Honda Fast Cat Race round the Isle of Wight

Honda's Fast Cat accelerates from slow start

Drama intensified with the wind strength as the Fast Cat Race progressed round the Isle of Wight on Saturday 7th July. This was not just a race but also the finest of opportunities to see the spirit of adventure alive and thriving among beach catamaran sailors in the United Kingdom.

Over sixty cats lined up for a 10.00 start off Calshot Spit with kites flying for a down-wind start in light NW airs. Once Datchet Commodore, Mike Rothery and his team fired the starting gun, the fleet headed east down the Solent for clockwise circum-navigation. However within a matter of minutes the wind began to pick up, enabling the spinnaker boats to open a substantial gap ahead of the two sailed cats.

Tactics in the NE quadrant revolved around exploiting a high wind funnel down the middle of the Solent while dodging the double tide reversal by ducking in to the island shore, which led to frequent swapping of places.

The early favourites were Dick Ogilvie's Concept 25, out for its first race ever, followed by Will Sunnucks in the new high-powered Olympic Tornado after his unofficial 4-hour circum-navigation during the Hoya event a few weeks earlier. However both suffered damage. Sunnucks lost the spinnaker halyard and had to put in for a pit stop at Bembridge. Off the Bembridge Ledge, Ogilvie's dolphin striker actually hit one. The dolphin came off better, forcing Ogilvie to limp round the course with his carbon front beam cracked, and suffer the ignominy of being beaten over the water by mere Hurricanes.

Half a dozen of the slowest cats were also unlucky enough to be turned round at the gate off Benbridge Ledge for sailing out of time. Their true penalty was still to come because it turned out that their journey back in light airs took them longer than the race itself.

Round to Ventnor in the SE quadrant the island blocked the NW wind, creating more tactical difficulties. This caused competitors to choose between pinching to gain maximum lift of the wind bend but at risk of wind-shadows or freeing off for speed but sailing further.

These two incidents enabled local resident, Stuart Gummar, to show the visitors the way round his island in an Inter 20 from his home club Yaverland, right up to the Needles all along the exposed Southern side.

By this stage the wind had strengthened to force four and shifted SW enabling the Formula 20 class to sail to its strength, and dominate the leading places, while the theoretically slower Formula 18's picked off Hurricanes one by one.

This leg also showed the thoroughbred quality of a veteran 20 year old White Formula Tornado raced by Whitstable sailors, Lester and Winchester that glided apparently effortlessly through the chop, as wind was now against tide, to pull up to the middle of the fleet.

The SW quadrant leg to the Needles was an arm-wrenching hour-long twin-trazeze fetch. With the chalk cliffs shrouded in mist, competitors had to guess how high to point to get to the Needles without tacking. South Africa's, Philip Marks managed it best, exploiting a massive lift under the Needles themselves to take out six places in his Hurricane Sport.

It was the difference between chalk and cheese once past the lighthouse. Flat water and a following force five created ideal kite-flying conditions for the cats as they criss-crossed the Solent at speeds that made yachts look positively pedestrian.

That also caused a number of pitch-poling incidents and revealed the event's true hero - Alan Grace, handicapped sailor from the Lake District, who went over twice. Thanks to the lightness of his Spitfire, his crew, Peter Lawson, was nevertheless able to right it single-handed and pull him back on board to finish the event.

For the final NW quadrant, the smarter crews quickly ducked out of the tide on the North bank once past Hurst Castle - gybing repeatedly over the mirror-like water by the marshes, while the rest fought wind against tide in the main stream of the Solent. Gaps of a mile or more appeared between boats that had been racing neck and neck.

Here unluckiest man of the day, Ron Bentham from Llandudno lost a rudder from his Inter 20, which showed the effectiveness of the safety system. The requirement for a mobile phone proved its worth for Ron simply called for a replacement and had it delivered to him by water taxi just three miles from the finish, so he could complete the race.

The fight over line honours created a fitting climax to the event. Having shown visitors the way home, Stuart Gummar's Inter 20 lost out to Matt Eeles', Hobie Fox on the downwind leg, but that in turn lost out to Will Sunnucks', who had fought his way through the entire spinnaker fleet since his pit stop. In the end he finished 10 minutes ahead of two superbly sailed F18s respectively by French hotshot Aaron Sault and Dutch ace, Marius van Dam.

Did it matter who won in the end? Not to half a dozen Hurricane sailors who graciously volunteered that they had been given too generous a handicap. Not to the bulk of the fleet, for whom completing the event itself was an achievable adventure.

Does anyone begrudge Yves Loday for winning on handicap in the Spitfire he designed himself? Most of us will be proud that we managed to finish a few percent behind an Olympic Gold Medallist and Runner Up in "The Race". In the words of yachting guru, Jeremy Evans "it was the right level of challenge".

