The day two report of the J/70 UK National Championship

The second day of the J/70 UK National Championship was one to keep your head out of the boat. After a delay ashore, a sea breeze materialized producing super-light conditions for the international fleet. Avoiding the wind holes, and tuning into the breeze direction as it slowly shifted south, were the keys to a top performance. PRO Stuart Childerley and his race team were roundly applauded for providing three windward- leeward races in 5-7 knots of wind.

The stand out performer of the day was Paul Ward's Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat, scoring the best score of the entire fleet with a 5-8-4 to take the lead for the teams racing for the J/70 UK National Championship. King & Wilson's Soak Racing showed early promise to come with in a single point of Eat, Sleep, J, Repeat, after Race 5, but a poor result in the last race today put Soak Racing in second place, 20 points behind the leader for the Open UK crown.

“What was important today was joining up the lumps of pressure,” commented Paul Ward, owner/driver of Eat Sleep J, Repeat. “Yesterday we finished with a bad race so we came off the water feeling a bit miserable, but a good fish restaurant in Torquay seemed to sort out that! It was a day for keeping your head out of the boat, and Charlie (Cumbley) is very good at that, and we set up the boat so we were quick. We are very happy to be where we are in a very competitive fleet, but we have already scored our discard, and one bad race tomorrow and we will be off the top.”

35 teams from ten different nations are competing in the regatta for championship prizes for both Open and Corinthian classes. In the Open Class Michael Goldfarb's Warcanoe (USA) leads but only on countback from Eat,Sleep, J, Repeat (GBR). Luis Albert's Patakin (ESP) is third, just two points from the top of the leaderboard, having finished the day with a 2-1 to come back strongly from a poor first race.

Eleven teams are competing in the Corinthian Class and the top three are all British. Soak Racing have a seven point lead for the Corinthian title. Calascione & Ripard's Calypso could not repeat yesterday's top performance and drop to second for Corinthian Class. Doug Struth's DSP did not have their best day, but is still on the podium for the Corinthian Class.

Today's races were won by Sergei Dobrovolskii's Amaiz Sailing Team (CYP), Luis Albert's Patakin (ESP), and Alberto Rossi's Enfant Terrible (ITA). Teams that scored podium finishes today included: Marcos Soares Highlanders (BRA), Renato Faria's To Nessa (BRA), Henry Brauer's Rascal (USA), and Jose Maria Torcida's Noticia ESP).