Royal Irish's Joker II Crew Take the J/109 National Title on Dublin Bay

20th September 2021

Five-time J/109 champions: (from left to right) John White (upwind trim), Ron Verling (navigator), John Maybury (owner and helmsman), Malcolm Moir (bow), Michelle Fitzgerald (pit), Barry Byrne (downwind trim), Brian Phelan (sub), Teddy Byrne (sub), Nick Smyth (tactician) and Shane Keogh (mast) not pictured Credit: North Sails Ireland

John Maybury and the Joker II crew became J109 National Champions for the fifth time on Dublin Bay this afternoon with a clear win in the two-day, six-race North Sails Ireland sponsored championships.

Maybury secured the title at the Royal Irish Yacht Club with a five-point margin over RIYC club mate Andrew Craig's Chimaera in second place in the ten-boat fleet.

The Royal Irish helm took the advantage early yesterday winning all three races on the opening day in decidedly light and fickle conditions, a performance that virtually sealed the title there and then.

"We had our set up just right on Saturday and sailed out of our skins", Maybury told Afloat.

John Maybury's Joker II crew on thier way to overall victory for the fifth time in the Irish J109 National Championships on Dublin Bay

Conditions for the final two races on Sunday were much improved and the event concluded in a ten-knot northwesterly breeze.

Although Maybury could not hold on to his clean scoresheet his (5.0), 2.0 and 4.0, Joker II's remaining scores were more than enough to clinch it.

It brings to five, the number of times Maybury has lifted the trophy previously also winning in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2019.

Richard Colwell and John Murphy's Outrajeous from Howth Yacht Club finished third on a tie-break with Chimaera on the same 14 points.

Andrew Craig's Chimaera clinched second overall with a final race win

J109 National Championships 2021 Overall

Joker 2 1206 RIYC John Maybury 1.0 1.0 1.0 (5.0) 2.0 4.0 14.0 9.0
Chimeara 2160 RIYC Andrew Craig (6.0) 4.0 2.0 4.0 3.0 1.0 20.0 14.0
Outrajeous 19109 HYC Richard Colwell/ John Murphy 2.0 2.0 4.0 (6.0) 4.0 2.0 20.0 14.0
Storm 1141 RSC/HYC Kelly Family 3.0 5.0 8.0 1.0 1.0 (9.0) 27.0 18.0
White Mischief 1242 RIYC Richard Goodbody (8.0) 3.0 5.0 2.0 8.0 5.0 31.0 23.0
Jellybaby 9609 RCYC Jones Family 5.0 6.0 6.0 (7.0) 7.0 3.0 34.0 27.0
Jalapeno 5109 NYC Barrington/O Reilly/ O Sullivan/ Rosique 4.0 7.0 (9.0) 3.0 9.0 6.0 38.0 29.0
Artful Dodjer 1713 KYC Finbarr O Regan 9.0 9.0 7.0 (10.0) 5.0 7.0 47.0 37.0
Ruth 1383 NYC Shanahan Family 7.0 (10.0) 3.0 9.0 10.0 10.0 49.0 39.0
Dear Prudence 1095 RIYC Jay Bourke (11.0 RET) 8.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 8.0 51.0 40.0

Full results are here

Richard Colwell and John Murphy's Outrajeous from Howth finished third overall

Published in J109

Tagged under

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.