THE JESTER CHALLENGE
www.jesterinfo.org

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER THREE

March 2006

Issued by Ewen Southby-Tailyour
(tailyour@hotmail.com)

The Jester Challenge:

This is a single-handed race for sailing yachts between 20 and 30 feet from Plymouth to Newport.
One of the aims of The Jester Challenge is to conduct a modern experiment in old-fashioned self-reliance, self-sufficiency and personal responsibility. In doing so, The Jester Challenge has attracted a quorum of, in the main, hugely experienced, small-yacht, ocean voyagers.
In practice, another aim is to replace the Jester Class that once formed the smallest class in the OSTAR (to give that race the most recognisable of its many titles) but which has now been removed from the entry list. A third aim is to give genuine Corinthians the opportunity to sail in company across the Atlantic.
A background to the thinking behind The Jester Challenge and earlier Press Releases will be found on the website.

The Start:

The inaugural Jester Challenge will start (by kind permission of the Queen's Harbourmaster) at 1200 (BST) on Saturday 3rd June 2006 from a line extending for precisely one nautical mile due west of Plymouth Breakwater lighthouse with the twelve-ton gaff-cutter, Black Velvet, as the western outer distance mark. The only mark of the course to Newport will be the Draystone Ledge Buoy off Penlee Point: to be left to starboard. More details are on the website.
If numbers exceed expectations an alternative start will be across a line running south-east from Rame Head for one nautical mile in which case there will be no mark on the course to Newport: a decision will be made when appropriate. On board the starting vessel will be - among others - Mike Richey, Val Howells and Nigel Rowe.
There is no time limit.

Newport finish line details:

In the East Passage of Narragansett Bay (Newport Rhode Island) when Castle Hill Light bears 123 degrees magnetic. More details are on the website.
Thanks to the generosity and support of individuals in Newport and of the Newport Yacht Club, informal arrangements will be in place to receive individual arrivals

Entries:

Entries can be received up to the morning of the start providing the skipper signs the form of indemnity: the only formal requirement. As there are no entry fees there are no penalties for cancelling an entry.
Currently (end-March 2006) there are 14 confirmed entries (with no less than six being junk-rigged and from four different countries). Fuller details and photographs will be found on the www.jesterinfo.com website (follow links to The Jester Challenge and then to the Entry List). In order of entering, The Jester Challengers are:

Pre race arrangements:
As Queen Anne's Battery Marina has offered special rates for The Jester Challengers (who are expected to berth together and to start arriving about a week in advance) this is the chosen pre-Challenge rendezvous in order that the yachts may be, as far as possible, together before the start. It is possible that individuals will have made alternative arrangements. The Royal Western Yacht Club has kindly agreed (while understandably accepting no responsibility) to allow The Jester Challenge skippers the use of its Clubhouse for social events.
Publicity:

With neither individual nor collective sponsorship and with no 'prizes' as such, The Jester Challenge is not 'publicity orientated'; however individual skippers (if they personally wish) will be available for interview by the Press, Television and Radio from arrival at QAB onwards. These interviews may be arranged direct with skippers or through the shore-side volunteers whose names and contact details will be available closer to the start.
It may be well to note a French view. The April Voiles et Voilier described The Jester Challengers as: These sailing madmen, most of them British, will have no ambition but the beauty of the act. Great mentality.

The Future:

The second Jester Challenge will be held in 2010: the 50th anniversary of Blondie Hasler's original Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race. Currently this is the only single-handed trans-Atlantic event programmed to commemorate the beginning of modern single- and short-handed ocean voyaging. A provisional entry list has been opened.

Enquiries:

Enquiries may be made to the co-ordinator, Ewen Southby-Tailyour, at tailyour@hotmail.com or the webmaster Trevor Leek at trevorleek@culinaire.co.uk