Jes Bates – Mwera’s Jester Baltimore Challenge 2025
My challenge, as for many of us, started well before the start date on the 15th of June. I had decided, under the influence of Roger Taylor, Alan Mulholland and others, to do a junk rig conversion on Mwera, my Corribee 21. The ease of handling just one sail from the cockpit, quick reefing, a more ‘forgiving’ and simple rig were all factors in this decision. Read More
Will Robinson – Zeus’ Jester Baltimore Challenge 2025
It was with much excitement that I entered the jester Baltimore Challenge this year having been unable to in 2023 due to work and a family emergency.
I had bought Zeus an Achilles 24 a few years ago, and had been looking for an excuse to sail it offshore and test its seaworthiness and seakindliness, and my endurance, so the Baltimore Challenge was the perfect opportunity. She represents to me a perfect Jester challenger, small, simple, fun to sail, and well built. Read more
George Arnison and Duncan Lougee – Ocean Cruising Club Seamanship Award 2021
OCC Seamanship Award goes to George Arnison s/v Good Report (a 30-foot wooden sloop) and Duncan Lougee s/v Minke (a 25-foot Folkboat) in recognition of their outstanding seamanship during their first ocean passage in the 2021 Jester Azores Challenge… Read more
Gary O’Grady – Jester 518
‘Due to covid’ is an oft quoted phrase preluding a change to the normal run of play in any event and sadly The Jester Challenge for 2020 and 2021 were no different.
2020 should have staged the Jester Baltimore Challenge (JBC) which coincides on each occasion with Baltimore Pirates week in Southwest Cork. A fun event marking the blackest night in Baltimore’s history when the town was sacked by Barbary pirates in 1631. Usually, the Jester challengers arrive in full pirate regalia to add colour to the festivities. The 2020 Jester Baltimore was tipped in to 2021 with quite some route alternations requiring it to be renamed Jester 518. Read more
George Arnison – Good Report’s Jester Baltimore Challenge 2019
My passage to Baltimore was dominated by slow, upwind sailing interspersed by periods of (even slower) windlessness and becalment. It took me almost 5 days, and I think I might have been the last to arrive…but arrive I (eventually) did – happy and pleased, without any disasters or major dramas… Read more
Tim Luke – Medusa’s Challenge, Jester Challenge 2018
The stressful bit was getting Medusa to Plymouth a couple of weeks before the start. Then, with 72 hours to go, discovering that the replaced battery monitoring system had failed again and needed replacing during a Bank Holiday. Crossing the start line on 7th May was a relief… Read more
Bernie Branfield – First Time Jester, Baltimore 2017
‘I have wanted to do more off-shore single-handed sailing and the Jester Challenge seemed to be an ideal choice. It features many of my sailing philosophies ; minimalist, low cost, own efforts, average / ordinary boats and people. Having watched several Youtube videos and read some articles it seemed to be within my reach. I just needed time and Chantilly, my aging Macwester Rowan, needed some modifications.’
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Olivier Delebecque – Sheet to Tiller Steering, Azores 2016
As I approached Plymouth, the breakwater in sight, our first challenge was achieved: Godot and I had successfully passed our first crossing of the Channel and I will be part of the Saturday dinner at the club house of the Tamar River Sailing Club. Just tied up and not yet stowed, unknown faces with caring attitude asked me “Hi Oli! Do you need anything?” I had not slept much for I had to steer for a week non-stop from Amsterdam… Read more
Basil Panakis – Preparing for a Solo Adventure, Jester Challenge 2014
Two-time solo Atlantic racer Basil Panakis shows PBO’s Ben Meakins how he prepared his 25ft yacht to face the Jester Challenge…. Read more
Rory McDougall, OCC Jester Award Winner, 2015
The Jester Medal, awarded to a member or non-member of the Ocean Cruising Club who has made “An outstanding contribution to the art of siglehanded sailing” in a vessel of 30ft or less overall” … despite the small size and slightness of his boat, only missed out on being first to Newport by a few hours in 2010… Read more
Nick Barham – The Loss of TAHITI BELLE, 2008
I wrecked in my trimaran “TAHITI BELLE” returning from the Azores Challenge in 2008. It happened at night: 3 days out from Ponta del Garda… Read more
Pete Hill – OCC Jester Award Winner 2006
Award reads:
Shanti – Kingfisher 22 – for an outstanding achievement in single-handedly completing the Jester Challenge (2006) from Plymouth to Newport, Rhode Island with the assistance of an Haslar wind vane steering gear in just over 44 days. His achievement in his little 19 year-old Kingfisher 22 is all the more remarkable as the boat was probably the oldest and smallest of all the entrants, most of whom retired for various reasons so that Pete was the second and last boat to reach Newport.
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Roger Taylor – Mingming’s Jester Challenge 2006
Mingming and I picked up our mooring at Burnham after a trouble-free 2500 mile non-stop voyage from Plymouth, via a point a couple of hundred miles to the northeast of the Azores. The problem, as far as the Jester Challenge was concerned, was basic boat speed. There was always going to be a question mark over the effect of 100 days’ water and provisions on a yacht displacing less than one ton.
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