IRC European Championship and Commodores' Cup - Day 6
by James Boyd 16 Jun 2018 04:13 BST
8-16 June 2018
With just one day of racing left at the Royal Ocean Racing Club-organised IRC European Championship and Commodores' Cup, for the leaders in two of the three classes the regatta is 'theirs to lose'.
In IRC Three, J Lance 12, the J/112e of Didier Le Moal added two more bullets to her scoreline today, as did Mike Bartholomew's GP42 Tokoloshe II, the runaway leader in IRC One. While mathematically neither has yet secured their class win, they will be difficult to beat and one of these two looks set to become the 2018 IRC European Champion when racing on the Solent concludes tomorrow.
So far this regatta has thrown all sorts of conditions at the competitors, a reminder of why a week-long regatta represents such a complete test, worthy of a major championship such as this. After the light winds of the first few days, then the brutal 30 knot upwind, uptide slog, followed by a downwind sleighride during yesterday's race around the Isle of Wight, today's two windward-leewards starting from just off the mainland shore, west of Lee-on-Solent were more benign. The wind started at 10-12 knots before building into the high teens, kicking up an ugly, short wind-against-tide chop. The strong tides also contributed to skewing the race track and there was little point going up the right side only to punch tide to get to the top mark.
The chop made life difficult on the downwinds as competitors attempted to keep spinnakers filled and masts pointing upwards. Their success was mixed. The kite wrap on Alex and Andy Moore's First 40 TiLT was so severe that they were forced to retire from race two, ultimately having to cut the kite free in a 'chase boat drop' (ie dump it in the water). Similarly Andy Williams' Keronimo returned ashore with a Ker 40-sized hole in the middle of a spinnaker.
In IRC One, the MAT 1180 Tschuss of US-based German Christian Zugel had a good day scoring a 4-3, propelling her up to fourth place overall. She is now ahead of Tor McLaren's sistership Gallivanter, albeit by just 2.5 points, and with Robert Bicket's Club Swan 42 Fargo in between.
"We did well today - I am very pleased," said Zugel. "It was good fun racing and we learned a lot. We've been racing Gallivanter and Keronimo and it will still be tight tomorrow with them."
Cowes-based Aussie Sam Haines is calling tactics on board Zugel's Mark Mills design and explained their approach today: "Once the breeze gets up out there, it is a case of keeping your nose clean. It is easy to do silly things. Racing Gallivanter is really nice. It makes for better racing than sailing against the clock."
French boats have dominated the smaller classes in major RORC events in recent years. This is also the case here where in IRC Three, in addition to the immaculate J Lance 12, Emmanuel Le Men's well sailed First 40.7 Pen Koent holds second. However her crew can by no means throttle back tomorrow with the JPK 10.80 Shaitan just six points astern of her.
While J Lance 12 and Pen Koent were top scorers today in IRC Three, the third best performance was that of Peter Hodgkinson's Hamble-based X-362 Sport Xcitable, which posted a 4-2. So why today? "Before there has been a lot of tidal disadvantage for the smaller boats because we have been out there pushing tide for longer and we've have some really bad wind drops towards the end of some of the days and we've suffered from that," explained Hodgkinson. "But today we didn't have that. We had a good day - where we should be. We are going to try and beat the J tomorrow."
This week's varied conditions haven't fazed him or his crew who have been campaigning Xcitable for some 15 years. "It is like wearing an old pair of slippers," says Hodgkinson of his well-maintained yacht.
Far from certain is who will pick up the winner's trophy in IRC Two tomorrow. The First 40 Adventurer has pulled out a small lead after she posted a 1-3 today, but is only five points clear of yesterday's leader, Rod Stuart and Bill Ram's Corby 37 Aurora, in turn a half point ahead of RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine's First 40 La Réponse. Elke and Roger Bowden's King 40 Nifty are also within eight points of the IRC Two lead.
Adventurer, La Réponse and Frans and Carla Rodenburg's First 40 Elke were top scorers today, with the Dutch team finally coming into its own. According to Rodenburg, his crew is more used to sailing offshore or windward-leewards (but not round the cans). Elke is also the highest rated First 40 here, partly because she has a bulb rather than a fin keel. "We need a little bit more wind and then we are king. We have to be the fastest First 40 and we went very well today."
However they also had some issues and back in Cowes Yacht Haven the Dutch crew were fixing Elke's spinnaker pole track. "During the last race the track came out and we had to hoist this guy up there to screw it back together. But we managed to keep up our speed and keep our distance to the other boats," said Rodenburg.
In the Commodores' Cup, the Celtic Team continues to extend away. Across today's two races, their three boats - Adventurer, Shaitan and Keronimo accumulated just 27 points; Adventurer having an especially good day posting a 1-3. Second-placed Team Orange, comprising Elke, John Smart's J/109 Jukebox and Irishman Roy Darrer's A-35 Fools Gold managed 36, leaving them 52 points adrift of the Celts.
Tomorrow is the final day of the IRC European Championship and Commodores' Cup. Two further inshore races are scheduled with a last warning signal at 1530 and the prizegiving at the RORC Cowes clubhouse due to take place at 1700.