JELVIS Repeats at J/70 UK Grand Slam II

ByStuart Johnstone

(Hamble, England)- The Royal Thames Yacht Club in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, hosted the second act of the 2026 J/70 UK Grand Slam Series. Twenty-three teams enjoyed both first-class hosts and first-class racing on the Solent immediately in front of the famous “Castle” at the opening of Cowes Harbor- the Royal Yacht Squadron. The expert RTYC RC/PRO team fired off seven great races in simply awesome sailing conditions all weekend.

Repeating their performance from the previous regatta, Martin & Ruby Dent’s JELVIS team (including Henry Wetherell & Rick Peacock) simply smoked the fleet to take the win with five bullets in their seven-race tally for 7 pts net!! Yikes! As in the Queen of England’s famous query and reply about who won the Royal Yacht Squadron’s “100 Guinea Cup” in 1851 for the famous Around Island Race (e.g., that cup became the America’s Cup), “Madam, there was no second place!” Hahaha…

Well, the balance of the podium was pretty far back on points, with the two teams dueling for the silver and bronze medal positions all weekend. Finally taking the silver medal was a “newbie” on the podium- Jacintha Love’s LADY KHUMBU with 20 pts net. She did manage to start off the regatta with a very promising 1-2 in the first two races to lead the regatta, and she still managed to post all top-five finishes for the rest of the regatta! Good show, Jacintha! Her LADY KHUMBU team was comprised of Faye Chatterton, Ruairidh Scott, Hannah Bristow, and James Taylor- HOT crew!!

Just four points back from LADY KHUMBU was Simon Perry’s JIRAFFE. Similar to LADY KHUMBU, Perry’s JIRAFFE team started strongly with a 4-3-1 to lead after three races! Thereafter, they “tanked” three straight races, posting an 8-7-7 tally, which hurt their chances of a better outcome. Nevertheless, JIRAFFE had a solid outing for the weekend to conclude it with 24 pts net to take home the bronze medal. Perry’s JIRAFFE crew included daughter Alice Perry, Chris Grube, Arran Holman, and Sabine Potter- another HOT crew! Grube was a UK Olympic Sailing Medallist in the 470 class!

The balance of the top five was comprised of UK J/70 class veterans who have always been in the hunt at the top of the leaderboard. Taking fourth was Patrick Liardet’s COSMIC with 36 pts net, while Doug Struth’s DSP finished in fifth place with 39 pts net.

For more J/70 UK Grand Slam Series sailing information
https://j-70.co.uk/2026-schedule/