(Newport, RI)- For the second year in a row, J/Boats hosted the J/121 Spring Tune-up Regatta at Newport Shipyard on the famous Newport Harbor. Five J/121’s participated in the event- David Southwell’s ALCHEMY, Don Nicholson’s APOLLO, Joe Britto’s INCOGNITO, Greg & Jen Manning’s SARAH, and Peter Lewis’ newly-launched WHISTLER from Barbados. Like last year, the North Sails Team provided the highly-talented (and entertaining) duo of Kimo Worthington and Chuck Allen to provide on-the-water coaching, video, and post-race debriefs.
The format was designed to help the J/121 teams better understand tuning, sail trim, sail choices, and boathandling. Each day started off with practice starts. The owners were given a choice of short-course buoy racing or sail the Around Island Race (an 20.0nm circumnavigation of Jamestown/ Conanicut Island that sits in the middle of Narragansett Bay). The teams all voted to sail the Around Island Race for both days to give everyone time to dial-in faster trim, boatspeed techniques, and sail settings.
The weather cooperated both days. Friday dawned with grey leaden skies, light drizzle, and a WSW breeze of 5 to 15 kts. As a result, the teams got around the island in just over three hours.
Saturday’s weather was simply postcard perfect! Sunrise saw cool 55 deg temps, 10-18 kts from the NNW, with brilliant sunshine. By the time the fleet had three practice starts the fleet elected to sail the reverse of day one, heading counter-clockwise around the island, going through the Newport Bridge first, then Jamestown Bridge, starting/ finishing at the green Bell #11- Dumplings Rocks. After a quick restart due to full-moon tides and very strong currents, the fleet took off in the remnants of a dying NNW breeze. What everyone anticipated was the typical scenario, the norwester dying and a quick build of a fresh seabreeze from the SSW. By the time the fleet had rounded the top of the island under spinnakers, the wind shifted in literally minutes from NNE to SSW blowing 10-14 kts…the new breeze filled in extremely fast, making for a spectacular sail through Jamestown Bridge, past Dutch Island, and around Beavertail Lighthouse and point, popping kites again for a quick spinnaker run past Castle Hill to the finish between Fort Adams and Dumpling Rocks bell.
Each race was filled with its own set of tactical and boathandling challenges in the 20.0nm course; they served as a good warm-up for the rest of the season as it was interesting to observe decisions being made on board for sail selection, wind angles, sail trim and so forth. Commented Kimo Worthington, “the Round Island race format worked out great! It gave us time to follow each boat, get sail trim photos, take videos, and comment on how to improve their go-fast settings. What was cool is that it's the one time in the season the owners and crew can share what they learn on the water and get feedback and pictures from the North Sails team. It was a very productive and informative event!”
The event chairman, Jeff Johnstone from J/Boats commented, "The J/121 Spring Tune-up was a great chance for J/121 owners to get together and shake out the early season cobwebs before heading off to conquer this year's bucket list of offshore sailing events; such as the FIGAWI Race, Storm Trysail Block Island Race, Bermuda 1-2, Block Island Race Week and New York Yacht Club's 175th Anniversary. Thanks again to everyone for helping making the second annual J/121 Spring Tune-Up a success! Thank You to Veronica Brown and the Newport Shipyard team for a fantastic home base. And, kudos to Kimo and Chuck for two days of informative coaching and videos.” We're pleased to share this Dropbox link from photos/ videos taken on Friday and Saturday. To learn more about the J/121 offshore speedster Add to Flipboard Magazine.
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