Triple Jack wins PegLegs Round Tortola Race

Geoge Lane, skipper of Triple Jack with the Round Tortola Race trophy - click to enlargeIn winds gusting in the 20-25 knot range on the north side of Tortola, Triple Jack, a 32-year old Kelsall One-Off skippered by George Lane, won the PegLegs Round Tortola Race on Saturday, November 20, for the second year in a row, beating second-placer igoodia by a shy one minute on elapsed time.  Jack Dusty III a Pearson 40 skippered by 84-year-old Bill Hirst won cruising class.

The 45-foot Triple Jack circumnavigated Tortola in 3 hours 53 minutes and 27 seconds missing her personal best, set last year in unprecedented conditions for the race, by 20 minutes exactly.  Breaking the daggerboard lost them some of the precious minutes needed to beat last year’s time, as did the outhaul giving way near Scrub Island. More photos after the break...

Following the same format as the last two years, classes started in the Sir Francis Drake Channel off Nanny Cay and then head anti-clockwise around Tortola. After the beat East up the Sir Francis Drake Channel, the fleet turned the corner at Great Camanoe and headed on a downwind run to West End where, after a quick wiggle through Soper’s Hole, it was a beat back to the finish off Nanny Cay. 

“Get onto port, get out into the Channel and get out into the true breeze,” was the plan according to George.  “Then it was just a question of where you were on the race course at what time. We flew down the backside in pressure as did some of the other boats and found out later that some of the others were not becalmed, but only doing five knots at some stages when they should have doing a lot more.”   

George continued: “It all went swimmingly well until we got down to Soper’s Hole where the boat didn’t feel quite as it should and realised that we had probably snapped off our daggerboard.  Luckily we can go upwind without one but obviously we got a lot better upwind with one. We were able to cross the line and finish and thought well that’s probably a third or fourth.  We had problems, other people did too and we ended up winning it.”

Sirena 38 Pipe Dream’s mainsail head gave way on the first beat along the south side of Tortola. Diva, a Modified 30 Square Meter, skippered by Dr Robin Tattersall, lost the top of her mast on the north side.  Adrian Sinton of Rascal, second place in the cruising class, has never been so fast in his Cal 40, while Tim “Tennis Man” Robson, sailing his Beneteau 32, missed the time limit finishing seven and a half hours after he started.  Eight boats competed in racing class and five in cruising class with four not finishing.  John Hayes’ Wild Fire was awarded third place for retiring and assisting Diva.

Guy Phoenix, the RBVIYC’s captain of sailing, said: “I’d like to thank Nanny Cay for its generous prizes and substantial donation to the Club’s sailing programmes. We are very pleased with this year’s increased turnout for the event, and can see there is an upward trend in sailing participation across the BVI. We are hopeful that this will continue and look forward to welcoming entrants to the last race of 2010, the Commodore’s Cup, on 18^th December.”

Final Results

Cruising Class
Position	Yacht	Skipper	Elapsed Time	Corrected Time
1	Jack Dusty III	Bill Hirst	6:02:19	4:46:14
2	Rascal	Adrian Sinton	5:56:15	5:00:40
3	Wildfire	John Hayes
	Diva	Robin Tattersall
	Second Wind	Tim Robson
Racing Class
Position	Yacht	Skipper	Elapsed Time	Corrected Time
1	Triple Jack	George Lane/Steve Davis	3:53:27	4:18:40
2	igoodia	Milt Baehr/Mark Plaxton	4:36:00	4:19:43
3	Rushin Rowlette	Kevin Rowlette	5:04:39	4:22:36
4	Boomerang	Pat Nolan	5:20:24	4:37:09
5	Stenella	Andy Woodruff	4:50:33	4:42:25
6	Luxury Girl	Guy Phoenix	6:13:10	5:22:47
7	Sorceress	Heath Copeland	6:37:49	5:32:58
8	Pipe Dream	Peter Haycraft

While Triple Jack still holds the record for fastest circumnavigation of Tortola in the Round Tortola Race, the outright and multihull record is held by Soma, a Formula 40.  Soma, a St John-based catamaran and frequent BVI visitor, smashed the Round Tortola Record on April 15th in the first, and so far only, attempt on the Nanny Cay Challenge announced in February.  Soma circumnavigated Tortola and outer islands in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 15 seconds smashing Triple Jack’s record set in last year’s PegLegs Round Tortola Race.

Nanny Cay is host and presenting sponsor of the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival and host for international cruising rallies ARC Europe, the Caribbean 1500 and the Atlantic Cup.  Nanny Cay also sponsors youth swim programme, KATS Swim.