J-Cup 2009 at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Overall
by Becci Eplett 26 Aug 2009 04:41 PDT
20-22 August 2009
After two days and six races in big breeze, the final two races of the 2009 J-Cup, sponsored by Dubarry of Ireland, B&G and North Sails, were hotly fought on Saturday. Most of the 63 boats racing at the event, which was hosted by the Royal Torbay Yacht Club, seemed to enjoy the benign but shifty 8 to 12 knots from the South to South East.
In IRC1, John and Jill Patterson’s J/122 Panacea had a four point lead over Ian Matthew’s J/122 Jinja going in to the final two races. A strong position for sure, and Panacea had not had a single result outside of the top three at this stage in proceedings. Jackie Dobson’s Jeronimo, was pushing hard to improve on her (overnight) third place in class. In Race 7, the first of the day, Panacea once again showed the fleet her transom from the start, with David Hunt’s J/122, Jacobs Ladder, pulling in a second, their best result of the series. Jinja settled for third. In the final race, Panacea punched in another win, Jeronimo sailed a great race and finished second, and Jinja took third. Overall then, in IRC1, Panacea took the top slot with Jinja second and Jeronimo third. Jacob’s Ladder was selected as the North Sails Boat of the Day in IRC1.
Colin Wall’s J/97 True Love had won all six of the races sailed going in to the final two of the series in IRC2, and so a safe consolidation was all that was required here for a class win. The major fight would be between Andy Robert’s J/92 S Just in Time and Bill Howard’s J/92 Wizard. In fact, True Love went on to close her perfect scoreline with two more race wins, but Wizard fished second in Race 7, her best result of the series, and Just in Time took third. In Race 8, Just in Time followed True Love over the line, with Andy and Annie Howe’s J/92 S Black Jack in third place; a fabulous result for this pair, their best of the series and a sign of great things to come I’m sure. So True Love won the class with Just in Time taking the runner-up slot and Wizard finished in a well deserved third. Wizard was also presented with the North Sails Boat of the Day prize for IRC2.
Just three points separated the top three J/80s going in to the final day; they had lost one race of their series due to the 35 knot breeze on the first day and so the discard had not yet been applied. Peter Wanstall’s Jasmine led on 11 points, with Jeremy Round-Smith’s Jezebel in second on 12 points, and Andrew Ashworth’s team on Jammy Dodger were in third place on 14 points. As it turned out, James Dewing won the first race of the morning, in Jack in a Box, squeezing Jammy Dodger in to second place and Jasmine in to third. The final race of the series saw Jammy Dodger cross the line first, followed by Jezebel and then Jack in a Box. The class win therefore went to Jammy Dodger with 10 points (now that the discard had kicked in), with Jasmine on 14 points in second place and Jezebel in third on count-back, also having accrued only 14 points throughout the J/80 series. Jezebel was the winner of the North Sails Boat of the Day for the J/80 Class.
In the J/105 Class, going in to Race 7, Rob Dornton-Duff’s Java was leading the class on 8 points with William Newton’s Jelly Baby in second on 12 points and Chris Jones’ Journeymaker 5 third on 16 points. Whilst Java was able to keep her hold on the class with a third in race 7 and yet another bullet in Race 8, the other top slots were set for change. Richard Watney’s Jeopardy scored a 1, 2 scoreline on Saturday morning; their first race win of the series, and enough to push them up in to second place overall. Journeymaker 5 scored a second and a third. So at the end of eight races, the Class win went to Java, Jeopardy had fought through in to second place and Jelly Baby and Journeymaker 5 were tied on 22 points, with Jelly Baby just clinching it, having had a race win earlier in the series. Jeopardy’s race win secured her the North Sails Boat of the Day prize for the J/105 Class.
The J/109s were racing for the 2009 J/109 UK National Championship at the J-Cup and so the competition between the 29 boats racing one-design here was especially fierce. At the end of Friday, and after six races of the J/109 series, Kirsty and David Apthorp’s J Dream led the fleet on 15 points, by just two points from Brian Moreton’s Juke Box in second on 17 points whilst Ben Richards and Michael Ewart-Smith’s Zelda was in third place on 21 points. Matt Boyle’s Shiva won Race 7, the first of the two races sailed on Saturday morning, J Dream took second place and Zelda finished third. Juke Box had a tricky race and had to settle for a ninth place.
This meant that it was all down to the wire in Race 8, the final race of the series. Clearly the class was bestowed with much eagerness to get going, and no doubt a healthy spattering of nerves to boot; a black flag start was the result. Zelda took up the hunt for J Dream, whom they would have to sail down the fleet in order to win the regatta. Unfortunately, Zelda’s focus on J Dream in the pre-start resulted in a black flag OCS for Zelda and a stalled start for the J Dreamers. Neil MacLachlan’s Jai Ho led off the line, but were later to lose their grip on the pole position to David McGough’s Just So, who scored here first race win of the series. Steven Tapper’s Stalker followed them across the line in third place and Juke Box bounced back with a fourth. J Dream, meanwhile had a shocker and only mustered an 11th after their slow start…
After much counting and phoning and haranguing of the Race Committee for the results, the nail-biting finale to the 2009 J/109 UK National Championship saw Kirsty and David Apthorp crowned with the title on 28 points whilst Brian Moreton and his team on Juke Box were forced to settle for the runner-up slot. Zelda finished in third place overall, David Richards and Jumping Jellyfish were fourth and the incumbent National Champions, Bruce Jubb and Jeff Dakin were fifth on Johnny Blue II. Richard Sainsbury and Gill Ross, racing on Jambhala, were selected as the North Sails Boat of the Day for their two best race results at their first ever J-Cup.
