Australian J/122 Wins Silver Again!

(Sydney, Australia)- A bit like the infamous "Energizer Bunny" on American TV, the J/122 is seemingly indomitable and indefatigable on the world's Seven Seas.  And nowhere can it be much harder to bring home the silver than to compete in Australia's offshore circuit with lots of custom IRC designs that are all designed to act like Aussie 18s offshore and plane away to Cape Horn way, way, way, way East at 100 knots.  As one might expect, at some point you have to "turn the corner".  That's when "real sailboats" designed with realistic "balance" come into their own.  The J/122 sailing in Sydney has bee there, done that.

Like last year, Ray Entwistle's J/122 JACKPOT has finished the CYCA’s Spring Short Ocean Point Score series in the silverware again.  Following on from JACKPOT's previous SOP’s series results of two firsts and a second they again finished equal 1st on points with a Swan 60 and a Beneteau 45. "The J/122 is amazing, she just keeps bringing in the results," said a very pleased Entwistle after Saturdays spring series finale. "At forty feet she is definitely  at the smaller end of this highly competitive Division 1 Sydney  fleet but  takes on all comers.  She continues to punch way above her weight with constant top 3 finishes and surprises everyone how well up the fleet she finishes on the water. The added benefit of this incredible boat is the interior.  In  a few minutes we can remove the racing sails, top up the tanks and fridge, add the dodger and go cruising in opulence. We wish all our crew, competitors  the very best for the festive season and thanks to the staff of the Cruising Yacht of Australia, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Middle Harbour Yacht Club who take it in turns week on week to run this competitive offshore series," says Ray.  "JACKPOT will be back for the Autumn Point Score series starting in January and if you would like to taste victory in this highly competitive div one racing then get yourself a J/122 and join us for some fun at the top of the fleet. If racing is not your thing then go cruising, this boat does both in complete style.  Happy Christmas from the J/122 JACKPOT crew"

    

J/122 OZ Style- Winning Again!

(Sydney, Australia)-  The Australian J/122 JACKPOT continues to lead Sydney’s Short Ocean Pointscore Series amongst a seriously big boat Division 1 Fleet.  A David amongst Goliaths.  Seems to be the J/122 story.  In the Chicago-Mac Race, both J/122s reported sailing past Santa Cruz 70s in 3-5 knot winds while using their Code Zeros.  Then, in long beats to windward, while many modern 50 footers with table-tennis wide transoms are struggling in 4-8 foot chop where "square waves" are common (e.g. not a wave) and most boats simply stop, the J/122 simply behaves like the notorious Energizer Bunny and just keeps on knifing through the maelstrom known as "hell" at a ferocious pace.

"In a dying ESE breeze and a very lumpy seaway it was always going to be a big boat race today", said Ray Entwistle, skipper of JACKPOT.  Furthermore, he said "The J/122 finished second on IRC to the Swan 60 helmed by a ringer-of-a-skipper, the world famous Gordon Maguire from the motherland known as England. The only other 2 boats that finished ahead of us on the water were also much bigger. However, when we looked back and saw what we had beaten on the water its still incredibly impressive. JACKPOT is a standard alloy-rigged J/122 with some cruising options added, so when you see boats like DK 46s, DK 42s, Ben. 44.7s, X-442’s,  King 40s, Cookson 12s, stripped out Ker 11.3 behind us on the water its hard not to fully appreciate just how good the J/122 is. Her performance across the full spectrum of wind and sea conditions is outstanding. For the last 2 seasons the boat has never been out of the top three and continues to consistently impress."  What are you waiting for?  Style, comfort, speed, trophy winner anywhere you go.  A boat the entire family can enjoy.  Shorthanded.  Fully-crewed.  Read some more news about what makes the J/122 a special boat for those who love its multiple-personalities.  For more J/122 Sailing News and Information.
  

J/122s Win IRC East Coasts- Go 1-2-3!

The PUG, JENNY Go PLUM CRAZY, Too!

Annapolis, MD (October 30-31) - "The breeze was fantastic," said Regatta Chair Dick Neville, "more like San Francisco than Annapolis at this time of year."  Dominating the regatta was the J/122 PUGWASH sailed by David Murphy of Westport, CT, scoring a 2.25-1-1-1-1-1 for only 7.25 points.  PUGWASH's tactician and match racing champ Ian Williams was impressed with the J/122. "It's a great boat and rates well." PUGWASH's strategist and Olympic gold medalist Kevin Burnham was extremely impressed with the team and their ability to maximize performance with their new, groovy sails. As winner of IRC Class 3, PUGWASH posted a string of five straight first-place finishes in the buoy races. In second was FLYING JENNY VI, a J/122 sailed by David Askew (Annapolis, Md.), which posted 16.25 points with a strong 2.25-3-4-2-3-2 record.  Not a bad year for FJ VI either, following on a string of firsts as she toured the Great Lakes this past summer.  Finally, not to be outdone by their sisterships, Andrew Skibo and crew on PLUM CRAZY II finished third with a 4.5-2-2-10-2-3 for 23.5 points; other than a DNS(10), PLUM CRAZY II was in the hunt for second in the no throw-out series.

