J/111 EuroCup/ Cowes Race Week Preview

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week is a key part of the British sporting calendar taking place from August 8th to 15th this year. These dates result from early traditions when the great and the good came to Cowes between “Goodwood” and the “Glorious Twelfth” – day one of the Grouse Shooting Season. The event is a great mix of competitive sailing and a vibrant social scene and has evolved enormously since the early days; it now attracts up to 1,000 competing boats, around 8,500 competitors and at least 100,000 visitors.

Cowes Week now stages up to 40 daily races and is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world.  Although the regatta is over 180 years old, it is only in recent times that the Week has become an integrated series of races organized by a single body; today the Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC) of ten member clubs run the racing as a single organization- and the principal starting line is the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line pointed approximately due north of the “castle on the rocks”.

Amongst the madding crows will be several dozen J/Teams participating in this classic summertime event.  The J/111s will be sailing their 3rd edition of the EuroCup while the balance of J/Crews include a combination of one-design fleets like J/70s, J80s and J/109s.  In addition, there are IRC Handicap fleets that have J sailors in IRC 3, 4, 5, 6 and Cruiser A!  Some of the J/109s, J/111s and larger J’s will also be using Cowes Week as a “shakedown” practice for the upcoming Rolex Fastnet Race that starts on Sunday, August 16th.

The J/111s will be dual-scored in IRC 1 Class as well as for their EuroCup event that takes place from Saturday, August 8th to Tuesday, August 11th.  Many of the top UK teams are participating in the EuroCup, including Martin Dent’s JELVIS, Chris Jones & Louise Makin’s JOURNEYMAKER II, Tony & Sally Mack’s McFLY, Andrew Christie & Chris Body’s ICARUS and Cornel Riklin’s JITTERBUG.  Joining them from the Netherlands will be Hans Zwinjburg’s SWEENY.

For the balance of the week, the rest of IRC 1 class also includes two J/122s, Clive Miles’ HANGLE and Chris Daniel’s JUNO.  Two other J/122 stablemates are sailing in IRC 2 class, the Russian team of Sergey Sechenko on JOLOU and Kursad Terzi’s GARANTI SAILING.

IRC 4 class has a quartet of J/105s racing, a number of which are also sailing the Fastnet Race.  In this gang of four are William Newton’s JELLY BABY, Pete & Pip Tyler’s NEILSON REDEYE, Fiona & Malcolm Thorpe’s KING LOUIE and Andy Roberts JIN TONIC.  Also, doing some buoys and offshore training will be the British Army’s sailing team- WHITE KNIGHT 7 led by Joe Cowie, Phil Harnett and The Royal Lancers brigade!

The battle of the J/97s and J/92s is shaping up quite nicely in IRC 5 class, one of the most competitive fleets in the entire regatta.  Leading the charge for the 92s will be David & Libby Greenhalgh’s J’RONIMO with others in hot pursuit like Brian Malone’s BLUE DIAMOND DODJER, John Greenaway’s WIZARD, and Martin Pound’s MOBY JAY. Andy Howe & Annie Kelly’s J/97 BLACKJACK II should be near the forefront of the fleet, too.  They will have the plate full fending off Ole Bettum’s ALAMRA B III, James & John Owen’s JET and Rob Orr’s JACKAROO.

THE IRC Sportboat class is sporting 26 entries, surely to be one of the more crowded, spirited fleets jockeying for optimum positions on the Royal Yacht Squadron starting-line.  Five J/88s will be competing against a gaggle of CORK 1720s, Farr 280s, Hunter 707s and what not.  Look for these J/88 owners to all feature in the top ten in the class- Dirk & Dianne van Beek’s SABRIEL JR, Paul Ward’s EAT SLEEP J REPEAT, Stew Hawthorn’s JI FI, David & Kirsty Apthorp’s J-DREAM, and David Cule’s MAI TAI.  After one 6nm beat against the tide on the Solent, it is possible the J/88s will be the entire top 5 at the windward mark!

With 23 entries, the J/70s are now the largest J/class starting in this year’s Cowes Week; that’s double the number from last year’s event.  It’s bit hard handicapping this crowd since many of them have done well in other J classes while still others have the experience of the J/70 Worlds in La Rochelle behind them.  Nevertheless, one can expect these teams have a go at it more than once during the week; Freddie Liardet’s COSMIC, Charlie Esse’s DARWIN PROPERTY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, Andrew Creighton & James Davies’ J-STAR, Nick & Adam Munday’s J7T, Mike & Jamie Holmes’ JIKA, Jack Davies JUGADOR, David McLeman’s OFFBEAT and Jeremy Bennett’s SCEPTRE.

The 18-boat J/80 fleet has a number of class veterans prepared to do battle for the entire week.  Familiar names like AQUA J (Terry O’Neill), BETTY (Jon Powell), BOYSTEROUS (Ali Hall), JACKAROO (Richard Farrington), JAT (Kevin Sproul) and WILD WALLY (the Walters duo) will be scattered across the lead packs.  They are also joined by good visiting teams like OMAN SAIL’s Ibtisam Al Salmi from the Gulf Emirate of Oman, and two French teams- J’IMPRESSIONE (Pierre-Louis Attwell) and J’INDYC (Maxime Bensa).

The J/109s have a strong 17-boat class that sees a nice combination of experienced teams participating as well as a number of newcomers to the fleet.  Amongst the veterans are the INSPARA (Tor McLaren & Andrew Horrocks), JYNNAN TONNYX (Owain Franks and Jean Lockett), ME JULIE (Alex Ballantyne), DESIGNSTAR 2 (Roger Phillips), and SARDONYX IX (William Edwards). Some of the new faces in the crowd include ALICE OF HAMBLE (Anthony Ward) and PURE JOY (Chris Sharples, Richard Acland & Patrick Tolhurst).

Finally, in Cruiser A handicap world, the Julian James’ J/100 THUNDER SQUALL is the sole J crew taking on their 20-boat fleet!   Sailing Photo Credits- Tim Wright- Photoaction.com.    For more AAM Cowes Week sailing information


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