Skandia Cowes Week 2006 - Day 4
by Magnus Wheatley 1 Aug 2006 20:00 BST
29 July - 5 August 2006
Day four of Skandia Cowes Week 2006 dawned with a forecast of strong and blustery south-westerly winds with gusts straining the dial beneath storm clouds producing a lumpy Solent and gusts of up to 29 knots. Principal Race Officer John Grandy of the Royal Yacht Squadron rightly urged his course setters to adopt a “safety first” attitude by sending all the classes on the Castle start line to the more sheltered eastern Solent and ensuring their courses were suitably short enough to get all the fleets safely home before the tide turned. Running starts with the tide, therefore, were the order of the day and provided a fantastic spectacle for the shoreside spectators as the day boats streaked off the start line setting myriad shades of colourful spinnakers for a long first leg down to the Hill Head Shore. However for three classes – the Solent Sunbeams, RS-K6 and Swallows – the conditions were just too tough for the sailors and the class associations decided not to race them whilst in the Seaview Mermaids, a gentleman’s decision saw none of the fleet fly spinnakers.
The first start of the day at 10.05am was a tense affair for the hard-driving Laser SB3 fleet who all clustered at the outer distance Alpha buoy to take best advantage of the fast running west to east flood tide. A few expensive collisions amongst the back markers ensued as some of the less experienced SB3 sailors struggled with their boat-handling but in the main the fleet got away to a much cheered “all clear” from the line spotters for an energetic jaunt in the central Solent. One of the big winners from the start, Christina Summerhayes in Team Maclaren, sailed an absolute blinder today and upset the established order in the fleet by recording a beautiful 1 minute 55 second race win from dinghy ace Geoff Carveth’s Small But Steamy. Yesterday’s winner, Price Waterhouse Coopers of Jono and Ben Shelley, held off the challenge of Glenn Bourke’s Musto to secure third spot whilst Russell Peters had his worst result of the regatta so far, finishing in a distant 36th place and proving that even with amazing boatspeed, if you get buried in the SB3 fleet it’s incredibly difficult to recover. Great racing by one of the star attractions of Skandia Cowes Week 2006.
One family that no doubt will be celebrating long into the night will be the husband and wife duo Graham and Julia Bailey who both scored wins in their respective classes of the International Etchells and the International Dragons. Graham Bailey had a real-flyer of a start aboard Arbitrator and took an early jump on the competitive fleet by ignoring the crowding at Alpha and picking up clear wind mid-line. Arbitrator was never headed and sailed through the line with a very healthy 3 minute 39 seconds winning delta – a lifetime in the Etchells fleet! Meanwhile Julia Bailey sailing Aimee in the Dragons edged out a very hard-fought final beat to just squeak across the finish line off the Skandia Barge 15 seconds ahead. A win’s a win at Skandia Cowes Week and the Bailey’s were the talk of the town for the inshore White Group fleets.
Up in the Western Solent, the handicap fleets of Classes Zero, 1,2,3,4 and 5 all enjoyed a committee boat start line today and experienced blustery conditions on their exposed courses. Volvo Ocean Race winner ABN Amro One was, once again, the star performer in Class Zero as she belted around the course winning on the water by some 53 minutes that converted to nearly 20 minutes on corrected time. Away from ABN, the big tussle in this fleet is between Charles Dunstone’s Red and Benny Kelly’s Panthera who are both new-generation TP52’s. Today it was Panthera who had the bragging rights, finishing just over 8 minutes ahead of Red whilst Colm Barrington’s beautiful Ker 50, Magic Glove, separated the two on corrected time to finish third.
