Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship - Weekend 4
by Steve Sleight 10 Jul 2006 08:34 BST
8-9 July 2006
Dauntless during weekend 4 of the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship © Steve Sleight / TKZ
A perfect Saturday but Sunday is blown off
The fourth weekend of the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship was run by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and saw perfect conditions on Saturday.
Two windward leeward races were run with a start line near the mainland shore with the sailors enjoying a wonderful summer's day with a glittering southwesterly Force 4.
The fleet of 16 Darings were first away but moments before the start drama struck when Devius was in a classic port and starboard collision with Division Belle, which left Devius with a large hole in her port side and in danger of sinking. The crew patched the damage and managed to limp back to Cowes while Division Belle retired and also headed home.
The remaining fourteen boats enjoyed a good tussle with Dynamite leading Audax and Double Knot at the first windward mark. By the finish, the order had changed with Double Knot taking advantage of mistakes ahead to win from Dynamite with Defender third.
There were only eight boats in the Dragon fleet and they were led around the course by Chris Brittain's Caramba who crossed the line comfortably ahead of Rumours with Rascal Rat just holding off Jerboa to take third.
The second race saw the Darings spread evenly along the start line. Audax chose the pin end and headed left, and this proved to be the right decision when she was able to tack and cross the fleet.
By the windward mark Audax had a comfortable lead from Destroyer and Ding Dong but they hit the mark which allowed Defiant to move into second ahead of the ever-present Dauntless.
Audax continued to hold her lead for the next round while places changed behind her, but a mistake on the run allowed Dauntless to close to within a couple of boat lengths by the leeward mark. Defiant had held third place until the last mark but when the spinnaker tangled in the jib while being lowered the resulting mess cost them five places.?
By the finish, Dauntless had passed Audax while Dynamite moved into third, ahead of Darling and Defender, to take her second podium position of the day.
At the start of the Dragon's second race, the pin end was favoured and Gavia Wilkinson-Cox spotted the bias and made an excellent start in Jerboa to cross the fleet on port tack.
But Jerboa wasn't able to hold off Caramba, which was in dominant form, and at the finish it was again a one-two for Caramba and Rumours with Jerboa taking third place.
The weather deteriorated overnight and Sunday dawned wet and windy which caused PRO Willie Sanderson to abandon the day's Red Funnel racing, with its committee boat starts, but to offer a shore line start instead for a race around the cans. The course, in the partial lee of the Island to the east of Cowes, was sailed by nine Darings although no Dragons took up the invitation, but the race doesn't count for Red Funnel series points.
The next weekend in the Red Funnel Cowes Keelboat Championship will be on 2-3 September, when the racing will be run by the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Top Three Results:
Darings
Race 1 Saturday
1 Double Knot
2 Dynamite
3 Defender
Race 2 Saturday
1 Dauntless
2 Audax
3 Dynamite
Dragons
Race 1 Saturday
1 Caramba
2 Rumours
3 Rascal Rat
Race 2 Saturday
1 Caramba
2 Rumours
3 Jerboa
For full results visit www.cowes.co.uk