(London, England)- It was a tough year. It was a Fastnet year. And, an
RORC 600 year. It was not going to be easy for any boat participating
in this years RORC Seasons Points Championships to easily walk off with
all the silverware and pickle-dishes. Nevertheless, some J/Teams
prevailed despite some harsh and very, very challenging conditions
offshore- some absolutely not within the "wheelhouse" of where these
J/Teams can succeed, if not dominate offshore. Again, this year's
series points to the fact that a good all-around design is critical to
offshore success-- too "type-formed" and you win big in one event and
get crushed in the next. Such was the case this year. In the IRC Classes the best five offshore races are counted towards the RORC Season's Points Championship. These were heavily contested and in some of the classes, the results were undecided until after the Cherbourg Race, the last race of the season. For the J/Teams, "Congratulations" are in order for those that persevered and prevailed against the best offshore sailors from Western Europe. Here's the scoreline for these J/Teams:
- Alan Paul Trophy - Consistent High Performance in IRC Overall: ARABELLA- J/111 - Niall Dowling (GBR)
- Emily Verger Plate - IRC Two Overall- JOOPSTER- J/122 - Neil Kipling (GBR) and in the same division Niall's team on ARABELLA finished 5th overall.
In addition to the winners, special mention should be made of the following performances:
- IRC Overall- the J/111 ARABELLA sailed by Niall Dowling was 2nd overall behind the custom Ker 46 Tonnere- the overall winner. Just behind them was the J/122 sailed by Neil Kipling.
- In IRC One- the J/133 JINGS sailed by David Ballantyne was 5th overall, just 40 points from first overall. In other words, a top ten finish in any of two more races would have put them in contention for top two overall!
- In IRC Three- J Teams took 50% of the top 10! They included Nikki Curwen's J/105 VOADOR in 3rd, Nick Martin's J/105 DIABLO-J in 4th, Tor McLarens' J/109 INSPARA in 6th, Greg Nasmyth's J/109 JARHEAD in 7th and Robin Taunt's J/109 JIBE in 9th. Good show by all!
- In IRC Doublehanded- the series could've gone anywhere in the last two races. In the end, Nick Martin's J/105 DIABLO-J nipped Nikki Curwen's J/105 VOADOR for 5th and 6th, respectively. It was a "nip-and-tuck" battle until the end of the series for the thirty-plus hardy group of souls and sailors in this fleet.
The net, net of the 2011 RORC summer sailing season is that it takes solid, easy-to-sail, all-around boats to succeed in the RORC events. Again, with primarily all amateur/ corinthian teams, the fleet of J sailors not only had fun but won their fair share of silverware, too. Nothing like adding a few more pickle-dishes to the serving inventory at home! For more RORC Offshore Season sailing information.
