Contessa 32 Inshore Series at Royal Solent Yacht Club
by Chris North 21 Jul 2005 14:00 BST
16-17 July 2005
CONTESSA 32 INSHORE SERIES HOTS UP AT THE ROYAL SOLENT
Ray Mitchell in his beautiful new English Rose has often been the most consistent performer so far this year in the Contessa 32 Inshore series, but since the first weekend Rouse, Vanner, Richard’s hardy perennial Blanco has won out. Not this weekend – a 2, 2 and hard fought 1 made English Rose the comfortable winner in the Royal Solent’s racing in Christchurch Bay and the Western Solent.
But crucially, with Cowes Week next on the calendar, the three races over 16/17 July were each been won by different boats – John McCann’s Cosantes and Eldred Himsworth’s Drumbeat joining English Rose. And new boats to the fleet also came hrough to top five finishes.
After a delay moving out of the Solent into Christchurch Bay on Saturday, two triangle/sausage races were run around laid marks in relatively constant breeze and tidal conditions.
The first race saw John Cordens’s Fresh Herring off to a blinding lead at the first mark, which was steadily eroded and then wiped out by the chasing field, led by the familiar names of Blanco, English Rose and Cosantes. New boys Carolina, with the added miracle ingredient of class veteran Kieth Feltham and his blonde bombshell son David on board, were OCS but still managed to restart and drive through to 4th at the first mark before dropping back to a final 7th. Bright new coordinated crew kits were seen prominently on Contessa Catherine (red and white), 6th, and on Andaxi (cream and blue), 9th.
The second race saw all bar Fresh Herring still holding No 1 genoas. An uncharacteristically poor start from Blanco left her struggling through the fleet to an eventual 4th, while Drumbeat established a controlling lead. 2nd and 3rd were filled by the consistent English Rose and Cosantes.
Back in Yarmouth Chris North’s Andaxi hosted the traditional post racing drinks party. Lethal ‘Sea Breezes’, dispensed from wandering barrels not only sunk the pontoons under the crush of crews but also resulted in everyone sitting down to dinner at the Royal Solent an hour late – so all credit to the club for an excellent meal.
The following day dawned still, but the fleet moved out into Christchurch Bay again to awaited the breeze. Delayed until midday, the fleet finally got away on a seemingly enormous course involving two windward legs, a fetch, a run and a reach in the bay, followed by a 6 mile run from Elbow all the way back to Wadsworth, in the Solent, before a final beat to back to Yarmouth – all this in 6 to 8 knots of breeze. The only saving grace was the building flood tide which meant that once round the ‘gate’ at Elbow it was all down hill.
A left of centre start by Cosantes saw her demonstrate quite remarkable boat speed in stretching away from the fleet and leading convincingly round the course up to the final run. Behind her, Anthony Burdall’s Alcyone was doing rather well, she took Drumbeat on the downwind leg to North Head and took Blanco and Polar Star on the short beat to Warden. This short cross tide leg saw lots of place changes. Those that tacked first and then again onto the lay line taking huge chunks out of those that stood over into the main channel before tacking to the mark - Contessa Catherine suffering and Corafin profiting in particular.
The long run from Elbow to Wadsworth proved to be the final leg as the course was shortened. And here persistence and good use of the tide and wind angles proved decisive. Half a mile from the finish Cosantes was still in the lead from English Rose, but she went into the Island shore too soon, heading directly for the finish, but losing the main tide and the wind. English Rose stayed out longer before gybing and sailing a faster angle to finish 1st and pip Cosantes.
Behind them the new boys faired well against seasoned opposition. Alcyone held on to beat Blanco, coming 3rd and Carolina pipped Polar Star by under a metre and Drumbeat by no more than 2 metres to finish 5th. Andaxi, 8th, lead Corafin and Contessa Catherine in with only about a minute between them.
Overall English Rose won the weekend, with Cosantes 2nd and Blanco only managing 3rd. Drumbeat and Polar Star were 4th and 5th, followed by this year’s new boats Carolina and Alcyone. All is now set for a highly competitive Cowes.