Unofficial results just in - Stuart Jardine finishes in third in the final race, 3 places ahead of Jon Corless/Todd Olson, to clinch victory in the J24 Class. Mike Lewis and the Erin crew keep their consistency to finish second on the day and third overall. Trevor Boyce gets his second bullet of the week to finish strongly, pipping John Nicholls for fourth position overall. Mike Hill breaks clear of the chasing pack to get sixth place.

The Texas Girls are really missing this event. We joined the “Cali” girls the last 2 years and sure did want to come back as a strong “ONLY Texas” Girls team!! I know you think there is no water and sailing in Texas!! We have a sailing event every weekend, even in winter! (Ask Mr. Cloutier, our own Texas Canadian ) Check with Megan Sommers. She and her team came out to Texas and placed 3rd with the women’s Sundance cup. I salute them for getting on a boat that they never have sailed and did fantastic! I notice the lack of “girly” competietion for our friends from Cay. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE on the water and especially off the water!
I want to extend a “very special wish” and hello for STUART and GEOFF, I knew you still had it in you!!
Good luck to the “Metro sexual” Colorado boys. I am sure they look the best on and off the water. We hope to be back next year after we finish our Adams cup competion in September.(4 girls on a J24, yikes) Thanks to all of our friends in Bermuda and good luck.
Cheers, Sherre

So the breeze picked up and the rain came in, showing the overseas competitors a contrast to the sunshine and relatively light winds of day two.

I caught up with many of the sailors at the BJCA Dock Party and managed to sample several of the cocktails. The Erin Annihalator stands out as being the tastiest, although the Papillon concoction wasn’t half bad, even though Rikki had said that it had “too much fruit juice and was a bit grapey”. The fact that it had any fruit juice was pretty amazing as many of the other cocktails seemed to be pure spirit.

As far as the sailing was concerned, it seemed that the steady 20s winds with the odd gust seemed to catch many of the boats out. Crew of the day was definitely Mayhem, with a stellar (no Siren, not Stella) result of a double bullet for the day. Todd Olsen remarked that it was “$&*!@ing better than yesterday” - alluding to Mayhem’s results from Monday. Heavier breeze definitely suits them. Unlike that trendy dri-fit gear they have.

Stuart Jardine on Solaise also had a good day, completing the day with two second place finishes. Geoff Evelyn was feeling a “bit tired” after all the winching - so spare a thought for his 70 year old skipper.

Erin also had a solid day with a 4-3 and won a protest with New Wave after some port-starboard action on the start line. The Stella boys on Siren regained some consistency after a topsy-turvy day two to be positioned in fourth overall - skipper John Nicholls was ecstatic, or maybe that was just the effect of too much of his sponsor’s product.

Mike Hill and crew had a good day in the heavier conditions. Apparently they were still struggling with their downwind legs, but having their own sails was definitely making a difference. 17 years after their last appearance in Race Week, they seem to be having fun and be right in the middle of the action, alongside Scott Snyder with local Rock Star Rikki on board the good ship Papillon. Fellow crewmember Chris (aka Titty) seemed to be representing his country well and was definitely putting in a large number of tacks (or was he downwind and gybing?) on various females on the dock. Good effort.

Other notable mentions go to Dale Robertson from Novi, who was experiencing these types of Bermuda breeze for the first time, and Alex - the foredecker on Ken Clarke’s crew - who decided to mutiny halfway through a gybe manoevre, much to the rest of his crew’s surprise. “He could have at least finished the gybe”, said crewmate Nona, to which Alex replied “At least I stowed the pole” - much hilarity there, and I wonder how Nona went below deck and came up with several sets of Bacardi Gras beads around her neck? Must get to the bottom of that one.

Quote of the day definitely came from one (unnamed) local skipper who remarked about his boat “If you only knew how much I had spent on that boat” - unfortunately he made the remark to another (unnamed) skipper who guffawed and responded “Hey, remember who you are talking too - I own one too!”

So we look forward to day 4 of sailing and the class BBQ in the evening. See you there.

Stuart Jardine edged a couple of points clear in the overall standings with a solid couple of second places, however performance of the day goes to the Olsen/Corless team in Mayhem who devastated the opposition with two comprehensive bullets. John Nichols had a more consistent day and Mike Lewis slipped to third. Consistency is clearly the key, and with drops only a handfull of points seperate the top four boats, all four have a chance (see results link).

More to follow….

….via telephone from the RBYC….

Jardine (GBR 4215) and Lewis (BER share the lead on 11 points. Unconfirmed reports tell me Jardine scored a 2 and a 4, Lewis scoring two 3’s, so Mike has the lower drop. Left side of the course was favoured. Despite a 2nd last in the first race, Nichols (BER 19) had a bullet in Race 2 keeping him in the hunt. Well done John.

…more to follow….

Another Race Week begins with some new faces, some old faces and some very old faces - and that is just on the executive committee! Many of the crews arrived and began weighing in on Friday evening, availing themselves of the RBYC hospitality. The boat draw took place on Saturday morning at 10am, with the following results:

Ken Clarke (CAN 4468) - Centipede
Scott Snyder (USA 5253) - Papillon
Dale Robertson (CAN 578) - Sadiiqi
Anne Aylmer (CAN 4101) - Thunder
Jane Moon (CAY 1) - Cyclone
Stuart Jardine (GBR 4215) - Solaise
Mike Hill (USA 5291) - Jezebel

On top of that we also have the 4 local participants Erin, Mayhem, New Wave and Siren.

Weigh in took place with some crews very close to the 400 kg (that is 880 lbs to you) limit, and deciding to sweat the weight off with several beverages of an alcoholic nature.

Some key points from the day:
- The Cayman team happened to pick a boat with a paint job that exactly matched their crew gear
- Mike Hill arrived from Newport with a half suit of sails after Delta decided to ship his mainsail and genoa elsewhere. The last time Mike sailed Race Week was 17 years ago.
- Scott Snyder and his Colorado team seem to have managed to secure some great sponsorship from the Rudy Project (note to self - maybe we need to speak to him about Worlds Sponsorship)
- John Heseltine from Nova Scotia still managed to make Race Week even though Sean McDermott and the rest of his usual crew did not - so we know John will be carrying a heavy burden of having to party for 5 people this time around
- It turns out that Stuart Jardine (now 70) is not the oldest sailor at Race Week as one of the laser sailors is somewhat older. But that is still a great deal of experience, and with Geoff Evelyn, former IJCA President, on his crew he will be hard to beat
- Jon Corless and his Mayhem crew look very sporty in their matching dri-fit clothing (well, Paula does anyway)

Sunday marks the start of racing with first warning at 11am. Good luck to all J/24 Class participants in what promises to be a great week of racing.

We will miss the racing, we will miss the socials and we will certainly miss the daily Hog Penny step dancing rituals. A word of caution to all though, the Caymaniacs really are dangerous women! Be afraid, be very afraid
All the best in sailing. We’ll be following ALL the action closely. Cheers, Sean, Rory and Joe…
Sean McDermott