J/Teams Shine at RORC Myth of Malham Race

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The RORC Myth of Malham Race returned with a potent fleet for one of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s most respected offshore tests. Starting from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line in Cowes, the race sent the fleet west out of the Solent, along the English Channel, to round the Eddystone Lighthouse before turning back towards the Solent.

At around 235.0nm, the Myth of Malham course is short enough to demand intensity from the start, but long enough to expose every weakness in boat speed, tidal strategy, crew work, and stamina. The race is often a tough beat west, followed by a fast return, and the opening 100 miles mirrors much of the early challenge of the Rolex Fastnet Race. The race proved to be a solid test of good, all-round yacht designs that could manage difficult upwind sailing, as well as lighter-air downwind sailing and reaching. In the end, J/Teams faired extremely well under those circumstances. The 2026 MoM fleet featured forty-five yachts. Several standout performances were turned in by top J/crews.

IRC Overall
Taking the silver medal was perennial offshore contender, RORC Vice Commodore Derek Shakespeare and his veteran crew aboard his J/122 BULLDOG. Then, just 61 seconds behind them on IRC corrected handicap time was yet another veteran team of the RORC Season Points series, on-going battles, Rob Cotterill’s J/109 MOJO RISIN!

IRC 1 Division
This half-dozen boat fleet was Nick & Jacquetta Edmonds’s J/45 STICKLEBACK, which took the silver medal. Congratulations to them for their best performance yet in a major RORC race!

IRC 2 Division
Adding to their IRC Overall silver medal, Shakespeare’s J/122 BULLDOG won this fleet by a healthy margin of 4 hours corrected IRC handicap time!

IRC 4 Division
As the largest and by far the most competitive division with thirteen boats, it was likely that one of the two well-sailed J/109s might prevail in the hotly contested fleet that was peppered with a slew of French “wedges of cheese” (e.g., offwind-designed boats).

In the end, Rob Cotterill’s J/109 MOJO RISIN won the division by a significant one-hour, 23-minute IRC corrected handicap time margin!

For more RORC Myth of Malham Race sailing information
http://www.rorc.org