J/111 JENGA Report- Wednesday @ Cowes

* Paul Heys sailing aboard the J/111 JENGA had this to report- "Day 5 of Aberdeen Asset management Cowes week, dawned with a forecast of a South Westerly 20 gusting to 30.



After the first 4 days J122 Jinja, very well sailed by Ian Mathews and
team was the class 2 leader, in second was the J111 Shmokin Joe of Phil
Thomas and Duncan Macdonald and in third the J 111 Jenga 7 helmed by
Mike Henning.



For 4 days the races had been long beats against the tide, followed by
dead runs back downwind, conditions that suited the bigger heavier boats
in the fleet pretty well, so we on Jenga 7  were very pleased that the
J’s were batting above their weight.



On day 5 the tide was finally reversed, today we would beat with the tide and run back against it.



Starting from the squadron line at Cowes we headed out on an 8 mile beat
to the Western end of the Solent , Shmokin Joe  made a nice start, we
were a little cautious and ended up second row, the whole fleet was
short-tacking up the Green (next to the Royal Yacht Squadron and The
Parade) to take advantage of the very strong tide that runs there.
Initially we traded places with our Dutch sistership J111 JXcentric and
Inga a Corby 36, Shmokin Joe was trading places with Grand Slam a Grand
Soleil 40 at the front of the fleet.



Twice we were bounced left by starboard tackers and each time we made a
further loss, halfway up the beat, boats to both the left and right made
gains against us and we were suddenly in the mix with boats that we had
not seen before, a Swan 51, First 40’s and Elan 40’s. Meanwhile Shmokin
Joe helmed by Kevin Sproul was sailing a text book beat, tacking on the
shifts utilising the tide and outpacing the J 122, Salona 45, Grand
Soleil 43, Elan 410 and the Corby 36, who made up the chasing pack.



The further down the Solent we went the more the wind increased, we were
now seeing 25 knots. Shmokin Joe  was first around setting their code 3
chute and blasted off in a ball of spray, Jinja and many others gybe
set to head inshore for tidal relief. On Jenga 7  we rounded 12th and
knew we had a lot on, gybe setting to the code 4 the chase was on: after
2 miles we were up to 3rd we were blasting along at 12-15 knots at
155TWA passing the heavier slower boats very quickly, J111 JXcentric had
gone to the island shore which was a tidal disadvantage, so we were
soon ahead of them. As we charged into the entrance of the Lymington
River at 14.5 knots we were confronted by the car ferry, thankfully as
he built his speed we were able to get around his stern comfortably.



With the depth down to 3 metres we executed a tidy gybe and set off on
Starboard, now the waves were with us and this allowed us to surf up to
16.5 at times, inshore we saw Jinja spin out and broach followed by some
minutes without spinnaker, this left just Shmokin Joe  to chase, they
were a long distance ahead having beaten us to the windward mark by 7-8
minutes. As we blasted down, we now saw Shmokin Joe  in trouble,
broaching followed by a spinnaker drop, so great gains to us, shortly
they reset and were once again launched.



A tidy rounding of West Lepe and back up wind with the deficit reduced
to 3 minutes. The next leg was to be the leg of the regatta a 145 TWA
reach across the Solent from Quod Possimus to Salt Mead. Shmokin Joe 
was round first and set off like a rocket we followed suit, the wind was
now gusting to 30 and boat speeds were in the high teens with a peak of
20, we flat out planed the whole leg with the crew stacked aft. Below
us was the TP 52 Pace sailing slightly hotter but at the same speed, the
two J 111’s and the TP 52 blasted across the Solent at virtually the
same speed in clouds of spray. The data recorder aboard Shmokin Joe
would later show that the average speed for the leg was 16.8Knots!! Not
bad for a 36 footer.



At Salt Mead we gybed for a run down to NE Gurnard, we once again
blasted the width of the Solent gybing off Beaulieu exactly in the wake
of our sistership who were still a few minutes ahead, the gap behind us
to the next boat was pretty large. On their final gybe to the bottom
mark Shmokin Joe  suffered a spinnaker wrap, followed by a broach and
then a trawl, we were blasting in at 15 knots as they recovered their
spinnaker and dignity, calculating that we were now winning on handicap,
we made a safe gybe drop and followed them in to the penultimate mark,
following them into the finish to take the bullet.



JXcentric made it a J/111 podium with J/122 JINJA in 4th.  One of the most exciting days racing at Cowes for years !!"

  

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