The only dedicated IRC rating event on the Chesapeake, the IRC East Coast Championship was the IMS East Coast Championship before 2005.  This marks the tenth year that the championship has been organized by the Storm Trysail Club’s Chesapeake Station and the sixth year it has been run under the IRC rule. For 2011, the event will be part of the Storm Trysail Club’s Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex, scheduled for June 19-24, 2011.  Sailing photo credits: Sara Proctor  For more STC IRC East Coasts Sailing information

  

J/122 JINJA 2nd Hamble Winter Series

(Hamble, England- 24th October)-  The third weekend of the 2010 Garmin Hamble Winter Series  produced more good racing.   Sunday's steady northerly breeze produced challenging conditions.  Saturday's racing was marked by an unexpected squall when 12–15 knots of westerly breeze leapt to 40 knots at precisely 1300hrs. It was soon over but Race Director Jamie Wilkinson had immediately signaled an abandonment, and the two fleets returned for a restart of Race 3.

In the Big Boat Series IRC 0 Class, the J/122s and J/133s continue to sail in a challenging series.  Ian Matthews' J/122 JINJA is sailing well, still lying in second place.  Jackie and Robert Dobson's J/133 JERONIMO sailed a reasonable set of races on the third weekend, but dropping them into 6th place, but only 5 points from 3rd overall!  The tale of the tape in this class goes race-by-race; especially since JINJA is counting a DNF in Race 9 in her scores.

The Bugle's Oliver Weeks presented the overall trophies and prizes, and the whole fleet were invited to enjoy live music at The Bugle in Hamble that evening. The Spinlock day prizes were presented by James Hall and Simon Crowther.  There will also be more cakes on the menu in response to popular demand! Me thinks carbo-loading with sausage patsy's and Guinness were standard issue crew meals.  Have times changed?    Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth Pictures    For more Garmin Hamble Winter Series results and sailing information.
  

J/122 Wins Rolex Middle Sea Race

ARTIE and JARU Win IRC Class 3 & 4

(Malta)- The 31st edition of the 606-nautical mile Rolex Middle Sea Race began Saturday, 23 October from Grand Harbour, Malta and the first boats finished by Monday the 25th. There is no question it was another epic odyssey for those sailors crossing the trading routes of antiquity, experiencing what many a mariner must have faced back in the days of Phoenicians ruling the Med or the Romans facing enormous navigational (and boat-handling) problems crossing the straits to Tunisia.  In short, whether it was Rome's Neptune or the Greek's Poseidon, the mythological Gods of the Sea threw everything, including the Roman baths and kitchen sinks at the fleet as they took their counter-clockwise course around the extraordinarily picturesque volcanic island of Sicily.  Faced with everything from dead calms to 40+ knot Mistrals from the WNW, it was certainly going to be a test of the sailors as well as their boats.

Before the race, the betting was on as to which Ripard family team was going to beat the other.  And, perhaps more importantly, who was going to add another Rolex watch to their collection, especially after Christian Ripard won class and overall in the 2001 edition of the Rolex MSR with his J/125 STRAIGHT DEALER.  Local knowledge in this race helps and, as predicted, the Ripard-family sailed teams would be very competitive against a very strong fleet of professionally sailed TP52s and an assortment of 45 to 100 foot custom racers. 

After a difficult, physically-demanding and challenging race, the J/122 ARTIE sailed by Royal Malta YC members Lee Satariano and Christian Ripard won IRC Class 4 were 2nd in IRC overall, just missing by just 26 minutes the overall honors against a slew of high-speed, custom offshore sleds like TP52s and two 100 foot canting keelers.  First J to finish by just 25 minutes over the J/122 ARTIE was the J/133 JARU co-skippered by John Ripard Jr. and his brother-in-law, Andrew Calascione. JARU sailed strongly to win IRC Class 3 and place 3rd just behind ARTIE for IRC overall, in fact, beating in class a Swan 45 and Swan 56 custom and a Summit/Mills 40.  Finishing 5th also in IRC Class 3 and 12th Overall IRC was the J/133 JUNO sailed by Sonke Stein.

