Farr 45 Staples Trophy at Royal Thames Yacht Club
by Malcom McKeag 8 Sep 2010 16:35 BST
September 2010
The plan to two-boat team race Farr 45s was always one that caused race officers, owners and sailors alike to purse their collective lips. Exciting, edgy and laced with the possibility of going wrong. Match racing is one thing; team racing another. In match racing - now a regular part of the Farr 45 Royal Thames programme - the object is to get in front of your opponent and stay there. In team racing the object is to get in front - and then get in the way.
It was a game that all knew would need benign conditions if the risks of damage were to be kept under sensible control. Unhappily, the weather declined to co-operate and on Saturday 10 to 12 knots of breeze left everyone wondering if this would be safe.
Ever a group to push the envelope, the Farrs collectively decided to have a go and Werewold and Espresso Martini took on Exabyte Four and Rebel. Fleet racing in these boats is always close, so team racing was bound to be even closer. Using a standard windward/ leeward course all four came to thwe finish almost abreast. Espresso wound up to cross Exabyte's stern and close-out Rebel, giving the Blue team a win since always in the two-boat game the team with a boat in last place loses.
Unhappily, Espresso got just too close to Rebel, clipping the green boat's transom and - crucially - damaging the backstay chain plate. It was a double blow for Stewart Whitehead, Rebel's owner: cracking around the chainplate called for prudent examination ashore and Rebel was out of the game before it had barely started.
That was it as far as team racing was concerned. With the Farrs fully powered-up in 12 knots the consequences of even a light contact were going to be too serious to risk.
With four boats now left in the game, the eight fleet races that followed were more like four-boat match races than conventional competition so while there could be no team racing, no one was left short of excitement.