J/109 OFFBEAT Wins on Remembrance Day
(Hamble, England)- A cold calm morning marked the restart of the 2010 Garmin Hamble Winter Series with a two-hour wait for racing to get underway. This long postponement was broken at its halfway point by two guns, these marking either end of the two-minute silence to observe Remembrance Sunday.
By midday the expected breeze filled in from the north, and with seven Black Fleet classes to start these were combined into three groups to shorten the sequence. A single course was set for all classes, with the Fastnet Insurance and North Ryde Middle buoys as the first two marks of a six-mile course, with East Bramble as the finish. As the shifting breeze steadily backed and built to over 20 knots by the finish what had been conceived as a windward leeward course soon turned into power reaches and provided some exciting moments for the concentrated fleet.
Despite the challenging conditions most of the front-runners maintained their form, with David McLeman's J/109 OFFBEAT taking their first win with the all-conquering J-DREAM slipping to 9th in class and in IRC Class 3 the J/97 JIKA-JIKA sailed by the corinthian team led by Mike and Jamie Holmes again crushed the competition and grabbed yet another victory over Kevin Sproul's professional team on the Beneteau First 30. The J/97 JIKA-JIKA is proving time and again that a solid all-round design will always beat purpose-built "wedges of cheese" around the track- anywhere. Currently, the Holmes' J/97 JIKA-JIKA has 9 points for the series and leads by 11 points over the next closest boat.
The J/80s continued to have a competitive series. Through race 11, the leader continues to be OI! sailed by John Cooper with 14 points. Second is AQUA-J skippered by Patrick Liardet with 23 points. Just 3 points shy is Gordon Craigen's SWALLOW with 26 points. The Royal Air Force team on SPITFIRE seem to be lacking in the "gatling gun" department, pulling up a bit short on their ability to decimate the competition, lying fourth with 58 points. Ian Atkins' boats.com is hanging in fifth with 69 points.
The J/109s continue to set the pace for large offshore one-designs in England. It's not coincidental that certain teams continue to hang in the top five despite what are obviously challenging conditions. A good measure of fleet depth but also the capabilities of certain teams. Near the top in most events happens to be J-DREAM, Kirsty and Dave Apthorp's team are clearly not relying on "bangers and mash and Guinness" to power them to victory. "Pasties" for sure are not part of their lexicon. Nevertheless, there's is a story of remarkable consistency over the course of time. This past weekend was an exception, finishing 9th and staring at a few transoms they've never seen before-- "who are those blokes?" was a refrain overhead a few times.
In race 9 of the J/109s, Dave McLeman's team on OFFBEAT sailed well to claim the coveted winner's thorny wreath to wear down at the pub after the races. Second was J2EAU sailed by Steve and Jody Maine, third ME JULIE raced by Dom Monkhouse, fourth was AUDAJIOUS captained by David Jobson and fifth was DESIGNSTAR skippered by Roger Phillips. Overall, the Apthorp's J-DREAM continues to lead with just 8 points followed in 2nd by Dave's OFFBEAT, 3rd is OUTRAJEOUS sailed by Richard and Valerie Griffith with 27 pts, 4th is ARIA led by Luca Rubinelli with 29 pts and 5th AUDAJIOUS skippered by David Jobson with 37 pts. The series continues on November 21st with one race for the Black Fleet classes, while three races are scheduled for the sportsboats in the White Fleet. For more sailing information of the 2010 Garmin Hamble Winter Series.