Yachting Monthly Triangle Race - Leg 3 Finish
by John Roberson 23 Jun 2016 23:53 BST
12-24 June 2016
Heward & Hawkins secure overall win
Southampton sailors Gary Heward and Russell Hawkins sailing their Maxi 1100 Amylou, have provisionally won the Yachting Monthly Triangle Race. They took first place in a slow and frustrating final leg from Treguier, Brittany to Torquay in Devon, which gave them a clear six point margin at the top of the leaderboard.
First across the finishing line of the last leg, but fourth on handicap were Australian father and son team Mark and Walter Hipgrave in Mr Lucky, a Sunfast 3600, representing the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, this gave them second overall.
Second on handicap in the last leg, and third overall in the race were Exe Sailing Club duo Rick Newcombe and George Melbourne sailing their X34 eXebitionist. After a difficult first leg, from Torquay to Kinsale in Southern Ireland in which they finished ninth, they scored second place in both the subsequent legs.
While Mr Lucky took second place, their direct rivals also in a Sunfast 3600, Chris and Corky Rhodes were very unlucky, having to retire from the last leg so they could get back to work. The Rhodes, another father and son team sailing Footloose II left Treguier in second place overall, but dropped to sixth overall.
Having spent the night crossing the Channel in extremely variable conditions, the fleet became becalmed just south of Berry Head, and spent most of the day just trying to stem the tide.
The Australians managed to break away from the fleet and crawl into Torbay where they were out of the worst of the tide, and crossed the finishing line at about 16:30, while the rest of the fleet were still straggling in late into the evening.
trianglerace.co.uk