23 Jul 2012

'Lionheart' wins the J Class King Hundred Guinea Cup

By Jason Holtom

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Lionheart wins the Kings Hundred Guinea Cup at the J Class Solent Regatta as hundreds of spectator craft join in a celebration of the ‘Golden Age’ of yacht racing off Cowes

The J Class Solent Regatta culminated  with a re-enactment of the original 1851 Hundred Guinea Cup race around the Isle of Wight, east about on Saturday 21^st July with shore side spectators lining every vantage point around the 53 mile circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight.

The 2012 J Class regatta UK programme started in Falmouth with four races from the 27-30^th June with Ranger taking the honours ahead of Velsheda, Lionheart and Rainbow.

The four yachts then moved to the Solent with Velsheda winning the prestigious Queens Cup at the end of the three race series.

Unfortunately Rainbow, the newest and smallest J based on the 1931 Starling Burgess design for Harold S. Vanderbilt and just launched in 2012 by Holland Jachtbouw to a redesign by Dykstra & Partners, had to withdraw from the final round the Isle of Wight race as a precaution after suspected damage to her carbon mast in the earlier races.

The three J's on the Royal Yacht Squadron line

With the formation of the J Class Association (JCA) in 2000, the owners agreed that replicas from original historic designs (of which around 30 still exist even though never built) could be built and race again with a fair handicapping system and a formula was created to allow the use of aluminium for hull construction.

Of the two recently launched all-aluminium J’s Lionheart had looked the fastest on the water in Falmouth but was still working up her crew and sail handling to match the veteran crew on the steel hulled Velsheda and Ranger.

Lionheart is the largest J ever built at 46.75m, one of the so-called ‘Super J’s’ and benefits from a 100mm increase in freeboard over the original design agreed by the JCA rules to take into account the requirements for the additional equipment and accommodation of a modern built yacht.

Reconfigured by Andre Hoek from an original design by Starling Burgess & Olin Stephens from 1936, Lionheart is a design that was never built, one of seven models rejected for the eventual Cup winning Ranger.

Looking for her first win Lionheart made an impressive start in the stronger current on the Island side of the Royal Yacht Squadron line, benefitting from a fair east going tide leaving the spectator fleet in her wake beating into an eight to ten knot easterly.  Velsheda and Ranger tried to break through by looking for more wind on the mainland shore. By the Nab Tower turning mark, east of the Isle of Wight, Lionheart had an impressive two and a half minute lead ahead of Velsheda with Ranger a further one minute behind. Lionheart held her lead all the way around to the Needles to the west.

Velsheda hits the tidal barrier at Fort Victoria on the return to the Solent as the wind dies. Ranger tries a gybe towards the mainland shore

On the return to the Solent a dying wind and foul tide meant that the race was shortened with the times taken at the Needles. Once the handicap had been applied Lionheart beat Velsheda by just 26 seconds to take the King’s One Hundred Guinea Cup which was originally presented by King George VI at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club in 1937.

Velsheda won the Queens Cup for the three preceding Solent races. The Queen’s Cup was first presented to the Royal Southampton Yacht Club in 1897 by Queen Victoria in her Diamond Jubilee year, and is awarded every year for the most prestigious race organised by RSYC. The trophy was presented to the owner of Velsheda by HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO, Admiral of RSYC.

For the spectator it is easy to understand the growing interest in J Class racing with the most stately and graceful racing yachts that have ever sailed. For the owners and crews it is very different from any other superyacht experience.

The J’s are very challenging and physical to sail with yachts racing with around 30 to 35 crew. Other than hydraulic power, the winches are all manually controlled, no captive reel winches here. The sheet and runner loads are very high. The mainsail has no in boom or in-mast furling system. The genoas, staysails and jibs are all hanked on, no furlers either to add weight and compromise the sail shape.  The spinnakers are set in poles and are flown free through the dip pole gybe.

