Local J24 ace JP McCaldin, sailing Jamais Encore had a clean sweep on the first day of the J24 Northerns in Lough Erne and the no wind conditions on Sunday meant no more races were sailed.

While some boats challenged JP in the different races in the 15 knots that prevailed on Saturday his consistency left little scope for anyone to gain a sufficient advantage.

The next J24 Championship will be in Lough Ree on June 22nd.

1st Jamais Encore J24 5278 LEYC JP McCaldin 1 1 1 1 4 4
2nd Stouche J24 4215 Howth Martin Darrer 2 2 4 4 12 12
3rd Hard On Port J24 4794 Howth Flor O'Driscoll 4 4 2 5 15 15
4th Kilcullen J24 680 Howth Cillian Dickson 3 3 10.0 DSQ 2 18 18
5th JET J24 418 Lough Swilley John Hasson 10.0 DNS 6 3 3 22 22
6th Jelignite J24 4218 Lough Ree Finbarr Ryan 5 5 5 10.0 DSQ 25 25
7th Juvenesence J24 144 LEYC Brendan Gallagher 8 7 6 6 27 27
8th Jeratrix J24 24 LEYC Michael Clarke 6 8 7 8 29 29
9th T J J24 4155 LEYC Barry Humphreys 7 9 8 7 31 31

J24 Event Calendar 2013

• Eastern Champs.--Malahide --- 4th./5th. May

• Northern Champs.--Lough Erne— 1st./2nd June

• Western Champs. –Lough Ree—22nd/23rd. June

• U.K. Nationals---4th. to 7th. July

• Dun Laoghaire Regatta—11th. to 14th.July

• Irish National Champs.—Howth--17th./18th. August

• World Championship—Howth--22nd.to 30th. August

#j24 – Robin Eagleson of Lough Erne Yacht Club was elected World President of the International J/24 Class Association at the World Council Meeting held recently in Howth. His election represents a considerable honour for Ireland and Irish sailing, as the J/24 - the World's largest keelboat class - normally elects its President from its North American fleets.

Outgoing President, Jim Farmer of the USA, stated that "It was the culmination of many years of dedicated work on the World Council by Robin, which began back in 2000 in Amsterdam". Farmer further stated that "Robin's persistence, diligence and superb communications skills enabled him to make major contribution to the International J/24 Class over the years and these skills would stand him well in his presidency".

Robin had been largely instrumental in bring the BMW J/24 European Championships to Howth in 2011 and the World Championships – also sponsored by BMW - are coming to Howth in August 2013 when it is expected that circa 60 J/24s will attend, representing USA, Canada, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Australia Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, Greece, Hungary, Holland, UK & Ireland.

#j24 – BMW Ireland has been confirmed as the title sponsor of the J/24 World Championship at Howth Yacht Club in late August 2013 when up to sixty boats from thirteen countries are expected to compete.

One of the major regattas on the Irish sailing calendar for next year, the BMW J/24 Worlds has already attracted interest from J/24 sailors in the USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, France, Japan, Monaco, Italy, Germany and Greece.

Racing will take place over five days (August 26th-30th) and will be preceded by registration, measurement and practice from the 22nd. The Principal Race Officer will be ISAF International Race Officer David Lovegrove (IRL) while ISAF International Judge Bob Milner (UK) will chair the International Jury.

The J/24 is the biggest and most widespread one-design keelboat class in the world with fleets in 32 countries and is sailed in half a dozen bases in Ireland. Twelve Irish boats have already qualified for the Worlds after a series of regional and national championships over the past two seasons.

"We are delighted that BMW Ireland has agreed to continue its support of major sailing events at Howth, having sponsored the 2011 J/24 Europeans and this year's ICRA Cruiser Nationals. The partnership has worked well and we look forward to a top class event next year," said Derek Bothwell, Chairman of the organising committee.

John Ives, Managing Director of BMW Ireland, added: "Our connection with sailing and, in particular, our experience with those two major events means we are only too happy to work with Howth Yacht Club again to support such a prestigious world-class event in Ireland."

Howth Yacht Club has previously hosted seven World and European Championships in the past, testimony to its ability to host major regattas. The BMW J/24 Worlds is the biggest event in a programme of 15 local, national and international events being staged by the club in 2013.

#j24 – Lough Erne sailor JP McCaldin sailing Jamais Encore lifted the J24 title on Lough Ree last night by a three point margin. The Northern Ireland crew had a string of consistent results (full results downloadable below as jpeg file) with six results in the top three from eight races sailed in the 19 boat fleet.

Second overall on 27 points was a Royal Cork/Howth Yacht Club entry S/Touche (Darrer/Murphy) with another Howth Boat Crazy Horse skippered by Mossy Shanahan third on equal points.

Flor O'Driscoll sailing "Hard on Port" claimed the J/24 Northern Championship in Lough Erne by just one point from JP McCaldin in one of this season's closest J/24 finishes.

Entries from Lough Swilly, Royal Cork, Lough Ree and Howth joining the local boats from Lough Erne for the two-day event over the weekend.

The competition was made more interesting by the fact that it was the penultimate qualifying event for the J/24 worlds which are to be held in Howth Yacht Club in August 2013. It was not surprising, therefore, to see five boats travelled from Howth for the event.

Racing started on the Saturday in fresh north-easterlies of 18-20 knots and it was the local boat "Jamais Encore" helmed by JP McCaldin that led the way with three first places and discarding a third place after the first day of racing.

