J-Cup 2009 at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Day 2

Day two of the 2009 J-Cup © Tim Wright / www.photoaction.com

Day two of the 2009 J-Cup © Tim Wright / www.photoaction.com

Four races in a foam-up!

You would have thought that things would be a little subdued at the Royal Torbay Yacht Club on Friday night because the five classes racing at the J-Cup 2009 completed four races, in a gusty and extremely shifty breeze from the west, which regularly topped the 24 knot marker. If tiredness prevailed, there wasn’t much evidence: the band played on, the crews of the 63 boats racing here danced the night away, and they were all back down on the dock on Saturday morning ready and raring to go for the final two races of this epic series which is sponsored by North Sails, Dubarry of Ireland and B&G.

In the J/109 UK National Championship fleet, after a tough day at the office, Kirsty and David Apthorp’s J-Dream still leads, albeit by a narrow two point margin (after the discard which clicks in at 6 races) from Brian Moreton’s Juke Box in second place and Ben Richards and Michael Ewart-Smith’s Zelda. This class in tough; there are 29 boats racing one-design and Friday was particularly tricky. Steven Tapper’s team on Stalker punched in a bullet in the final race and two seconds, and John Maybury’s squad on Joker, all the way from Ireland, won the first two races of the day, for which he was awarded the North Sails Boat of the Day Prize for this Class.

In IRC1 the two J/122s of John Patterson (Panacea) and Ian Matthews (Jinja) are enjoying a ‘battle royale’ at the front, with Panancea leading Jinja by four points after the discard. Jackie Dobson’s J/133 Jeronimo is in third place on 18 points, but the oldest boat at the J-Cup (and the only symmetrical kite boat at the event), Jonty Layfield’s J/39 Sleeper is just one point behind. Jinja was presented with the North Sails Boat of the day prize for this fleet.

True Love, the brand new model from J Boats still leads IRC2 with six wins so far. That said, Andrew Roberts in the J/92 Just in Time has been pressing hard are sailing consistently; a performance deemed worthy of the North Sails boat of the day. Wizard, the J/92 of Bill Howard, whose crew includes J Boat sailing legend John (JT) Taylor, is in third place.

Rob Dornton-Duff’s crew on the J/105 Java continue to excel in this class, and now have a seven point lead over the UK National Champion, William Newton on Jelly Baby. Jelly Baby did however score her first race win on Friday however and this secured them the North Sails Boat of the Day Prize. Chris Jones’ Journeymaker 5 looked close to a win yesterday and they will be pushing hard to make points gains going in to Saturday’s races.

There is no discard on the J/80 score sheet yet as this class had only sailed five races at the close of play on Friday. The scores then showed Peter Wanstall’s Jasmine in the lead on 11 points, with Jeremy Round-Smith’s Jezebel in second on 12 points and Andrew Ashworth’s Jammy Dodger on 14. Jammy Dodger will be looking to discard an unfortunate DNF from the first day of racing and this team won three of the four races sailed on Friday; there is much excitement pending here. Jammy Dodger were presented with the North Sails Boat of the Day Prize for the J/80 Class.

The final two races are scheduled for today, Saturday and this evening 470 (yes, 470!) of us will be giving it some J Boat largesse at the J-Cup Gala Prize Giving Dinner. By my reckoning that’s 940 dancing shoes in total!

Results after Day 2:

IRC 1

IRC 2

J80

J105

J109