J/111 McFLY & J/109 JELLY BABY Victorious(Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK)- This year’s Vice Admiral’s Cup Regatta could not have been more fortunate with the sailing conditions all weekend long. With the extraordinary PRO and RC work from the host Royal Corinthian Yacht Club’s team, the sailors managed to enjoy nine races over the weekend’s racing from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th May. Since its introduction, the event has gone from strength to strength with its simple close-racing format and the fun social program made it exceedingly enjoyable for the competitors. Reveling in the on-water and onshore repartee’ was Tony Mack’s McFLY winning the J/111 class and Ian Nagle’s Irish team aboard the J/109 JELLY BABY. Here is how it all went down on the usually tricky Solent weather conditions.
Day 1:
The opening day saw a 35 strong fleet enjoy three exciting light to moderate airs races. Initially, a lack of wind forced Race Officer Rob Lamb to call for a two-hour postponement ashore. His timing and assessment of the conditions proved to be spot on and by the revised start time of 13.30 the fleet was in the race area and a light west-south-westerly breeze was building.
Although the conditions were cooperating and the teams were ready to go, circumstances beyond the race committee’s control saw one of the mark laying boats briefly out of action with technical issues and another called away to assist with a May Day rescue. To allow time to get the mark boats back on station a further 15-minute postponement was made and the race committee set up a compromise windward leeward course using Solent marks to reduce waiting time for the competitors.
For the first two races the J/111 and J/109 fleets were combined and made a spectacular sight as they crossed the line. Although spectacular, the combining of the fleets made life quite challenging for the J/109s who not only had to battle each other, but also find clear lanes behind the slightly faster J/111s. For race three, all four fleets raced independently, which made life much simpler for the tacticians aboard the now, separate J/111s and J/109s.
All three races were run on windward leeward courses. After his opening Solent marks based course, Rob Lamb was able to run races two and three on laid mark windward/leeward courses with varying leg lengths, start line lengths and finish line configurations giving great racing and keeping everyone on their toes. The wind continued to build, eventually topping out in the mid teens by the end of the third race.
Tony
Mack and his crew aboard “McFly” dominated the J/111s. This
experienced and well-practiced team took two race wins and were only
narrowly beaten in race two by Stuart Sawyer’s “Black Dog”. Racing
throughout the rest of the fleet was tight with plenty of place changing
and close action. “McFly’s” consistency gives her the overnight lead
by three points from “Black Dog” who added a fourth and second to their
race win to end the day a single point ahead of third placed
“Jitterbug”, owned by Cornel Riklin.Ian Nagle’s J/109 “Jelly Baby” emulated “McFly’s” success by also posting a 2, 1, 1 scoreline. Their nearest rival, the Royal Naval Sailing Association’s “Jolly Jack Tar” started off the day with flying colours and a first and second place, but struggled in the third race finishing sixth, so that overall “Jelly Baby” now leads “Jolly Jack Tar” by five points. Third place overnight is filled by Paul Griffiths and his team aboard “Jagerbomb”, who took sixth in the opening race but then picked up to add a pair of third places, leaving them on twelve points overall and three points adrift of “Jolly Jack Tar”.
Day 2:
After the opening day’s cold and grey conditions, the sun made a welcome appearance on the second day. It was joined by a lovely northwesterly breeze that kicked off the day in the high teens with guests up towards 25 knots, and gradually dropped to around 10 to 12 knots for the later races. The sparkling conditions enabled the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Race Committee to run four more windward leeward races making the total number sailed so far seven and bringing the discard into play.
The first race of the day, race four in the series, was the windiest and there were plenty of thrills and spills to entertain the spectators, particularly amongst the notoriously tippy Quarter Tonners. Although several boats did spin out there were no serious incidents and everyone made the most of the stunning conditions. For the most part the fleets were very well behaved on the start line with just a few individual recalls, although the J/109s did blot their copybook in race five by forcing a general recall. Fortunately, the race committee had them turned round again within minutes and they were all clear at the second time of asking.
The
J/111s continued to be dominated by Tony Mack’s “McFly” who faltered
only briefly in race four with a second, but then went on to win three
straight races giving them a six point margin over their nearest rival.
Stuart Sawyer’s “Black Dog” was the boat that got the better of “McFly”
in race four and they went on to add a neatly sequential second, third
and fourth to their card giving them 13 points overall. “Black Dog” now
lies second overall and has a comfortable twelve point cushion, but the
battle for third place is going to be a close one with “Mustigo”, owned
by Scholefield/McDonald/Thomas just a single point ahead of both
“Icarus”, owned by Andrew Christie & Chris Body, and “JElvis”, owned
by Martin Dent, who both count 26 points going into the final day.The J/109 class saw the fiercest battles of the day with three different winners of the four races. By far the most consistent performer with a 1, 3, 1, 2 score was Ian Nagle’s “Jelly Baby” who continues to lead the class and has extended their margin to 13 points. Yesterday’s second place “Jolly Jack Tar”, owned by the Royal Naval Sailing Association, did not find the winder conditions to her liking and dropped down from second to fourth place. Leapfrogging over her was Robert Stiles “Diamond Jem”, who won race five and is now on equal points with Paul Griffith’s “Jagerbomb”, which continues to hold third place on count back. Both boats are counting 21 points and discarding a seventh place. In fact just four points separate second to sixth place in the J/109s with Tony Dickin’s “Jubilee” fifth with 23 points and David Rolfe’s “Shadowfax”, winner of race seven, sixth overall on 25 points. Tomorrow’s final day is going to be an exciting one for the J/109s.
