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

  

J/111 Sailing RORC Offshore

(Cowes, IOW, England)- There are over 100 boats bound for Le Havre, France this coming weekend.  Amongst them is Nial Dowling's J/111, ARABELLA making its offshore debut for The Cervantes Trophy.  The race starts Saturday, April 30 from RYS is organised by RORC in association with the Société des Régates du Havre and the Royal Yacht Squadron. The Cervantes Trophy Race marks the start of the RORC European race circuit with eleven races scheduled for destinations in Northern France, Holland, Ireland and many ports of call in the United Kingdom.

The majority of the RORC fleet for the Cervantes Trophy is an eclectic mix of performance cruising boats.  In IRC-2, it has no less than 20 types of yachts, including RORC Commodore Andrew McIrvine's boat. The much travelled Nial Dowling will be racing his new J/111 ARABELLA for the first time offshore and could have a close battle for line honours in class with several other notable 39-42 footers.  An impressive line up in IRC-3 has nine J/109s, including proven competitors such as Robin Taunt's JIBE and Paul Griffith's JAGERBOMB.  The Two-Handed Class, an increasingly popular discipline, has attracted nine yachts for The Cervantes Trophy Race, including Rear Commodore Nick Martin's J/105, DIABLO-J, which won the Cherbourg Race at the end of the 2010 season.  For more RORC Cervantes Trophy sailing information.  Sailing Photo credits- Paul Wyeth- www.pwpictures.com
  

Windy J/Fest San Francisco

Tie-breakers, Tight Racing Define Leaders For J/24s, J/105s, J/120s

(San Francisco, CA)- This year's J/Fest San Francisco with very competitive fleets of J/24s, J/105s and J/120s started out on a typically benign morning for the Bay.  A bit of fog, some sun and forecasts for a "good breeze".  For anyone of you who've ever experienced a "good breeze" in most parts of the world, that usually means something less than the Saffer-Simpson hurricane scale of I and perhaps more like the Beaufort scale of 4 (a nice 13-18 knot wind).  While the first race may have been near forecasts, the afternoon race was anything but-- more like a "gentle gale" in the 22-32+ knot range.  A report follows from Bruce Stone- one who usually sails his own J/105 ARBITRAGE, but turned it over to Nicole Breault while he suffered from pneumonia on a posh Protector RIB.

"Day One of J/Fest on San Francisco Bay started with wind in the high single digits and finished in the low 30’s, taking out quite a few boats along the way with a typical assortment of broaches, breakdowns and shrimped kites.  Bullets in the first two races were scored by Rolf Kaiser’s DONKEY JACK, who lead by impressive margins.  In the last race, BLACKHAWK, skippered by Scooter Simmons, nailed the pin, caught the relief along the shore, and led wire to wire. However, the day belonged to ARBITRAGE skippered by Nicole Breault, she scored three deuces and led by three points over Adam Spiegel’s JAM SESSION, with DONKEY JACK in third.

Day Two was completely different.  The forecast was for lighter winds, mainly high teens, with gusts ONLY hitting mid-20’s-- ya’ gotta love SF Bay!  Big problem for the racers Sunday-- the race committee called for starboard roundings, which made no sense given the tides.  Almost every boat approached windward mark from starboard, had to weave through the boats setting their kites, most of whom wanted to jibe to the flood on the shore-- so picture the route being kind of like a bow-tie.  And, it created too many opportunities for wipe-outs and collisions."

For J/105 sailor Lou Scannon, they had another report for the madding crowd. "J/Fest Day 1 was quite exciting - Race 1 - we led to the first mark both times, but lost at the finish because we went toward the wrong side of the RC and only realized it when it was at 315° or less off the bow and 200 m away.  Crash jibe and lost the kite (started the race in 8kts but it was blowing a steady 20 then) and lost 3 boats.  We would have won.  New crew - 4 new folks on-board so it was a pretty understandable mistake.  We were beating boats that did not take last year off in Taiwan and the guy we were dicin' with has a professional on board, and we had on the old sails, so I am pretty pleased with our speed and boat handling.  She's a fast boat!