ARTIE's Christian Ripard commented- "all three J's, ARTIE J/122, JARU J/133 and JUNO J/133, have done the J Boats family proud and all the crew of these three boats would not change their boats for anything else-- and my congratulations to Didier LeMoal and the Johnstone family and their teams for building us a solid, fast, comfortable, safe boat capable of winning against flat-out offshore race boats crewed by professional America's Cup and Volvo guys!  My bow-man is 19 years old and this was his first offshore race!"

It was a horse-race from the beginning.  By late Sunday night, the J/122 ARTIE was leading the fleet on corrected time going thru the Straits of Messina.  At the Stromboli checkpoint, it was going to the wire in Class Three. Sonke Stein’s J/133 JUNO was leading, but only just, four minutes ahead of JARU and ARGO from Malta and Italy respectively, who are inseparable on corrected time.

Stein said, "Although JUNO is registered in Hamburg, she is based in Malta. This is my first Rolex Middle Sea Race with the boat, but personally this is my ninth race. The crew is mainly Maltese and has done the race many times. We hope to win, but the competition is very strong, we are looking forward to more exciting conditions ahead and above all to enjoy quality time with good friends."

One crew member in the race, Hillary Cook, commented on email, "North of Sicily it feels like we have sailed into a different climate zone. Gone from deck is the stash of sun cream and water bottles, to be replaced by thermals, oilskins and pleas for cups of hot tea. Porridge for breakfast this morning was very welcome after a challenging night, battling heavy rain and a wind which refused to make up its mind whether it was still southeasterly or the promised westerly, and at times settled for being zero."

If you have any interest in peering at a yacht tracker, check out each one of the boats tracks on the RMSR website.  After the R/P 100 Esimit Europa 2 claimed line honours on Monday, the Slovenian maxi held the corrected lead, but only until the TP52 Lucky (USA) completed a fantastic lap around Sicily to take the overall handicap lead. Then it was down to ARTIE, and for a while, fellow Maltese boat JARU, a J/133, to see if they could beat the clock. Artie had to finish at 08.18 Wednesday morning, and at the various checkpoints of the course that meant averaging around mid-9 knots. They had shown flashes of this speed, so it was all possible. It was pretty impressive sailing in a J/122, a 40-foot performance racer-cruiser class that has had great success at several offshore events, including the Rolex Fastnet Race.

ARTIE had a fast passage Tuesday night hitting boat speeds in the high teens, from Lampedusa through the South Comino Channel. Between Gozo and Comino the breeze held out, but around 08.00, as ARTIE sailed into Marsamxett Harbour, the breeze dropped away to zero, along with any chance of making the cutoff.  Crossing the line at 08:44, ARTIE missed the overall win by a mere 26 minutes on corrected time.  Incredible.  And, to know you were winning going into the last few miles up into the Grand Harbour, from the giddy heights of euphoria to the dungeon of dismay in minutes.

Owner and co-skipper Lee Satariano could be expected to be disappointed, though he said, "Last night we had many hours where the boat was just surfing down the waves. I really enjoyed that moment, it was really moving.  There was really nothing I would change, we raced the boat to its fullest potential, but we have only had this boat for a short time and we are very happy with our achievement. We knew on the last day that we were close to having first overall, but from the beginning to the end we were always pushing it to the limit. At no point did we take it easy. The entries for the Rolex Middle Sea Race have been increasing every year and the competition is reaching a very high level.  Maltese boats have shown well in recent races, we are up there; we can compete with the international competition."

Artie’s co-skipper, Christian Ripard was also full of wonder about the blast home on the last night. "The last night was just wonderful sailing and the crew had become fully in tune with each other. We were sailing on the edge and that requires precision, something that can only be achieved by perfect harmony which comes with time together on the boat."

First Maltese boat home was Andrew Calascione’s J/133 JARU, after 3 days, 20 hours, 2 minutes. Calascione said, "Sailing last night was one of those really special nights. First of all, the moon came up at a certain time where we were actually heading into it. We probably had a steady 17 knots of wind – chute up – and squalls to 25 knots, with just fantastic speeds because the wind was off the port quarter. Big seas, just a fantastic night of sailing, one of those things you dream of, twelve hours of it! The crew is in great shape, so it was good."  For more Rolex Middle Sea Race sailing information.   Rolex Sailing Photos/ Kurt Arrigo
  

J/122s Racing Hamble Winter Series

(Hamble, England- October 16-17)-  The second weekend of the 2010 Garmin Hamble Winter Series produced two more days of excellent racing in a shifting north to north-easterly breeze.  While Saturday produced tough racing  in 10-20 knots of cool breeze, Sunday was a softer day, with sunshine and blue skies, but still with big wind shifts. The Black Group start was set up on the Ryde Bank with a long first beat across the ebbing tide to windward marks near the mainland shore. With two races scheduled and the prospect of a softening breeze, the second start sequence was underway by midday on the same start line. Although the classes starting later struggled in the now east-going tide all boats were finished by 1430. 

