As predicted in Afloat's online reader poll Howth Yacht Storm (Pat Kelly) has lifted the Irish Cruiser Racer Association's Boat of the Year award at this afternoon's ICRA conference in Dun Laoghaire.

Among other wins, the J109 design counted five firsts in an impressive vistory in class one IRC at this year's ICRA Nationals held in Crosshaven.

Boat of the Year Storm in winning style. Photo: Bob Bateman

 

 

 

# DBSC TURKEY SHOOT – Two J109s shared the top slots in the first race of last Sunday's Dublin Bay Sailing Club Turkey Shoot, sponsored this year by Boatshed.com. National Yacht Club Commodore Paul Barrington's Jalapeno beat John Maybury's Joker II by over two minutes for the gun.

There was an impressive fleet of 57 starters who sailed in breeze, a bit of a sea and sunshine! Third was the A34 Another Advenure (Daragh Cafferkey).

Organiser Fintan Cairns has issued a reminder to compeititors to give 'plenty of room and time at all times' for next Sunday's race.

First Race Results below.

1 Jalapeno
2 Joker 2
3 Another Adventure
4 Adrenalin
5 Jump the Gun
6 Indecision
7 Jetstream
8 Jura
9 Fflogger
10 African Challenge
11 Orna
12 Windshift
13= Violet Flame
13= Karukera
15 Pippa IV
16 UCD Sailing
17 Axiom
18 Asterix
19 Pink Ladies
20 Miss Behavin
21 Kamikaze
22= Lula Belle
22= Fiddly Bits
24 Peridot
25 Diamond
26 Yoke
27 Adelie
28 Calypso
29 Legally Blonde
30 Cri-Cri
31 White Knight
32 Chouskikou
33 Act Two
34 To Infinity and Beyond
35 White Lotus
36 30 Something
37 The Great Escape
38 Hyflyer
39 RIYC 1
40 Free Spirit
41 Arwen
42 Annabella
43 Syzrgy
44 Yahtzee
45 Xerxes
46 Sea Safari
47 Guillemot
48 Crookhaven
49 Eden Park
50 Just Jasmin
51 Obsession
52 Muglins
53 Emir Herr
54 Phtha
55 More Mischief
56 Lazy Bones
57 Blue Spirit
Sirocco
Nirvana
Jammie Dodger
Zephyr
Great Knots
Nauti Gal
Rubicon
Teal
Frutti Di Mare
Vespucci
Two Fried Eggs
Lara
Coumeenole
Elandra
Attitude
Jabiru
Lady Rowena
Isolde

The Port of Dartmouth Royal Regatta is based around a programme of rowing and sailing events, but also incorporates a busy programme of activities including air displays, fireworks, a large fair, and many other smaller events that happen in and around the town centre. With nearly 100,000 people visiting Dartmouth during the Regatta period it makes Dartmouth Regatta one of the largest public events in the South West, and the second largest Regatta after Cowes Week.

With racing scheduled to take place from the 24-28 August over a mixture of windward/leeward, round the cans and a passage race to test both the boat handling skills and endurance of the crews. Dartmouth is ideally placed to attract J/109s from around the UK and Ireland in addition to the Channel Islands and France. The J/109 is the largest one-design yacht racing fleet in the UK and Ireland with 30-40 boats regularly racing at Cowes Week, the J/109 UK National Championships and the Irish National Championships in addition to strong international one-design fleets. Coupled with the active social programme, this is the ideal venue for the J/109 Euro Championship.

The J/109 built by J Boats features the popular carbon fibre retractable bowsprit and asymmetric spinnaker system and at 36 ft she carries a generous sail plan which results in a stable, proven performance yacht.