The spinnakers are not hoisted or lowered in a sock system, instead the crew manhandle them to the deck and then repack them with ‘woollies’ down below in readiness for the next hoist.

In a breeze the leeward rail and the side decks are soon awash and they race with no life lines (a class rule for safety and insurance reason requires each J to be followed by a rescue tender at 100m at all times when racing).

The steering is heavy and the yachts turn slowly. It is all a bit like driving a classic open sports car without seat belts, power steering or disc, let alone ABS, brakes.

They might appear like leviathans from the past, but it is only the hull lines that have to be an exact copy of the original designs (apart from the opening for a propeller in the rudder as the original J’s had no engines). Above the hull they are sailing with carbon masts, carbon rigging and the latest 3Di sails and the yachts are continually being upgraded.

Endeavour, originally built in 1934 and refitted by Royal Huisman in 1985, came out of a refit in Yachting Developments in New Zealand in 2011 with a saving of 10 tonnes from the interior and 14 less winches on deck as well as a new carbon mast and carbon rigging.

The J Class regattas are very different from other superyacht racing. The majority of the J’s are helmed by the owners, only Ranger in Cowes did not have the owner steering. They prefer to sail windward/leeward courses. They all start together with a windward start rather than the staggered starts used in superyacht racing and there is no 40m separation zone when passing, just the standard International Yacht Racing Rules.

The result is the excitement of close racing with the handicap system run by the Wolfson Unit in Southampton managing to keep the boats very close on the race course and even closer on corrected time. All four boats crossed the finish line in all three races in the Solent in less than three minutes.

Two more J’s are currently in build, and along with Hanuman, Shamrock V and Endeavour it is possible that we might possibly see nine racing in the Solent next time.

Lionheart crosses ahead of Ranger soon after crossing the RYS start line

Solent J Class Regatta 2012 Results

King's One Hundred Guinea Cup Round the Isle of Wight Saturday 25^th July 2012

Yacht	Finish Time	Race Time	TCF		Corrected seconds	Position
Lionheart	15:42:30	5:02:30	1.024		18585.6	1
Velsheda	15:45:18	5:05:18	1.016		18611.1	2
Ranger Rainbow	15:51:17 Did not Start	5:11:17	1.013		18919.8	3

Queen's Cup Overall Results (after three races)

Yacht	Sail No	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Points
Velsheda	JK7	4	1	1	6
Ranger	J5	1	4	2	7
Lionheart	JH1	2	2	3	7
Rainbow	JH2	3	3	4	10

J Class Solent Fleet
Yacht	Designer /Year	Redesign	Builder/Year	Construction
Lionheart	Starling Burgess & Olin Stephens/1936	Andre Hoek	Freddie Bloemsma & Classen Jachtbouw/2010	Aluminium
Rainbow	Starling Burgess/1931	Dykstra & Partners	Bloemsma Aluminumbouw &Holland Jachtbouw/2012	Aluminium
Ranger	Burgess & Stephens/1937	Reichel-Pugh/Scanu	Danish Yacht Boatyard/2003	Steel
Velsheda	Charles Nicholson/1932	Gerard Dykstra	Built 1932/SYS rebuild 1996	Steel

 

J Class History

Just ten J Class yachts were constructed between 1926 and 1937, six in the USA and four in England competing in three America’s Cups from 1930 to 1936.  There were around thirty other designs produced but not built.

Only three British J’s survived the Second World War - Shamrock V, Endeavour and Velsheda. All the American J’s were scrapped for the war effort. The three British J’s rested in mud berths in the UK until their rebuild and rebirth as 21st Century racing superyachts.

Related Links

Hoek Design Profile | Hoek Design Website

Dykstra & Partners Profile | Dykstra & Partners Website

Claasen Profile | Claasen Website

Holland Jachtbouw Profile | Holland Jachtbouw Website

Danish Yachts Profile | Danish Yachts Website

Southampton Yacht Services Profile | Southampton Yacht Services Website

Reichel Pugh Profile | Reichel Pugh Website

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