J24 Fowey Shield at Fowey Gallants Sailing Club, by Amy Fisher

The welcome arrival of the first weekend event of the season proved a gruelling aide memoire to muscles following a winter without regular racing and also a reminder of what great sailing the UK J/24 fleet can offer.
Boats began arriving by land on Thursday ready to launch from Penmarlam Quay on Friday, & by sea from Plymouth and Falmouth. Friday evening crews from 15 J24’s gathered at the Fowey Gallants for the obligatory weigh-in & for the majority of the fleet a catch-up with fellow competitors - Madeleine’s crew needed instead to explore the meandering passages, steep slopes & impressive headlands of Fowey whilst in full foulies and running shoes...
Several new helms joined the fleet including Matt Hardy with Sublime, Ed Wilton with Phoenix and the furthest travelling boat from Blackpool, Mike Preston with Team Quattro.
Saturday morning commenced with a race briefing in the Fowey Gallants with boats heading down the estuary in deceptively calm conditions for an 11:30 start. The race course was set up with the windward mark approximately 1.5 miles WSW of the estuary entrance and start line to the SE providing excellent viewing for families and friends who walked from Fowey to Polruan.
The race officer, Peter Morgan, managed to fit in 5 back to back Windward / Leeward races. The majority of the fleet were sailing under jibs with a steady 20knt breeze gusting 25knt + in the squalls. Saturday brought close racing with 4 different boats being first across the line through the day; Jeli, Hedgehog, Skilled Services, and Legal Alien.
Squalls added an element of surprise throughout the day particularly at the beginning of race 2 which concealed the windward mark and during Race 3 which induced some alarming broaches from several boats. Jiggy 2 have some incredible footage of their epic broach 500m before the race end which can be seen on the UK J/24 Class Association Facebook page including their extremely efficient recovery. Cookie, the dolphin with a wedge missing from its dorsal fin, frequently added a degree of astonishment appearing regularly on the start line and around the windward mark.
Overall positioning at the end of Day 1 had Madeleine and Hedgehog on 8 points apiece, with Hedgehog in pole position on count-back. Contenders for the podium after 5 races included Jeli, Jawbreaker, Jiggy 2 & Legal Alien.
Saturday evening crews congregated at the Royal Fowey Yacht Club, replenished courtesy of St Austell Breweries and presented a barbecue with an excellent spread to restock energy levels after a demanding yet hugely satisfying day.
Sunday morning crews gathered on the pontoon achy but eagerly anticipating another day’s racing. An exceptional fleet effort to help Madeleine re-rig their main halyard, (particularly the ingenuity of Dinger from Hitchhiker) showed what a supportive and sportsmanship fleet this is.
The race course was set up almost identically to Saturdays racing with all to play for across the fleet. Hedgehog took the bullet in Race 6 leaving the final race result imperative for the shield. All boats were sailing under jibs with NW 20knt+ with stronger gusts & a quick turnaround between races. Race 6 Hedgehog and Madeleine were neck and neck up the first windward leg, forcefully taking a longer route for the downwind leg, battled an heroic tacking duel upwind more often seen in Match Racing than in the J/24 fleet for the final upwind leg. This confrontation clearly demonstrated the versatility of the J/24 as well as the competitiveness & skills of the helms & their respective crews. Unfortunately for Madeleine the battle was in vein as they were OCS at the start of race 6 costing them dearly in terms of points accrued. Phoenix, who were forced to miss 3 of the Saturday races due to a severely damaged tiller, were first to cross the line for Race 6.
Final results – The Fowey Shield 2012 goes to Darren Stansbury with Hedgehog. Nick MacDonald with Legal Alien takes 2nd place & Duncan McCarthy with Madeleine takes 3rd.
A huge thank you goes to all of the Fowey ground crew who helped make this first away event of the season such a success. All boats entered are hugely appreciative to St Austell Breweries, Sail Shape (a Fowey sail maker) and Fowey Maritime Centre who have all contributed to this event. Particular gratitude goes to Peter Morgan and Paul Toms without whom this event would not have been possible.
Good luck to all boats entering the Spring Cup in Plymouth next weekend. If the racing from the Fowey Shield is anything to go by, this season has some exceptional racing to come.

Overall Results:

Pos	Boat Name	Helm	Sail No	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	Hedgehog	Darren Stansbury	4177	3	1	1	3	3	1	6	12
2	Legal Alien	Nick McDonald	4064	7	5	4	5	1	4	2	21
3	Madeleine	Duncan McCarthy	4245	2	2	10	2	2	3	15	21
4	Jawbreaker	David Cooper	4271	5	6	2	7	10	2	3	25
5	Jeli	Stig McDonald	4260	1	3	7	6	7	7	5	29
6	Sublime	Matt Hardy	4261	6	8	3	8	8	6	4	35
7	Jiggy 2	Shane Hewlett	4268	8	7	6	4	4	11	15	40
8	Skilled Services	Adrian Bennett	4248	4	11	11	1	9	14	7	43
9	Hitch Hiker	Andy Taylor	4242	9	9	5	12	6	9	10	48
10	Team Quattro	Mike Preston	4213	10	4	9	9	13	8	8	48
11	Jumba	Andy Gent	4241	11	12	8	11	5	12	9	56
12	Phoenix	Ed Wilton	4222	15	15	15	15	11	5	1	62
13	Hijack	Mark Lewers	4147	12	13	12	10	12	10	11	67
14	Jetlag	Robin Price	5647	15	10	13	13	14	13	12	75

April News

J24 UK Nationals

Just a quick one to have a push for getting your entries in for the 2012 J24 UK Nationals, held from June 1-4th in Poole.

