Rossborough Round the Island Race 2020
by Bill Harris 15 Aug 2020 13:17 BST
9 August 2020
Ocean Star during the Rossborough Round the Island Race 2020 © Simon Ropert
A gentle breeze, calm seas and sunshine greeted the twenty-one cruisers that came to the line, in St Aubin's Bay, for the 8 o'clock start of the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club's annual Rossborough Round the Island Race held on Sunday 9th August, run in tandem with the St Helier YC coastal series. With boats lined up and ready to go, the wind suddenly fell away leaving them to creep across the line at the start of a more than forty mile scenic circumnavigation of the Island.
This was a frustrating turn of events that led to a number of retirements as boats struggled from the line to make the Diamond Rock buoy whilst the flood tide pushed them west. Disappointingly for all, the conditions also saw the abandonment of racing for the sport catamaran fleet. There were to be no records broken this year!
Having successfully rounded the Diamond, following several hours of serious tweaking, IRC Class 1 boats Rhys Perkins A35, Abracadabra, Jeff Chinn's J105, Jewel, and Alan Stevens' First 44.7, Zanzibar, made it to the Demi de Pas lighthouse before a filling north-westerly breeze brought the trailing fleet to them and the race, effectively, started again. Given their delayed arrival at the predictably notorious Violet Channel buoy boats had to punch tide to make the port rounding before they headed northwards for a lively beat up the east coast. With the wind veering and building, boats were able to make Grosnez on one tack from Bonne Nuit with Abracadabra and Bob Milner's Grand Soleil 46.3, Grace, pulling ahead to enjoy a brisk spinnaker run down St Ouen's Bay before reaching from Corbiere to the finish line off the Diamond Rock buoy. Having found her own breeze, Grace pulled through the fleet to take line honours just minutes ahead of Abracadabra, the latter winning the race and the Club's highly coveted Jesse Boot Trophy on corrected time. Jewel was second, Grace third.
Times were tougher for the smaller boats in IRC Class 2 as they made their way in the building tide, to the Violet. With even more to plug than the bigger boats, several more retired. Peter Crabb and Peter Williams' X95, Paper Tiger, along with others, gained by staying close inshore on the eastward track going on to establish a lead that she held to take line honours and the equally coveted Cabot Memorial Trophy. Trevor Beaton's Starlight 35, Ocean Star was second with Ellie Haywood and Mark Tucker's Moody 38, Phar Lap, third.
Racing single handed with every stitch of sail up, in NHC Class 3, Don Thompson's 23 foot Falmouth Working Boat, Lena, was a real picture. Sailing off the wind and, clearly in her element, Lena was the lead boat at Icho Tower and amongst the front runners at the Violet. On the wind was a different story for this boat, whose design dates back 150 years, as the younger and faster designs went past as they headed up for the beat northwards. Clive Le Marquand's newly-acquired Dufour 34, Indigo, took line honours and was a close second to Lena which won on handicap. Deborah Hutchings and Chris Fritot's Mystique was third.
The event was brought to a close, that evening, when Mr James Anderson, Group Managing Director of Rossborough Insurance, congratulated the winners and presented them with their hard won place prizes. Rear Commodore Kevin Newman thanked Mr Anderson and Rossborough Insurance g for their kind sponsorship over the past five years and added the Club's thanks to all who took part.
The next major event in the RCIYC programme is the combined clubs' Carey Olsen Jersey Regatta being held over 11th to 13th September. The Notice of Race is available on jerseyregatta.com.
Overall Results:
Class 1 (IRC)
1 Abracadabra - Rhys Perkins (8.11.09)
2 Jewel - Jeff Chinn (8.22.38)
3 Grace - Bob Milner (8.34.34)
4 Zanzibar - Alan Stevens (8.59.41)
5 Solis Ortus - Nigel Coxshall (8.59.44)
(3 boats retired)
Class 2 (IRC)
1 Paper Tiger - Peter Crabb (7.55.38)
2 Ocean Star - Trevor Beaton (8.16.31)
3 Phar Lap - Ellie Haywood (8.24.49)
(6 boats retired)
Class 3 (NHC)
1 Lena - Don Thompson (8.13.17)
2 Indigo - Clive Le Marquand (8.21.12)
3 Mystique - Deborah Hutchings (10.15 33)
(1 boat retired)