"Try something different”………..

Just for the hell of it, I took my J to another yacht club and picked up a crew of locals from the Bar!
That’s right, there was no sailing for the J class that weekend, so with perfect weather forecast (I have to be very careful to pick my weather at the moment due to my recovery process) I entered Bruschetta VI in the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron saturday handicap club race. Motoring from Sandringham Yacht Club up the bay I arrived at the glorious new marina of RMYS. I had entered the night before, the RMYS office staff had found Gretchen to sail with me, I also had Cherry who had sailed with me in New York and after carefully looking at the weather, which was an easily manageable northerly with flat water, I asked at the bar if anyone else wanted a sail. Scott put his hand up, despite never being on a J or ever doing the bow, Scott seemed perfect.
Bruschetta VI was the smallest boat in the fleet which ranged up to a TP52, I must admit that the TP52 did lap us, however the laid windward leeward course was perfect J sailing, matched with 20 degree shifts all over the course, we matched it with the fleet, far from last over the line we retired to the bar. We were stunned to hear that we had won the day by a staggering 5 minutes to 2nd place. This effort has gone down really well at RMYS and we received praise from the office bearers and competitors alike.
J24’s are perfect for some of these clubs, cost effective and super competitive, I can’t stress enough how impressed the club members were with the 30+ year old J design, it was great fun to race against a new fleet, sail with people I had never met and surprisingly get around the course with near perfect crew work………. I’m going to push for the J’s to make the pilgrimage again this time with more numbers, it will only help grow the class which still has a major place on the club race course. Try it sometime  ……. Hugo.