Competitors at the 2011 Euro Championship include former National Champion Velvet Elvis (Adam & Helen Wright) who are fresh from their success at Cowes Week, twice National Champions and former Euro Champion J-Dream (David & Kirsty Apthorp) and the current Euro Champion BlueJay (Greg Burgess) who are keen to defend their title. There are a couple of new boats to the fleet including Jason Romer from the Channel Islands who has chartered Levante and Kevin Taylor & Chris Copeland in JukeBox, but on Friday all eyes will be on the J/109 chartered by JP Morgan as they will have Ben Ainslie CBE onboard.

Ben Ainslie is Britain's most successful Olympic sailor; in total he has won three gold medals and one silver. Ben's sailing achievements are unprecedented not only is he a triple Olympic gold medallist, he is also a nine times World champion, eight times European Champion and three times ISAF world sailor of the year.

Ben has raced on another J Boat, the J/105 at the Allianz Cup in San Francisco back in 2006 when he had his first win on the match racing tour. He is currently the 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Champion. Even if the sun does not shine on Dartmouth this Bank Holiday Weekend the competition will be hot!

Joker was the winner of the Royal Alfred's J109 Baily Bowl prize and White Mischief was the Sigma 33 winner following a one day event on Dublin bay at the weekend. The regatta featured a merger of results with Dublin Bay Sailing Club.

There were two windward leeward races on Saturday morning staged for a fleet of seven J109s and six Sigma 33s. Results from Saturday afternoon's regular DBSC racing were then added to the score tally. The full results are: Sigma 33: 1. White Mischief (Tim Goodbody) 2. Rupert Dick Lovegrove 3. Alandra. (John Molloy) J109: 1. Joker (John Maybury) 2. Storm. (P. Dillon) 3. Jalapeno (Dermod Baker).

The second part of the Baily Bowl one design competition will be held next weekend for Dragons, Flying fifteens, Squibs and SB3s, although that sportsboat class says it has not had much local take up for the event to date.

Up to 40 yachts form the backbone of the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association fleet (ISORA).  Although the 2011 entry list (below) shows a large number of Beneteau models it also reveals a wide range of other marques, largely between 30 and 50 foot. Prominent types are J109s, Sigma 33s and a number of Jeanneau yachts too.

ISORA 2011 Racing Fleet

Boat Name	Sail no	Hull / Mast Col	Model
Lancastrian	GBR7682T	White	Starlight
Yahtzee	IRL 1068	White/Gold	Oceanis 41
Rebellion	IRL 6001	Blue/Silver	Nicholson 58
Miss Scarlett	IRL 4763	White/Gray	Sunfast 40.3
Orna	IRL532	Blue	40C
Mistral of St Helier	K8337	White	3800D
Poppy	GBR4183	Red/White	Contention 33
Dinah	IRL 3508	White/Aluminium	Jeanneau
Raging Bull	IRL 9666	White/Silver	Sigma 400
Tsunami	IRL 4007	Grey/Silver	First 40.7
GFT Adventurer	GBR 23161	White/Silver	First 45
Jedi	IRL 8088		J109
English Mick	GRB 4771R	Blue/Silver	First 47.7
Galileo	IRL1944	Blue	First 47.7
Lula Belle	IRL3607	White	Beneteau 36.7
Finnigans Wake	IRL2008	White	37B
Obsession	IRL 4513	White/Aluminium	Sigma 3300
Katanca	IRL 31310	White/Aluminium	Elan 31
Just Enough	GBR6912T		J92
Big Hillie Style	IRL 3208	White	Sun Fast 3200
Adelie	FRA 9631	White/Black	First 34.7
Mojito	IS 36L	White/Aluminium	Bavaria
Calypso	IRL 5643	White/Silver	Oceanis E51
Legally Blonde	IRL 3175	Grey/Aluminium	Beneteau
GWAWR	GRB 8330	White/Aluminium	Sigma
First of September	IRL 8581	White/Silver	First 435
Rollercoaster	IRL 9109	White/Aluminium	J109
Quite Correct	IRL 5405	White/White	Jeanneau D5 54
Sarnia	IRL 2260	White/Gold	36
Sailing West Intuition	GBR 9383R	Blue/Aluminium	Reflex 38
Sailing West One Life	GBR 3708R	White/Silver	Sunfast 37
Temper Tantrum	6909T	White	40
Wennol 3	GBR1347R	White/Black	First 34.7
African Challenge	IRL 2649	White/Silver	Fast
Windshift	IRL37737	White/Aluminium	Sunfast 37
Oystercatcher	IRL 1177	White/ Silver	Gib'sea 37
Aztec 3	IRL29832	White/Silver	A35

