Rolex
Commodores' Cup - GBR Red Come From Behind
Irish and British teams have been waiting on tender
hooks throughout the night for the definitive
outcome of the 2004 Rolex Commodores' Cup. This
morning, following strong performances by all
three of their boats in the Channel Race, the
highly scoring finale of this regatta, GBR Red
have been proclaimed the overall winners. Following
the Channel Race, the Irish team, who have led
this regatta throughout the week, dropped to third
overall behind France Blue.
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JERONIMO,
Winner team GBR RED. Photo © Daniel
Forster/Rolex
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Despite
their good time, Kit Hobday and Tim Louis' Farr
52 Bear of Britain were beaten in class one in
the Channel Race by the well-sailed Dutch Grand
Soleil 44R Holmatro, skippered by Hans Horrevoets,
who finished almost an hour ahead of the British
boat on corrected time.
In
class two Colm Barrington's invincible Ker 39
Flying Glove once again showed her impressive
form finishing first in class two by three and
a half hours. Significant in class 2 for GBR Red
was the result of Jerry Otter's IMX40 Exabyte
2, with match racer Paul Campbell-James at the
helm, who put in their most critical score of
the regatta to finish second on corrected time.
The
leaders in class three did not finish until this
morning after their second night at sea. This
saw a solid win on the water by GBR Red's J/105
Jeronimo, skippered by Jonathan and Lisa Goring.
She was knocked into second place on corrected
time by a top result for Erwan Dubois' tiny JPK
9.60, Guyader L'esprit de la Mer in France Blue.
The Irish Ker 32 Calyx The Voice and Data People
could only manage a seventh place.
While
Ireland went into the Channel Race with a 44 point
lead over GBR Red on 47.5, the British team scored
12 points to the Irish team's 22 in this final
race to take victory on 59.5 points to 66. This
pushed the Irish team down to third overall behind
the 2002 winning French team led by Gery Trentesaux
on 65.
For
the small boats the light winds and strong tides
in the Channel Race proved highly challenging
for the crews. "There were a lot of highs
and lows and we didn't believe until we crossed
the finish line that we were going to win the
race," said Kevin Sproul, navigator on Jeronimo.
On
two occasions the class three boats found themselves
with no wind going backwards on the powerful spring
tide. To prevent this the boats had to kedge,
throwing out an anchor into water often as deep
as 50m to stop themselves being washed back up
the course.
The
first occasion was as they were rounding the RORC
mark, the most southwesterly corner of the course.
"We got to within half a mile of the mark
and just missed the tidal gate," recounted
Sproul. "We started going backwards and we
ended up there for about five hours. We had Fair
Do's VI and one other boat in our fleet around
us and I was really worried that something had
happened in the night and we'd lost it."
Fortunately after the wind had filled in, effectively
restarting their race, they discovered the Irish
competition, Eamon Crosbie's Calyx The Voice and
Data People, had rounded the RORC mark an hour
astern of them.
Sproul
believes they made their biggest gain sailing
along the coast off Swanage Bay en route to the
Needles Fairway buoy. "That was our big tactical
gain in the race, otherwise it was just a war
of attrition - keep going and never give up,"
he said. Jeronimo overtook John Shepherd's Fair
Do's VI, the most successful class 3 boat of the
week, just before they rounded the Ocean Safety
mark for the second time. Here they were becalmed
again, but on this occasion only for an hour before
the wind picked up and they were able to round
up and make for the finish line.
"We
had a good plan before the start as a team and
as it happens we ended up doing what we set out
to do," summed up Sproul. "We knew the
boat is fast offshore, we knew that Bear was dependent
upon getting the tidal gates right, and the tricky
one was the IMX40 and they pulled out all the
stops and did brilliantly. So as a team it worked
out really well."
Further
information about the Rolex Commodores' Cup including
a full team listing may be found at: www.rorc.org
Results
and Photos at: www.regattanews.com
