Compass Marine wins 2010 J/22 Nationals

(CNS): The 2010 J/22 Nationals was held over the weekend of April 17 & 18 and is the main local yachting regatta organized by the Cayman Islands Sailing Club (CISC) and held just once a year. Mike Farrington, the skipper of Compass Marine, proved once again to be the fastest sailing team in Cayman by winning the 2010 J/22 National Championship. His last success was winning the KPMG International J/22 regatta held in March this year as part of the highly publicised Race Cayman event. Farrington sailed with the highly experience crew of Matt Diaz and Paul Johnston. The team won five out of six races and also won the 2009 National Championship.

Keeping the success in the family and in second place was Sunshine skippered by Charlie Grover, whose team included Simon Farrington, the brother of Mike Farrington, and Chris Delaney. The CISC youth team sailed by Thomas Hanson, Kayla Ramos, Dejian Solomon, and Thomas Bishop, would have come third, but due to the weight restrictions they did not qualify and in their place came Steve Adams on Wreckless.

A total of nine boats sailed in the regatta, making it one of the largest National Championships in the last few years. The event is normally raced over two days with three races on each day, however and much to the disappointment of some of the crews, rain with some thunder and lightning cancelled the racing on Saturday forcing the race committee to run all of the races on Sunday.

While the conditions on the first day made sailing impossible the weather on the Sunday was considered to be perfect with winds of 8-12 knots and calm seas.

Mike Farrington, who is also in charge of developing Cayman’s J/22 fleet, thanked the race officer and the other competitors. “Special thanks to Peta Adams for squeezing in six races on Sunday and to all the participants for taking the time to organize a crew and race.”

The next major event is the Storm Chaser dinghy regatta on June 5 & 6.

For more information about sailing in the Cayman Islands, please visit the CISC website www.sailing.ky or search for “Cayman Islands SailingClub and the National Sailing Centre” on Facebook.