RORC Channel Race - Preview

Vincent Willemart and Eric Van Campenhout's MC34 Patton, Azawakh © RORC

The tenth race of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Season's Points Championship will take place this weekend. Starting and finishing in the Solent, the race is expected to take over 24 hours. The weather forecast is for a light northerly breeze for the start, which may build as the race develops. High pressure is likely to cause the current heat wave to continue, providing fantastic conditions for the RORC fleet.

The battle in IRC Canting Keel continues with a head to head between the IMOCA 60, Artemis Team Endeavour, skippered by Mikey Ferguson and the Volvo 70, Monster Project, sailed by Andrew Budgen and Fred Schwyn. Artemis Team Endeavour took line honours and the class win in their last encounter but Monster Project still lead the class for the Season's Points Championship.

Five yachts will race in IRC One including the current class leader, Steven Anderson's Corby 40, Cracklin' Rosie. Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens 3, has moved up to second place after winning the East Coast Race last weekend while RORC Commodore Mike Greville, racing Erivale III, will take part in his fourth RORC offshore race of the season and is in third place for the series.

"Due to holidays, weddings and other reasons, this weekend Erivale will have a much changed crew," commented Mike. "We will be missing our usual navigator and main sheet trimmer but long term Erivale crew, Craig Niven, will be on board and we will be the only two crew over 30. Erivale will be very much a family affair with the rest of the crew being relations of either Craig or myself, including two of my daughters. We are hoping that their lack of experience will be made up by youthful energy!"

IRC Two sees the return of the Vincent Willemart and Eric Van Campenhout's MC34 Patton, Azawakh. The Belgian team lead IRC Two and a good result in the Channel Race is likely to lift them to become the overall leader for the RORC Season's Points Championship.

The largest class will be IRC Three with 12 boats taking part including Nick Martin's J./105, Diablo-J, and Night and Day, the JPK 10.10 that was sailed to victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2013 by owner, Pascal Loison. Of the 12 boats taking part, seven are in the top ten for the class overall and all will be jostling to claim valuable points before the final deciding races of the season. In particular, without Louis-Marie Dussere's Raging Bee to contend with, Nick Martin will be hoping for a good result to propel him into first place overall in class.

IRC Four may be a small class with six starters, but it is a strong line up. Regular RORC competitor, Noel Racine's JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew, sits second overall in the Season's Points Championship and will face the dark horse of the class: McGregor IV, Peter Ward's MG 38. McGregor IV has sailed five races of the series but most outside of the Solent, including the North Sea, Round Ireland and East Coast Races, the latter seeing them leapfrog Foggy Dew to lead the class overall.

As ever, the Two-Handed Class continues to be well represented with eight entrants including Artemis 43, the Figaro II sailed by the Artemis Offshore Academy, Shortgood, Renaud Courbon's First Class 10 and High Jinks, the J/97 sailed by David Mossman and Blair Forsyth. Raging Bee's absence will allow Diablo-J, only 40 points adrift in second place in the Season's Points Championship, to make up some ground. Likewise, Sous Mama Boulé could allow Rare and Artemis 43 to also narrow the gap for 3rd place overall.

For several yachts competing in the Channel Race, this will be their last test before racing in next month's Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, including the British Army Sailing Association's J/111, British Soldier. Lt Col Tim Hill explains the Army team's approach to offshore sailing.

"The Channel Race is the last proper test before the highlight of our season," stated Tim. "British Soldier will be approaching the task in the same method as we always do. This will be the final dress rehearsal but as all the Round Britain and Ireland Team have already completed the qualifying miles we will be introducing new members to the team this weekend, to encourage and empower younger members for the future.

"British Soldier is very much a team and whilst I grandly sit as Rear Commodore of the Army Sailing Association, I have a team beneath me that do the hard work and hard graft. Capt Phil Caswell is the Race Team Manager and organises and co-ordinates the crew for every race that we do. Sitting alongside him is Maj Will Naylor who is responsible for all of the equipment and logistics required for RORC Racing, from victualling the boat to making sure we are race compliant. These two leaders then delegate individual tasks for all crew members - it is very much a team effort."

The British Army are used to operating in hot conditions on operations around the world. With the present heat wave in mind, Lt Col Tim Hill gives some good advice on avoiding dehydration.

"For high exertion activity in high temperatures, you need to be consuming a minimum of 1 litre of water per hour. That is a lot of fluid but it is essential to budget accordingly, sometimes during an offshore, the activity is less than other sports, but not taking enough water is unhealthy and a team's performance can be seriously affected by it. To avoid dehydration we use a buddy-buddy ethos; each team member keeps an eye on another and ultimately it is the skipper's responsibility to monitor how much water is being consumed."

For more information go to www.rorc.org