Howth Yacht Club's Flor O'Driscoll consistently scored second place in each race to stay in contention. Stefan Hyde from the Royal Cork Yacht Club held 3rd place chased by another Howth sailor Noel Davidson helming "Scandal"

Lighter breezes greeted the competitors on the second day and JP McCaldin could only manage a 4th and 5th place while Flor O'Driscoll grasped the title with a 2nd and 1st place to win the event overall by only one point.

Stefan Hyde took 3rd place followed by Noel Davidson in 4th and Andrew Mannion from Lough Ree in 5th.

The final qualifying event for the 2013 J/24 World Championships is the Class National Championships which takes place at Lough Ree on August 25/26.

#RACING ROUND–UP – Ireland's Star pair Peter O'Leary and David Burrows are in the frame at the Star worlds in Hyeres this morning having held the lead after thie first two races, James Espey is Olympic bound in his Laser dinghy following qualification in Germany last night, Alexander Rumball and Rory McStay are joining the Irish ISAF Youth Worlds squad as Ireland's first Catamaran pairing, Offshore J109s continue to dominate on the Irish Sea and ICRA is still seeking support to mount a defence of its 2010 Commodore's Cup victory.

Kinsale's Marcus Hutchinson won the South Coast Squibs, JP McCaldin was on form at the J24 Easterns in Howth, Derek Mitchell was top in Saturday's DBSC Ruffian race, Foynes Yacht Club cruised to Limerick and Andrew Algeo emerged a winner in a class that have changed much more than their racing format.

#J24 – With a third place in the opening race being his worst result in the six-race series, JP McCaldin in Jamais Encore from Lough Erne YC was an impressive winner of the Mediagasmic-sponsored J/24 Eastern Championships at Howth YC over the weekend writes Graham Smith.

Even National Champion Flor O'Driscoll on Hard on Port couldn't match the level of consistency that the northern visitors demonstrated while another feature of the weekend was the steadily-improving performance of the HYC K25 Team on Kilcullen Euro Car Parks who finished 5th overall.

Discarding an 11th in the first race, the crew - led by John Blake and with Cillian Dickson on the helm - clearly learned a lot as the days went on, culminating in top notch 2nd and 3rd finishes on the second day.

The Championship started on Saturday with four races in fresh north-easterlies and first blood was drawn by Howth's Jibberrish (Fergus O'Kelly & others) whose gamble of a left-side long tack paid off handsomely for a sweet victory ahead of O'Driscoll and McCaldin.

Race two, three and four saw Nyah (Hyde & Deasy, RCYC/RStGYC) and Jamais Encore take turns to head the fleet, with Nyah winning two to head the fleet overnight. The fourth race highlighted just how competitive the fleet was, with 12 boats finishing within five minutes.

Fortunes were reversed on Sunday when Nyah had a disastrous 9th in the opening race and then a 4th while major rival McCaldin by comparison, had a dream day on the water. The fifth race in the series saw the Lough Erne crew win by a massive margin and while they only had to sail safely in the last race, second behind Hard on Port was more than enough to secure the Eastern Championship trophy with a margin of four points.

The Mediagasmic-sponsored event attracted visiting boats from Malahide, Lough Erne, Lough Ree, Lough Swilly, Royal Cork and Carrickfergus and was considered an outstanding success by the 13 crews, with much praise heaped on PRO David Lovegrove and his team for the quality of the racing.

The top 5 Overall 

1 Jamais Encore JP Caldin LEYC 8.00

2 Hard on Port F O'Driscoll HYC 12.00

3 Nyah Deasy/Hyde RCYC/RStGYC 14.00

4 Crazyhorse M Shanahan HYC 24.00

5 Kilcullen Euro Car Parks HYC K25 HYC 26.00

#J24–Howth Yacht Club will stage the J24 World Championships  from 22nd to 30th August 2013. This follows the successful staging of the class European championships at the club in September. Irish boats will be required to qualify for the event.

In ideal conditions – moderate to fresh south-easterly winds and sunshine – the BMW J/24 Europeans Championships concluded at Howth (Thursday 15th) with four back-to-back races to complete the full 10-race programme. PRIZEWINNERS PHOTOS BELOW

Top of the table was 'Reloaded' (Mark Penfold), sailing under US colours, with 34 points, three ahead of the leading European entry 'Il Riccio' (Ian Southworth/Chris McLaughlin) which takes the European Championship trophy.

With the exception of their discard of a 20th in the fifth race, 'Reloaded' was consistently in the top four in most races and had one bullet, while closest rivals 'Il Riccio' had two bullets and only a 9th to discard.

That they had some 28 points to spare over the third placed 'Serco' (Bob Turner) emphasised their dominance over the series. The German champion 'Rotoman' (Kai Mares) was only a point behind in 4th place and won the final race of the regatta while Stuart Jardine, the oldest helm in the championship, had the distinction of winning three races, including the first two races of the final day. Another German boat 'Hungriger Wolf' (Johann Huhn) had six top ten results to earn 6th overall.

Local boat Jibberish (O'Kelly/Wormald/Walsh) enjoyed its best result when finishing second behind 'Stouche' (Jardine) in the seventh race while German entry 'JJone' (Frithjof Schade) was looking at the same transom in the eighth race. The Southworth/McLaughlin crew topped the fleet in the penultimate race followed by the Hungarian boat 'Naviscon' (Farkas Litkey) while 'Serco' took second behind 'Rotoman' in the final race.

Needing to beat their US rivals by several places in the last race to take 1st overall, 'Il Riccio' could only manage an 8th to 'Reloaded's' 5th.

The leading Irish crew was 'Hard on Port' (Flor O'Driscoll, HYC) in 10th overall with 'Jamais Encore' (John-Patrick McCaldin, Lough Erne YC) next best in 17th.