J/111 One-Design Summer

Join Us In Great Lakes or Northeast!
(Newport, RI)- With sufficient J/111's delivered for fleet racing, J/111 One-Design activity will commence in several significant events coming up on the 2011 summer sailing calendar.  For starters, J/111 Fleet #1 has been awarded to the Chicago fleet.  And, they will be sailing their first one-design event June 4-5 out of Columbia YC.  A J/111 start in Columbia YC's "Colors Regatta" for the six boats sailing on Lake Michigan will be an exciting milestone for the 111 class.  A 111 one-design "launch party" will be held at Richie Stearns home Friday evening, June 3rd.

Additional Fleet #1 activities on Lake Michigan include eight boats racing as a class in the famous Chicago YC Chicago-Mackinac Race, a 289 nm blast north up Lake Michigan to Mackinac Island- famous for horses, fudge, bikes and the "Pink Pony".  After the Mac Race, the J/111 Fleet will gather in Harbor Springs, MI for the "Ugotta Regatta", with a one-design start in one of the most beautiful bodies of water to sail on the planet.

In the Northeast, a trio of J/111s will be participating in the New York YC Annual Regatta June 10-12 in Newport, RI sailing in Rhode Island Sound southwest of Castle Hill Light.  Then, six or more J/111s will sail one-design as a sub-class in PHRF at the Rolex Storm Try Block Island Race Week from June 19-24.  A week's worth of fleet racing on the J/111 will be a lot of fun.  Everyone will have steep learning curves as matched boats learn how to tweak sails and rigs to go faster.  Recognizing its speed potential off-the-wind, many of the teams can't wait to sail the J/111 in the famous Around Block Island Race, about 29 nm around the navigation buoys ringing the island.  For more J/111 one-design sailboat information.  Sailing photo credit- Billy Black

  

J/111 "Walk-through"- Insider's View

(Charleston, SC)- For those of you who have not seen the interior and exterior features of the J/111, we took the opportunity during Charleston Race Week to have Alan Block of Sailing Anarchy's OTWA to do a "walk-through" of the J/111 with one of our J/Boats representatives. Take a "wander" throughout the J/111 with Alan and crew and learn a few more things about this wonderful boat and find out why 111's current owners are so excited about sailing their boats.   Please watch this sailing video from BlockSail Productions.

  

J/111 Sails Tough RORC De Guigand Bowl Race

J/111 3rd in Class Beating Upwind!
(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The De Guigand Bowl race provided another exciting chapter in the 2011 RORC Season's Points Championship. The RORC Race Committee decided to send the fleet on an upwind start, westward out of the Solent, before turning east, down the south side of the Isle of Wight and offshore after St. Catherine's Point, to a top mark mid-Channel: the Greenwich Light Vessel. The fleet then turned for home, a grueling 50-mile upwind leg to finish back in the Solent. Most of the fleet enjoyed a tactical race with many twists and turns along the way.

The start off the Squadron Line was a gentle one with ten knots from the northwest, however as the fleet entered the Western Solent big gusts and wind shifts had the fleet concentrating on sail trim. The breeze built as the fleet turned east and with an increased sea state, the competitors in the De Guigand Bowl Race enjoyed some fast running conditions before blasting offshore bound for the Greenwich Light Vessel. With blues skies punctuated by scattered clouds, the 71-strong fleet enjoyed a day of fantastic offshore action. Just before sunset, the breeze shifted north and colder air, often in excess 20 knots, gave a chilling night sail. By dawn the breeze had abated somewhat and returned to the northwest and by early afternoon, the majority of the RORC fleet had been accounted for.

In the IRC 1 "Big Boat" division, the two J/133s ended up dueling each other for bragging rights at the Squadron bar.  In the end, Neil Martin's JAMMY DODGER finished 5th in class and David Ballantyne's JINGS finished 6th.

In IRC 2 division, the J/111 sailed a tough race, sailing mostly on the wind "white sail" power reaching/ beating or pounding upwind in steep, choppy seas and shifty winds.  Nevertheless, Niall Dowling and crew on ARABELLA sailed well to finish third overall in their division of 15 boats, beating IMX 40s, Beneteau 40.7s,  Archambault 40s and a raft of other IRC-enhanced boats.

The IRC 3 division might be called the J-35 footer class.  With several J/105s racing along with a competitive group of seven J/109s, it was not going to be easy to lead this division home.  In the end, Nick Martin's J/105 DIABLO-J was top J in the division, getting a 4th in class.  Following him was Frenchman Yves Dervieux  sailing his J/109 BOTEZ COAT IV into 5th just under 8 minutes back on handicap time.  Seventh was Greg Nasmyth's J/109 JARHEAD, 9th was  Nikki Curwen's J/105 VOADOR and filling out the top 10 in 10th place was Dave McLeman's J/109 OFFBEAT.  Story contributed by Louay Habib/ RORC.  For more RORC sailing information

  

Roller-coaster Cervantes Race For J/111

J/111 ARABELLA Wins 4 of 6 Legs!
(Le Havre, France)- Over 100 boats were bound for Le Havre, Frances from Cowes, Isle of Wight, England for the RORC's first race of the European season, the Cervantes Trophy Race.  Just a 125 nm race- WSW from the Cowes/ Royal Yacht Squadron starting line to the renowned Needles (and the darn wreck!).  Turn left and go SE to St. Catherines Point.  Then back NE across Sandown Bay to Nab Tower (off eastern point of Isle of Wight), then SE 90 nm across La Manche (English Channel) to Le Havre, France.  Simple race?  Hardly.  And, it can be fraught with shipping channel issues, massive holes in the middle of 20-30 knot winds and the like.  This year was hardly any different than past "ditch races".  Smart sailing tossed in with a bit of luck would pay off yet again.  It was a race that had about 80% beating/ fetching and the other 20% a mix of the rest, in other words a waterline race.

