The Silicon Cup 2006 at Cowes

Rain, drizzle, some brilliant sunshine and the tail end of a hurricane all made for a great couple of days racing out on the Solent for members of the IT and Communications Industry in this year’s Silicon Cup.

Jamie Wilkinson set up the final race of this year’s Silicon Cup with both wind and rain prevailing but by the end of the race the sun was shining and there was some close racing in all three classes.

In the Club or cruising class Mark from Attenda nipped in taking the last race on his own, and overall winner. Whilst the majority of the rest of the class had decided to have their own private race back to Lymington or sheltered in Cowes Yacht Haven.

The IRC fleet together with the Sunsail fleet had thirty boats out of the forty four boats in the final race. The wind which had failed the Sunsail boats in the first race came back in and it was left to the Computacentre/Windows Vista team to take overall position in the Sunsail section with British Telecom team 2 only seconds behind.

The second race for the big boats had some tight racing with Team IBM and Long & Partners battling with the Intel Corp team for third place. Dan Belton helming the Intel Corp place just pipped them to it, unfortunately it left him in fourth place overall. Third place going overall however went to IXEurope, a team who have supported the regatta for a number of years.

Special mention must be made to Silicon Cup Committee Member Mike Pallot and Andy Matson from Microsoft in Jonica – a very keen small competitor who we would like to see more from next year.

Ashore this year the marquee at Cowes Yacht Haven was jumping to various bands including the Rat Pack on the Friday Prize Giving Evening, the response from the 860 competitors was sparkling and everyone gave the event a thumbs up.

The event is run each year over two days for members of the IT and communications industry and raises funds for three very worthwhile charities NSPCC, Dreams Come True and Jubilee Sailing Trust. Thanks go to all who donate their time so freely and to all competitors for raising this year approx £40K.

Top Ten Positions in IRC Fleet:

1 Teksys Team II
2 Teksys Team I
3 Team IX Europe II
4 Team Intel Team I
5 Team Intel Team II
6 Long & Partners
7 IBM
8 Canotec
9 Team IX Europe Team III
10 RSA Security Team II

Next years event will be posted on the web site www.thesiliconcup.com