Royal Air Force Yacht Club

First one-design race of 2010 for the J/109s at Warsash Spring Series

By Jeez Louise - (Jamie Arnell) J/109 Class Association

Apparently a third place today entitles me to scribble a race report, but we very nearly lost this duty on the last leg!! The weather was amazing, Spring had sprung and we cracked open the sunscreen.

We had a delayed start whilst the wind settled in direction and strength to 16-18 knots.  Jeez Louise started at the Committee Boat end of the line, and in all honesty I have no idea where everyone else was because we were concentrating on scrubbing the speed we carried into the start line, which was not easy with the strong west running tide.

Our plan was to head to the deep water as quickly as possible and with the assistance of clear breeze we found ourselves in a position to tack quickly and head for the mainland shore. A strategic tack back and we began looking for the lay to the first windward mark. We wondered if J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp) and Shiva (Matthew Boyle) over stood the lay a little as we made our move to the mark and we were very pleased to round in first place, closely followed by newcomers to the fleet, Jynnan Tonnyx (Owain Franks).  Our moment of glory was short lived as a fumbled hoist let J-Dream and Shiva through.  Shiva had the best hoist to lead the fleet back across the Solent.

The tide remained a tricky little customer and the wind was beginning to build with gusts peaking at 20kts.  On the second beat we watched J-Dream overtake Shiva to take the lead, whilst we stayed ahead of the battle for fourth place between Offbeat (David McLeman) and Audajious (David Jobson).  The final beat saw Audajious, Offbeat and Jambhala (Gill Ross/Richard Sainsbury) close the gap requiring us to take a defensive position.

After what we hoped was the last tack for the pin end of the line we had to throw in a final tack to poke our nose over the line a mere five seconds ahead of Audajious, with Offbeat 6 seconds behind them and Jambhala 9 seconds after that.  It says a lot about one design racing when after one hour forty minutes of racing, only 20 seconds separates third to sixth.

Note to self – next week, try harder to finish top two, so do not have to write race report!

Results:

1^st – J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp)

2^nd – Shiva (Matthew Boyle)

3^rd – Jeez Louise (Jamie Arnell)