Sigma 33 Network Yacht Brokers Cup Regatta 3

Gorgeous sunshine greeted the twelve Sigmas that came to the line for the third of the five one day regattas that make up the Solent Sigma 33 summer championship series on 13th July, but a strong spring tide and 4 to 8 knots of wind made for difficult calls for lay lines and tough tactics on the downwind legs. Tom Hayhoe and Natalie Jobling's Mithril won overall from John Wright's Summation but the result was close with no-one certain of the winner until the scores were counted up on the way home. And with twelve of the twenty races in the summer long series for the Network Yachbrokers Cup now completed, Summation leads from Mithril.

The first race was dominated by two helmsmen with skills honed at the recent class championships in Scotland. Peter Innes-Ker's Retribution won in a close tussle with David Rolfe and Andy Johns' Shadowfax with Ben Richards as jockey for the day, with John Summation the leading chasing pack some way behind. Mithril, arriving late at the course on the Peel Bank and missing the first start, showed signs of her intentions for the rest of the day by leading off the line in the second race, but Shadowfax's form continued, recovering ground on the second beat and snatching the lead on the second run to take the gun.

Mithril had it all her own way in the third race with Summation taking second, and Klaus Diedrichs' Lucky Ducky third. After an aborted start when a competitor tried to sail away with the outer distance mark and the windward mark started to drift away on the tide towards Cowes, the fourth race got away in the lightest wind of the day. Initially it appeared likely that this would be a re-run of the third race but with the top two places reversed as John Wright led Tom Hayhoe round the first mark. But while a battle ensued between Summation, Mithril, John Godfrey's Stickleback and Mike Halstead's Meka II on the right hand side of the run, Retribution took advantage to come through on the left to round the leeward mark first and take the gun as the course was shortened at the end of the first lap.

Summation took second from Stickleback, but this was not enough to beat Mithril overall, who pulled past Meka II on the last beat to take third, and snatch victory on count-back.

Overall Results: