Month: November 2024

(Hamble, So’ton, England)- The 43rd running of the Hamble Winter Series continued for week 3. It proved to be a somewhat drama-filled weekend.
“This is Hamble Race Control. The race is not live. We have exceeded the wind limit!”
Well, that’s what the PRO would have said if the CV WetWheels had gone out on Sunday morning for the 3rd week of the Hamble Winter Series. Fortunately, for the PRO’s- Peter Bateson and Ian Bullock- the approach of Storm Ashley had been so well forecasted and anticipated that the decision to cancel Sunday’s racing was taken by around 4 pm on Saturday. Some, including Gavin Howe, had already reported they would not race. Gordon Mclean on Marks 1 mark boat for the one-design fleet was already relishing a dry copy of the Sunday Times!!
So, that left Saturday for the Hamble One-Design Championships, and PRO Ian Bullock went out to get “at least four” races in with Sunday’s impending doom in mind. This was the second weekend of the championship so the scores would be added to the previous weekend for the overall results.
J/111 ClassIn the J/111 class, Louise Makin and Chris Jones’s JOURNEYMAKER II continued their form from Race 4 and banged in four bullets to take the class with 9 points! Paul Griffiths’s JAGERBOMB couldn’t find the form that gave them 3 firsts in the first weekend. They had to settle for four seconds and a 13-point second place. JOLENE beat Ella Wollman’s FREQUENT FLYER into third place.
When Ian Bullock was in the HRSC Clubhouse, JOLENE reported that they had “taken their battens out of their mainsail and moused their halyards for the winter!”
Thanks for the contributions from Trevor Pountain
For more Hamble Winter Series sailing informationhttps://www.hamblewinterseries.com/

Welcome to this week’s J/Newsletter! As the cooler winds roll in, we are diving into the heart of the fall sailing season with reports from around the world. From the exciting Hamble Winter Series off England’s southern coast to the sunny shores of San Diego, where the Hot Rum Series promises fierce competition, there is plenty to look forward to in the coming weeks.
In this issue, we recap the latest developments in the Hamble Winter Series, where strong winds tested the competitors’ resolve. We also preview some major upcoming events. 
In California, San Diego’s Hot Rum Series is set to launch with 122 boats participating, including 35 J/boats, bringing a touch of warmth and excitement to the Pacific coast. Meanwhile, in Texas, the J/70 US National Championship is gearing up as top teams prepare to face the challenges of Eagle Mountain Lake. 
For our European sailors, the French J/80 Nationals are on the horizon, with the picturesque waters of Saint-Cast ready to host a showdown of skill and sportsmanship.

Hamble Winter Series Report- Week 3
(Hamble, So’ton, England)- The 43rd running of the Hamble Winter Series continued for week 3. It proved to be a somewhat drama-filled weekend. 
“This is Hamble Race Control. The race is not live. We have exceeded the wind limit!”
Well, that’s what the PRO would have said if the CV WetWheels had gone out on Sunday morning for the 3rd week of the Hamble Winter Series. Fortunately, for the PRO’s- Peter Bateson and Ian Bullock- the approach of Storm Ashley had been so well forecasted and anticipated that the decision to cancel Sunday’s racing was taken by around 4 pm on Saturday. Some, including Gavin Howe, had already reported they would not race. Gordon Mclean on Marks 1 mark boat for the one-design fleet was already relishing a dry copy of the Sunday Times! Read more here

J/Fest Southwest A Family Affair

J/105 ROCKY Wins Class with McKiege Family!(Lakewood, TX)- The J/Fest Southwest Regatta celebrated its 14th Anniversary and it has been a popular tradition among the J/Boat owners throughout the region. For the 2024 edition, thirty-five J/Teams participated from around the country. Here is how it all went down amongst the various fleets. Read more here. 

San Diego Hot Rum Series Preview
(San Diego, CA)- The annual fall bacchanalian festival in San Diego known as the “Hot Rum Series” will begin this weekend, hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club. A fleet of 122 boats is participating in the series of three-weekend races that take place on Saturdays. The race is a simple “pursuit style” event, where the slowest boats start first and the fastest boats start last; whoever crosses the finish line first boat-for-boat is declared the winner.  As has been the case over time, the classic building seabreeze often benefits the bigger faster boats that start late.  There are thirty-five J/Teams (29.0%) in the fleet. Read more here.

Upcoming Events

World-class Competition for J/70 US National Championship

(Ft. Worth, TX)- From November 7th to 10th, the Fort Worth Boat Club on the gorgeous Eagle Mountain Lake in Ft. Worth, TX will be hosting the 2024 J/70 US National Championship. Currently, twenty-one teams will be participating on this shifty, puffy, challenging lake to the west of downtown Ft. Worth and Dallas.
Read more here.

