#isora – J boats look set to continue their success in ISORA next weekend when the Irish and Welsh offshore fleets come together for a night time coastal race. J boats that have dominated both ISORA and the Round Ireland race this season (see below) are entered for next Friday's race including top rated Sgrech, Joker II and Jedi.
After a break in proceedings since the Round Ireland race at the end of June ISORA has published the sailing instructions and provisional entries for the ISORA/RAYC Night Race for Friday 27th July starting at 8pm. This popular night race along the scenic east coast down to Wicklow and back is 35 miles long.
This ISORA race will be run with the Royal Alfred Yacht Club 2012 Offshore Series race using the same start, course and finish. Boats may enter both series. Boats entered in the ISORA series only shall not be scored in the RAYC series nor are eligible for prizes in that series.
Full sailing instrcutions and a provisional entry list are downloadable below as attachments.
J Boats take top four at Round Ireland Yacht Race
For the thirty-six boats that entered the Round Ireland Yacht Race, the majority of crews found the course as tough as ever. Conditions ranging from 3 knots of wind close to the shore to ripped sails and seasickness on day two, combined with the island's large tidal gates made for some great offshore racing.
J Boats dominated IRC3, with Stephen Tudor's J/109 Sgrech taking the lead. In second was John Maybury's J/109 Joker 2, with Andrew Sarratt's J/109 Jedi in third. Nick Martin's J/105 Diablo-J took fourth place.
Though he's undertaken the Fastnet Race it was Stephen's first Round Ireland Yacht Race, with only two of his eight strong crew having entered before. Commenting on Sgrech's performance Stephen said 'as expected the race was challenging but fantastic. We got off to a cracking start and then kept the boat driven hard and managed to extend our lead. The boat and sails handled and performed superbly in all conditions, keeping speed and cross tacking amongst the bigger boats. The conditions were varied, from light winds at the start to a tough beat under a force 6 on the nose towards the end of the week. It's a great race, I can see us competing to keep our title in 2014.'
The success of the IRC3 J Boats was furthered by their achievement of securing top ten places overall. Jedi owner Andrew commented; 'This was great racing between the 3 J/109s as we were only 5 miles apart and swapping positions – Jedi took the lead from Sgrech on the Northern coast only to lose it again near Belfast – light to no winds – a game of chess. Then within 4 miles to the finish line Jedi finds a windless hole only to watch the hunting Joker 2 take 2nd place. Great close offshore racing that shows how competitive the J/109s are.'
Other J Boat successes included Bruce Douglas' J/133 Spririt of Jacana achieving first place in IRC1 and James Tyrell's J/122 Aquelina taking second in IRC2.
