Simon Curwen on Voador won the double handed section of the 245 mile RORC Myth of Malham race to the Eddystone and back, coming second overall in IRC 2 as well.

Niall Dowling and Michael Boyd on Slingshot continued their good form by coming third in IRC 2 and second in the double handed section.

Yet another great result for J105's offshore! 

Congratulations to William Newton and the crew of Jelly Baby for winning the J Cup, just beating Geoff Payne's Jolene by one point. Fay-J (the Griffiths family) came a rather distant third, despite winning three of the eight races. It just goes to show that consistency pays!  Nine J105's competed in the event, which saw very contrasting weather from perfect conditions on day one, 30 knots plus on day two and finally cyclonic, next to nothing on day three. Jelly Baby really came to the front on day two winning both races in great style, really mastering the tricky conditions, leaving the rest of us, with the exception of Jolene, trailing rather a long way behind.

The Royal Southern Yacht Club and J UK are to be congratulated for organising a quite superb event, it really is one of the high points of the year. Torbay next year, 20 to 22 August, put it in the diary now!

0900 hours on Saturday 17 May saw the start of the RORC De Guingand Bowl for IRC 2 and 3. Four J105's took part in the two handed division in IRC2: Slingshot, Voador, Fay-J and Juliette.

The RORC set a testing 160 mile course, the first leg being a long downwind leg to St Albans Head, then a beat against the tide in very little wind back to Needles Fairway, a reach in increasing wind to RORC Offshore then a brutal 40 mile beat against the tide in up to 25 knots to Offshore safety followed by a glorious, fast reach via Nab tower to the finish at Gilkicker.

On Fay-J we had a cautious, or should we say inept start, but before long we were leading the fleet initially on the mainland shore to keep out of the last of the tide then gybing back into the deep water when the tide turned. We were still leading at the first mark (30 odd miles later), closely followed by Slingshot, where for us we got it all wrong! We went offshore to keep out of the worst of the strong adverse tide. In hindsight we should have rock hopped along the Dorset coast with our National Trust membership card to hand! Suffice to say the offshore route did not pay at all and we lost a huge amount of time. I think we gained some of the time back overnight on the long, wet, tiring, overnight slog to Oean Safety but not enough.

It was all quite close  at the finish with Slingshot first of the 105's (3rd in IRC2) followed by Voador, four and a bit minutes later, then Fay-J, another 10 minutes behind. Juliette finished an hour or so later.

In the overall two handed division Slnshot were beaten for first place by a very well sailed Astarte, so the final positions were: Astarte, Slingshot, Voador, Fay-J.

Paul Griffiths, 20 May 2008

Niall Dowling and Michael Boyd, the new owners of Slingshot, won the double handed section of the RORC Cervantes Trophy over the weekend.

Laurence and Oliver Mead in Juneau won the RSYC Weymouth Double with Just Acquaholix fourth.

6am on Saturday morning saw 35 yachts line up off Cowes for the 4^th edition of the increasingly popular Petit Bateau’s Round the Isle of Wight Solo, including 2007 Class 2 winner Simon Curwen in Voador and fastest rated monohull of the fleet, Rob Craigie’s beautiful new J/122 Jbellino.  The forecast of light winds and sunshine promised ideal conditions for kicking off the solo calendar, and for relieving many skippers of their hangovers induced by the obligatory Petit Bateau wine, dining and hospitality in the Island Sailing Club on the previous evening.

2 hours of favourable tide had a tightly packed fleet down to the Needles, where some elected for the “inside” route and others less adventurously (or perhaps still hungover) taking a wider line.  With conditions becoming lighter on the South of the Island, by St Catherine’s most found themselves relying on the tide to make any progress.  Those venturing offshore for wind were disappointed when a light but steady breeze filled in first along the shore, spreading the fleet significantly.  Light and flukey conditions presented a few more obstacles on the mostly downwind final leg to the finish at Prince Consort, with many slower boats getting shut out by the tide and retiring.

Split into 3 open classes based on LOA, Peter Olden’s J/92S Solan Goose claimed line and IRC honours as the only Class 3 boat to finish, and an impressive 4^th in the overall fleet on IRC.  In Class 2, Rob Dornton-Duff led in the 4 J/105s in Java closely followed by Oscar Mead in Juneau.  Amongst the Class 1 fleet, Jbellino took 3^rd place on the line and Peter Tanner in Oojah beat sister J/110 Shades of Blue (Ed Holton) by less than a minute.  All of our hats went off to Keith Richards’ arrival in Mini Transat 6.50 Rattle & Hum, just in time for the 10pm prizegiving!

Rob Dornton-Duff