Simon sailing an AJ comes 2^nd at the A Class Nationals 2007

With the boat performing very well in certain conditions it was oh so close to a championship win for the JJcats A Class, after 7 races with Simon placing 1^st in 3 and Chris Field (defending champ on his Flyer) with the other victorys and both sailors needing to win the final No Discard Double points “Medal” race to take the title the scene was set for a battle royal. With 2 minutes to go Simon hunted down Chris and forced him out to the pin end of the line and both boats started heading out to the left with Simon controlling the initial lane and forcing Chris past the layline, after tacking for the buoy booth boats having over stood it Chris had squeezed out a boat length lead and rounded in first place as well with the other A classes well back it was a two horse race down the run, with Simons superior downwind speed all week he overtook Chris and rounded the favored left hand downwind buoy while Chris opted for the right, at the next windward mark Simon held a 20 second advantage and headed down the run and extended again to have a 30 second advantage at the final leeward mark although opting for the right hand mark so he could tack and cover Chris who opted for the left hand buoy, both boats now heading out to sea for the final time but Chris who had better breeze on the right and with a backing breeze and stronger tide pushing him towards the WW mark came right back at Simon and when the boats crossed he had regained the lead and rounded the mark for the final time with a 25 second advantage, with the last run ahead Simon attacked and through in a few gybes to try and pass but could only close down the lead to 11 seconds at the finish, allowing Chris to retain his trophy. After the racing Simon was disappointed not to win the title but over the moon with the performance of the Bimare AJ which proved beyond doubt that the design is one of the fastest A class around.

Full Results Here.

19.02.07

Stop Press -Simon wins Datchet warm up series in the AJ A Class.

With 3 individual race wins Simon took this years Datchet Winter Warm Up Series, with strong competition throughout the mixed catamaran fleet the A Classes took 3 out of the top four positions overall with Olly sailing the other JJcats AJ to Fourth position. Simon was consistenly fast in the light to medium wind ranges that most of the racing was held in and was pleased to post this result in the first event of the new season. The AJ Simon used (GBR 42) is now actively for sale as a new Demo Boat is on its way so check out the for sale section for a huge saving off list price.