JAMMIN' skates to J/80 Hong Kong Championship
by J/Boats 8 Mar 21:46 EST
J/80 Hong Kong Championship 2025 © jboats.com
This year's J/80 Hong Kong Championship brought a solid turnout of 18 boats, amongst them Hong Kong Olympians Nicholas Halliday & Stephanie Norton, guided by a crewmate and 2016 HK J/80 Champion, Jacqueline Truhol.
Defending champions, JAMMIN' (Frederic Azemard), were present in full force with a team strengthened by their experience of competing in the 2024 J/80 World Championships last summer.
Among a regenerated fleet of newer J/80 owners, were JAHOO (Frank van Kempen / David Salembier) and long-term stalwart of the J/80 class TIGRINA (Andrew Moore), with both boats regularly on the podium of the annual class championships. In fact, Frank and David's JAHOO finished either 2nd or 3rd at the past four Hong Kong J/80 Championships! Would this finally be the year for JAHOO to take the title?
Day 1
The first day brought a beautiful 8-10kt North East breeze, perfect for racing off the east coast of Lamma Island. It was JAHOO again, consistent as ever, taking the first bullet of the regatta, followed by MOZZIE (Clement Brunet Moret). From here, JAMMIN' took over the proceedings for the following two races, with JAHOO getting a race win back for Race 4 before JAMMIN' stepped back in to take the checkered flag for the final race of day 1.
This left the overnight standings with JAMMIN' in a dominant position on 6 pts, from JAHOO in 2nd on 9 pts, closely followed by MOZZIE on 10 pts. Chasing the podium was the main peloton led by TIGRINA on 19 pts, with the chasing group tightly packed, with 8th place JENA PABE (Nicholas Halliday) on 24 pts.
The decision for the race committee to run 5 races on Day 1 had proved itself to be a smart decision, with Sunday bringing lighter winds for Day 2. All involved with running the races did a fantastic job at managing more testing wind conditions to complete the extra 3 races required for the full series of 8 races.
Day 2
With the wind forecast to be from the south the sailors did not know what to expect, as this is a very atypical wind direction for Hong Kong winter time. The wind eventually filled in from the usual northeast quadrant with up to 8 knots, though brought with it lots of fog, adding a further challenge to all competitors and organizers.
JAMMIN' was untouchable for the first two races of Sunday, ensuring they extended their overnight series lead sufficiently to claim the championship with a race to spare! JAHOO scored a 2-3-1 on the 2nd day to solidify a convincing silver place. MOZZIE completed the podium with two more top 3s scored on the final day.
In the middle of the fleet was an unusual 3-way tie with 3 boats all finishing with a score of 57 pts!! A tie-break was used to settle the scores between 8th and 10th place with JELIGNITE (Pierre Regnault) coming out on top due to achieving better best races than the other two boats, scoring a 4th and a 5th place within the series.
Congratulations to Frederic Azemard and his JAMMIN team, who deservedly retained their Hong Kong J/80 title, demonstrating their commitment to competing at the World Championships was a great investment in the development of their racing experience.
A huge "Thank You" to those involved with organizing the annual J/80 Class Championships; all volunteers for running the races and setting the course, the class committee for their planning and ongoing time invested in the class & the team in the RHKYC sailing office for making everything happen in terms of logistics. Everyone involved made the weekend run smoothly, ensuring an enjoyable and fair regatta for everyone - thank you!
J/80 Hong Kong Championship sailing information