(Plymouth, England)- Held over the first weekend of October, this year's
J/24 Autumn Cup turned out to be sailed on the hottest, sunniest,
all-round best weekend October has ever produced-- it also happened to
bring out the craziest in everyone down at the Royal Western YC. The
scene on the terrace was astounding, no one had seen such a seriously
fine selection of sun hats in decades! It would make most ladies at
"The Derby" blush or, perhaps, make them green with envy?
With
a warm 8-10 knots of breeze from the south west, Saturday’s racing got
underway on time at noon. With four races of about one hour duration,
each race provided a different winner. Darren Stansbury's HEDGEHOG won
race one starting the regatta with purpose, and Rob Clark's JUJU won
race two making the most of their new green rudder. Paul Williams JIGGY 2
won race three seeming to be loving their new boat and pink rudder, and
were pointing like the bandits all weekend, and David Cooper's
JAWBREAKER won race four getting back down to business after a slow
start to events.On Sunday we had a forty minute "pottering about" in the sun waiting for the breeze to fill in, which it eventually did with about 6-8 Knots from the south west. As with Saturday, the first race of the day, race five, went to the HEDGEHOG's. Race six was won by McCarthy and Phelps MADELINE who put together a great days results and it was JIGGY 2 who rounded off the regatta with their second win in race seven.
Due to a spot of windward mark "hide-n-seek" in race three, it was decided that Duncan McCarthy (MADELINE) and Darren Stansbury (HEDGEHOG) would share the Autumn Cup in equal first! With a well deserved Third for Paul and Shane on JIGGY 2.
Many thanks go to the RWYC`s Alan Nichols, James Bembridge, Claire Adams and of course the PRO Mike Pearson and his teams on the committee boat and mark boat. A fine job all round, thanks again." Thanks for the contribution from Stig McDonald. For more J/24 Autumn Cup sailing information
