(Sydney, Australia)- The day finally dawned for the start of the Spring
racing series for the new J/111 JAKE in Sydney. For those of you who
have been to this side of the world, the spring weather is usually
glorious, with clear blue skies, temperate 23 degrees C, and gentle
winds, and this is what we had been experiencing for the 2 weeks up to
our first race. But as luck would have it, winter decided to take one
last bite, and the Saturday race from Sydney to Lion Island (out the
heads and 25nm up the coast and back), was held in 25-30knot cold SSW
winds, with a sloppy 2-3m easterly swell rebounding off the coast line.We had a pretty good start. We were the smallest boat in Div 1 and with such a mix of boats up to 60foot on the start line a clean start was paramount. Out of the heads and with the wind on our quarter we set the #3 asymmetric and had the time of our life!. The J/111 just took off - she has such acceleration in the gusts it was exhilarating, and yet not overwhelming. She rode the waves and skipped over the crests, the backstay humming along like a V8 engine.
The conditions took their toll on a number of yachts. The new Sydney GTS 43 did a remarkable maneuver for their maiden race, pirouetting next to us just as we got out of the Heads (we had been going boat-for-boat, if not faster than them most of the way to the Heads). We figured they must have lost someone overboard, but in fact their rudder had snapped in half, and they had to be towed home. The J/111 just reveled in the conditions.
We wanted to leave the kite up and just keep going but we were heading too far east, so had to drop it and head up towards the Island under #4 jib and full main. Even under just jib & main we were hitting 17.4 knots at times. What a remarkable machine. Around the Island, and back to Sydney. We thought the bigger boats would have the advantage over us on the way back. The wind had swung more south so it was one long tack with slightly cracked sheets all the way back home. The J/111 held her own though, and no one took any time from us. We came in 2nd on IRC in the Short Ocean Series. Not bad for our first offshore against the large Division 1 boats.
