J/80 Open National Championship – Day 1 – Superb start

by Louay Habib on 17 Jun 2017 Hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club, in conjunction with the UK J/80 Class Association, 21 teams enjoyed two races on the first day.

An average wind speed of 14 knots, and subtle wind shifts, produced conditions with the potential for big gains, from reading the breeze and getting the boat on the plane. Kevin Sproul and Jonathan Powell, both from Warsash SC, shared a win each today. Kevin Sproul is top of the leaderboard by a single point. Nick Haigh representing the Royal western YC, scored a 5-2, to finish the day in third just a point ahead of Royal Southern member, Chris Body in fourth.

Nick Haigh paid tribute to the team's kite sheet trimmer, Annie Haigh. “Today we had reasonable starts and we had similar speed to the top guys. We have really good speed downwind, Annie did a great job calling the breeze today. We have spent a lot of time on the boat already this season, and that is important. We very nearly won the second race but Kevin Sproul put in a great last leg to finish a boat length in front of us. We have thoroughly enjoyed today, it is great to race in a big fleet of J/80s.”

Chris Body was racing with Kiwi, Dave Swete, the match race world champion and Volvo Ocean Race sailor who commented after racing. “Today it was fantastic to race in a beautiful Solent; a nice breeze and plenty of sunshine. In the first race, we got a bad start but sailed through the fleet to get a third, which was a good come back. In the second race, we were first to the top mark, and then took the wrong route downwind. There is a good level of competition at the regatta, it is a great starting point for all the teams to build up to the worlds at the Royal Southern next month.”

Four windward leeward races are scheduled for Day Two, Saturday 17 June, with a target time of 60 minutes for each race. Weather forecasts are promising the warmest weekend of the year so far, with sea breeze conditions likely to develop.