Luna shines bright in 2025 Morgan Cup Race
by Louay Habib / RORC 30 Jun 19:18 BST
27 June 2025
Start of the 2025 Morgan Cup Race © Paul Wyeth / RORC
The start of the Morgan Cup Race was a spectacular sight with over 100 boats beating to windward into the Western Solent for the fourth race of the Cowes Offshore Racing Series and the 11th race of the 2025 RORC Season's Points Championship —the world's largest offshore racing series.s
This was a truly international fleet with majority of the teams from the UK and France, joined by an international set from Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the USA.
Tim Webb's Swan 42 Luna was the overall winner under IRC for the Morgan Cup, second was Tom Kneen's JPK 1180 Sunrise IV and completing the overall podium was Taavet Hinrikus' MAT 1220 Nola, skippered by Margus Uudam with a team from Estonia and Finland.
Congratulations to all of the Class Winners including Luna, Teasing Machine, Ross Applebey's Oyster 48 Scarlet Oyster, Jean-Lin Flipo's J/99 Yalla!, Jetpack and Joe Lacey's Pogo IRC Midnight Blues racing Two-Handed with Etienne Fortun.
"I'm still a bit stunned, but incredibly proud of what we've achieved," commented Luna's Tim Webb. "Our team has been together for a few years and while we haven't done much offshore racing, we always thought we had a shot. To win in a year with such a massive entry list—against some real talent—feels amazing.
The start was wild—very windy—and we got out of the Solent early. Luna's a big, sturdy, reliable boat, and that helped. But I think we really won it at Alderney and Guernsey when the wind started dying. People sailed into holes, but we stayed clear of trouble, and that made the difference.
We had a big battle with Sunrise and Darkwood (Michael O'Donnell's J/121). At one point we were 45 minutes ahead of Sunrise, but in the final miles they came up fast and it was suddenly boat-for-boat at the finish. Incredibly exciting.
We're just a group from Lymington—non-professionals—so to race against top boats and come out ahead means the world."
The Morgan Cup will be presented to Tim Webb and Luna at the Royal Thames prize-giving and as a member of the Club celebrating their 250th anniversary, it will be a tremendous occasion. "It's a brilliant evening," smiled Tim. "You don't take the trophies home—but you do drink champagne from them. We'll treasure that moment."
Multihull Line Honours was taken by Peter Coote's Dazcat 1295 Slinky Malinki. Eight of the top ten monohulls to finish the race are destined for the Admiral's Cup. Monohull Line Honours went to the wire with Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50 Privateer, which will be representing the Royal Irish YC, crossing the line just 43 seconds ahead of Eric de Turckheim's NMD54 Teasing Machine from the YC de France.
Privateer's Ian Walker was at the wheel for the final flourish and summarises their strategy for the course:
"It all came down to a few critical decisions," commented Ian Walker. "Ron O'Hanley's team is very experienced offshore so it was nice to get out in open water with them. We chose to put a reef in early, which paid off in the strong breeze. Then, coming back to the Needles Fairway, we made a great call on the spinnaker for a perfect 140-true wind angle reach—overtaking several boats. But the real game-changer was the timing of our cross-channel move. Nearly everyone went onto port, but deciding when to tack back was the key. We might have gone a bit too early but we caught a sweet left shift mid-Channel that gave us a huge gain—about an hour—which set us up well. The finish was nail-biting. We had no wind around the back of Guernsey, Teasing Machine came right back at us, and we were dragging weed on the keel. In the end, I think there were just 43 seconds in it. Very satisfying."
Mark Brown's JPK 1010 Jetpack won IRC Four and leads the class for the 2025 season. After a hard fought battle, runner-up was Sigma 38 Sam, skippered by Peter Hobbs with Mitchel Fowler's JPK 1010 Jaasap in third and Tim Goodhew & Kelvin Matthews racing Sun Fast 3200 Cora taking fourth.
"We had the best start in our class, but it was a tight battle out of the Solent with Jiro pushing us hard," commented Jetpack's Mark Brown. "After Peveril Ledge, it turned into an exhilarating downwind chase—we held the lead, but the fleet stayed tight heading toward Casquets. Routing suggested going back towards Swanage! However, we broke away south earlier and made real gains. Cora, being the phenomenal competitors they are, kept the pressure on. Then we hit a setback—weed on the keel we couldn't shake off. It hurt our speed and morale, and by Les Hanois Lighthouse, we'd lost our hard-earned lead. Around the south of Guernsey, it turned into a drift. Boats like Jaasap and Mojo Risin' were charging down on us with fresh breeze. We gambled by hugging the shore to escape the tide, found a back eddy—and it worked. We crossed first for class line honours and the class win!"
Racing in IRC Three was RORC Griffin, the Royal Ocean Racing Club's youth programme has over forty sailors under 30 racing internationally. The team for the Morgan Cup, which will be taking on the Rolex Fastnet Race next July, is a crew of seven girls plus coach Hugh Brayshaw. RORC Griffin is co-skippered by Hebe Hemming and Nicole Hemeryk who is a world class youth dinghy sailor.
Like many of the RORC Griffin Squad, Nicole from Dublin Ireland, is transitioning to fully crewed keelboats in the RORC Griffin Pathway.
"The Morgan Cup was a huge learning experience for us as a team," commented Hemeryk. "It was our first race with all eight of us sailing together, and it really helped us iron out a lot of things ahead of the Rolex Fastnet Race. We worked on communication between nav. and skipper, clarified our decision-making, and practiced switching roles to understand everyone's strengths onboard. Transitioning from dinghy sailing to running a big boat has been a big shift, but the Griffin Programme has taught us how to trust one another and build strong teamwork. You can't be at 100% for 24 hours straight—you need to hand over control and rely on your teammates. That trust has grown throughout the campaign. I'm really grateful to the Griffin Programme, not only for the opportunity, but also for the organisational and financial support. It's given us a platform to perform—and we're excited for what's to come."
To get involved with the RORC Griffin Pathway as a sailor or supporter visit our dedicated Griffin Pathway Information page.
Four races have now been completed for the new Cowes Offshore Racing Series. The seven race series counts the best five results for the races all starting from Cowes but does not include the Rolex Fastnet Race.
Full Results here
The Royal Ocean Racing Club is immensely grateful for the continued support and cooperation of both UK and French maritime authorities. As the RORC Season's Points Championship progresses towards its pinnacle event—the Rolex Fastnet Race—the Club acknowledges the essential role that cross-channel coordination plays in safely managing races of this scale and complexity. With record numbers of entries and a truly international fleet, this partnership is more important than ever.
The RORC Series Points Championship continues with the La Trinité - Cowes Race starting from La Trinité-sur-Mer on July 6th, over 60 boats are expected for the eight edition of the 320nm race.
For more information about the Royal Ocean Racing Club: www.rorc.org