Skandia Cowes Week - Day 5 Round-up
18:45 Wednesday 11 Aug
2004
Magnus Wheatley
Day
five of Skandia Cowes Week saw some of the trickiest
sailing conditions encountered so far as a fickle
South, South Easterly breeze dominated the race
track with the promise of heavier conditions as
the afternoon progressed. Patchy sunshine filtered
through cotton wool clouds for all 882 boats as
the Royal Yacht Squadron Flag Officers got racing
underway on time setting courses in the Eastern
Solent. Principal Race Officer John Grandy and
Chief Race Officer Paddy O’Riordan enjoyed
an uneventful starting sequence as an ebb tide
kept the majority behind the line, allowing all
classes to get away with the only tactical decision
being whether to escape the lee of the Squadron
out in the tide or start right under the battlements
and chance your luck with the puffs pulsing down
the Medina River.
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Photo
© Dan Towers 2004
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It
was a decision that dogged the fleets of the inshore,
White Group Classes with many boats caught downtide
as the clock ticked down. However for three boats
in particular they seemed to have their respective
classes licked by the first mark. The Sonar Billy,
sailed by class builder Duncan Bates now has four
class wins and a second place to his name to leapfrog
the absent today Glenn Bourke (Laser SB3 Musto)
and seal his position at the top of White Group
overall. For Rupert Mander, sailing Men Behaving
Badly, it was very much a stroll in the park as
he aced the Flying Fifteen class after pulling
out into an enormous lead by the first turning
mark of Snowdon to go on and record a victory
just shy of 5 minutes from Gil McCutcheon sailing
Fritillary.
In
the 25 strong Redwing Class, there’s a familiar
name at the top of the fleet with James Wilson’s
Quail pushing extremely hard for White Group supremacy
scoring his fourth win of the week with a discard
of third to sit just behind Billy in the overall
standings. Meri Benham in Paroquet pushed hard
as the wind pressure increased in the afternoon
to secure second place but the winner of the past
four Skandia Cowes Week’s, Quail, looks
a racing certainty to take a fifth title.
Avenging
last year’s loss on discard and heading
the fleet overall in the National Squibs is Sarah
Everett sailing Firestreak who streaked to victory
after a blistering start to record a 4 minute
35 second victory over Richard Bowtell’s
Vanessa III. Firestreak’s position as overall
leader was further cemented today as her nearest
rival, David Whines sailing White Magic was adjudged
OCS but this competitive class could still produce
a thrilling climax as Skandia Cowes Week draws
to a close on Saturday.
The
International Dragon Class saw a disastrous start
for yesterday’s winner Graham Bailey sailing
Aimee who was forced to return having been OCS
but this wily London based lawyer fought his way
back through the fleet to snatch an unlikely third
place. Len Jones sailing Chouette scored his first
win of Skandia Cowes Week and now heads the overall
standings whilst overnight leader Eric Williams
sailing Ecstatic saw his chances greatly diminished
with an OCS.
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Photo
© Dan Towers 2004
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The
race for the title in the Sportsboats is now looking
like being a two way head to head between the
home built Prototype Pure 6 of Rory McClure and
Edward Fishwick’s J-80, Redshift. Just 43
seconds separated the two boats today on handicap
as Pure 6 found the conditions more to her design
with a big gap down to third placed Liz Savage
sailing the J-80, Just Savage. Kevin Downer’s
Abstension II, the overnight runner-up, had a
tough day at the office scoring a lowly sixth
place and drops into third place overall.
For
the biggest class at Skandia Cowes Week, the 83
strong XOD fleet, it was a Committee Boat start
up Southampton Water off Hill Head but once again
four-time winner of the Captain’s Cup, Stuart
Jardine, pulled out all the stops to secure his
second Class win of the week. Jardine’s
grip on the overall title is now so strong that
it will be a major upset if he were to lose as
his nearest rivals dropped out of contention.
With his brother Adrian securing a second place
and son Mark landing a 9th there’s the outside
possibility that the Jardine family could land
a clean sweep of 1st, 2nd and 3rd spots. If it
were to happen then we would be watching history
in the making!
