Royal Southampton Yacht Club Cherbourg Double

Victory for Charley J, Garnele, Kraken and Triohe

The Royal Southampton Yacht Club Cherbourg Double race was held on Friday 28th May. Thirty one boats came to the start line set west of Calshot by the Race management Team of Peter Bateson, Stephanie Bateson and Stuart Danby.

The wind was around 12-15 knots east of South at 1930 when Class 3 started, few boats tried to carry a spinnaker on the tight reach to clear Lepe headland. The multihulls were last away at 2010. Ben Goodland’s Strider catamaran Tigger lost a halyard up the mast before the start and when Ben went aloft to retrieve it he unfortunately dislodged the diamond spreaders and did very well to get the rig shipshape again before starting late.

Richard Roscoe’s Farrier 9AX trimaran Triohe powered off the start line under main and jib touching 17 knots on the close reach to Lepe headland. As the course freed on to a broader reach to the Needles spinnakers were set by the majority of boats. Just east of Yarmouth Simon Curwen (Voador- J/105) and Paul Peggs (JOD 35 – Audacious ) were enjoying a close tussle. As the fleet sailed approached the Needles the breeze increased and headed making for some exciting spinnaker drops particularly the huge asymmetric on board the J/120 Charley J( Charles Ivill/David Swain). As daylight faded around 2200 Triohe rounded the Needles in close company with The Flying Fish (Laser 28-Kathy and Rupert Smalley). The wind was forecast to veer from south east to south west and all the fleet continued on port tack as the breeze softened after the increase near the Needles. Aboard Triohe several boat’s navigation could be seen to leeward as it appeared many boats cracked sheets in order to get further west in search of more breeze and the shift to the south west.

Triohe and Charley J held relatively high and found boat speed dropping to 2-3 knots in the shipping lanes, both took short hitches on starboard tack as the wind direction tended towards a shift to the South west but did not persist. The light airs then put thoughts on aiming to be up-tide of the Cherbourg finish and Triohe headed east of the rhumb line at day break. Searching out the zephyrs Triohe approached the finish line upwind on port tack and crossed the finish line just before 0800 to be first to finish. Where the RSYC race officers were David Giddings and Andrew Patterson.

Charley J was next to finish 35 minutes later, with the J/109 Zelda (Ben Richards/Michael Ewart-Smith) a further 55 minutes later. The majority of the fleet appeared to approach the finish line reaching in under spinnaker in the now south westerly wind.

In Class 1 Charley J won by 15 minutes from Zelda with Audacious third.

Class 2 was won by Garnele (Scampi-Chris Rustom/John Syms) by 16 minutes from Flying Fish with third Xarifa (X342-Teresa Whelan/Doug Watson) Class 3 Kraken (Dehler 41-Peter/Kerri Sanders) were first to finish and won by 22 minutes from Skua IV (Najad 331- Michael and Peter Barham), the Warrior 35 The Fox was third (Alex Johnstone/Denise Dellow).

Multihulls – Triohe was first to finish and won on corrected time by 50 minutes from Triptych 2 (Corsair F28R -Steve Hewitt and David Saph) with Tigger third.

Cherbourg Solent Race – Sunday 30 May 2004

RSYC fleet blessed by perfect conditions

The Royal Southampton Yacht Club's Cherbourg-Solent race took place on Sunday 30 May. It had no crew restrictions, unlike the preceding Cherbourg Double.

The light westerly breeze gradually picked up as crews shrugged off the effects of the previous night’s celebrations and headed to the starting area just outside Chantereyne marina. Together with a slight sea, bright sunshine and blue skies, better sailing conditions would be difficult to imagine.

Moments after the race management team of David Giddings and Andrew Paterson gave the starting signal, and to the surprise of boats anchored nearby, spinnakers appeared as the fleet headed for the outer harbour. Once out in the Channel, the wind backed just abaft the beam and averaged around 12 knots, although touching 17 knots for a time on clearing the Cherbourg peninsula and 20 knots in the Needles Channel.

With elapsed times of around 9 to 10 hours, the faster boats in the fleet made the finish at Coronation before the tide set foul, and even the slowest boats made it past Hurst before the tidal gate closed behind them. Just 63 seconds separated the leaders and only one boat did not finish, allegedly lured away by the fleshpots of Cowes!

The next fully crewed passage race is to Poole and back on Saturday 19/Sunday 20 June. For details contact Cathy Crawley, RSYC Sailing Secretary, tel. 023 8022 3352 or email racing@rsyc.org.uk

Overall Results:

Class 3 RSYC
1. Charley J J120 Charles Ivill
2. Voador J105 Simon Curwen
3. Jambalaya J105 Phil Ryan

Multihull
1. Tigger Strider 24 Ben Goodland