Western Oz J/122 LITHIUM Smokes Perth

(Perth, Fremantle, Australia)- Graeme Monkhouse sailed his recently acquired J/122 LITHIUM in his first double-handed race.  Graeme purchased LITHIUM after a long selection process.  The objective was to find a boat which can be comfortably cruised with the family, be competitive on IRC, and have a turn of speed which keeps the excitement levels up.  The J/122 ticks all the boxes. LITHIUM reduced its IRC rating from 1.086 with class sails to 1.058 with a furling number 4 jib and A5 spinnaker to suit double-handed sailing in the predominantly fresh Fremantle breezes. Good move.  The "Fremantle Doctor", if you all recall, was the notorious wind that smoked many an America's Cup program in 1987 with steady 20-35 knot breezes!

The first offshore race of the Perth summer season saw record numbers compete in gentle, uncharacteristic 0–12 knot winds.  The Double-handed race was a 25nm course off Fremantle.  The race started in no wind before a south westerly change saw spinnakers hoisted to the day buoy.  In 5 knots of breeze the fleet sailed close hauled 5nm before tacking for a 4nm reach into the shipping channel.  LITHIUM set its Code Zero to great advantage and was doing over 8 knots in under 10 knots of breeze.  A 6nm beat up to Garden Island saw the lead narrow and it was a close battle for first place at the rounding mark.  However the 6.5nm square run down the channel saw LITHIUM drop back.  A 2.3nm broad reach to the finish and LITHIUM crossed the line second and placed 2nd on IRC, a tantalizing 56 seconds off 1st place.

  

J/122 ANAM CARA Completes Tough Van-Isle Race

(Victoria, BC, Canada)- No matter how many times teams have sailed the Around Vancouver Isle race, they know they can expect at least one or two epic passages on one of the nine legs and most of the time that would be on the desolate western coast offshore into the Pacific.  This year's Leg Eight-  from Winter Harbour to Ucluelet - is a 138 miler that can make or break the entire event for some boats. It can best be summed up as epic.  It was a very hard leg.  One sailor stated, "it was the toughest race I have ever been in."   Seasickness was rampant in the fleet leaving many crews shorthanded to deal with the tough conditions.  With wind in the high 20's and square confused waves, the consensus was it was the waves and not the wind that made the leg so miserable.   All but the first few boats made an immediate transition from SE to NW winds as they got down the course and most finished under spinnaker.  Nevertheless, after surviving the leg, the awards ceremony held at the new community center in Ucluelet was a huge success.  The fleet raised over $8500.00 for the Coast Guard Aux. Unit 38, who stood by all day and night to escort the boats into Ucluelets' inner harbour.  A salmon BBQ was enjoyed as the stories from this leg grew and the waves got bigger!

J/109- Team Mojo account of this epic leg:  "The west coast of Vancouver Island is a graveyard to boats and beside the other boats competing in this race, a very lonely place. There is nothing else out there but whales and big rocks until the end of this leg.  By 2300, we were thirty miles offshore, beating into a gale.  We were fully powered up with a double reefed main, traveller down and a small no.3 jib. Seas were 2-3 meters.  Going out, we would hit the waves and slam very hard from time to time.  Every wave you smash into sends a wall of water and spray at the guys on the rail and over the boat and slows you down.  At times you think the boat will break in half.  At 1800 I decided to go down and start to get dinner ready to feed the guys.  I lashed myself to the stove in order not to get sent flying across the cabin, boiled water and poured it into those adventure meal packs.  I managed to do all seven meals without injury and without getting sea sick. Being down below for an hour in those conditions is tough.  I am quite happy to say we managed to do the race without anybody getting sick.  Many boats were not so lucky and some had most of the crew incapacitated."

"We accelerated with each wave and it felt like we were flying.  It was dark so visibility was poor since it was raining, but we were going like hell. The next 5 hours were just insane.  I would rotate two guys to rest and warm up down below.  Per and I have developed a little system for driving Mojo hard in breeze so we stayed together till morning, keeping Mojo upright and watching the speedo hit 9 knots as we seemingly launched off the waves in the dark.  From time to time, I would doze off to be awakened by the lurching motion as we launched yet again off another ramp.  So that's what we did until sunrise.  It was a cold, wet, and difficult night.  I just wanted to go to sleep so bad, but had to keep fighting to stay awake and warm. It's not natural! You have to stay awake, you cannot leave and go hide in a warm spot. Just 4 more hours...just two more...the sun will come up in one hour... And then it's light and your body chemistry comes back to normal.  You are tired, but the struggle is over.  That is the nature of night racing."

