JAC08 - The Day Arrived & Pics

[operator6]

I drove the 6 hour round trip to wish you all toi toi toi, and take some pics. Here are a few from the thousands taken by everyone on land and the spectator boat (cheers Colin!).
At rest:

And lastly, Jester stocking up for the voyage:

Junks:

MO:

Starting line (ish):

Finally (at least from me!), the real jester:

Great day; looking forward to being part of it next time, cheers /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[graham]

Great Pictures. Some of the boats look to be heavilly modified while others look fairly bog standard.

Good that they have some gentle weather for the start but they will probably be wishing they had more breeze to get them clear of the channel and out where they can relax a bit more.

 

[continuousmoon]

Great pics. Some interesting boats.

 

[operator6]

There was a great selection of boats, which was evidence of each skipper's approach to seamanship, single-handed sailing, and hard-earned experience. For example, Mingming (Roger Taylor's voyager) is heavily modified, considered by her skipper to be unsinkable (and I don't doubt it!). FASON, a Russian craft, was built by her skipper (who had sailed her non-stop for 21 days to reach Plymouth in time!). I personally found it interesting to see the different approaches to viewing positions (domes, raised cabins, pillbox lookouts, and standard spray hoods), and the selection of windvanes.
The most outstanding aspect, however, were the skippers themselves - a delightfully motley crew all bound by this great adventure ahead of them (and very lucky indeed to have support from family and friends, many of whom I met, and who were no doubt more nervous than the skippers themselves!).

PBO will be running a feature on it in the near future.

 

[steviewhitts]

Great pics Coro - I was hoping to be afloat to send them off but ended up working so your pics are just what I need to see how it went. Best of luck to all the entrants.

Steve

 

[jonjo]

I never considered my old Trident 24 to be a potential transatlantic yacht. Hope he makes it and proves me wrong.

[Edit]Just been Googling Jester 2008 and realise it is the Azores this year, anyhow still an impressive voyage for a sub 25' yacht.

 

[moondancer]

As an ex sonata owner, pretty impressed that someone is doing it in one! Very brave. Also see someone is doing it in a Virgo Voyager. Just as well there is no time limit.

 

[Jake]

Hi Coro

Great pix - thanks for sharing them. Pity the weather was bit flat, but the light winds made the manoevuring at the start line less fraught!

Yes, a superb collection of boats, some heavily modified, others still pretty basic, but all the skippers had taken precautions ( if you know what I mean.) Rich harvest of material for PBO, and we've also shot enough footage for a closely edited 15-min film which I think you'll find entertaining. Jester has no chortage of characters!

The Russian boat ( actually one of two Russians present) belongs to Alexey Fedoruk, and that guy could write a book. The hull has been built up from an old wooden Dragon, and such was the shortage of chandlery that he turned out brass screws and piston hanks on a lathe in a (missile) factory where he was working!

He had sailed non-stop from St Petersburg (21 days) to get to the start, and was chuffed to bits to be living the dream of his heroes Blondie Halsar and Sir Francis Chichester.

Moondancer - you would have been impressed by Coronet! Good to see a Hunter Sonata with more gear ( including radar and a towed aquagen) than most 40ft yachts! Each system was triple backed up ( eg - even radar was backed up by AIS and a radar detector)
A humble little Trident 24 ( bought for £2,500) was also at the start. The owner - who was fairly new to cruising - had wisely spent his limited budget on electronics and new sails rather than paint for the decks.

A total of 40 boats started, only a couple a tad over 30ft (and along by invitiation.)

The cameraderie, joshing, mutual help and adoption of Alexey was terrific ( they renamed the rather austere 'RU 808' the 'Rusky Special' and he loves it!)

Should be a great trip for them all. Next one, of course, is in 2010 to Rhode Island. Hope I can get Pod finished by then.

Look out for a full report in PBO soon (hopefully with the full 'results' - and for our humble documentary film!)

Jake K

 

[swampthing]

Is there anywhere I can get daily updates on the race? Thanks

 

[Boomshanka]

I'd also like to track progress... fascinating event... maybe one day. Anyway, the Jester website doesn't seem to give updates as far as I can see( HERE )

The Ocean Race Track site HERE (click on a boat name) gives a history of JC2006.

