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J/24 Team Racing Championships at Parkstone Yacht Club
Author: David Harding
Parkstone Yacht Club once again hosted the J24 National Team Racing Championships, held in near-perfect sailing conditions on 5th December. Competitors representing Ireland, Wales, Plymouth and Weymouth were joined by teams from three local clubs - Christchurch, Poole and Parkstone -with Willy McNeill, Mark Jardine and James Griffiths making numbers up to eight by entering as 'Parkstone Visitors'.
Thanks to a flexible approach to regional allegiances and nationality qualifications, several locally-based sailors were able to make up crews for some of the furthest-travelled teams - but every effort was made to equalise the six boats lent by competitors in Poole's Auto Engineering Winter Series, which had their gear checked, rig settings standardised and sails switched around the previous day.
Once the ice had been swept off the decks, battle commenced in the harbour's 'top triangle' off Poole Yacht Club, who provided a shore base for the teams and a fleet of RIBs to ferry them out for each race.
The first flight of four races around the short windward/leeward course saw Poole beat Parkstone and Wales, and Parkstone Visitors win against Wales and Parkstone. This left both Poole and Parkstone Visitors with two wins apiece, but the latter went through to the final with a lower points score of 14.75 to Poole's 15.5.
In flight two, Weymouth emerged as clear winners by soundly beating Christchurch and Ireland, who respectively won and lost against Plymouth.
The final between Weymouth and Parkstone Visitors, sailed in a wind gusting to 18 knots, was an intense match from before the start. Each team had one boat over the line at the gun, but Parkstone Visitors got the best of the first beat and led with first, second and sixth down the run. They held these positions until the second run, when the three Weymouth boats together were able to force Willy McNeill - the Visitors' second boat - down to fourth, despite Alastair Clarke being given a 360 degree penalty for an alleged infringement in the process. With 2nd, 3rd and 5th, Weymouth had the winning combination but, approaching the final leeward mark, McNeill luffed their fifth boat out to the right, dropping himself down to 6th and letting Griffiths through to fourth.
Starting the final beat still with a 1, 4, 6, the Visitors had to pull something out of the bag. The action started yards from the finishing line when Griffiths, back in fifth and sitting on Clarke's windward quarter, was able to sail the Weymouth boat beyond the port-hand end of the line. Griffiths flipped on to port and finished right under the committee boat, forcing Clarke to tack round and bear away hard under its stem. Approaching the line on port, Clarke then found McNeill coming in on starboard, leaving a rapidly shrinking hole between him and the committee boat. Clarke crash tacked to finish but McNeill protested, leaving the final result down to the on-the-spot umpire's decision. Had it gone in favour of McNeill, Parkstone Visitors would have won with 1, 4, 5- but Clarke was judged to have finished by having his bow over the line in time, leaving him, Richard Bowers and Mike Street taking the spoils home to Weymouth with the narrowest possible victory of 10 points to 10.75. In the sail-off for third place, Poole's 1, 4, 5 was enough to push Christchurch down to fourth overall.
More Information:
- UK J/24 Class Website
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