In Class 1 IRC the big story of the day was that Glynn Williams sailing the Swan 45 Wisc finally brought Professor John Shepherd’s run of three race wins in Fair Do’s VII to an end as he led the fleet home to record a 2 minute 4 second corrected time victory. Fair Do’s VII still remains in a commanding position overall in the fleet after four races but may have to wave goodbye to the overall Black Group prize that is looking destined to go the way of the X332 Fatjax – although there’s still a long way to go! In Class 2 IRC, today’s conditions firmly favoured the Grand Soleil 43 Roark of Harald Van Santen from the Netherlands who have been steadily improving all regatta, knocking on the winners door taking home the trophies 1 minute 53 seconds ahead of yesterday’s winner and fleet front-runner Marinerscove.ie of David Dwyer. Class 3 IRC saw a return to form for Paul McNamara’s Incognito with a 47 second win over David Melville’s Jaguar Logic. Harry Evans had another terrific day on Alvine Jacobite in Class 4 IRC, powering away from the fleet to yet another victory with Michael Brough’s Steady Barker offering little resistance over 3 minutes astern on corrected time. Class 5 IRC again turned into a Winsome beneficiary although Harry Heijst was pushed hard for the top spot all afternoon by David Clementi’s Hotwatch II and John Howell’s aboard Spellbinder.
For classes 6 and 7 IRC back on the Squadron start line it was another running start to the east that tested the navigator’s time on distance judgement but for the brilliant Dean & Dyball Enigma of Ian Braham in Class 6 IRC it was business as usual as they coolly launched their big blue spinnaker just before the gun and cruised away whilst the rest of the fleet looked on in awe. Braham’s crack team pulled away, revelling in the conditions to secure a whopping 8 minute 13 second corrected time victory, their third of the regatta. In Class 7 IRC it was a day for the quarter-tonners as they surfed away at the start with Paul Treliving’s Odd Job setting the early pace. However after two and a half hours of sailing, the Louise Morton owned Farr 727 Super Q helmed by Liz Rushall and crewed by an all-ladies team were the toast of the class as they recorded a 41 second corrected time victory.
Back in the White Group, the morning wore on with all classes getting away and only minor individual recalls recorded, mainly as competitors mis-judged the tide and struggled to get to the correct side of the line pre-start. A few classes were notably line shy fearing the dreaded OCS such as the Daring fleet who were led away by Jeremy Preston’s Defender before the class experts of Robin Richardson aboard Doublet and Milo Carver sailing Dauntless seized control of the race. Doublet sailed a consistent race in testing conditions to stretch out into an unassailable lead, crossing the finish line 1 minute 10 seconds ahead of Dauntless although a protest may decide the final outcome between the two. The 1720 crews meanwhile totally revelled in the conditions with their huge asymmetric kites and enjoyed a great blast around the central Solent with Mark Greenaway’s La Licorne scoring his second win of the regatta by a margin of 2 minutes 32 seconds from arch rival Crescendo of James Flynn OBE. Flynn still tops the overall leader board in the 1720’s from Greenaway and it will be fascinating to watch this duel unfold for the rest of the week.
In the Hunter 707 fleet, Russell Mead’s The Ant Hill Mob continued their winning streak of yesterday with a very close run 12 second victory from overall class leader Peter Dickson in Star Born 3 who had got away to a flying start, setting their spinnaker first for the long run down to the eastern Solent. Out on the offshore Black Group starting line, there were some big class wins recorded in the Sigma 38 and X332 fleets with Andy Budgen’s The Project thumping the Sigma’s by a huge 6 minute 37 second margin and Iain Kirkpatrick’s Fatjax walloping the X332’s by 8 minutes 40 seconds. Interestingly both these boats respectively have been displaying noticeably better crew work than their closest rivals, alongside attention to detail in boat preparation and sail selection that really shows when the wind is up. Fatjax is now in pole position on the Black Group leader board with a perfect four wins out of four and looks unstoppable for the overall victory.
For the Sigma 33’s, the story of the day was set from the start as Michael Birmingham’s Oxygen showed a very clean pair of heels off the start line, launching their kite first and sailing away to a commanding lead. By the finish they had extended out on the fleet to record a 3 minute 25 second race win from Jeff Worboys on Workout and shoot up the leader board. In the Contessa 32 fleet again it was the start that made all the difference as Ray Rouse made the best of a very line shy fleet on Blanco to stretch into the lead. Eldred Himsworth led the chasing pack on Drumbeat but by the finish it was Blanco who could relax with a 1 minute 7 seconds winning delta. The Sonar fleet meanwhile had a real ding-dong of a race right from the starting gun with Simon Barter’s Bertie and Barry Byham’s Whatever dicing for the lead throughout their two hour race. At the death it was Barter who got the nod and cemented their place as the overall leaders whilst their closest rivals Asbo and We’re Here fell short of the podium finishing 5th and 4th respectively. Interestingly just nine Sonars finished today as many of the fleet decided to stay shoreside after several scares yesterday.