Mike Winter on 'Jacinta' looks like he's running a blog on JC2008 HERE

There's a Jester Yahoo discussion group, but you need to be a participating member to get in (fair enough) HERE

That's all I know /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Good luck to all participants, I'd love to do something similar one day (boatless at the moment though /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif).

 

[Saddletramp]

Re: JAC08 - The Day Arrived & Pics

Thanks for the update Jake. I think there where around 63 people who had their names down (me being one of them) so around starters is amazing.

Great to see people who I have only twice at the get togethers in January setting off. Feel like you know them.

I have struggled with decision not to go over the last couple of months. Now I realise how unprepared I am and that I made the right choice. Still difficult seeing them go and thinking I should be with them.

Looking forward to the PBO article and the film.

 

[Sixpence]

Keep your eye one the East coast forum Here , Alan (Pipedream) will be in contact with his brother semi-regularly, who will be posting updates on his trip, though he will obviously only be able to give limited coverage

 

[operator6]

As there is a lot of interest, and a great deal of photographs taken, I've set up an account on Photobucket for anyone interested in sharing their pics. I've already uploaded mine from this post.
Web address: http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll309/jesterchallenge08/
The login is: jesterchallenge08
The password is: jesterchallenge
Thought this might be a useful addition to the many CDs and emails promised to each other on the day! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ninjod]

Re: JAC08 - The Day Arrived & Pics

Another east coast entry John sailing Lucy can be monitored via www.ninjod.org . As and when he hits his spot button we plot their position and post.

If anyone has any other spot updates or position reports I will happily add them to the daily plot I currently run.


Regards,

Paul

 

[andlauer]

Bonjour
_________

As there is a lot of interest, and a great deal of photographs taken, I've set up an account on Photobucket for anyone interested in sharing their pics. I've already uploaded mine from this post.
Web address: http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll309/jesterchallenge08/

__________

I added a few more.
Merci Colin
An impressive fleet
Eric

 

[MoodySabre]

Alan Charlton's (Centaurpipedream) progress in his Centaur is being put on the East Coast forum when he phones his brother with lat and long and progress report from time to time.

 

[Boomshanka]

Making good passage on what little wind there is by the look of it...

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1871905/an/0/page/0#1871905

 

[Jake]

Ron westcott, a freelance web designer and electronics wiz ( his boat has more antenna than Jodrell Bank) told me he will be sending back a regular web update.

Go to: http://blog.mainsail.com/ron.westcott

Ron is sailing that compact little Sonata 23 'Coronet' with the radar powered by a towed aquagen! He even invested in an £80 petrol-powered generator from Screwfix with the mindset that even if it only lasts the one trip, it will act as an emergency battery charger.

We'll be doing a wash-up on PBO after the event, and have a co-erced reporter there. (Actually, she is the fiancee of 29-year-old Coastguard officer David Boughton). She is flying out to help him bring his elderly Cutlass 27 back again, and being a keen photographer, should give us some great pix.

Talking of which, we also had a freelancer there - have a look at www.flipix.com and click on his gallery. Both Jester events are there.

David's boat is a testiment to preparation - even simple things like attaching a light stick to his lifejacket, and fitting the boat out with dry-cell powered LED lights so he can cope with a complete power failure. He even has an old, out of date (but functional) 121.5 MHZ beacon in his grab bag to back up his latest PLB. The grab bag is covered with his (and the boats) details, written in indelible ink.

'A big problem with loss of boats at sea is identifying any wreckage' he said.

As with all the Jesters, each boat has some great ideas, and we'll bring them all to you soon.

Mac77 - I know what you mean about not being prepared. I'm going to take another, long hard look at my main hatch.....

 

[DRANNIE]

I actually looked at cornet when she was for sale at Burnham the year before last. I was put off by the amount of water in the internal lockers, and decided I wanted a lift keel. I suspect she has had a lot of work done on her since then.

 

[zozal]

My husband is on the "humble little trident" !
I have been following george jepps wetlog which updates his position about evry 20 mins to get a feel of where my hubby is likely to be. http://georgejepps.wordpress.com click on the "find me" link on the right hand side for an up to date position