(Sydney, Australia)- Following the great success of the Sydney-based
J/111 JAKE in the offshore summer series, JAKE headed back to the harbor
to compete for the first time with Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. In
keeping with their remarkable performances to date, the Ray and Sandra
Entwistle have this to report from their recent escapades flying around
Sydney's gorgeous harbor. "On Saturday the 4th February, JAKE was joined by two other casual entries to boost the Division One fleet to 19 boats. The fleet consisted of a wide variety of boats including a Sydney 60, Jutson 50, Lyons 49 to name a few plus the regular spread of Beneteau 45s, 40s, Sydney 36s, Elan 350 RP, Farr canting-keel and other high performance one-offs.
It was looking like a potential glass-out (no wind) just 30 minutes before the start but then the wind began to fill the course with a shifty 8 to 13 knot southeaster. JAKE was buried on the start by some of the larger boats so took an early port tack out of the traffic into more favorable tide and wind heading up Sydney Harbor from Kirribilli to Neilson Park. It was then a short run to Taylor's Bay followed by another beat to "Sow and Pigs" buoy. We thought the criss-cross harbour course which included some legs which were simply power reaching under jib would be detrimental to the J/111 amongst the larger boats, but she held her own admirably with the much bigger boats in town.
It wasn’t until the last spinnaker reach the Jutson 50 “Braveheart” managed to ease past JAKE and went around the Kirribilli bottom mark for the last time, dropping spinnakers just 10 seconds ahead. The last beat back up the harbor was a case of keeping out of the 50 footers dirty air as he covered our every move. JAKE powered through the line just one minute forty seconds 40 behind him and enjoyed a wonderful sight behind as most of the fleet were still on the last spinnaker run. It was amazing to see some 40 to 50 footers behind us on the water with some of the other similar sized boats up to 15 minutes behind, JAKE's crew knew they had done well.
JAKE scored a first on IRC by four minutes 22 seconds and a first on PHS by four minutes 34 seconds in its first harbor sail at Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, proving like here European and American sisterships the J/111 is as devastatingly quick inshore as she is offshore." For more J/111 sailboat information
