 | J/24 Spring Championship
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A dozen J/24s from Ireland's most mobile keelboat fleet went by road to Carrickfergus SC for the Prestige Spring J/24 Championship, won by Marcus Isherwood’s Jadore from Lough Erne, with helm Stuart Harrison, Lough Neagh SC, on the weekend 21 & 22 April. The statistics of superb sailing sport include 14 keelboats with 70 sailors, boats and helms from ten clubs, and two thirds of the fleet counted a first, second or a third place in eight well-set windward-leeward races.
Prestige Underwriting Services and Carrickfergus Borough Council were Sponsors. The dozen mobile J/24s came easily by road from Coleraine Carlingford, Malahide, Bray, and Dunlaoghaire on the coast, and from Loughs Erne and Neagh inland. Masts neatly up by gin pole; they launched Friday mid-afternoon, and were out, masts down and ready for the road by Sunday mid-afternoon. Handy mobile handling has long made for easy access to good sailing sport and social fun for keelboat crews from all around the island at these lively eight race J/24weekends.
This Prestige Championship gave typical close, hard fought and hugely enjoyable sport among busy crews working a real keelboat deck with a real spinnaker on courses set and re-set exact windward-leeward by Race Officer, Ken Atkinson. After Saturday’s five races, Michael McCaldin’s Murder Picture from Lough Erne, past Irish National J/24 Champions, led by single points from Carrick’s David Taylor and Paul Barbour’s Taz team, current National Champions. Saturday’s third placed Jadore team took two firsts and a second on Sunday to secure the Championship with an overall score of 14.5 points, well clear of Taz’s 26 and Murder Picture’s 30 points. That half point came from 2.5 each for a simultaneous finish second-third in the last race alongside defending Champion, Barry O’Neill’s Just 4 Fun team from Royal St George YC. Race prize winners included Carrick event organizer, Steve Atkinson’s Bád, fourth overall, three second places, and James Byrne’ Gossip, Carlingford SC, fifth, two firsts. Chris Allen scored two seconds in Hard on Port and Tim and Shirley’s Sheard’s Jay Kay, Europe’s oldest J/24, had one third place, likewise Stefan Hyde, Royal Cork YC, recent winner for Ireland of the Student World Keelboat Championship, helming Gerard Deasy’s Nautigirl, National YC. Best old Westerly prize went to Johnny Morgan’s JAB crew from Carlingford.
New J/24 owners included Chris Shackle ton, Johnny Bravo, in Brian McDowell’s Scandal crew from Malahide. One of her joint owners Terence McGrath helmed Janx Spirit, another winter import from Britain. Jadore, Bád and Gossip were among twelve J/24s loaned via ISA to RCYC to stage September’s hugely successful ISAF Nations Cup world match race final. Tried and tested in over 180 world class match races, Ireland’s own International J/24s proved well suited to this top level sport, in an event that merited much strong praise to Irish Sailing at November’s ISAF annual meeting. The 2007 season is well started for Ireland’s most mobile keelboat fleet, active at coastal and inland venues, new boats and old, welcoming new owners and crew to keelboat sailing, national and international, where J/24s are the world’s most numerous and widespread of their type.
The full results and are lots more of Nigel Thompson’s action photographs are on http://www.carrickfergussc.org/Racing/J24SpringChampionship/
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