 

Ian Matthews and his family team on board the J/122 Jinja dominated IRC 1 on the opening day with three straight wins, and achievement that earned Jinja the North sails Boat of the Day prize. Herman Bergshaven’s J/133 Solnes III, visiting the UK from Spain, had a great day, especially considering that the first time he had met most of his guest crew was at the preparatory signal for the first race. He sits in second place at the end of Day One and David Hunt’s J/122 Jacobs Ladder is currently lying third.

 

Eighteen J/80s are racing at the J-Cup 2010 and the fleet includes a number of new owners as well as two boats which are racing for the charity Toe In The Water. Steve Mittler’s young Team Baltic from Devon lead this one-design class with John Cooper’s Oi! just a point behind. Gordon Craigen, who took delivery of his J/80 Swallow just two weeks ago, is in third place. Team Baltic was named as the North Sails Boat of the Day but other notable results here include those of Brian Moreton who is racing the J/80 Juicy for the first time at this event. He is currently lying in an extremely creditable fourth place. Brian is more usually seen towards the front of the J/109 fleet in Juke Box.

 

North Sails Boat of the Day in IRC 2 is the J/97 Jika Jika, owned and raced by Mike and Jamie Holmes. Three wins yesterday for this team places them firmly at the top of the rankings at the end of Day One. Grant and Brigitte Gordon are in second place in their J/97 Fever Jr. This a great start for Fever Jr. especially when you consider that the J-Cup 2010 is her first regatta! In third is Mike Flood in his J/97 Indulgence, another brand new boat delivered just a few weeks ago. These J/97 guys clearly hit the water running and it will be interesting to see how each improves, race by race, over the next two days of the regatta.

 

Some of the closest ‘snakes and ladders’ racing yesterday took place in the J/105 Class with three different boats each winning a race. Rob Dornton-Duff’s Java took the bullet in Race One, the honours went to Richard Watney’s Jeopardy in Race Two and Race Three was won by William Newton and his crew on Jelly Baby. A 2,2,1 scoreline places Jelly Baby in pole position for the J/105 Class at the end of Day One and Jelly Baby was also selected as the North Sails Boat of the Day. Java lies second at the current time with Jeopardy in third place.

 

The fiercely competitive J/109 UK National Championship fleet were racing yesterday under the watchful gaze of a jury boat for the first time. The new J/109 Class Chairman, Adam Wright’s crew on board Velvet Elvis are right on the pace at the moment and three clear wins yesterday place them firmly at the top of the scoreboard. It also earned them the North Sails Boat of the Day prize. David and Kirsty Apthorp, who currently hold the J/109 UK National Championship title with their crew from J-Dream are second after the first day, David McLeman’s Offbeat is currently third overall, Stephen Tapper is fourth in Stalker and Matt Boyle’s Shiva is fifth as we go to press. The Race Committee for the J/109 fleet reported ‘the closest photo finish ever seen’ for Race Three, between Velvet Elvis and David Aisher’s Yeoman of Wight. We love that!

 

Three races are scheduled for Friday and conditions are forecast to be similar to the opening day, with sun and wind and hot competition throughout. If the J-Cup fleet didn’t quite manage to quench their thirst at the Universal Marina Opening Party after racing on Thursday, they can relax safe in the knowledge that they will return to shore later today to be entertained at the B&G ‘Dark & Stormy’ Party. Yippee!