VELVET ELVIS Rocks The Fleet!
(Hamble, England- 3-6 June)- Having already had two days of awesome ‘shorts and shades’ racing at the J-Cup 2010, the 74 boat fleet were postponed ashore for a short time on Saturday until ten to twelve knots of breeze filled in from the south east. The J-Cup 2010 was hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club and the Principal Sponsors of the regatta were B&G, Dubarry of Ireland, North Sails and Universal Marina. The J-Cup series comprised eight races in total and on Saturday the J/109s, racing for their UK National Championship had just one race left to complete whilst all other classes had two.Neil Kipling’s brand new J/122 JOOPSTER had her best day on the water in IRC 1 on Saturday with a third place in Race Seven and a fourth in Race Eight, consolidating their fourth position overall. Once again it was Ian Matthews team on JINJA who took the top slots in both of the final races, resulting in a perfect first place scoreline and a convincing class win. David Hunt’s team on the J/122 JACOB'S LADDER finished second overall with Herman Bergshaven’s J/133 SOLNES III in third overall at the close of the event. SOLNES III was presented with the North Sails Boat of the Day prize on Saturday.
In the J/80 Class John Cooper’s OI! was one point ahead of the young crew on Steve Mittler’s TEAM BALTIC, with two races left to sail and before discards were applied. Some extraordinary sailing ensued in the pre-start of Race Seven, and TEAM BALTIC (visiting the Solent from the West Country) cleverly sailed the local boat down the fleet into ninth place, whilst still sailing fast enough to recover their own race and to be first across the line. Ouch! A second bullet in Race Eight secured TEAM BALTIC the series win with ten points. OI! finished second overall with twelve points. Patrick Liardet’s AQUA-J was third overall and was also the North Sails Boat of the Day for the J/80 Class. IRC 2 was where the new J/97s were doing battle and the owner with the most time in his boat in this class only took delivery of his J/97 in March. The result was that we saw some fantastic racing ensue, some astonishingly steep learning curves develop and three different J/97s each won a race at the J-Cup. On Saturday, Bill Blain and Nicola Carney stamped in a 2,1 scoreline in BATFISH IV, meaning that they were the best performing boat of the day and deserved winners of the North Sails Boat of the Day prize. The racing here got closer and closer as the regatta rolled on, precisely as you would hope and expect for these new boats, but in the end it was Mike and Jamie Holmes’ J/97 JIKKA JIKKA at the top of the class. Grant and Brigitte Gordon finished second overall in their J/97 FEVER JR. and BATFISH IV was third.
Andy Dennis and his team on the J/105 ORIJIN travelled all the way from Helford to compete at the J-Cup 2010 and the final day of the regatta was their best, having got used to the Solent and working the boat on boat one-design racing to their advantage. If the regatta had been just a day longer, the top slots might have looked a little different, but in the end it was Hamble based JAVA, owned and raced by Rob Dornton-Duff who took the top slot, just a point ahead of William Newton’s JELLY BABY in second place overall with Richard Watney’s JEOPARDY in third. JEOPARDY also won the North Sails Boat of the Day prize on Saturday.
Twelve J/92s were racing at the J-Cup and as Saturday dawned, Andy Roberts and his team on JUST IN TIME had an unbroken first place score sheet. However, this was not to continue. David Greenhalgh and John Taylor (racing on J'RONIMO) brought in an expert meteorologist in the form of David’s daughter Libby and also a fairly handy tactician in the form of David’s son Peter. They duly went on to nail the first race of the day. Nice work! There was also a different race winner for Race Eight in this class; Martin Pound and his team of flying Scotsmen on board MOBY J. This was Martin’s first ever race win on MOBY J. What a day! The final scoreline for the J/92s at the J-Cup 2010 was JUST IN TIME at the top of the pack, Richard Sparrow’s WHOSE TO NO in second place overall. Pete and Pip Tyler were third in NEILSON REDEYE and they also took home the North Sails Boat of the Day prize.
The J/109s had only the final race of their eight race series scheduled for Saturday morning, and I am quite sure that the team at the top of the pack (Chairman Wright and Martin Miller’s VELVET ELVIS) would have been quite happy if the breeze had failed to show up and racing had been abandoned. There were a lot of nerves flying around! In the end there was more than enough wind for racing and VELVET ELVIS left the dock to go out to try to win the 2010 J/109 UK National Championship, along with twenty six other J/109s with precisely the same intention. In fact, Dave Richards who had won his first ever race in the J/109 on the Friday or the J-Cup, led the final race of this series in JUMPING JELLYFISH until the very last moment when VELVET ELVIS managed to slip past him to cross the line in first place. What a fantastic way to win the UK National Championship and what popular winners! In second place overall was Matt Boyle’s SHIVA, then OFFBEAT owned and raced by David McLeman was third overall and was also the North Sails Boat of the Day. In fourth place at the J/109 UK National Championships was Steven Tapper’s STALKER and David Aisher’s YEOMAN OF WIGHT finished fifth. The bar was open, the sun was shining and (appropriately) Elvis was on the sound system as competitors returned to the dock to see the overall results and to prepare for the legendary J-Cup Gala Dinner and Prize Giving Party. Silverware and goodies donated by the numerous, generous Prize Sponsors of the J-Cup 2010 were presented to the podium finishers. This year each class winner also took home (or consumed on the spot!) a bottle of Wight Vodka and some rather special Wight Vodka caps as well as other fabulous gifts.
