Folkboats in Round the Island
by Sarah Godwin 1 Jul 1999 15:55 BST
Just when they thought it was all over, Celia Mary, 44 year old Folkboat from Hamble, helmed by Edward Donald, sailed to victory to claim first overall in the Round the Island Race of 1999 and claimed the Gold Roman Bowl trophy narrowly beating David Thomas. Edward and his crew Mike Stoner and Derek Smith finished at 2036 taking some 11 hours 16 minutes and 11 seconds to complete the race, but with a handicap of 0.816 a corrected time gave them a mere 9 hours 11 minutes and 46 seconds giving them the overall win by some 20 seconds from 2nd placed Liz sailed by David Thomas. As one of the smallest yachts competing in this race of some 1500 yachts, this win demonstrates that you don’t need to buy an expensive high performance yacht to be competitive. Celia Mary was built in 1955 by Malcolm Donald out of wood and has previously won this title twice before.
Some 20 boats competed in the Folkboat class, which made for exciting racing with the lead changing hands all the way round the island. Cidron (R Walters), Hannchen (R Donald (Edward’s brother), Aquavit (Letty)and Bossa Nova (Cardwell) dominated the lead but by the time they reached St Catherines point, the wind have becalmed them, allowing the yachts to all bunch up and effectively restarting the race. A tight reach from St Catherines to Bembridge encouraged the Folkboats to luff each other up to see who could stand the pace. Round Bembridge Ledge, Cidron was leading closely followed by Hannchen and Bossa Nova. However Sweet Caroline (R Carran) managed to capitalise on a fortunate spinnaker leg to just pip Cidron (R Walters) at the post to claim victory with only a minute dividing them.
Full Results:
K618 SWEET CAROLINE 20:34:54 11:24:54 1
K612 CIDRON 20:36:00 11:26:00 2
GBR613 HANNCHEN 20:37:58 11:27:58 3
GBR669 AQUAVIT 20:39:47 11:29:47 4
F626 PALOMA 20:41:50 11:31:50 5
GBR615 COLUMBINE 20:44:22 11:34:22 6
K700 YSA 20:47:50 11:37:50 7
FB46 BLUE MIST 20:55:46 11:45:46 8
FK679 TUTTER 20:57:10 11:47:10 9
FB172 FOLKDANCE 20:58:33 11:48:33 10
FB285 WITCH OF WICKHAM 21:07:37 11:57:37 11
KF686 JARRAMAS 21:13:33 12:03:33 12
FB296 CHLOE 21:25:11 12:15:11 13
FB1 YO-HO OF WIGHT 21:31:20 12:21:20 14
FB190 DISKO TROOPER 21:36:50 12:26:50 15
K685 BOSSA NOVA 20:36:53 11:26:53 NO DEC
FB596 SANDPIPER 21:42:35 12:32:35 NO DEC
FB255 ANETTE NO DECLARATION
FB602 PANACHE NO DECLARATION
FB289 EL QUIOTE RETIRED
GBR675 LOTTIE DID NOT COMPETE