Strong winds greet racing sailors

(CISC): The 5th Annual J22 International Invitational Regatta was held from 17 to 20 March on the North Sound, Grand Cayman. Hosted by the Cayman Islands Sailing Club the event attracted teams from the US, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada and the UK, all of whom came to take on the top 3 Cayman J22 teams. Windy conditions throughout the regatta with strong winds reaching almost 25 knots at times, made the racing challenging and exciting to watch. Day 1 was dominated by the Farrington brothers both representing Cayman. Simon Farrington on Sunshine won the first race but Mike Farrington on Just Leaving won the next two races to take a 2 point lead into Day 2.

Bahamas sailing legend Jimmie Lowe was close behind in third spot. The rest of the fleet struggled to control their spinnakers in the strong conditions with Marc Fischer from Rochester, USA breaking a spinnaker pole in an unplanned broach.

Day 2 saw more consistent performances from Marc Fischer and Craig Symonette from the Bahamas but the top three boats continued to dominate the podium positions. It was a similar story on Day 3 although Jimmie Lowe was by now reading the conditions well and challenging Mike Farrington in close fought races. Just Leaving relished the competition and sailed ever harder to take the regatta overall with a fine record of 8 wins out of 9.

The Just Leaving crew has been the dominant force in the J22 class in Cayman over the past 2 years and are undertaking an overseas campaign this year. They recently competed in the North American Midwinter regatta in Tampa and will be going to the J22 World Championship competition later this year. The Cayman youth team skippered by Chris Delaney and helmed by Thomas Hanson aboard DMS sailed well throughout the regatta with consistent results in demanding conditions.

The regatta organising committee would like to thank Heineken and Jacques Scott who helped to sponsor the social events and Compass Marine and Harbour House Marina who sponsored the trophies. Plans are already underway for Race Cayman 2012 with visiting teams eager to return. Craig Symonette from the Bahamas said, “This is our third year coming to Cayman and we will definitely return next year. It is such a well organised and fun regatta that we could bringas many teams as you can accommodate”.

Next year will also feature a youth event, the Western Caribbean Optimist Championship which will be sailed alongside the J22 regatta and over 30 young competitors from overseas are expected to attend the Championship.

Final Results
Rank Helm Name Nat R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Total Nett
1st Mike Farrington CAY -2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 8
2nd Simon Farrington CAY 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 -3 3 19 16
3rd Jimmie Lowe BAH 3 -6 3 3 4 3 3 2 2 29 23
4th Craig Symonette BAH -6 3 5 4 3 4 5 4 6 40 34
5th Marc Fischer USA 7 5 7 5 5 5 4 10 4 52 42
6th Thomas Hanson CAY 4 4 6 -8 6 6 6 6 5 51 43
7th Bruce Johnson CAN 5 7 4 -9 8 8 7 5 8 61 52
8th Jo Richards BER 10 10 8 6 7 7 8 8 7 71 61
9th Steve Adams GBR 8 8 -9 7 9 9 9 7 9 75 66