Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship 2007 - Weekend 4
by Steve Sleight 10 Sep 2007 10:51 BST
8-9 September 2007
Jeremy Preston sailing Defender had the best weekend results in the Daring Class on weekend 4 of the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship © David Harrison / TKZ
Light winds for Red Funnel weekend
The fourth round of the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship was hosted at the weekend by Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club.
Saturday dawned grey with a Force 3 northerly. The sun appeared in the afternoon but the wind lightened and was quite shifty with the course set under the North shore.
Rugby, cricket and football on TV may have been responsible for the low turnout but only five Darings came to play, and they were the largest of the three fleets that turned out for the first day's races.
The 6 Metres were first away and Birta lead for the first triangle and most of the second run. But just before the final leeward mark Gubbora moved past and into the lead which she held to the finish.
The 6 Metres' second start saw all the boats late at the gun and only SWE 100 correctly picked the pin end to take a good lead off the line.
At the first windward mark SWE 100 had been caught and passed by Gubbrora which had better speed up wind. SWE 100 was still second at this stage with Berta closing in third and Tempest in fourth. After the two laps SWE 100 had dropped to the back with Gubbrora taking the win. Berta was again second and with Tempest taking third the results were a re-run of the first race.
The five boat Daring fleet saw plenty of place changing. Jeremy Preston sailing Defender led for the first lap but at the leeward mark Defender tacked off to the left. Audax rounded second and held on towards the right and was rewarded with more pressure which took her into the lead.
Defender came back into it later in the beat and had regained the lead by the windward mark the second time around. Dynamite was holding third and Darius had closed up a bit in fourth but Double Knot was a distant fifth. Defender held her lead to the finish with Audax finishing second and Dynamite third.
At the Darings second start only Defender correctly spotted the large bias to the pin end and crossed well ahead of the rest of the small fleet. The vagaries of the breeze made it difficult upwind and down and by the first leeward mark Defender had dropped back to third behind Dynamite in second with Audax holding a comfortable lead.
Audax still lead at the windward mark second time round but Defender had moved up to second just ahead of Dynamite. Defender and Dynamite had a close battle down the run with Defender heading right and Dynamite going down the middle.
The race committee shortened the course at the leeward mark where Audax won by a large margin. Defender and Dynamite approached the line side by side but at the finish it was Defender taking second with Dynamite finding she had been disqualified for not passing through the start line on the second beat, as did Darius which finished fourth, so Double Knot was elevated to third.
Only two Etchells raced on Saturday and both races were won by Pale Tide by a large margin from Palaver.
Sunday
The light winds continued on Sunday with the first race being held in a fickle Force 1 from the north-northwest.
The 6 Metres were first away with four boats coming to the line. SWE 100 was over early at the port end and had to round the pin before heading off right while the rest of the fleet went left. Ante Razmilovic's Berta won this race ahead of Gubbora with Avia Willment's Tempest third.
Two Etchells took the start and at the end of the first round Palaver and Pale Tide were side by side as they approached the leeward mark with Palaver leading around the mark. A lap later and again they were side by side at the mark but this time it was Pale Tide on the inside and she rounded ahead and held her lead to the finish.
Nine Darings turned out on Sunday and at the first start Audax was the only one to spot the left end bias and she easily crossed the fleet and established a good lead from the gun. Unfortunately, she overstood the layline at the windward mark and Dynamite rounded ahead.
At the leeward mark Defender had moved up to challenge Dynamite and the two rounded together with Defiant in third and Audax back in fourth. The wind was dropping even further and the final run was very slow. Those that took the right had side of the run ended up battling the tide in the final approach to the leeward mark and Audax picked up places by staying left. Dynamite had a good lead which she held to the finish while Audax took second with Defender taking third.
Two Dragons came out to play on Sunday. As they approached the first leeward mark Kedron held a one length lead from Supremacy but couldn't make it stick. At the mark Supremacy had squeezed inside and this was the deciding move as the race was shortened at the end of the first lap in the face of the dying breeze.
What wind there was shifted to the northwest and PRO Ian Lallow moved the course and sent the fleets off on another race, or rather a drift.
All the fleets were shortened at the end of the first lap with Pale Tide taking first in the Etchells as their only competitor, Palaver, retired as the wind disappeared on the run.
In the 6 Metres, SWE 100 took the win, after finishing last in all the weekend's other races. Supremacy won the two boat Dragon race while Defender took the Daring win ahead of Destroyer and Dido.
For full results visit cowes.result.vg/public/regattaindex