38-60 foot range with everything from a Swan 60, TP52’s, Cookson 12’s, new Beneteau 40’s, 47.7’s, 44.7’s, Sydney 38s and others. The season comprised of a variety of wind, sea and weather conditions but JACKPOT and her crew remained consistent throughout.
Ray had this to say about sailing the J/122- "We have a fairly small sail wardrobe from Ian Short Sails which has proved to be incredibly effective, consisting of a carbon main, #1 light carbon jib, #1 Medium Heavy carbon jib, #4 Kevlar jib. The kites we fly are asymmetric, being a 140 sq.m reacher and 155 sq.m runner. The J/122 is designed to carry non-overlapping jibs so tacking is quick and easy, and the kites fly from a fully retractable carbon sprit making the hoists, drops and gybes simple and efficient.
The J/122 is a joy to sail, she doesn’t slam in rough conditions, her hull shape allows her to ride up the waves and surf back down, in the light winds she simply glides along. In one race gusting over 30 knots and waves peaking at 15 feet we hit a speed of 18.6 knots and averaged 14.4 knots on a leg from Botany Bay to Sydney Heads.
As a result of the resin infused construction, the J’s are light but extremely strong, so you don’t have the excessive sheet loading you get with some other brands. This also means you don’t need to have a crew of rugby players on board – in fact 40-50% of Jackpots crew are women. The J/122 really epitomizes what sailing should be about. We can race her hard and win a prominent and competitive series, but then load her up with food and water and head up the coast cruising. She truly is a dual-purpose yacht.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our crew Ian, Hedgey, Emmy, Cassandra, Kate, Caroline, Darren and James for making this series not only a ‘winner’, but also a lot of fun. Our congratulations and respects to all our competitors for their sportsmanship throughout this highly competitive series." Good on ya mates! We hope you get a few more enthusiastic J sailors Down Under to play with soon!
