TEAM RAFB SPITFIRE Takes J/70 Short Series(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week started off the week with near Mediterranean-like weather conditions, a bit of sun, nice breeze and sublimely cool weather. St Tropez beach-goers would not have felt out of place when shorts, shades and flip-flops were the order of the day over the Saturday/ Sunday weekend along the Parade on Cowes historic waterfront. Enjoying the gorgeous start to the week were Louise Makin & Chris Jones’ J/111 JOURNEYMAKER II, winning the J/111 EuroCup and also Simon Ling’s J/70 TEAM RAFB SPITFIRE taking the J/70 Short Series.
The opening day on Saturday was bathed in unbroken sunshine, with a fickle breeze that saw racing postponed for two hours. Shortly after 1100 the first signs of a fitful east-south-easterly appeared off Cowes, but the big question was how long it would take to become established as a consistent sea breeze. With few signs of thermal clouds building over the mainland there was still a chance of a long wait and the Cowes coffee shops enjoyed a brisk trade as competitors took advantage of the opportunity to relax in the warm sun. Shortly after midday, once the east-south-easterly breeze in the mid-Solent had built to 8-9 knots, race officials got the start sequences under way. It made for a crazy day of racing since the classic seabreeze on the Solent, the WSW’er fought the ESE in the Western Solent late in the day, with the WSW’er winning along the Cowes waterfront and the Royal Yacht Squadron finish line. For the IRC 1 Class and the J/111s sailing their EuroCup, it was a case of the “haves” and “have nots”— those who either stayed along the Isle of Wight south shore for the third leg or those who chased the old ESE into the middle of the Solent against adverse tide. In the end, Cornell Riklin’s JITTERBUG crew stuck along the shore and led the fleet home, followed in 2nd by BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER skippered by Brian Thompson and in 3rd by Louise Makin & Chris Jones’ JOURNEYMAKER II.
The second day on Sunday delivered perfect conditions, with bright sun and decent winds. A west-south westerly breeze built gradually through the day to give gusts approaching 20 knots by early afternoon. With 30-degree wind shifts at times, accompanied by big gusts and lulls, there was plenty to challenge competitors. For competitors in the early starts on the two fixed lines a strong west-going tide made it imperative not to start early. This was accentuated for White Group day boats starting on the Royal Yacht Squadron line, as the outer distance mark, Aberdeen Alpha, was two boat lengths on the course side of the line.
Within the J/111 class, it was Martin Dent’s crew on JELVIS that sailed a brilliant race and won by a good margin over Tony Mack’s McFLY and the Makin/Jones duo JOURNEYMAKER II. As a result, JELVIS held a slim one point lead over JOURNEYMAKER II and just two points over the fast-pairing of BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER and JITTERBUG.
In White Group, the J/70 fleet is one of the fastest growing classes at the regatta, with entries up more than 300 per cent over the past two years. The 27-strong fleet made a clean start in their first race today, which proved to be a closely-fought battle in which the first eight boats finished within 69 seconds. David McLeman’s OFFBEAT took the winner’s gun 10 seconds ahead of Charlie Esse’s DARWIN PROPERTY INVESTMENT. Third place went to Ben Gratton’s team of youth sailors on ROYAL THAMES 1.
The J/70s’ second race today was started from a committee boat line, with windward-leeward legs before finishing on the Shrape finish line off East Cowes. This time Esse pulled out a three-minute lead on the fleet to take a convincing win ahead of Simon Ling’s TEAM RAFB SPITFIRE. Young sailor Jack Davies on JUGADOR took third. “In the second race we got a big left-hand lift at the start, were in the front row and were the first boat to tack out,” says Esse. “Then it was against us and Spitfire all the way up the first beat. They overtook us at the windward mark, but we pulled ahead on the run, sailing a little bit lower and faster by sailing the boat flat – we just pulled away from there really. We all enjoyed it, it was a fantastic day on the water and as always the team worked exceptionally well.”
After two brilliantly sunny days, Monday morning saw increasing cloud over the Solent, accompanied by a band of rain that provided competitors with interesting and challenging wind shifts. While Black Group yachts in the Western Solent saw winds of up to 17 knots, the smaller White Group day boats that were competing in the eastern Solent had generally lighter winds, including some big lulls.
The J/70 fleet had incredibly tight racing for the last two races of the Short Series. In the end, J/70 Class Short Series winners are Simon Ling’s TEAM RAFB SPITFIRE, posting a 7-3-7-2-1-1 to close out the series with 14 pts net. Standing three points back after initially leading the series was Charlie Esses’s DARWIN PROPERTY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT with a record of 8-1-2-1-6-7 for 17 pts net. Taking third was RULE ONE’s skipper John Greenland with a tally of 12-2-9-6-5-2 for 24 pts net. Rounding out the top five was J Goodwin & J Calascione’s HARLEQUIN and Andrew Creighton & James Davies’ J-STAR, in 4th and 5th, respectively.
On the Black Group start for IRC 1/ J/111s, it was a repeat of the J/70s previous day’s scenario- a westbound current of 3.0 kts pushing the fleet over the line as boats lined up to sail upwind to their first weather mark nearly 7.0nm into the western Solent. Remarkably, the fleet started clean and the race was on for the very tightly-packed J/111 fleet. The J/111 sailors experienced all manner of windshifts, foul current and inter-class incidents that helped and hindered others (e.g. crossing/ mark-rounding situations with a Swan 65 DESPERADO from the old Whitbread Race??). In the end Tony & Sally Mack’s McFLY won the race, followed by Makin/Jones’ JOURNEYMAKER II and the late, but fast-closing, BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER in third.
As a result, the J/111 EuroCup was won by the same duo that took the remarkably tough endurance contest, the “Three Peaks Race” in 2008 in their J/105 by the same name- Makin/ Jones on JOURNEYMAKER II. There’s was a story of consistency, tenaciousness, and the ability to make lemonade out of lemons when the timing was right. Making the most out of similar situations was the BRITISH SOLDIER/ TOE IN THE WATER team skippered by the famous UK offshore sailor Brian Thompson (also a J/24 UK champion back in the day). For most UK sailors, Brian needs no introduction, having won the Trans-Atlantic Race recently on the MOD 70 PHAEDO and numerous other offshore races far too long to enumerate here. Their 2nd place with a 2-5-3 record was well-deserved. Past Solent J/111 champion Tony & Sally Mack on TEAM McFLY took third with an 8-2-1 record on a three-way tie for the bronze! After convincingly winning the first race, JITTERBUG skippered by Cornel Riklin, fought back hard to stay in contention to also end up with 11 pts, but having to settle for 4th on the tie-break. Likewise, Martin Dent’s JELVIS may have to be the winners of the “heartbreaker” award; for having been nearly in the lead on the first leg of the first race, a string of unfortunate circumstances saw them fade from contention into a 6th place and take 5th for the series. For more AAM Cowes Week sailing information
|
