Adecco Maxi OD - Cowes Week Event Day 5

Belgians win final race but South Africa wins Cowes Week

Geoff Meek’s Rainbow Magic led in the early part of the race with good speed upwind, but was twice overtaken by the Belgian boat downwind. Meek, however, kept his head and covered the boats astern to protect his second place, which was sufficient for him to tie on points with Ludde Ingvall’s Skandia for the event, but by beating him (Skandia was fourth to finish) in the last race, Rainbow Magic takes the Cowes Week first prize on the tie-breaker. Before the start, Meek and Ingvall made it plain that they were only really interested in each other. They engaged in a match race style pre-start, with Skandia ‘clamped’ to the stern of Rainbow Magic, following her wherever she went. Meek effected not to notice and concentrated on starting at the outboard end of the line. He timed his start better and had the advantage over Skandia, which was not what Ingvall had planned.

But both were at the unfavoured end of the line and were effectively last and last but one as the seven boats set off towards the Horse Elbow buoy, almost ten miles to the east. The one missing from today’s race was Gunnar Krantz’ Team Henri-Lloyd (SWE), which needed some repairs to her mast before the Fastnet Race.

Ross Field’s RF Yachting (NZL), Synphony and Le Defi Bouygues Telecom – Transiciel skippered by Jimmy Pahun (FRA) were best placed at the Island end of the start line. They led the fleet for some time, but Meek had persisted with his line and went all the way to the mainland shore in pursuit of relief from the ebb tide. He found it, and with it a slight shift in the wind which enabled him to come out in front at the Spithead forts.

Rainbow Magic led Synphony by 20 seconds at the Horse Elbow buoy with Le Defi Bouygues Telecom – Transiciel another 10 seconds behind. The came RF Yachting, Skandia, Guido Maisto’s Seac Banche (ITA), and Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghimax (SUI). Just before they reached the North Sturbridge buoy, five and a half miles away, Synphony established an inside overlap on Rainbow Magic. That was just the start of the South African’s problems.

Meek had to allow Bouscholte to go round ahead of him, but another class, racing in Cowes Week, was also rounding the buoy from another direction. Meek had to give way to three of these before he could harden up on the wind. The rest of the fleet, coming later, found more and more of the other class and it was remarkable that there were no collisions.

On the beat back to the Horse Elbow, Meek again went to the front to round 12 seconds ahead of Synphony, which in turn was 12 seconds ahead of Le Defi Bouygues Telecom – Transiciel. Skandia had just edged RF Yachting out of fourth place and soon after rounding the mark, gybed away and went off to run down the Island shore while the rest went towards the mainland shore to avoid the tide, which had just turned to flood.

On the run to the West Bramble buoy, superior downwind speed put Synphony back in front and she passed the mark 51 seconds in front of Rainbow Magic. The came Skandia, RF Yachting and Le Defi Bouygues Telecom – Transiciel. They held these places on the reach to East Lepe, where Skandia immediately tacked. Rainbow Magic tacked and RF Yachting stood in towards the Island shore.

Skandia needed to pass Rainbow Magic to win the event and thus concentrated her efforts in that direction, which allowed Ross Field to put RF Yachting in the best place for the tidal current and this enable him to split the two boats in front of him to take third place after Synphony and Rainbow Magic. At the finish, the Rainbow Magic crew were unaware of their overall win – they believed the tie-breaker to use a different system.

Finishing order: Race five:

1. BEL Synphony Hans Bouscholte 
2. RSA Rainbow Magic Geoff Meek
3. NZL RF Yachting Ross Field
4. EUR Skandia Ludde Ingvall
5. FRA Le Defi Bouygues Telecom – Transiciel
6. ITA Seac Banche Guido Maisto
7. SUI Alinghimax Ernesto Bertarelli
DNS SWE Team Henri-Lloyd Gunnar Krantz

Overall points after one discard:

1. RSA 36
2. EUR 36
3. BEL 29.5
4. NZL 24
5. FRA 19
6. SUI 15
7. SWE 12
8. ITA 11

Adecco World Championship: Overall points with one discard:

1. EUR 58
2. NZL 45
3. RSA 37
4. FRA 35
5. BEL 26.5
6. SUI 23
7. SWE 23
8. ITA 8

For more information visit : www.adecco-championship.com/uk