The J Cup 2010, which was held at Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble, could not have had better weather conditions. Competitors were treated to glorious sunshine and a force 4 for the first day of racing out in the Solent. In the J80 fleet there were several students competing, representing 5 universities ? Charlotte Goodman- Simpson, Tom Cheney and Neil Payne on Swallow from Portsmouth University; Phil Donnell and Tom Taylor on Surf and Turf also form Pompey; Penny Jeffcoate on Juicy from Manchester; Andy Page from Southampton Solent and Thomas Chardonnel from Southampton on Aqua-J.
The competition got off to a flying start with Juicy and Aqua-J flying to the front of the fleet by getting in the strong tide and cruising up the course. A battle on the finish, however, left Aqua-J spinning and Juicy went on to achieve a 3rd. Surf and Turf had a good race too, getting an 8th in the end. In the second race Swallow managed to storm up to third place, leaving Juicy this time to be closely beaten by Aqua-J in 7th and 8th respectively. The three boats again were closely battling it out in the third race with all three achieving a top 5 result. The next day saw similar conditions (and some sore heads and sunburn) and Juicy again started the day well with a 2nd place, but then had a couple of shocking results in the afternoon. Aqua-J and Swallow had consistent top ten results, as did Surf and Turf with a couple more 8ths. A 2nd and 3rd for Aqua-J and Swallow respectively for the second to last race was a brilliant result. Surf and Turf and Juicy were not so fortunate, with Juicy getting pushed the wrong side of the Inner Distance Mark and so being OCS. Another bad start in the last race meant Juicy were black flagged, but Swallow at least achieved a good result. After some very close racing and a few altercations, Aqua-J managed a brilliant 3rd overall with Swallow hot their heels with 4th. Juicy slipped down the board a bit only managing a 7th overall. Surf and Turf, with a few mixed results, came 13th overall.
Also representing the student yachting population was Alan Roberts form Southampton Solent doing tactics on Java. They had some brilliant racing and Alan must have made some great decisions because they achieved four 1sts, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. A brilliant week and a 1st overall!
Some great racing and brilliant socials meant everyone had a brilliant week and hopefully there’ll be some more students out next year achieving some more brilliant results. Overall results on http://www.royal-southern.co.uk/