The
glamour boats of IRM today were fighting it out
on the Black Group line for the most prestigious
trophy awarded at Skandia Cowes Week, the Britannia
Cup, first presented to the RYA in 1950 by King
George VI. With a massive course in the Eastern
Solent that encompassed 15 marks and almost 33
miles, the course setters certainly made the IRM
fleet fight for the coveted trophy. The big Farr
52’s of Peter Harrison’s Chernikeeff
2, Nick Hewson’s Team Tonic and Kit Hobday’s
Bear of Britain stole the early thunder but as
the course unfolded it was Glynn Williams’s
Wolf that grabbed the initiative. After handicap,
Wolf scored a 1 minute 14 second victory from
Chernikeeff 2, relegating Team Tonic into a distant
third place.
It
wasn’t all bad news for Kit Hobday though
who, having seen his young crew on Bear of Britain
finish fourth in the IRM division, watched his
other entry, Red Bear take the winner’s
gun in Class 1 IRC and with it the Royal Yacht
Squadron Trophy. A big corrected time victory
of over three and a half minutes, secured the
win from the Swan 68, Chippewa of Clay Deutsch
with the Russian entry Follow Me following the
leaders home in third place.
One
of the interesting sights in Class 1 IRC is the
canting keeled Jo Richard’s designed Full
Pelt X. This absolute flying machine that looks
akin to an oversized 49er is the course finder
for the fleet as it rockets away from the start
line. However its enormous IRC handicap of 1.635
has prevented it from taking any chocolates so
far. With a daggerboard behind the canting keel
there has certainly been an awful lot of thought
that has gone in from Team GBR America’s
Cup designer Richards and it’s fascinating
to see the boat heeled to windward before the
start, flapping its sails before sheeting on and
shooting off into the distance!
The
race for Class 2 IRC is certainly hotting up with
the Grand Soleil 44 Holmatro skippered by ex-Whitbread
veteran Hans Horrovoets taking the day’s
race whilst his nearest rival, the Grand Soleil
45 Satori of French racing ace Jimmy Puhun could
only manage a third place. These two are the stand
out competitors in Class 2 IRC and are now separated
by the slenderest of margins.
Stephen
James’s perennial winner, the 1973 built
Nautor Swan, Jacobite scooped the Class 4 IRC
win after a close tussle with the Hanse 371 of
Dominic Horner, Schueddelfrost. With his nearest
rival for overall honours Tim Harrington’s
Capitali$m finishing back in 8th place, James
is challenging hard. Significantly Major Peter
Scolfield’s HOD 35 Zarafa, scored his third
class win in a row over Capitali$m to now head
this small but competitive class that races within
Class 4 IRC.
In
the Contessa 32 Class it was once again a Blanco
benefit as the Rouse, Richards and Vanner owned
boat took a 4 minute win over Sebastian Gardner’s
Polar Star. In the Etchells Ante Razmilovic sailing
Swedish Blue now has the overall title in his
sights with a conservative third placing today
whilst Carbon Tiger 2 raced into an unassailable
lead in the multihull fleet taking the winner’s
gun from Gerber Firebird after a very line-shy
start.
The
only boat now to hold a perfect score of five
firsts from five starts is Ipswich based David
Pinner sailing the X332 Kiss. In scoring an enormous
win today on corrected time of over 7 minutes
from Ian Smyth’s Pittolo Bill, Kiss is the
runaway leader in both the class and Black Group
overall. It’s a remarkable performance but
certainly deserved as Pinner’s crew are
performing out of their skins, executing near-perfect
sail and boat handling manoeuvres. They hit the
start line with a perfect spinnaker hoist today
to thoroughly demoralise the rest of the fleet
and if the form books hold they look the most
likely to take a perfect score from the rest of
the week.
As
a few rain clouds passed overhead as the evening
drew in, Cowes Town was alive with happy sailors
who, for the most part, had another superb day
of racing. With the rain came some increased wind
pressure and this is expected to settle in overnight
producing South-Westerly force 3-4 winds but heavy
showers and some clatters of thunder are expected
as the afternoon progresses. Messing about in
boats has never been better as Skandia Cowes Week
2004 turns into a vintage year!