The multihulls had an interesting afternoon that saw the fleet very line shy with some strugglers desperately mis-judging the tide in the middle of the Solent out on the Black Group line but once again it was the familiar sight of the 2002 built Team Eberspacher of Ben Goodland that brought the fleet home. Last year’s regatta runner-up in the multihulls Carbon Tiger 2 of Brian Haynes was once again the bridesmaid to Team Eberspacher with the Burn, Scrase and Burrows owned Force X making the podium today in third.
It was a very good day for the lady helms ahead of the first ever Skandia Cowes Week Ladies Day on Thursday with not only Julia Bailey and Christina Summerhayes dominating the Etchells and SB3 fleets but also the indomitable J/80 Savage Sailing of Liz Savage recording a hard fought 1 minute 41 seconds victory. Savage Sailing really is the class act in this fleet with Liz’s brother Chris Savage helming but she was enthused with the result saying, “We were hitting 16 knots downwind and it was just a great race, very close with the rest of the J-80’s and although we had problems with a rudder bolt we just managed to hold on to the finish – a really enjoyable day on the water!”
Whilst the J/80’s were having a blast, their bigger cousins the J/109’s had a rip-roaring blast around the cans today with Mike Ewart-Smith’s Zelda showing awesome boat-handling ability to destroy the fleet by a massive 6 minutes 27 seconds from Chaz Ivill’s Johnny Blue II and the fast-starting Jahmali of Mike Wallis in third. The J-Sprit class witnessed a tight tussle at the head of the fleet between Robin and Jill Stevenson’s J/92 Mojo and David and Kirsty Apthorp’s J/105 J-Dream with Mojo winning on a corrected time some 17 seconds ahead. However J-Dream could drown their sorrows safe in the knowledge that they had secured the race win in the J/105 standings ahead of Nick Martin in Diablo-J. For certain, all the J-class boats in the regatta are having a superb series with the long Solent courses and tight reaches really playing to the boat’s strengths – there are an awful lot of very happy J-class customers in Cowes tonight!
A couple of new names on the winners podium in the White Group fleet freshened up the leader boards with Simon Russell sailing a superb race in the XOD fleet aboard Swallow off a committee boat start line at Hill Head relegating Peter Baines’ all conquering Caprice to second today. Jeremy Lear’s run of three race wins record crashed and burnt in the Victory fleet as Hugh Pringle guided Zephyr to a popular race win with Mark Dennington squeezing in Unity just ahead of the previously unstoppable Zinnia. Just 40 seconds separated the top three after over two hours of racing on a terrific course in the eastern Solent. Another result upset saw Mike Tong’s Ciao Bella secure a convincing victory over Buzz Keck’s Eloise in the RS Elites whilst in the Flying Fifteens, John and Rupert Mander’s Men Behaving Badly was humbled into submission by the hard hiking Colin Ward and Mark Winkles aboard Seajay.
So ‘Big Tuesday’ concluded with remarkably few tales of destruction and derring-do from the racecourse and, for a large part, the sensible decisions of the Royal Yacht Squadron Race Officers ensured that, for the 887 boats competing, it was a cracking day of Solent racing. Today’s testing conditions will give way overnight to some much milder winds as a new high pressure system sweeps in from the west and hopes are high for sunshine sailing and sea breezes for the rest of the week. Tonight sees the Kit Hobday Tribute match-race off the Green between the late Hobday’s Bear of Britain and Peter Harrison’s Chernikeef 2 whilst on Wednesday, the Extreme 40s will be tearing up the Green from 1600 onwards. Cowes is undoubtedly the only place to be right now…