(Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England)- The second part of the two event
EuroCup (Round Island Race and the Yarmouth Regatta) proved yet again
the J/105 class in the United Kingdom is doing well and, most
importantly, that the J/105 teams are having a lot of fun sailing their
boats. The Yarmouth Regatta was won by Malcolm Thorpe's KING LOUIE from
the host club the Royal Solent Yacht Club. KING LOUIE narrowly
edged-out William Newon in JELLY BABY from Lymington Sailing Club for
the overall prize, thus being honored as the 2012 EuroCup Champion by
virtue of having finished as 2nd J/105 in the Round Island Race. Chris Jones, who sailed aboard Malcolm's KING LOUIE, provided an excellent regatta summary. "The plans for 2012 J/105 sailing season were formulated and influenced when we had such a great time racing in the 2011 Taittinger Regatta hosted by Royal Solent Yacht Club. Although dates for everyone are complicated in this London Olympic year, we were excited to return to Yarmouth this time for a dedicated J/105 event.
We have several new members of the J/105 class this year, and whilst those that were too battered from the Round the Island race were missed, the arrival of NIELSEN REDEYE and VOADOR enhanced the competition and added to the momentum revitalizing our J/105 class for the future.
The J/105 was the first of the production bowsprit - asymmetric racing boats in the world and has proved a brave and worthy yacht for many challenges since its conception over 20 years ago. Although it has an unparalleled history in short-handed offshore racing in recent times (most notably, the VOADOR first-class performance in the 2012 RORC Myth of Malham), racing against other identical boats where first across the line is all that matters and you get to spend the evening with like-minded friends in the yacht club reliving all the fun adds to the richness of the event.
Our
2012 J/105 Euro Cup was designed to attract boats from as far afield as
possible and, by combining trophies for the results from the Round the
Island race on the preceding weekend with the round the cans weekend in
Yarmouth, we hoped to tempt as many of the offshore sailers to pause in
the solent long enough to join the racing and revelries. Whilst we are
moving forwards, our hopes were somewhat dampened by the weather and we
will be seeking to continue to build participation in our class events
in 2013.In the event we had seven very evenly matched boats with 3 different race winners in the 5 race series. Local knowledge is a valuable asset in the western Solent, and JELLY BABY and KING LOUIE made the most of their familiarity with the area ensuring that the regatta out-come was undecided until the end of the last race when even their triumph from Round the Island race was not sufficient for JELLY BABY to stop KING LOUIE winning over all. Sailing remarkably well in the challenging conditions was NEILSON REDEYE, taking third on the podium.
As well as the trophies and keepers, the top 3 boats took home generous vouchers from Ultimate Sails for embroidered crew kit, that will undoubtedly be a dramatic feature of future racing in the Western Solent.
The weather ranged from 22 knots of wind and horizontal rain to a glorious 10 knots of champagne sailing in bright sunshine. Maybe next year there will be more of the latter, but nothing seemed to dampen the enthusiasm of the entire fleet or at least that seemed to be clear as the evening progressed and the Royal Solent Yacht Club treated us to a meal in their wonderful new club house followed by dancing to a great band late into the night.
As boats made their farewells on Sunday afternoon, hoping that Andy Murray would be champion by the time we docked back at base, everyone agreed that there is no boat comparable to the J/105 to sail and that as well as being great sailors our class is full of generous people that love to compete on the water and enjoy themselves ashore.
Special thanks to Malcolm and Bembridge Harbour and Ultimate Sails for their support and Jeremy and the rest of the team from Royal Solent Yacht Club for hosting us, to William for being brave enough to clean the trophy after all these years and to the youngsters who will no doubt continue the fine J/105 traditions and write their own stories in years to come." For more J/105 EuroCup sailing information