In addition to the Class Winners and the J/109 UK National Championship Trophy, there are some rather special prizes presented each year at the J-Cup.
B&G have been a Principal Sponsor of the J-Cup for several years now, and their generosity continued unabated. This year, Chris Greetham of B&G was racing at the event in IRC 1 for the first time but, it has to be said, he didn’t get his hands on any of his own prizes! A set of Deckman software was presented to JINJA for winning IRC 1, a fabulous handheld VHF GPS system went to the best J/92, JUST IN TIME and a set of B&G branded race jackets went to the J/109 UK National Champions on VELVET ELVIS.
The Elvstrom Best Newcomer Prize went to the team on the J/80 OI! and the Musketeer Trophy for the best two boat team from different classes was won by the team of J/109 VELVET ELVIS and INDULJENCE, the J/97 owned and raced by Mike Flood.
Dubarry of Ireland is another Principal Sponsor of the J-Cup and has been involved with the event for many years now. They present some of their fabulous footwear as prizes each year and this is accompanied by two trophies, fashioned in bronze, to represent the iconic Dubarry Boot.
The Dubarry Boot for Endurance was presented to Paul Griffiths and his team on the J/109 JAGERBOMB. Paul, daughter Gillian and son Mark have been racing Js together for a number of years. We have watched them work their way from the back to the front of the J/105 fleet in FAY-J and Paul also captained this class for a number of years. More recently they have moved from the J/105 in to a J/109 and the J-Cup 2010 was their first regatta in this class and, as Paul is the first to admit, the two boats are very different. These guys are great fun to sail with and against, they have championed the cause of each class in which they have raced, and we have no doubt at all that the front of the J/109 fleet is an achievable target for them. One thing is certain; this team will have a lot of fun on the way there and are deserving winners of this trophy from Dubarry.
The Dubarry Boot for Outstanding Achievement was presented to the crews of the three boats which were entered in the event by the charity Toe in The Water. This charity works to re-inspire and rehabilitate injured servicemen through the sport of sailing. They entered one J/109 and two J/80s in the J-Cup. They have to beg, steal and borrow boats and the host Club funded their entry. These guys and girls are amazing. Many have never sailed before and a number of them have just the most horrific injuries it’s incredible that they ever take to the water at all. Then they go out, race hard and competitively and are right in the mix with the rest of the fleet both afloat and ashore. They are all monumentally courageous and there have never been such unanimously popular winners of a trophy. The 500 person standing ovation seemed to last forever.
Universal Marina hosted the opening party at the J-Cup 2010, complete with pink mojito cocktails and a rocking band. In addition to this, they also ran a photographic competition at the J-Cup 2010 for which the prize on offer was a free marina berth at their Hamble facility for one year. Awesome! The berth was won by JIKA JIKA, for a rather clever photo of the Universal Marina Solent race mark, a couple of pink Universal Marina backstay flags and a JIKA JIKA crew member!
The J-Cup trophy itself is the silverware from which this regatta takes it’s name. Over the years it has been presented for many different reasons; sometimes racing related, sometimes not, but nobody has ever won it twice. Ian Matthews and his family have raced at the J-Cup for many years, formerly in a J/120, winning their class on so many occasions that their boat name was eventually stenciled on to the transom of the half-model trophy! This year Ian and his red-headed clan won IRC 1 on their J/122 JINJA with eight straight bullets and the J-Cup is deservedly theirs.
This was the fourth visit to the Royal Southern Yacht Club for the J-Cup, and each time we go there things just get better and better. Racing was faultlessly managed by Peter Bateson and Tony Lovell and their huge team of volunteers and helpers on the water. On the ‘house’ side, Mike Rogers and Natalie Gray kept everyone (including your author) organised and on-track. The whole team of staff, volunteers, committee boat owners, RIB drivers and the friendly Club members we met along the way must be congratulated. If invited, the J-Cup will return to the Royal Southern Yacht Club without hesitation.
J-UK would specifically like to express our enormous gratitude to the four Principal Sponsors of the J-Cup 2010: B&G, Dubarry of Ireland, North Sails and Universal Marina. Without the partnership of these companies the event could simply not maintain its current size and status. For more J/Cup sailing information Photo credits- Tim Wright