IRC European Championship and Commodores' Cup - Day 5
by James Boyd 15 Jun 2018 06:35 BST
8-16 June 2018
Despite a scary-looking forecast and prolonged periods punching foul tide, today's rescheduled race around the Isle of Wight, during the Royal Ocean Racing Club-organised IRC Europeans and Commodores' Cup, proved a great success. This replaced the scheduled 24-36 hour long offshore, but all competitors nonetheless returned feeling severely tested to a summery Cowes, very different to the rain, near gale force gusts, four knot foul tide and reduced visibility of this morning's 0936 start.
Having the best time of it were the FAST 40+s. They split in the western Solent, James Neville's Ino XXX choosing to avoid the tide by hugging the island shore, while Mike Bartholomew's Tokoloshe II took the mainland side. Neither tactics especially paid: They converged before Hurst with Ino XXX just a few boatlengths ahead. En route, Tokoloshe's tactician Dave Lenz experienced the most wind of the race: "Unfortunately our wind gear stopped working, but I guess it was mid-30s. We were trying to short tack up the shore, which was pretty marginal because tacking gets pretty hard in that."
Having survived lumpy seas at South West Shingles buoy, the two then split again, with Ino XXX heading further inshore and it was on this leg to St Catherine's Point that Tokoloshe passed her, remaining there to the finish. Lenz continued: "At St Caths it was full on - 3-4 knots of tide against us, a full river - but it was good because we were doing 20 knots."
Tokoloshe won IRC One, nine minutes ahead of Ino XXX under IRC - useful as this race has a 1.5x co-efficient and is non-discardable.
A welcome sight today was Andy Williams' Ker 40 Keronimo, following her severe grounding on Egypt Point yesterday. The worst damage was to her rudder and steering system but these were repaired, working through the night. "It was a bit of a scramble to relaunch with the tide - it went in at 0800 and we just made the start..." admitted Williams.
The experience didn't faze Keronimo's crew. They did especially well on the reach to St Catherine's Point, but then broke their kicker: "That caused some problems because we had to take the kite down and the main was out of control," said Williams. But they recovered to claim third in IRC One. "It was really good fun - you do these events to go around the island in 25 knots."
In IRC Two there is a new player in town in Tom Kneen's fresh out of the box JPK 1180 Sunrise. Sailing her in more than 10 knots for the first time, they glimpsed her potential: "It has been a painstakingly stressful and difficult week. We've not had any conditions that have suited the boat at all...until today," said Kneen. "We had an amazing race. I am very pleased. It was perfect conditions for the boat."
Sunrise shone, sailing inshore on the leg down to St Catherine's Point, passing the King 40s Nifty and Cobra, a position she then consolidated. She won by more than five and a half minutes from Rod Stuart and Bill Ram's Corby 37 Aurora.
Overall, Aurora now leads IRC Two but the top six boats lie within 8.5 points of her. There is a very different case in IRC Three where Didier Le Moal's J/112e J Lance 12 completely dominates. Winning today's race leaves her on 9.5 points to Jean-Eudes Renier's second placed Shaitan's 24.
Today's performance by the IRC Three leaders Shaitan and J Lance 12 was especially impressive, finishing among the IRC Two frontrunners, as did Ed Fishwick's Sun Fast 3600 Redshift Reloaded. It was insanely close too: Redshift Reloaded was first across the line, but finished fourth under IRC, the top four boats separated by just three and a half minutes with J Lance 12 winning by just 11 seconds on corrected time from Shaitan.
"Going around the island is our bag," admitted Redshift Reloaded owner Ed Fishwick. "The conditions were good for us. We saw 30 knots at times going down the Solent. It was lively - very shifty and gusty, making driving conditions tricky. We even reefed half way down which we rarely do. Plus there was an amazing contrast in the weather: Stormy and wet this morning, but champagne sailing from St Catherine's on, with winds in the high teens or low 20s."
They rounded the south side of the Isle of Wight glued to the shore to avoid the foul tide, but were in constant contact with their competitors. "It was great fun, very, very tight racing," continued Fishwick. "Ourselves, Shaitan and J Lance were within boatlengths of each other for miles and miles. They were pulling match racing-type manoeuvres on us..."
A man who has raced around the island more than most is David Bedford, this week calling the shots on Shaitan. "It was a great day out. It always is. We saw 30 knots up the first beat," Bedford mused. Interestingly while Bedford was British National Match Racing champion back in 1989, Redshift Reloaded's Nick Cherry held this same title four times between 2006 and 2011.
Bedford said they stuck to their playbook, heading for mainland shore in the western Solent, then choosing the right time to return to the island side. They had nailed this and crossing a visible tide line put them into favourable tide. Like their competition they then hugged the south side of the island.
With all three of their boats performing well today - Shaitan 2nd, Keronimo 3rd and Adventure 4th - so the Celtic Team has pulled out a strong lead in the Commodores' Cup. Team leader Jock Wishart was delighted as his team is now on 68.5 points to second placed GBR - RORC on 110, with both Kings High and Team Orange poised a whisker astern, both on 113.5.
As Bedford, an Admiral's Cup veteran, explained: "Our game plan is to not do anything silly and to be as consistent as we can and keep scoring for the team..."
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