Coutts Quarter Ton Cup at Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes
by Fiona Brown 11 Jun 2007 11:10 BST
8-10 June 2007
Peter Morton and his Espada crew of Kelvin Rawlings, John Newnham, Stuart Childerly and John Kemp are the 2007 Coutts Quarter Ton Cup Champions. Designed by Bruce Farr in 1980 Espada has undergone extensive restoration work in the past two years, virtually all of it undertaken by Peter and his crew personally. Peter was delighted to finally win this illustrious trophy, more than 30 years after he first challenged for it. In his thank you speech at the prize giving Peter paid particular tribute to his wife Louise, secretary of the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and herself the owner of Quarter Tonner Super Q, who has work incredibly hard behind the scenes to make both the revival class and the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup such a huge success.
The three day regatta hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club, Cowes, concluded with a final day of superbly competitive racing that brought the best conditions of the series for the 26 competitors. Race Officer Bob Milner initially held the crews ashore for an hour as the sun burnt off the mist and his team kept an eye on the evolving conditions around the Solent. Before long the first signs of a South Easterly breeze were developing and the fleet was off across the Bramble Bank and preparing to set up for the final three races of the nine race regatta. Two windward leeward races were followed by a final romp around the cans home to Cowes which brought both the strongest winds of the day in the mid teens and the lightest when the wind dropped off to almost nothing at all as the boast struggled to cross the line against the tide off Cowes.
Tom Bombadil, designed by Doug Peterson in 1980, owned by Chris Frost and Kevin George with Kevin at the helm, also showed great form in races seven and eight scoring two thirds. They were looking set for another good result in the final race until the closing moments when the fleet compressed as the wind ran out on the final approaches to the finish and they ultimately scored an 8th, their worst result of the regatta.
The Christie/Layton/Crawford/Paul owned ASAP, designed by Fauroux in 1989 was the top performer of the day coming home with a win and two second places. Espada's 4, 1, 1 score put them second in the individual day's scoring. Darren Marsten's Catch, designed by Philip Briand in 1984, was ultimately Espada's closest challenger overall but their 2, 4, 3 final day score just wasn't quite enough to snatch the crown.
No matter the age, design or condition of their Quarter Tonner every crew was caught up in individual battles around the race course and great fun was had by all. Two performances of particular note are Roger Swinney's Ayanami, a 1979 David Thomas Bolero design, sailed by a crew of old friends who came 11th overall and SJ Rees's Throbber, a 1972 Mk2 Robber design, who finished 13th and came all the way from Wales to compete. Although lovingly maintained these boats have not yet been restored or optimised and are the ultimate embodiment of the Quarter Ton Class's claim that you don't need to spend a fortune to have great fun and really close racing. Also of note was the French crew of FarrNiente, a 1977 Farr 727 owned by Olivier Hays, who had sailed all the way from Le Havre to compete. "We'll be back!" declared Olivier as they enjoyed a final Pimms on the Royal Corinthian's terrace as the sun set on a glorious weekend.
As always the prize giving was an entertaining affair with 68 year old Pete Bryant of Alice winning the oldest bowman prize. The Red Funnel Trophy for the youngest crew went to Captain Moonlight, a 1973 Paul Whiting design owned by Tye Shuttleworth, and Tony Dodd and the legendary Purple Haze crew won the oldest crew award. Ollie Ophaus was the very proud recipient of the Marine Ware Concourse d'Elegance Tropphy, awarded for the fantastic refit job he has done on the 1978 Ed Dubois designed Supernova. The Ron Holland Eygthene Trophy for the first production boat went to Chris Frost and Kevin George's Tom Bombadil.
Speaking on behalf of event sponsor Coutts & Co Stephen Kemp congratulated all the competitors on their successes in the regatta and on the incredible camaraderie to be found in the class and confirmed that Coutts will be continuing their commitment to the Coutts Quarter Ton Cup in Cowes for the coming two years.
For the Quarter Ton Class the next major event on the horizon is the Round The Island Race when at least 15 Quarter Tonners are expected to compete.
Event Videos:
Available at www.malcolmdonald.com
Overall Results: (Top Six)
1. GBR50, Espada, Peter Morton, 2, 3, (21), 1, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1 - 14pts
2. GBR502, Catch, Darren Marston, 1,2, 1, 7, (12), 2, 2, 4, 3 - 22pts
3. GBR9999, ASAP, Christie/Layton/Crawford/Paul, 3, 8, (22), 2, 5, 7, 1, 2, 2 - 30pts
4. GBR7278, Tom Bombadil, Chris Frost/Kevin George, 4, 4, 2, 6, 3, 5, 3, 3, (8) - 30pts
5. GBR7055, Runaway Bus, Paul Kelsey, 6,1,3, 3, 10, 8, 6, 5, (15) - 21pts
6. GBR7027, Super Q, Louise Morton, (16), 10, 6, 9, 4, 4, 8, 7, 4 - 52pts