Alternative Report from Steve Arkley

The inaugral Honda Fast Cat Race took place on 7th July, a race around the Isle of Wight for fast catamarans. The idea of the race came from several members of Datchet Water Sailing Club after successfully running two Nab Tower long distance races. Headed by Mike Rothery the promotion of the Race was done over the Internet and prior to the event entries were closed with the maximum of 70 entrants.

After the spell of good weather it was a shame that the weather had turned and the day of the race dawned with little wind and low cloud and mist. The race around the Island was done in a clockwise direction and depending on the windstrength was anticipated to take 6-8 hours. Safety was paramount and the organisers had covered that well with the pre-race documentation and re-emphasised at the briefing.

The competitors launched at Calshot and sailed across Southampton Water to start off Hillhead. With a strong current behind them, a reaching start and the threat of being black flagged, the competitors were naturally ‘line shy’ however with a perfectly judged start at the favoured Committee Boat end Hamish Leighton and Emma Powell sailing a Hurricane Sport crossed the start line first persued by Derek Beddows and Stuart Fritton in an iF20. The fleet headed generally towards the Isle of Wight shore then tacked downwind to the first gate at Bembridge Ledge. Halfway along this leg Matt Eeles and Matt Hardy sailing a Formula20 Hobie Fox had pulled out a substantial lead but were being pursued by Dick Ogilvie, Dan Holman and Ben Watts in a Concept25 , a racked 3 man trapeze cat, looking quite an awesome machine who had started late. First to Bembridge was Ogilvie followed by Eeles, 3rd at Bembridge was Beddows, closely followed by Coert van Dam and Marius van Dam from Belgium in a F18.

Half a dozen of the slowest cats were also unlucky enough to be turned round at the gate off Benbridge Ledge for sailing out of time.

Eeles contined to carry his genaker on the tighter reach and point higher than Ogilvie as they headed towards St Cathewrines Point and retook the lead on the water. The wind strength became quite variable with the leaders trading places as the wind strength changed. Ogilvie had problems when his ‘dolphin striker’ broke which also caused the main beam to crack, he decided to take things easy and not to unduly stress his boat and so went out to sea whereas Eeles cut back in towards the shore as the fleet was off Sandown/Shanklin. Most of the top 10 chose the close to the island route and by the time the fleet reached St Catherines Point Eeles had a good lead from William Sunnocks and Mark Self in a Tornado Sport, Beddows with Stuart Gummer and Bob Evans in close attendance. Sunnucks was making up for lost time after he lost the spinnaker halyard and had to put in for a pit stop at Bembridge.

With one long beat from St Catherines Point to The Needles the fleet were flying along with a substantial current underneath them. Eeles lost his lead when his tiller extension fitting broke and without a suitable shackle were forced to lash the extension to the main bar. Sunnocks then moved into the lead with Beddows in close attendance but not pointing as high. Gummer tacked further out to sea at St Catherines Point and his local knowledge paid off as at The Needles he found himself just in the lead from Sunnocks on the water. By now the wind had increased to a Force 3-4 making for superb sailing conditions as the fleet rounded the final turning point before heading for the finish at Calshot.

Sunnocks re-took the lead which he held to the finish finishing the course in just under 6 hours, despite his tiller extension problems Eeles finished 2nd on the water from Aaron Sault and Gavin Luxton in a F18. As the middle order finished they were greeted by rolling thunder and a heavy rain.

Alan Grace, handicapped sailor from the Lake District, went over twice. On the final leg as the wind increased to Force5. Thanks to the lightness of his Spitfire, his crew, Peter Lawson, was nevertheless able to right it single-handed and pull him back on board to finish the event.

The smarter crews quickly ducked out of the tide on the North bank once past Hurst Castle - gybing repeatedly over the mirror-like water by the marshes, while the rest fought wind against tide in the main stream of the Solent. Gaps of a mile or more appeared between boats that had been racing neck and neck.

Here unluckiest man of the day, Ron Bentham from Llandudno broke a rudder from his Inter 20 just 3 miles from home - this showed the effectiveness of the safety system. The requirement for a mobile phone proved its worth for Ron simply called for a replacement and had it delivered to the far side of the Solent by water taxi, so he could continue the race.

Once the handicapper’s computer had churned out the results Yves Loday and Elodie Lesaffre sailing a Spitfire were declared winners from Sault and von Dam with Jason Smith & Julia Plumstead in 4th.

There was no doubt in all the competitors minds that the event had proved to be extremely successful with all wanting to do it again next year, this will no doubt gratify the Organisers whose ambition for the Event is for it to rival Texcel. The sponsors for the event were Honda Marine, Lucozade, Tacktik and Red Insurance.

Event Photos: © Steve Arkley / Sailshots Marine Photography

Overall Results:

More Information:

• www.fastcatrace.com