French J/80 Nationals Preview

(Saint-Cast, France)- From November 8th to 10th, the Club Nautique de Saint-Cast will be hosting the French J/80 National Championship. The entire team at the Saint-Cast Nautical Center is dedicated to making this event an unforgettable experience, both in terms of sportsmanship and camaraderie. Saint-Cast Le Guildo is a renowned resort on the Emerald Coast, boasting a stunning body of water and excellent port facilities. Notably, this club was a pioneer of the J/80 class in France and has a fleet of J/80s that frequently participates in events. The CN Saint-Cast is recognized for its expertise in organizing J/80 competitions. Read more here.

J/Gear Holiday Specials
(Newport, RI)- There are multiple awesome items available for the 2024 J/Gear Holiday Special! Here is the list for you to consider:- J/Extreme 1/2 Zip- J/Typhoon Jacket- J/Flexfit cap- J/Reach Polo- J/Puma Performance Ziptop- J/Embroidered T-shirt- J/Cotton Polo shirt
The J/Class logo is embroidered and you may customize it for the whole crew. Browse and order here:

(Ft. Worth, TX)- From November 7th to 10th, the Fort Worth Boat Club on the gorgeous Eagle Mountain Lake in Ft. Worth, TX will be hosting the 2024 J/70 US National Championship. Currently, twenty-one teams will be participating on this shifty, puffy, challenging lake to the west of downtown Ft. Worth and Dallas.
Despite the small fleet, the level of competition is world-class. Top teams that should be at the top of the leaderboard include Jacko Franco’s 3 BALL JT, Chris Kostanecki’s DERECHO, Doug Rastello’s USA 608, Al Minella’s LEVEL 5, Bruce Golison’s MIDLIFE CRISIS, Bruno Pasquinelli’s STAMPEDE, and John Sommi’s RELATIVE OBSCURITY (a World Champion crew of Jud Smith, Victor Diaz de Leon, & Willem Van Waay)!!
For J/70 US National Championship resultshttps://yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eid=16334
For more Ft Worth Boat Club event informationhttps://www.fortworthboatclub.com/

 
(Point Richmond, CA)- The Great Pumpkin Regatta is held every Halloween weekend by the Richmond Yacht Club in the northeastern part of San Francisco Bay. There’s course racing on Saturday with a big social event, band, and food & drinks on Saturday night. Then, on Sunday it was the “great pursuit race” that had over 100 boats participating.
J/24 ClassSaturday the J/24s had their one-design rcing. Winning was Darren Cumming’s DOWNTOWN UPROAR, followed by Robin Van Vliet’s LITTLE WING in second and Rosanne Scholl’s FLIGHT in third place.
PHRF E DivisionThe nine-boat fleet featured two J/70s. It was David Fried’s SON OF A SON that took the silver medal, while Courtney Clamp’s SANDPIPER took fourth place.
Sunday PHRF Pursuit RaceThis complete madness (or crapshoot) saw all kinds of crazy results. In the end, two J/24s faired best in the fleet of thirty J/teams. Brandon & Addison Mercer’s J/24 TENACIOUS CUTTLEFISH took 5th place while Jasper Van Vliet’s EVIL OCTOPUS took 10th. Andrew Picel’s J/125 ARSENAL was easily the top “big boat” in the race.
For more Great Pumpkin Regatta sailing informationhttp://www.richmondyc.org