"The front had also passed in the night and all of a sudden we went from sailing upwind to sailing downwind. The guys were tired but after a terrible attempt to put up our spinnaker, which ended up in the water, we finally got it up and managed to sail down wind the next 65 miles. The sea state was very confused for the first two hours because of the change in wind direction 180 degrees but we finally got Mojo going and racing to the finish.  What a leg to be remembered."

For the final Leg Nine headed back to Victoria, the long awaited westerly breeze finally showed up, in spades.  A solid 20 knots and big swells on the start line at Amphitrite point made for perfect surfing conditions as the 38 boats remaining in the race headed for home.

For Division 1, the J/122 ANAM CARA hung into their top five position overall.  For more Vancouver Isle 360 sailing results

  

J/122 Wins Swiftsure Cape Flattery Race

(Victoria, BC, Canada)- While Storm Trysail hosted the east coast spring classic offshore race on the "right coast", on the "left coast" the Royal Victoria Yacht club in Victoria, British Columbia hosted the Pacific Northwest’s Premiere Yacht Race-- the 68th running of their spring classic- the Swiftsure Lightship Classic Race.  As one of the oldest long-distance races in North America, starting in 1930, the Swiftsure has always been a test of seamanship and tactical skill.  This year, the story was no different, challenging the sailors with very light airs and lots of current off the start and the initial beat NW into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A very light breeze built a bit a few hours after the start, and the boats inched along the Canadian shore of the Straits by short tacking for current relief.

The wind built to about ten knots and lasted until about midnight, then shut off. Boats drifted in the dark for hours praying for wind, and wondering if their competitors had taken the tried-and-true Canadian shore return route or gambled and gone on the American side of the Straits. This year, the gamble paid off to go West along the American shore.

In the morning, the westerly filled in nicely for a great spinnaker run down the Straits, with steep, 6-foot swells pushing boats toward the finish line. Early finishers had max winds of about 18 knots, but later finishers had a 37 knot tail wind and a 5 knot positive current pushing them through Race Passage, significantly benefitting the smaller (or slower) boats.  In short, the results reflect the fact it had become a small boat, slow boat race for handicap honors, although there were a few exceptions in the standings.

In the 108 nm Cape Flattery Race, one of the three events one can sail in the Swiftsure 2011 International Yacht Race, it was Tom Kelly's gorgeous navy-blue hulled J/122 ANAM CARA from Portland YC that took overall and Class L-1 honors, completing the course in 23 hour 35 minutes and winning by over two hours on handicap time!   Sailing photo credits- R Beberidge   For more Swiftsure Race sailing information

  

Vancouver Isle 360 Race- Competitive J/Fleet Sailing

(Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)- Officially known as the TELUS Van Isle 360, this biennial 580 nm point-to-point race circumnavigating the wild and rugged Vancouver Island is an extraordinary experience.   Starting next weekend, the race is sailed in multiple legs and the course provides inshore, offshore and overnight legs (10 of them!) through some of the most stunning and challenging waters on the planet.  If ever an island was meant to be raced around it is Vancouver Island. Her dramatic beauty, majestic mountains and natural harbors provide an awesome backdrop for a race that has become "the must do" event on the West Coast sailing circuit.

The event attracts some of top sailors in the Pacific Northwest. The variety of extremes and conditions challenge even the most seasoned crews. As Canadian Olympic Medallist, Ross MacDonald, quoted in SAIL magazine,  "I can't tell you how many races I sailed in this year, but I can tell you this was the most challenging by a factor of 2 to 1. The current changes every few hundred yards - maybe by 180 degrees - and the wind funnels down off the cliffs....you'd better have your boat sorted out."

A fascinating piece of "Johnstone family" history is attached to the race, in perhaps a rather unusual way.  One of the most challenging parts of Vancouver's circumnavigation takes the fleet through the infamous "Johnstone Straits"-  it's a 68.0 nm channel along the north east coast of Vancouver Island that is up to 3 nm wide. It is a major navigation channel on the west coast of North America and is the preferred channel for vessels from the Georgia Strait leaving to the north of Vancouver Island through the Queen Charlotte Strait bound for Prince Rupert, Queen Charlotte Islands, Alaska, and the North Pacific Ocean, and for southbound vessels from those areas bound for the Port of Vancouver.  The strait is named after Commander James Johnstone, a British naval officer and explorer in the late 1700s. He was master of the HMS Chatham, which accompanied George Vancouver on the HMS Discovery on their famous Vancouver expedition to chart the Northwest coast of the Americas. Johnstone established the fact that Vancouver Island was, indeed, an island (named after his friend George, along with the city, too).  Today, perhaps most significantly, the Johnstone Strait is home to approximately 150 orca whales during the summer months, which are often seen by kayakers and boaters packed with tourists. Scientists including Michael Bigg and Paul Spong have been researching the orcas in the Strait since 1970. Spong established the ORCALab, based on studying the Orcas in their natural habitat.

