Six J105's were on the start line for the second Sunday of the Garmin Hamble Winter Series. The day was rather overcast and inclined to drizzle, all more than compensated by a solid 15 to 20 knot westerly breeze. Ideal J105 conditions and so it was to prove with some of the best racing of the year. The race committee opted for just one race with long beats and runs, up and down tide between Universal Marina and South Bramble.

Starting with class 3 the leading J105's soon left the rest of class 3 in their wake with Jolene (Ivan Trotman) going really well to lead Fay J (Paul Griffiths), Voador (Simon Curwen) and Jeopardy (Richard Watney) at the first windward mark. By the second windward mark battle had really been joined in earnest with no more than a few boat lengths between Jeopardy, Fay J and Voador. This close boat on boat combat continued for the rest of the race and it was only a mark rounding error at the last mark by Voador that finally broke the string that joined the first three boats together. At the finish Jeopardy came first, 23 seconds ahead of Fay J with Voador a further 33 seconds adrift.    

With only four boats the starts for the J105 class were combined with IRC3 for Sunday's racing. Hopefully we will get our own start next week with two more boats competing.

Two windward/leeward races each of one and a half hours were held in a pleasant 10 to 15 knot westerly. In the first race Fay J nailed the shifts to get to the first windward mark well in the lead, only to get all the shifts wrong on the second beat giving Voador a deserved easy victory with Journeymaker third and Jolene fourth.

Roles were reversed in the second race with Voador leading Fay J around the course until the second leeward leg where a slow spinnaker hoist allowed Fay J to sneak through for the win with Jolene pipping Jourmeymaker for third place. 

Maybe it was the very welcome sunshine, but everyone arrived ahead of time and raring to go on Saturday morning. There was a very good chance that if the forecasted north easterly held that there might be some spinnaker action. Hurrah!  Would we remember how to fly one? All that beating recently (point of sail, rather than Andy of the crew, we should be clear) might just have knocked kite flying skills out of us.

So off we headed for Cowes and the start line, life jackets dutifully applied for the starting gate and scrutinising of flag pole. Then we suddenly realised that we hadn’t turned the radio on. Oooops. Luckily we recognised that little potential faux pas before the course had been announced. “Around the island” came DJ Secretary Chartres’s dulcet tones. “Yippee” we yelled.

So we were off on a beat out to the forts, but, with the promise of kite flying later spirits were buoyant for Andy and his League of Ladies, bolstered in numbers this week by Vicky as Draig’y II wasn’t out to play. We were happy enough with our position at the forts but then the fun really started.  A seamless spinnaker hoist (phew), and we were off, creeping in to Sandown bay to play the tide.  With a lively breeze it was rather warm work and layers were soon being shed.  How pleasant. We’re not used to that. Could we order more of the same for Cherbourg?  Given the force of the wind the crew decided that they’d end up flying Fiona and the kite if she was left to do the gybes, so Ruth stepped in to do the honours, doing an amazing job in quite challenging wind conditions.

By the time we got to Ventnor, Only Just was beginning to make nice progress through the fleet, the gybes were hard work but ok, and the small hole in the spinnaker we’d spotted seemed not to be getting any bigger (to our great relief) having noted a few lively kite moments for other boats around us.  One particular gybe almost left us with a wrap but grim determination to hang on to the clew/sheet by Ruth and some nifty helming by Andy, meant we got away with it if at the price of Ruth getting a partial dunking, Emma getting squashed by Vicky, Fiona taking a bath on the cock pit floor after gybing the main sheet and ending up sitting in a large puddle of water, and a lot of choruses of “come on boat, do something”. The 6^th member of the crew needed to pull its’ own weight at that point as the rest of us could do no more.

Excitement over, sleeves shaken out of excess water, and St Cat’s was fast coming into view as we passed more and more boats.  Andy’s grin was getting broader and broader as the speed of the boat notched up and more and more boats receded into the distance behind us.  Floating Voter passed us. Then we passed them. It was going to be a duel today.