At the start of Race 2 we had put up the jib and headed for the pin end for a very conservative start as we were so underweight by then (blowing 25 w/ gusts to 30+) that my goal was survival and to stay clear of everybody.  I have only once sailed in a stronger breeze on the Bay - it was nukin'.  There was a very strong ebb (all the snow melt in the Sierra) with some of the weirdest currents I have ever seen.  A new boat to the fleet decided to try a port-tack start and apparently did not see us.  I hailed starboard 3 times very loud, but they could not hear us.  At the last moment I switched from "Starboard" to "Oh crap &#$%*@--- kaboom".  I pondered heading down, but in hind-sight that would have likely been especially catastrophic as it would have likely been a very high-speed bow-to-bow and rigs might have come down and hull-deck-joins destroyed.  I headed up, tacked and we got hit in the port stern as my boat was rolling over to port in the avoidance tack.  The 3 bow guys got ejected under the lifelines (I did not see or know about it until later - they all hung on and got back on board quickly (without me knowing anything).  We flipped over to port to get the hole up off the water, dropped the jib and then called the RC.  We told them that we needed a tow as the starboard tack back the St Francis YC would have sunk us.  We got towed in and taped up the hole and covered it with the Rolex sticker.  I feel like I should have thrown a handful of Vicoden into the keel sump for the old girl."

After all the chaos and coping with nukin' conditions on the Bay, it was Jeff Litfin and John Case on their J/105 MOJO that keep their nose clean and managed to pull off a 4-5-4-2-1 record for 16 points-- starting out the day in fourth and rising to the top in the difficult conditions on day 2.  Second in the 105s was Scooter Simmons on BLACKHAWK with a 5-7-1-4-4 record, another phoenix arising from the ashes of the first day to rocket from fifth day one to silver on the podium.  Only Adam Spiegel's JAM SESSION managed to stay on the podium after the first day-- holy batman, lotsa carnage day two.  The JAM boys got 4 3rds and 9th to tie Scooter but lost on the tie-break.  Fourth was Rolf Kaiser's DONKEY JACK, after seemingly racing untouchable out of the blocks in the first two races with a 1-1, Rolf's gang must've let it get to their heads, amassing a brick-laying record of 8-7-7 to miss third by three points.  And, the luckless maiden getting the real short-end of the stick was Nicole Breault.  After sailing brilliantly on the first day when it was absolutely howling, blowing dogs off chains in the Marina, all kinds of APBs going out for "fifi la piu" the mini-poodle and fair maidens in short-shorts getting blown into the water, it was Nicole who could not overcome a head-to-wind luffing match with an out-of-control J/105 at the last windward mark when she was in third place.  Nicole's 2-2-2-6-14 record was a tough nut to swallow, "watch out", says women sailing's "Terminator", "I'll be back"!!

Having every bit as much fun as the J/105s were the fleet of J/120s that were starting in front of the J/105 madness.  Behind all of them witnessing the carnage were the J/24s.  One the first day, the J/24s had a ball, nothing if not used to the nukin conditions, the teams sailing these boats had all seen it before.  Though not a "yawner", they did manage to toss in a few broaches for a few green crews getting used to the ropes again.  Rising above the crowd day one happened to be the top three boats fighting it out with each other for braggin rights.  Basically, the top three were all TIED after the first day of two races.  Mike Whitfield's TMC RACING, Don Taylor's ON BELAY and Darren Cumming's DOWNTOWN UPROAR all had four points each.  Scores would have to be settle on the last day.  Indeed, they were.  Mike's TMC RACING team simply took off and got two bullets, scoring a 2-2-1-1 to win with 6 pts.  Second was Don's team ON BELAY with a 3-1-2-3 record for 9 pts and third was Darren's team with a 1-3-3-4 for 11 pts.