Enjoying the breath-taking Straits will be a number of highly competitive J's that have a hard time resisting the "call of the wild".  If it isn't the extraordinarily fun times, camaraderie with other sailors, it must be the  singularly spectacular experience of sailing one of the world's pre-eminent "round island" races.  Amongst the fleet will be some familiar faces to J sailors worldwide.  Tom Kelly's gorgeous blue J/122 ANAM CARA is a repeat participant.  Good luck to all on your fortnight long adventures!  For you armchair sailors dreaming about putting this event on your "bucket list", this one's a fabulous one to consider!  They have tracking this year so you can follow the fleet as they drift past orca's and sea otters, pound upwind in vicious current induced chop in the Straits, or plane offshore down mountainous seas on the Pacific side of the island.  Finally, all of the sailors efforts go to a great cause-  the event is providing an amazing $25,000 donation for the Queen Alexandra Foundation in support of "Jeneece Place", a home away from home for children requiring medical treatment and their families in Vancouver.   For more Van Isle 360 sailing information

  

Leading J's In Swiftsure Lightship Classic

15 J's Challenge Notorious Juan de Fuca Straits
(Victoria, BC, Canada)- While Storm Trysail is hosting the east coast spring classic offshore race on the "right coast", on the "left coast" the Royal Victoria Yacht club in Victoria, British Columbia is hosting the Pacific Northwest’s Premiere Yacht Race-- the 68th running of their spring classic- the Swiftsure Lightship Classic Race.  As one of the oldest long-distance races in North America, starting in 1930, the Swiftsure has always been a test of seamanship and tactical skill.  The spring weather in the Straits can turn fast and stir up viciously steep chop and blow a gale, and then some.  Last year's event saw "the pots, the pans and the kitchen sink" all thrown at them over the course of the race-- Mother Nature was at her usual capricious self.

The racers have a choice of 3 races to sail, the "Swiftsure Lightship Classic" that's 137 miles, the "Juan de Fuca Race" that's only 76 miles and the "Cape Flattery Race" that's 100 miles in length.  All racing yachts will have a tracker system using Globalstar’s SPOT technology- locations are updated every 10 minutes, of every boat on the Swiftsure Lightship Classic, Cape Flattery, and Juan de Fuca race courses.

The sixteen J's sailing in the three races include  the J/122 ANAM CARA sailed by Tom Kelly (CFR).   Sailing photo credits- R Beberidge/ FlashInThePan.com   For more Swiftsure Race sailing information.

  

J/122 Sailing Fast in Australia

(Sydney, Australia)- The J/122 MARTA JEAN recently sailed the Newcastle Race in Australia.  The report from the captain and crew follows:

"10 days prior to the race we had enough crew who were keen to do the Sydney to Newcastle race, and all that was holding us back was a higher level of safety compliance - so we decided to go for it. We had met all audit requirements one day before the deadline for race entry.  This was our first Cat 3 and Ocean Point Score race, following a season of Short Ocean Point Score races in Newcastle (Cat 4).

We sailed with 5 crew from LITHIUM (Sydney based J/122), and 5 of our own crew from MARTA JEAN (J/122 Newcastle based). Essentially we had a lot of generalist skills, and not too many specialists, but we prided ourselves on learning from each others objective feedback and everyones desire to improve boat speed beyond the targets (obtained from polar diagrams for the J122 posted on the web)

24 boats had entered the race, including 17 for IRC.  The race started at 9.00am off Point Piper in Sydney harbour, and would be a 66mn run up the coast(at 010 deg) to the entrance of Newcastle harbour.  The wind was close to forecast, with a norwesterly 15 - 20kn for the first half of the race, swinging around slightly to a northerly 20 - 25kn for the second half of the race, with some soft patches where the wind dropped to 10kn for short periods.  It was a very hot day, with temperatures over 35C so it was important to keep the sunscreen and water up to everyone, so we didn't have anyone suffering from heat stroke or dehydration.

Our J/122 sailed well to windward, and the crew enjoyed the first six hours on the rail on a single tack, making good progress at 7-8kn and maintaining a competitive position in the fleet. As the breeze moved more easterly in the afternoon, the race became more tactical with the impact of adverse currents and wind shifts, with the option to keep in close the coast, or to go further offshore.

We reached the entrance to Newcastle harbour for the final downwind run to the finish line after 9 hours of sailing.  We finished 2nd on PHS and 6th on IRC, which was a great result considering the level of experience and expertise in the fleet. It just goes to show how well you can do with a J?122, even with cruising sails, and a relatively inexperienced crew."  For more J/122 offshore racer-cruiser sailboat information.