The Solent sparkled in bright sunshine for the opening Grand Slam of the UK J/70 Class 2024 season. A crisp cold Spring weekend, with mainly Northerly breeze ranging from 12-16 knots on Saturday and slightly more on Sunday.
When the Solent breeze is in the North, it is almost invariably quite shifty. And so it proved on Saturday, as the wind regularly swung through 50 or 60 degrees, creating a significant challenge for the tacticians and plenty of 'snakes and ladders' moments in the four races that day. It was clear from the outset that the fleet was a bit trigger-happy and full of adrenalin on the start line, perhaps impatient after missing Grand Slam 1. This was exacerbated by a strong oblique cross tide, with the predictable result: three 'general recalls' in Race 1. PRO Tim Hancock promptly unfurled the Black Flag which immediately calmed down the cortisol levels. There were no more general recalls for the rest of the weekend.
At the end of day 1, the top 5 were notably all Corinthian boats, led by 'Calypso', 'Jeepster' and 'Brutus', This bodes well for the UK contingent that will travel to Copenhagen in the first week of June for the first ever Corinthian World Championship.
Sunday was slightly windier, and offered some wonderful planing, with an even stronger cross-tide vector for all 3 races to keep the tacticians on their toes. It was again really shifty, particularly in the final third of the beat, and offered some good practice at tight mark roundings, particularly useful for the increasing number of UK boats travelling to international events. Jelvis won the day, so ended the event tied with Calypso on points overall and pipped her to the top of the podium on countback of first places, with Jeepster completing the Open podium. Calypso were Corinthian winners with Jeepster and Brutus completing that podium, in a wonderful season opener that showed off the best that the J/70 has to offer in ideal Solent Spring conditions.
Overall Results:
Pos Sail No Boat Name Owner / Skipper Category Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Pts
1 1573 Jelvis Martin Dent O Island SC 2 22 1 2 9 1 1 16
2 1452 Calypso Jonathan Calascione C RYS 1 1 3 3 14 6 2 16
3 12 Jeepster Max Clapp C RSYC 5 2 8 1 1 5 5 19
4 1572 Brutus II Charles Thompson C RSYC 3 3 6 7 2 2 22 23
5 118 Woof John Greenland C RTYC/Imperial Poona YC 16 4 9 4 5 3 9 34
6 1591 Dads 'N' Lads Tim Simpson C RDNBYC 4 9 2 10 6 11 4 35
7 937 Powder Monkey Ian Poynton C RSYC 6 6 5 8 3 9 11 37
8 830 Ran Bertie Fisher O RSYC 9 7 7 9 4 13 3 39
9 1248 DSP Doug Struth/Marshall King C/M RSYC/RTYC 11 5 4 16 12 4 7 43
10 1206 Offbeat David McLeman C RSYC 7 12 17 6 8 18 16 66
11 1051 Escape Giles Chipperfield C Lymington Town SC 8 10 14 17 7 17 10 66
12 974 EV Experts Tom Hartridge C RYA 13 16 12 5 13 8 22 67
13 742 Ella Brown C/M RTYC 19 11 19 11 17 7 6 71
14 743 Krystal Law C/Y/M RTYC 17 8 16 13 10 16 8 71
15 290 Peter Watts C Burghfield SC 12 22 13 12 15 10 22 84
16 745 Christine Shrimpton C RTYC 18 15 11 14 18 15 12 85
17 747 RTYC6 Melisande Besse C/Y RTYC 20 13 20 15 11 21 15 95
18 1381 RSYC Youth Team Linus Rindsfuser C/Y/M RSYC 14 18 10 19 21 14 18 95
19 972 Yeti Sam Osborne C/Y/M Ryde School 21 17 15 20 20 12 13 97
20 744 Elizabeth Jemima Lawson C/M RTYC 10 19 21 21 16 19 14 99
21 24 Connectus Racing Ben Harris C/M RSYC 15 14 18 18 19 20 17 101
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