With the Needles away to starboard we were soon leading the fleet and having a blast, banter flying between the occasional groans of muscle cramp from the heroic and valiant power trim-team Emma and Vicky.  Andy was still grinning, but at one point that turned out to be less about our speed and progress and more about the large wave he clearly saw coming rather earlier than Fiona (on kicker) did, soaking her to the skin from head to boot, but not left ****.  They really should pick a larger wave deflector next time, as everyone bar Andy at the wheel got a little splashed with that one!  Andy just laughed as the sodden Fiona shook off the excess water. At least the water was passably warm.  This was the first wet t-shirt and shorts competition Only Just had witnessed. Hopefully the last too. 

We were all geared up for the final few miles and then not long after Ruth took the relay on the helm the wind dropped a little and the sails behind us were creeping nearer again. Oh no!  Could we hold it? Hmmmmmm. And so it proved to be a nail biting race for the line as Floating Voter slowly edged back nearer and nearer to us, finally beating across the line by a mere 43 seconds! That was a close one.

We’d had a fantastic day sailing and celebratory rum beckoned.  It was great to meet up with everyone on the pontoon or in the pub and even better that the race back didn’t have too early a start. 

Thank you Peter for the short race home, the Only Just crew were a little fatigued after their efforts the previous day.  The return race proved not without adventures either.  Fiona got a few more minor drenchings whilst skirting the headsail on the bow (oilskins firmly applied, not that it really felt like it), Emma and Vicky each had a damp leg/boot from trimming as we beat our way through the choppy sea state.  In solidarity, Emma and Vicky joined Fiona’s rather greater soggy state when a particularly big wave snapped the clips off the bag of our attached-in-(Andy’s)-hopeful-readiness screecher,  sending it for a partial swim that made for a rather lively few moments as Fiona, Vicky and Emma scrambled madly to retrieve it.  Never a dull race on Only Just.

Thanks as ever to Peter and Sandie for another great weekend of fun and racing. We did rather feel for you bouncing about in the boat at the start.

Eleven J/105s lined up in Torbay last weekend for the 2009 J-Cup, sponsored by North Sails, Dubarry of Ireland and B&G, making it the second largest class in the 63 yachts present – a feat Rod Johnstone could hardly have expected when he sketched out the J/105’s lines and thus began the “J-Sprit revolution” almost 20 years earlier.  After a warm welcome from Royal Torbay Yacht Club race management team, the one-design fleet headed to the southern half of the bay for a planned 3 races comprising windward / leeward’s and sausage / triangle courses.  A brisk South-Westerly breeze was a bit more than expected, and the 105s revelled in perfectly suited conditions more Key West than the South West.  A close race was sailed and after 90 minutes racing the top 3 boats finished within 15 secs, with Rob Dornton-Duff’s Java Team Gill narrowly taking honours, Richard Watney’s Jeopardy in 2^nd and UK National Champion William Newton’s Jelly Baby 3^rd.

Friday dawned with another 16 knot forecast, but all were feeling braver after a good night in RTYC and the local hostelries and in the event the afternoon gusts reached “only” the mid-20s.  Large shifts and uncertainty whether the wind would swing (local knowledge again!) provided plenty of opportunities to gain and loose places on the mainly windward/leeward courses that were set.  Jelly Baby and Java claimed wins, Chris Jones’ Journeymaker 5 challenged hard and Fay-J and Ivan Trotman’s Jolene also showed good form.

Saturday and the last day of racing left only 2 races to sail in conditions that could not have been more different, with mostly single digit wind speeds albeit again very oscillating.  Jeopardy came back to their initial form with a 1,2 and took the North Sails boat of the day, but it was not enough to wrestle the series back from Rob Dornton-Duff’s Java Team Gill, who finished with a dominating 6 wins overall.  Jelly Baby and Journeymaker 5 tied for 3^rd place on points, with Jelly Baby taking the podium on count back. 

Rob Dornton-Duff