In the Big Boat Series IRC 0 Class, the J/122s and J/133s are sailing a demanding, challenging regatta fighting the usual large current shears and wind shifts so typical of the Solent.  Ian Matthews' J/122 JINJA is sailing a strong series, lying in second place.  For more Garmin Hamble Winter Series results and sailing information.
  

J/122s Support Storm Trysail Big Boat Regatta

Fabulous Sailing On Long Island Sound

(Larchmont, NY- October 9-10)- Over the Columbus Day Weekend the Larchmont Yacht Club hosted sailors from 30 schools and universities for the Storm Trysail Foundation’s Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta (IOR) Presented by Prestige BMW. The annual regatta— now in its 10th year— saw over 300 sailors crew the 36 boats in the fleet, making the IOR the largest college sailing regatta in the country.  It was a veritable showcase for J/Boats- of 36 boats, it was a J/Fest of 31 J's, with 7 J-44’s, 3 J-122’s (CHRISTOPHER DRAGON pictured here), 1 J-133, 8 J-109’s, 11 J-105’s, a J/120 and a J/35.

Maine Maritime’s sailing team coach Tom Brown decided to pull his team out of all their dinghy events for the weekend so that his team could sail big boats at the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta instead. After driving over eight hours with his 17 sailors, Brown’s strategy paid off as team won two of the five divisions in the 38-boat fleet. Over 300 sailors participated make the IOR the largest college sailing regatta in the country.  The enthusiasm was so strong, that the University of Michigan team drove 2 vans 11 hours each way in order to race!! 

The weather gods smiled this year offering sunny skies and breezes that built from 10 knots for the first race to 15-20 knots for the subsequent races on both days.  PRO Butch Ulmer ran seven races in two days. The race organizers worked hard to put together one-design and closely-rated divisions to keep the racing tight. "The student sailors were some of the best we have seen in the ten years that STC has been running this event," said Paul Hoffman who ran the windward mark boat. "Racing was so close that three of the divisions ended up tied for first after seven races. More than once practically the whole J/109 fleet rounded the marks en-mass."

Maine’s Coach Brown said, "I have never seen so many smiles. Our team was so stoked that they stayed awake talking about the racing for the eight-hour drive back to Castine. When I got back to school, I had got a congratulatory note from the President of the school. They take big boat sailing seriously here. We will be back next year and we hope to have the same boats again."

The purpose of the regatta is two-fold: to introduce dinghy sailors to the team work and fun of big-boat racing and to provide a chance for experienced big boat sailors to have a chance to compete in well-prepared evenly-matched boats. STC has worked hard to build up this regatta because getting sailors involved in the sport of ocean racing goes right to the Club's mission statement.

Unlike other collegiate regattas, the boats are privately owned and the boat owners sail with the student sailors as coaches and safety officers. The regatta is not possible without the boat owners who lend their boats and time in order help educate the next generation of offshore racers.

Dr. Carl Olsson, who has lent his J/105 Morning Glory to his alma mater Bowdoin for the last eight years and who will be Larchmont Yacht Club’s Commodore next year, pledged to help the regatta grow significantly under his watch. "I believe that this regatta is so important the we will grow the event from 300 sailors to 500 in the next two years." To help meet this goal, the Storm Trysail Foundation funds educational events like the IOR and its junior safety at sea seminars across the country.

"Everyone who participates in this regatta has a great time," said regatta chair Adam Loory. "Both college sailors and boat owners tell me that this is the most fun regatta that they sail in all year. The boat owners get to go sailing without having to make a week’s worth of phone calls to round up crew, the kids get to sail on some of the most competitive boats around, and the whole event is free thanks to the sponsors who help support the regatta."  Corporate sponsorship came from Prestige BMW, Rolex, Vineyard Vines, Safe Flight Instruments,  Caithness Energy, UK-Halsey Sailmakers, Gill, Coca Cola and Heineken.   For more Storm Trysail Big Boat sailing information.     Sailing photo credits- Carter Williams photos.  Howie McMichael sailing photos.    Steve Landis sailing photos.