RACE 1 KER 11.3s Star In The Round The Island race
by Philip Crebbin 19 Jun 2001 16:06 BST
Race 1 and the new Race 1 Ker 11.3 owners were delighted with the performance of the 11.3s, which were amongst the star performers in the Round The Island race. The first two boats were sailing, Cracker, with Robbie Cameron-Davies and his team having their first outing before taking delivery of their own boat (number 4 in the schedule) and On A High, with Michael White and his team.
Both boats were sailing in the IRM division, which for some strange reason was not included in the overall standings for the Gold Roman Bowl despite the fact that all IRM boats have perfectly valid IRC ratings. When the results were recalculated with all the IRM boats included, On A High, with an official IRC rating of 1.156, would have won the Gold Roman Bowl ahead of the declared winner Mandrake (an IRM boat that chose to sail in IRC rather than IRM). Cracker would have been 9th overall, an excellent performance for a team that had had no practice in the boat. Chris Bull, awaiting delivery of 11.3 number 3, and his team sailed the Ker designed Roaring Meg and would have been 7th overall. For On A High in real terms to have performed well enough to have won the Gold Roman Bowl, with the two other Ker boats also in single figures overall, is a fantastic result for the 11.3’s first big race.
On A High’s performance was despite giving away ground by going outside the wreck at the Needles, sailing the whole race with some mainsail battens missing and having some spinnaker handling problems that resulted in two spinnakers being badly damaged and the boat having to sail bareheaded for significant periods of time. When going properly they recorded 18kts boatspeed round the back of the Island on the waves in 23kts true windspeed.
Philip Crebbin, skipper of On A High, commented: “I have never enjoyed sailing an offshore-type big keelboat as much as I enjoyed the 11.3. It handled superbly and at times it was like sailing a highly responsive sportsboat. The performance of the boat has exceeded my wildest expectations.”
The 11.3s are now hitting the water at a fast pace and it is expected that 7 will be racing in Cowes Week. Many more people are showing keen interest and this performance in the Round The Island race will hopefully mean that the production run will continue for some time to come.
Never before has sailing a 38ft yacht been so exciting!
For more information please look at the Race 1 website www.u2canrace1.com or contact Philip Crebbin on 07880 717897, Jonny Falkner on 07005 388599 Or e-mail to u2canrace1@aol.com