Panerai British Classic Week 2016 - Day 4
by Jakob Huth 21 Jul 2016 11:48 BST
16-23 July 2016
Tim Blackman of the 1947 Philip Rhodes Bermudan Yawl Infanta summed up day four of Panerai British Classic Week in Cowes perfectly saying, "An incomparable day's sailing in the Solent for incomparable yachts." Two around the cans races were completed, the first with individual class starts and the second with Classes 1 to 4 starting together.
Initially skies were grey, visibility was poor and the wind was regularly gusting towards 30 knots. Several boats opted for a reef, but as Class 1's start time approached the wind moderated and reefs were shaken out again. By the time Class 4 got underway the sun was burning through the cloud and before long everyone was enjoying another day of champagne sailing.
Through the middle part of the day the wind was in the low to mid-teens, but half way through the second race the sea breeze kicked in taking it back up to 20 knots plus and causing a few thrills and spills. One of those caught out by the sudden increase was the 1959 Morgan Giles sloop Pegasus, sailed this week by Martin Ryan and his team from Melbourne, Australia. One minute they were bowling past the Beaulieu River full of the joys of spring, and the next they were rocking and rolling with one third of their spinnaker over the bow and two thirds flying from the masthead. They attempted to retrieve the flying sail themselves, but eventually a passing media boat came to their assistance and scooped the remains out of the sea.
Sean McMillan's Spirit 52 Flight of Ufford continued to dominate Class 1 for the Modern Classics by claiming two further race wins. She now leads the class by five points from Sandy Fielding and Martin Whittle's Spirit 37 Strega. Tom Hill's Spirit 46 Dido had an excellent day today with two second places and moves into third overall.
In Class 2 Giovanni Belgrano's 1939 Laurent Giles sloop Whooper made it four firsts out of four races to lead the class by ten points. David Murrin's 1955 fractional sloop Cetewayo, also designed by Laurent Giles, revelled in today's conditions taking two seconds and bouncing up the ranking into second overall, just one point ahead of Lawrence Wride's Sunmaid V which finished fifth in both races and drops from second to third.
Michael Brigg's 1904 Fife Bermudan cutter Mikado's dominance of Class 3 also went unchallenged as she added another pair of firsts to her score card, giving her an eight-point overall lead over Tim Yetman's 1946 Anker and Jenssen sloop Krabat who took two second places today. A third followed by a seventh were enough to push Andy and Mary Hales' International 8 Metre Cruiser Racer Freyja up into third place, while Martin Thomas' Charm of Rhu slipped down from second to fourth.
John Mulcahy's Kim Holman designed Stella One Design Estrella consolidated her overall lead in Class 4, adding a first and second to her card. Jonathan and Scilla Dyke's 1938 Robert Clark 10 Tonner Cereste took a second and first and now sits in second place, two points behind Estrella and six points ahead of Ragdoll, the 1965 Honeybee owned by Mark & Liz Rushall.
With the exception of Andy Short's Nancy, the 6 Metre Class sat out the first race of the day to allow the wind to moderate, but they came out to play for the second which was won by Robin Richardson's St Kitts with Nancy second and Tom Richardson's Thistle third. Overall St Kitts now leads the fleet by six points from Nancy with Thistle one further point behind in third.
The 8 Metre Class chose not to race at all today. Explaining their decision If's Rufus Gilday said, "The wind strength at the time of the briefing was of concern and the forecast was for it to increase in the afternoon. Having done two short but intense races the day before, the opportunity of spending the day ashore with the possibility of a long lobster lunch was too much to resist and the fleet elected not to race."
Whilst the focus is on the racing, some of those taking part come purely to have fun and amongst these is Rollo Malcolm-Green's Charles E Nicholson sloop Zoom, which was built by Camper & Nicholson in 1951 for Teddy Haylock, editor of Yachting World in the 1950's and early 60s. Rollo was presented with Zoom's visitor's by Teddy Haylock's widow and it reads like a Who's Who of yachting from that era with names like Bernard Hayman, David May, Colin Mudie, Eric and Susan Hiscock, Colin Ratsey, Max Aitken, Adlard Coles and Jack Holt to name but a few.
Tomorrow's penultimate day will feature the Long Inshore Race sponsored by Classic Boat starting at 10.00 and the final race of the series, sponsored by Sandeman Yachts, will start at 10.00 on Friday.
You can follow the racing action as it happens via the Live Race Tracker.
News, results and photographs from Panerai British Classic Week will be posted at the regatta website www.britishclassicyachtclub.org/regatta.