Victory Anniversary Race at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week
by Malcolm Stewart 12 Aug 2014 15:49 BST
6 August 2014
Celebrating 80 years of the Victory class
This year marks the 80th Year of the Victory Class and to celebrate they hosted a first time event at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week. On Wednesday 6th August the class brought onboard Aberdeen Asset Management, Cowes Week title sponsor and other regatta partners for the 'Victory One Hour' with each partner providing two sailors to represent their company.
This race has never been done before and had the majority of the sponsors of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week onboard. Each Victory racing had a handpicked crew with the partners being provided by Aberdeen Asset Management, Britannia Corporate Events, Chatham Marine, Gill, BOSS Watches, Laithwaite's Wines, Solent Events, Volvo Car UK, UKSA, Toe in the Water and GAC Pindar.
The 'Victory One Hour' was held on the 6th August at 17.30 from the RYS line at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week. The race is aimed to raise awareness of the growing fleet of Victory's who race out of Portsmouth and Gibraltar.
The Victory class is a one design fleet which has raced at Cowes Week since 1934 and enjoys welcoming new sailors; providing competitive racing on the water throughout the year. The fleet boasts competitive up-to-date racing whilst keeping hold of their classic roots.
The winning team was Chatham Marine, the official footwear sponsor of the event, with Alice Driscoll, Heather Fell and Jim Downing onboard. They were followed by Volvo Car UK with Mark Andrews, Gail Willows and Russell Mead, with Solent Events, raced by Robin Gould, Adrian Brunton and Kim Taylor in 3rd place.
With the race course 100 yards off the beach allowing excellent viewing for the many spectators, the race lasted 40 minutes with 3 laps of a short course providing a great way to showcase the close racing Victories enjoy on their usual Tuesday and Thursday night racing.
Chatham Marine established an early lead which extended from the fleet at each rounding mark, the race for second was between Volvo and Solent Events who were close to each other all the way around. With the wind gusting at the top of the preferred wind limits and with some of the boats getting very close to each other it was an exciting race to watch.
Alice Driscoll, who was sailing on the Chatham Marine boat said, "The idea by the Victory Class to offer its boats with a skipper to all the Cowes sponsors was fantastic. It gave all the sponsors a chance to get on the water and have a lot of fun sailing in a classic boat, which you wouldn't normally get a chance to sail in. The Victory class and boat owners were very generous to arrange this."
On the decisive moment of the race Alice said, "There were several! First was realising how tricky Victory's are to helm upwind so, being pretty competitive and wanting the Chatham boat to win, Heather and I unanimously elected our owner Jim Downing to helm the start and upwind legs!
"Getting round the windward mark first was key. We'd already decided our tactic was that I would helm the downwind legs so Heather Fell, who is a very strong and fit Olympic medal winner in modern penthalon and a Chatham ambassador, would do kite hoist and trim with Jim on hand for support. We had a bit of a fight to keep top Finn sailor Mark Andrews in the Volvo boat from getting water at the first leeward mark, but once we broke that overlap then we could get clear around the mark and from then on it was just a matter of sailing fast and keeping a good eye on the tide."
"Racing so close so shore must have made it look very exciting for the spectators! We were also, while being competitive and wanting to win, very mindful of not wanting any chance of collisions or damage to Jim's boat.
"Chatham would like to thank the Victory class and the Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week team for organising this great event."
Mark Jardine, who finished 4th overall on the BOSS Watches Victory said, "It was great fun to take part in the Victory 80th Anniversary Race. Sailing so close to the shore in Cowes is always challenging and the tight course and short startline made it even more so. I applaud the Victory class for organising this and letting sailors race their boats in the middle of their own regatta. The sponsors embraced the idea wholeheartedly and I really hope this type of race can happen again in the future. I'd especially like to thank BOSS Watches and Peregrine's owner Duncan Evans for letting us sail his boat."
The event was supported by the main sponsors of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and also the owners who lent their boats for the event.