After racing a delighted Robert Stiles of second placed J/109 “Diamond Jem” commented, “It was fantastic sailing today. Good wind and the race officer did terribly well in keeping the races rolling. We’re very glad we got four races in. We’re an all amateur crew of weekend sailors from Brighton Yacht Club and we’ve come up to the Solent for this event that gives great class racing for us. Neil Angel is our tactician and his experience as a past winner of Cowes Week in the 1720s is invaluable. It’s all to play for and as always seconds count and it will no doubt be like that tomorrow. It is the most challenging racing and the whole crew enjoys the sheer excitement that the J/109 class always generates.”
Day 3:
Perfect Solent Conditions For The Finale! When the Solent is on form it truly is one of the world’s great sailing venues and today’s conclusion demonstrated this perfectly.
As forecast, the day opened with light airs and overcast skies so Race Officer Rob Lamb initially held the crews ashore giving them time to enjoy a relaxed Sunday morning coffee. By noon the sun was out, a classic Solent sea breeze was building from the south west and racing was underway for the first of two windward leewards for all classes, races eight and nine of the series.
Tony Mack and his crew aboard J/111 “McFly” were once again on flying form and took a very confident win in race eight to secure the series. They were enjoying the racing so much that they stayed out for race nine and cruised to third place which they promptly discarded as their worst result. Stuart Sawyer’s “Black Dog” secured second place overall by taking third in race eight and second in race nine to finish the series eight points behind “McFly”. The battle for third was a close one with “Mustigo”, owned by the Scholefield/McDonald/Thomas partnership, Andrew Christie and Chris Body’s “Icarus” and Martin Dent’s “JElvis” separated by just a single point going into the final day. “Mustigo” declared her intentions from the off and finished race eight in second place, with “Icarus” fourth and “JElvis” sixth. As they lined up for the final race “Mustigo” now counted 27 points, “Icarus” 30 and “JElvis” 32. “Mustigo” had the bit between her teeth though and stormed to race victory to secure her place on the third step of the J/111 podium.
Asked after racing for the secret of their success Tony Mack, owner of J/111 “McFly” wryly said; “Firstly it was lovely weather, it didn’t rain! Also, I think we just got lots of things right, which in the past we haven’t always. We seemed to get the rig settings right for each race for the sails. Playing the right wind shifts helped and we just got further and further ahead. Jeremy Smart is our tactician and he got us simply brilliant starts in all but one race. I think in fairness to the other competitors we’ve done it where we’ve got everything wrong. I think that’s why everybody goes sailing to hope that they get a weekend like this, one where everything just comes together. Our class rules allow us one professional, who is Jeremy, but everyone else is an amateur. We’re quite a small crew physically, so we can sail with nine people within the weight limit and the crew range from a student, an IBM Executive and a windsurfing instructor to my wife and various friends. We’ve sailed together a lot which I think is half of it and we make sure the boat is one that everyone likes to sail on so they want to come back.”
In
the J/109s Ian Nagle’s “Jelly Baby” put the final stamp on their
already impressive lead by adding a third followed by a win to secure
first place overall. Whilst the victor was a foregone conclusion the
same could not be said of the remaining podium positions with just four
points separating Robert Stiles’ “Diamond Jem”, Paul Griffiths’
“Jagerbomb”, the RNSA’s “Jolly Jack Tar”, Tony Dickin’s “Jubilee” and
David Rolfe’s “Shadowfax” overnight. The tension was palpable as the
boats came to the line and it was nip and tuck from start to finish of
race eight. “Shadowfax” took her second race victory of the series and
was followed across the line by “Jagerbomb”, “Jelly Baby”, “Jubilee”,
“Diamond Jem” and then “Jolly Jack Tar”. A quick recalculation of the
points revealed that “Jagerbomb” now lay second on 23 points,
“Shadowfax” and “Jolly Jack Tar” were both on 26 points and “Jubliee”
and “Diamond Jem” both had 27 points. Right from the final warning flag,
the boats were jockeying for position and there were plenty of places
changing on every leg of the course. At the line, “Shadowfax” crossed
second behind “Jelly Baby”, “Jubilee” was third and “Jagerbomb” fourth.
“Jolly Jack Tar” could only manage an eighth, their worst result of the
series, and “Diamond Jem” was ninth. Overall that meant that
“Jagerbomb” took second place overall by a single point from “Shadowfax”
with “Jubilee” fourth, “Jolly Jack Tar” fifth and “Diamond Jem” sixth.Having travelled all the way from Cork to compete in this year’s Vice Admiral’s Cup regatta was “Jelly Baby’s” owner Ian Nagle. He was “pleasantly surprised” with their success. “We’ve done pretty well in Ireland, we’ve won a couple of ICRA Nationals in 2012 and 2014 and we won the Irish J/109 Nationals last year, but this is our first time out of Ireland. We’ve come from Cork and are staying to do the J-Cup as well. We genuinely didn’t know how we would fare against the English boats. There are no J/109s in Cork so we weren’t sure how we were going to do, but I think after race 3 we felt might be on the pace. We were very happy with the race management. That kind of fast turn around was great, its lovely to race and start again quickly, that’s what its all about really. He [Rob] did a great job as there was so little wind on Friday so to get the three races in that day was magic. We were full of praise for him. After that we’re mad for more!”
After racing the crews gathered at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s delightful Cowes clubhouse for the prize giving where RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine presented the prizes to the luck crews and thanked all the competitors for attending and once again making the Vice Admiral’s Cup a resounding success. He also paid tribute to Rob Lamb and his Race Committee for their sterling work and thanked the club's volunteers and staff for their excellent support. For more Vice Admiral’s Cup sailing information
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