* Paul Heys sailing aboard the J/111 JENGA had this to report- "Day 5 of Aberdeen Asset management Cowes week, dawned with a forecast of a South Westerly 20 gusting to 30.After the first 4 days J122 Jinja, very well sailed by Ian Mathews and team was the class 2 leader, in second was the J111 Shmokin Joe of Phil Thomas and Duncan Macdonald and in third the J 111 Jenga 7 helmed by Mike Henning.
For 4 days the races had been long beats against the tide, followed by dead runs back downwind, conditions that suited the bigger heavier boats in the fleet pretty well, so we on Jenga 7 were very pleased that the J’s were batting above their weight.
On day 5 the tide was finally reversed, today we would beat with the tide and run back against it.
Starting from the squadron line at Cowes we headed out on an 8 mile beat to the Western end of the Solent , Shmokin Joe made a nice start, we were a little cautious and ended up second row, the whole fleet was short-tacking up the Green (next to the Royal Yacht Squadron and The Parade) to take advantage of the very strong tide that runs there. Initially we traded places with our Dutch sistership J111 JXcentric and Inga a Corby 36, Shmokin Joe was trading places with Grand Slam a Grand Soleil 40 at the front of the fleet.
Twice we were bounced left by starboard tackers and each time we made a further loss, halfway up the beat, boats to both the left and right made gains against us and we were suddenly in the mix with boats that we had not seen before, a Swan 51, First 40’s and Elan 40’s. Meanwhile Shmokin Joe helmed by Kevin Sproul was sailing a text book beat, tacking on the shifts utilising the tide and outpacing the J 122, Salona 45, Grand Soleil 43, Elan 410 and the Corby 36, who made up the chasing pack.
The further down the Solent we went the more the wind increased, we were now seeing 25 knots. Shmokin Joe was first around setting their code 3 chute and blasted off in a ball of spray, Jinja and many others gybe set to head inshore for tidal relief. On Jenga 7 we rounded 12th and knew we had a lot on, gybe setting to the code 4 the chase was on: after 2 miles we were up to 3rd we were blasting along at 12-15 knots at 155TWA passing the heavier slower boats very quickly, J111 JXcentric had gone to the island shore which was a tidal disadvantage, so we were soon ahead of them. As we charged into the entrance of the Lymington River at 14.5 knots we were confronted by the car ferry, thankfully as he built his speed we were able to get around his stern comfortably.
With the depth down to 3 metres we executed a tidy gybe and set off on Starboard, now the waves were with us and this allowed us to surf up to 16.5 at times, inshore we saw Jinja spin out and broach followed by some minutes without spinnaker, this left just Shmokin Joe to chase, they were a long distance ahead having beaten us to the windward mark by 7-8 minutes. As we blasted down, we now saw Shmokin Joe in trouble, broaching followed by a spinnaker drop, so great gains to us, shortly they reset and were once again launched.
A tidy rounding of West Lepe and back up wind with the deficit reduced to 3 minutes. The next leg was to be the leg of the regatta a 145 TWA reach across the Solent from Quod Possimus to Salt Mead. Shmokin Joe was round first and set off like a rocket we followed suit, the wind was now gusting to 30 and boat speeds were in the high teens with a peak of 20, we flat out planed the whole leg with the crew stacked aft. Below us was the TP 52 Pace sailing slightly hotter but at the same speed, the two J 111’s and the TP 52 blasted across the Solent at virtually the same speed in clouds of spray. The data recorder aboard Shmokin Joe would later show that the average speed for the leg was 16.8Knots!! Not bad for a 36 footer.
At Salt Mead we gybed for a run down to NE Gurnard, we once again blasted the width of the Solent gybing off Beaulieu exactly in the wake of our sistership who were still a few minutes ahead, the gap behind us to the next boat was pretty large. On their final gybe to the bottom mark Shmokin Joe suffered a spinnaker wrap, followed by a broach and then a trawl, we were blasting in at 15 knots as they recovered their spinnaker and dignity, calculating that we were now winning on handicap, we made a safe gybe drop and followed them in to the penultimate mark, following them into the finish to take the bullet.
JXcentric made it a J/111 podium with J/122 JINJA in 4th. One of the most exciting days racing at Cowes for years !!"