The early entry deadline falls on 28th April so after this time the entry fee will go from £55 to £80 for all teams.

For those boats from outside Poole who will require berthing and cranage the UK class association has arranged a £30 subsidy per boat for these costs (bringing it down from £120 to £90 per boat) - if you would like to take advantage of this please can you let me know your skipper, boat name and sail number that you will be using for the Nationals and when you are intending to confirm your entry (when you will send the entry form and fees to the organising committee) so I can add you to the list and ensure that we have the correct details for the class payment to be made. All the forms etc are on the event website (http://pooleregatta.co.uk/cms/?page_id=61)

Boats

If any of you can not make it to the Nationals / have a spare boat lurking in the shed and would like to give your boat a chance of competing anyway I have a very experienced U25 crew looking for a boat - so far we have managed to pair 2 boats with crews and as there is a fair bit of external interest in the class from potential new owners this may be a great way to showcase your vessel - please let me know if you can help.

Fowey & Plymouth

Hope that all of you are enjoying the start to season and good luck to those crews heading to Fowey this weekend - please don't forget it's Plymouth and the Spring Cup in a fortnight so now is the time to enter that event if you haven't already (http://www.rwyc.org/2012/04/05/j24-spring-cup/)

If anyone has any news they would like to get out to other class members / would like to match crews and boats or vice versa please let us know.

See you on the water

Rob

Rob Clark - JUJU - GBR 4254

Jolly Roger, GBR 4270, at Spi Ouest 2012

We decided to head out to France over the Easter weekend with the J24 to sail in the Spi Quest regatta. The venue was Trinite-Sur-Mer, which is just east of Carnac in the North West corner of France. Spi Quest is probably best described as the French version of Cowes week, with 450 boats entered, predominantly split into one design class racing. The event attracts a fantastically diverse international presence, with teams from New Zealand, Oman, and the USA just on our race course. Unfortunately we didn’t get the entry of J24’s that we were hoping for, and we were therefore put in the IRC4b class with the five other J24’s for four days of handicap racing. As always seems to be the case, we had one of the slowest ratings on our start line, so the bigger and faster boat added a sometimes challenging dimension to our racing.

The format of racing was three windward-leeward races, plus a 14 mile costal race each day. Unfortunately we were a little less prepared than we normally choose to be because all the Sailing Instructions, the Notice of Race, and VHF communication were posted in French. In the absence of Mark, our French speaking expert, we were left a little in the dark as to the exact format. Inevitably this was always going to catch us out, and it did! Between race three and four the Race Committee radioed details about the costal race in French, which clearly we were completely ignorant too! The result was starting four minutes late, and following the fleet around, completely confused as to where they were going! Despite that, we ended the day as top J24 and 5^th in our fleet, but most importantly slightly clearer on tomorrow’s format! The rest of the week went really well. We sailed in a real variety of conditions, from flat water and 5 knots, to big swell and 25 knots. We managed to win a few of the races, including one of the costal races once we had a grasp on the course. We ended the regatta in 4^th overall and second J24. The whole team is now planning hard for the rest of the season.....

Jolly Roger, GBR 4270, at 2012 Primo Cup – Monaco

I'd assumed the Primo Cup would be a few days in a beautiful sun filled Monaco bay, 14 knots, flat seas and a chance to reacquaint with the J24 after 7 months off for me. As it turned out the weather had different ideas. Seas that were unprecedented at nearly 9ft from peak to trough and winds that topped 30 knots I found that I had little time to think about more than hanging on. There was an air of dogged determination on our boat, no one wanted to admit they were cold, sea-sick and wet to the core. Fortunately we were able to hide behind the decision of the race organisers who declared it 'titanic conditions' after one race and thought that it was best to cancel racing for the day after plucking one too many sailor from the sea. The conditions gave Carlo Borlenghi, the photographer, fantastic photo opportunities - fortunately, you can't see my fear filled eyes as we are climbing the mountainous seas.

There was only one day where the weather only allowed one race, which is a credit to the race organisers who organised the racing very efficiently, adapting to the conditions to give us some great races. The yacht club hosted some great evening entertainment and are looking forward to welcoming more UK teams next year. The Primo is a fantastic event to kick-start the season and prepare for the big regattas later in the year, Monaco will be hosting the J24 European Championship from 6 to 12 October 2013, so put both events in your diary for 2013. You wont be disappointed and can expect and fabulous few days racing. We enjoyed the regatta, gained some experience sailing in big seas and gained a 3rd and two 4th in some tricky conditions. It was great to be sailing with Denis Frederiksen and Marianne Schoke again who both kept us on our toes, it was a very competitive event.

There was success for Monaco with regular participant in the Primo Cup, Francois Brenac, taking first place with his crew on St Andrews Insecurities., Mariane took second, sailing on Julia. A second Monegasque triumph went to Claude Rodelato who came in third on Topo Too, Jolly Roger came 5th overall with Dennis in 4th. It was great to be back on the water!

Nina Squire - Jolly Roger