The J/120s are a remarkably tight fleet, just about all of them have won the Rolex Big Boat Series at one time or another.  Depending on conditions, crew and solar flares or karma (remember, lots of Northern Lights this past week due to a solar storm enshrouding us all), one team seems to do better than the others.  This weekend it happened to be the MR MAGOO team led by Steve Madeira from Northeast Harbor, ME.  Steve's team led by only a point after the first day, but hung tough on day two to win by four points with a 4-2-1-3-1 record.  John Wimer on DESDEMONA and Don Payan's DAYENU were tied after day one.  But it was John's DESDEMONA team that won the final tie-breaker on the last race!  They had a 5-1-2-1-6 for 15 pts, just to keep everyone on their toes!  Third was Don's DAYENU with a 1-3-4-5-2 for 15 pts.  Only 1 point back was Barry Lewis' CHANCE.   Ultimate Yacht Shots Ultimate J-Sailing photos.  Ultimate Videos/ slideshow from Ultimate YachtShots.  For more J/Fest West San Francisco Bay sailing results  

Strong J Fleet Blasting to Ensenada

(Newport Beach, CA- April 15-17)- A West Coast classic, a 125.5 nm overnight race that provides the perfect mix of fun and adventure as racers decide whether to head off-shore for stronger winds or to sail the rhumb line towards the finish. With over 50 trophy categories and numerous classes the opportunity to "take home the silver" makes this race appealing to all levels of participants. Whether you are a first-time racer or an experienced pro, this one is for you.

The race is sandwiched between some really fun events – something that all sailors like. Enjoy the "Send-Off" Fiesta at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club the night before the race, a long-standing traditional that must be experienced to be believed. The post-race party atmosphere Saturday and Sunday at Race Headquarters, the Bahia Hotel in Ensenada, will definitely make you smile. Plus, a lucky raffle winner will get to ride around in the new Tesla Motors all-electric Roadster for the whole bloody weekend!! By Sunday afternoon, the city of Ensenada pulls out all of the stops and puts on a huge fiesta for racers, crew, family and friends. In the courtyard of the Bahia Hotel, the music rocks, food and drink flows and everyone parties to all hours of the night.  Most importantly, get your picture taken riding the burros! A Kodak moment to memorialize for your Facebook pals you actually went there to race, not to party.

Amongst the 175 entries is a large and strong contingent of J sailors.  Perhaps leading the charge down the coast for the J/Fleet will be the four "superfast" J's in Sprit A class.  Never to shy away from a fun challenge is perennial front-runner Tom Holthus on his well-campaigned, TransPac winning J/145 BAD PAK from San Diego YC.  Yet another J/145 vying for honors will be Santa Barbara YC's team of Poppe/ Parks sailing with a good crew aboard SEQUOYAH.  Nipping at their heels like a mad dog with a bone in its teeth will be Mark Surber's J/125 DERIVATIVE from CORYC.  Cruising in serious comfort and giving all these J "sleds" a case of anxiety attacks (depending on conditions, of course) will be Paul Marais's gorgeous J/160 INDIGO from SYC-LB.  And, just to keep these trophy-hunters honest will be a J/130 sailed by yet another good crew from Santa Barbara YC, Chuck Browning and gang aboard BEBE.

Leading the charge in Sprit B class will be two J/120s, BARAKA sailed by Janet Mostafa from Balboa YC and FEE EVENT raced by Chuck Wert from BCYC.  Along with them will be two J/105s, ROCINANTE's Juan Lois from SBYRC and LUCKY STAR's Mark Wyland from ALYC.  Spread across other parts of the PHRF classes are the following:  Seth Hall's J/124 MARISOL from CYA, Larry Leveille's J/29 RUSH STREET (last year's Kings Harbor Race Winner) from Santa Barbara YC and Tom Lehtonen's J/30 EGGEMOGIN from SBYRC.  Any one of these boats has the ability to upset the proverbial "apple cart" for the big boys-- won't be the first time a J/29 or J/30 has spoiled the party.   For more Ensenda Race sailing information