(Hamble, So’ton, England)- The 43rd running of the Hamble Winter Series started with two completely contrasting days of weather. Saturday, day one of the Hamble One-Design Championships, had glorious sunshine and a steady breeze. But, when the PRO Peter Bateson announced “We have passed the wind test” on Sunday morning everything was grey and dank. So grey was it on Sunday, that a couple of J/70 competitors said they had trouble spotting the black tetrahedron marks at the top of the course!!
A healthy fleet of twenty J/70s had entered for what was one of their “Grand Slam” series events and nineteen made it to the start line. Alex Smallwood in RTYC2 had the best of day one taking two first places and a ninth to lead with 11 points. David McLeman in OFFBEAT was second on 12 points, with John Cooper’s JOOPED in third with 14 points.
Paul Griffiths in the J/111 JAGERBOMB had a perfect three bullets on Saturday, leaving them in what looked like an almost unassailable position. Louise Makin and Chris Jones’s JOURNEYMAKER II was lying in second with JOLENE (Jolene Racing Syndicate) in third.
On Sunday, the weather, referred to by Peter Bateson as “occasional drizzle”, wasn’t the only distraction on the Solent. It was “crowded territory,” said Peter with “Royal Southampton Winter Series, Warsash SC Lasers, R Srn YC Cruiser Race, RYS Performance 40s, and RTYC Arrow trophy” as well as the Hamble Winter Series event. Ian Bullock encouraged his race team to “go out and get our towel down early.” So, by 10:00 am Rupert Wolloshin, in Marks 2, announced the CV Artemis was at N 50 49.224 W 001 16.895 (between Cutter and Fumesy to the rest of us) and Gordon McLean on Marks 1 confirmed 6 kts from 135 degrees.
Now, whether it was the change in weather or the crowded Solent, some of the nailed-on winners from day one faired less well on day two of the Hamble One Design Champs.
In the J/70s, Patrick Liardet’s COSMIC, who was languishing on 31 points after day one, scored a 1-2-1 on Sunday to end with a winning 16 points. Patrick was the happiest face at the One Sails prize-giving. RTYC2 slipped to third and Doug Struth’s DSP discarded a last race 11th to secure second.
In the J/111s JAGERBOMB’s serene progress was halted when JOURNEYMAKER II scored three bullets on Sunday. They were also not helped by a DNC in the first race, though, they were able to discard this. In the end, though both boats had an identical score and an identical number of 1st and 2nds! But, JOURNEYMAKER II had the last three 1st places to sneak home. Don’t you just love countbacks!! JOLENE was third.
The IRC fleet managed to squeeze in their start line at Royal Southern buoy and proceeded to race off the Hill Head and Lee on the Solent shoreline. Race one was a windward/leeward course with two rounds in each. The final race was around the cans, 10 miles for IRC 2 and 8.5 miles for IRC 3 respectively. There was a good mix of beats, runs, and reaches with frequent wind shifts and the tide on the turn giving plenty of tactical options. The last leg went downwind to finish at Darling Buoy.
Weekend 2Race Week 2 of the Hamble Winter Series was comprised of two days of racing for the Hamble IRC Autumn Championship, sponsored by Key Yachting. Early weather forecasts showed that once again we may have a weekend of two halves. As it turned out it was a weekend of one half. Sunday’s weather had looked light from a couple of days out and series photographer, Paul Wyeth, got in touch on Friday to ask if we wanted pictures in the rain with wind on Saturday or pictures in sunshine with no wind on Sunday. Clearly, he would have preferred Sunday, but when Saturday was not too wet and the sun crept through the clouds, he went out and got some dramatic shots.
The Race Team gathered in HRSC at 0745 on Sunday morning and studied all of the available forecasts several times. There were little pockets of wind on the edges of the Solent but nothing in the middle. PRO Peter Bateson took the difficult decision to cancel racing for the day. His WhatsApp message read “The forecast has not improved and with a very light breeze matched with a 180-degree change in direction, there seems no point in going out in hope.” At 10.26 Paul Wyeth messaged from the island “Good call today, looks like a mirror glass-out!” Of course, not everyone was happy, especially those who had paid to go in the water at HYS.
On Saturday things went to plan with three races completed. The CV, WetWheels, set up near Royal Southern Buoy in 7-8 knots of breeze, with a course axis of 185, for Race 1 a windward /leeward with course lengths IRC 1, 5.0 miles: IRC 2, 4.6 miles, and IRC 3, 4.2 miles. The PRO Peter Bateson gave the fleet another 2-lap windward/leeward for Race 2 and around the cans special for Race 3.
J/70 One-design ChampionshipAfter 10 races, John Cooper’s JOOPED is leading with 22 pts net after two discard races. Second is Harry Edwards’s JOSKIN with 32 pts, and sitting on the bronze step of the podium is Isabelle Hung’s XV STRIPES.
J/111 One-design ChampionshipLeading the J/111 class was the Makin/ Jones duo on JOURNEYMAKER III with 9 pts net. Second is Griffiths’s JAGERBOMB with 13 pts net. And, rounding out the podium is JOENE with 22 pts.
HWS IRC 2 DivisionLeading this large fourteen-boat fleet are two J/109s. Mike & Susie Yates’s JAGO has 3 pts, followed by Rob Cotterill’s MOJO RISIN with 4 pts. Chris Burleigh’s JYBE TALKIN is currently in fifth place with 12 pts.
Autumn Regatta IRC 2 DivisionThis sixteen-boat fleet has ten J/Teams participating. Currently in third is David Richards’s JUMPING JELLYFISH. Fourth is Kevin Taylor’s J/99 JUMP 2 IT.
Thanks for the contributions from Trevor Pountain
For more Hamble Winter Series sailing informationhttps://www.hamblewinterseries.com/