With all competitors ashore by 14.00 (and with the J-Cup beer tent well and truly open) it was both impressive (and a little suprising!) that 470 competitors turned out in their eclectic assortment of glad rags, kilts, Dubarry Boots, pirate hats and other finery for the Gala Dinner and Prize-Giving Party which took place on Saturday evening.
Silverware and prizes donated by the numerous generous prize sponsors of the J-Cup were presented to the podium finishers in each class racing at the event, in addition to several special awards.
B&G have sponsored the J-Cup as a principal sponsor for a number of years now and their generosity continues; for IRC1, some extremely valuable Deckman software went to the winner, John Patterson, and the new J/109 UK National Champions Kirsty and David Apthorp and the crew on J-Dream were given B&G branded Henri Lloyd gilets. B&G affiliate, Lowrance, now produce a combined VHF and GPS (complete with MOB alarm transmitter). This fabulous bit of brand new kit was presented to the bowman of the J/105 Jeopardy, who had taken an unscheduled swim earlier in the regatta.
Dubarry of Ireland also has a long established and extremely valuable sponsorship relationship with the J-Cup and two trophies, fashioned in bronze to represent the iconic Dubarry Ultima Boot, are presented each year, along with numerous valuable product prizes from the Dubarry range.
The Dubarry Boot for Endurance was presented to Mike and Sarah Wallis and their team from the J/109 Jahmali. This husband and wife partnership have been sailing, racing and competing in assorted J Boats for several years and have had more than their fair share of podium finishes and regatta wins during this time. Rarely seeing the inside of a protest room, and a joy both to sail with and against, Mike and Sarah are the personification of the spirit of sportsmanship which both Dubarry of Ireland and J-UK strive to promote at this regatta and the other events at which J Boats compete.
The Dubarry Boot for Outstanding Achievement was presented this year to Brian Moreton and his crew on the J/109 Juke Box. Juke Box is based away from the largest concentration of racing J/109s, in North Wales and whilst Brian and his team have raced in a number of J/109 one-design events, they do not get to line up against the competition week in, week out, as many of the Solent boats do. To come all the way to Torbay for the J-Cup and to race against 28 other J/109s in this extraordinarily competitive one-design fleet and then to miss the National Championship title by just one point, is surely a truly outstanding achievement and worthy of a trophy donated in that name.
The Elvstrom Trophy for the best newcomer to the J-Cup was presented to Andrew Ashworth and his team on the J/80 Jammy Dodger. Andrew is by his own definition, relatively new to sportsboat sailing, and this class win at his first J-Cup tops off a very fine season for Jammy Dodger.
The Musketeer Trophy is a double champagne bucket and is presented to the lowest scoring two boat team (comprising one J/109 and then a second boat from another class) at the event. This year, the bucket and the bubbles were awarded David Richards (J/109 Jumping Jellyfish) and Colin Wall (J/97 True Love).
And finally… the coveted J-Cup is the trophy form which this regatta, now in its tenth year, takes its name. It has been presented for many different reasons over the years and more often than not, there is a subjective approach to nominating a winner. This year however, there was not really much room for debate amongst the selection committee. Colin Wall is a stalwart of the J-Cup and has raced at the event in a variety of different J Boat models which have included the J/100, the J/105 and the J/92. Colin has won his class at the J-Cup before but he has never been presented with the J-Cup Trophy. This year, after achieving a perfect 8 out of 8 scoreline, and in recognition of his commitment to the J-Cup cause, Colin Wall and his crew on board the J/97 True Love, were deservedly presented with the J-Cup Trophy.
The role call of people to thank in relation to the J-Cup grows each year. It really is an astonishing credit to all of those involved. In the first instance, and on behalf of J-UK, it is the competitors at the event that deserve the biggest shout out. Without you, it clearly wouldn’t happen, and every year we are both delighted and impressed by your will to compete and the spirit in which you do so. Thanks to all of you.
We first took the J-Cup to the Royal Torbay Yacht Club in 2005 and at that time, the fleet was less than half the size of the one which descended on the Club last week. Many of the 2005 team came back with renewed energy, vigour and enthusiasm to work with us again to put the 2009 J-Cup together and all involved worked tirelessly to ensure that the event was one of the best J-Cups to date. This is impressive enough as it stands, but when one considers that each and every one of the organisers, race officials, administrators, rib drivers, mark layers and protest committee were volunteering for the task (and the mighty workload) then one cannot failed to be incredibly impressed. Superb race management coupled with clockwork efficiency shoreside; will we go back to the RTYC? You bet we will.
Finally, J-UK would specifically like to express enormous gratitude to the three principal regatta sponsors; B&G, Dubarry of Ireland and North Sails. All three of these companies have been involved with the J-Cup for several years, during which time the event has grown and developed to its current size and status.
In addition to the above, J-UK would like to thank the following prize sponsors:
Elvstrom Sails
Frontline Image
Grapefruit Graphics
Harken
Hyde Sails
Pigbags
Quantum Sails