IRC Two had no less than 25 yachts.  It was a close battle for line honours in class between the J/122 JOOPSTER sailed by Neil Kipling's crew and the J/111 sailed by the well-traveled Niall Dowling.  At the end of the race, the J/122 finished in front by 22 minutes.  As a result, JOOPSTER got second corrected and ARABELLA 4th on handicap.  Overall, they finished  4th and 7th, respectively.

An impressive line up in IRC Three had ten J/109s, including proven competitors such as Robin Taunt's JIBE and Paul Griffith's JAGERBOMB. At the finish, however, it was David Aisher's YEOMAN OF WIGHT that finished 3rd in class by 23 seconds!  J/109s also managed to clean out most of the top ten, taking 5th to 8th, including Robin Taunt's JIBE 5th, Paul Griffiths' JAGERBOMB 6th, Andrew Bird's JAMBALAYA 7th and Greg Nasmyth's JARHEAD in 8th.

The IRC Two-Handed Class, an increasingly popular discipline, attracted 18 yachts.  The J/109 JAMBALAYA sailed by Andrew Bird managed a fourth in class, missing overall honors by 15 minutes!

Paul Heyes was sailing on Niall's J/111 ARABELLA and offered this insightful report on the race proceedings:  "The start was downwind in 10-14 kts, dead run down the Solent with tide, so about an hour and a half to the Needles turning mark.

At the start, ARABELLA took off with the first group, which included "La Reponse", a very custom First 40 built by Beneteau as a works boat for Gerry Trenteseaux. JOOPSTER, the hot J 122, and a successful Beneteau 40.7.

On the run we could not quite match the VMG of the 2 or 3 fastest symmetrical boats who were sailing at 170 or deeper to our 160. Our VMG was identical to the Elan 410 and X 41. We arrived at the Needles Fairway buoy 4th in class just ahead of JOOPSTER and JELLYFISH, another J/122.

We then had a 15 mile beat against the tide to St Catherines Point, slowly the 40 footers edged away from us, we were sailing with 7 crew. Many of our class sailed at IRC max weight of 12 bodies, so giving away nearly 500 kgs on the rail for stability is not helpful in these conditions. The wind built to 25 kts as we approached St Catherines Point sailing upwind.

Shortly after the point the breeze reduced to less than 10 knots and we quite quickly regained all our losses.  In under one hour we passed the 5 or 6 class 2 boats that had been ahead of us, the class 1 leader (a 54 footer) and the remainder of the class 3 and 4 boats that had started before us. The performance of the J/111 was awesome on this short tacking against the tide light-airs situation. Normally in this situation you gain places on the tack in and lose after the tack to deeper water. ARABELLA gained a place on every tack and conceded none, we must have passed close to 30 boats arriving in Sandown Bay leading on the water of everything that we could see, the race winner a Farr 52 having disappeared over the horizon.

The original SE breeze re-established itself at 12 knots with the J/122 JELLYFISH furthest offshore and first to find the breeze, taking the lead. As the breeze filled in a drag race for the Nab Tower ensued between ARABELLA, La Reponse and the 2 J 122s.  Once again the 40 footers slowly edged ahead, La Reponse and JOOPSTER arriving at the Nab some 5 minutes prior to us after probably 10 miles of sailing mostly against the tide. The J/122 JELLYFISH was just ahead of everyone.

Prior to starting we had been told that the long leg of the race which was 60 miles from the Nab to a buoy off Le Havre would be a 110-115 TWA leg, so we had anticipating trying the A0 (Code 0) and making pace, sadly for ARABELLA the wind had clocked and it was now a 65 TWA leg, so another benefit for waterline length.  Couldn't "buy a break", could we?

After an hour or so the wind backed enough to allow us to change to a Jib-top, this was a sweet sail and we made good progress, with a wind that built to 28kts at one point. At this point we were flying.

At the end of the 60 mile leg we were unsure of our fleet position, with the exception of an X 41 that we rounded the mark with, the final 20 miles in to the finish were pretty much close hauled.

The final result showed us 4th in class and 7th in fleet. We were beaten by La Reponse and the J/122 JOOPSTER who took about 20 minutes out of us on the 90 miles of fetching and beating.  We were pretty pleased to have held off the many, much faster-rated 38-40 footers with longer waterlines that followed us in.  Next time we need the course setters/ Wind Gods to just give us a quarter of the course or more as a reaching leg, then the ARABELLA will really light up--- here's to looking at the Fastnet Race!"
For more RORC Cervantes Race sailing information.   Sailing photo credits- H20shots.com