Skandia Life Cowes Week 2001 - Day Six
by Dick Johnson 9 Aug 2001 20:32 BST
Slightly less wind at the start, though building by the end of sailing to the now customary 25 knots in the gusts, a bright and sunny start, but a miserable grey and rainy finish, Thursday of Skandia Life Cowes Week 2001 made a slight change from the preceding days. It has to be said that the sailing was just as sparkling and for once, the Victorys managed to finish the race with the remaining part of their fleet intact. I counted them out and I counted them back . . .
There was a big collision to enliven the journalists’ day, though the crew aboard Class 3’s Musketeer, Stuart Edmundson, David Atkinson and their mates, seemed surprisingly happy as they motored in to the Medina accompanied by the ABP Harbour Master’s launch. Musketeer’s wooden hull was split from the deck to the waterline with a vee-shaped gash that was plugged with the foam insides of the bunk mattresses. Buckets and pumps were also in action to reduce the amount of water in the hull, but the ageing One Tonner seemed to be coping with the injury and the crew with being in the limelight. Judging from the position of the gash, on the port side, Musketeer must have been on Starboard and therefore had right of way in the collision, we have yet to hear the reverse side of the story from the other participant in the incident, Alyce Wright’s Generation-X.
Big race of the day was for the South Coast One Design Cowes Radio Teapot Trophy, a long-standing appointment for the Thursday of the week. The SCODs enjoyed the blustery conditions, happily setting full sail and spinnakers on the downwind legs when all about them were falling by the wayside. In a crowded finish which made the Race Officer’s job a complete nightmare, the speedy Tiggy, the Rev. John Morris RN, topped the contingent of SCODs by a handy margin to be crowned Teapot Trophy Champion for 2001. In fact. It looks as though SCODs were in all three top slots in Class 8.
Another special trophy was awarded today for the first boat to get a finishing gun which celebrated 175 years of Cowes Racing. On this Thursday in 1826 a gold cup was presented to a boat whose name has been lost in the mists of time, but in 2001, Bill West of Skandia Life presented a full Jereboam of Champagne Mumm, probably worth about the same as the ancient trophy, to Mike Slade’s Skandia Life Leopard, the boat which stormed round a 32 mile course for Class 0 to get the first gun at 1311 and 44 seconds. Leopard was nine minutes ahead of Graham Bailey’s Punkarella in the Etchells class, taking their winning gun from Poul Richard Hoj-Jensen’s Danish Blue.
Incidentally, the other interesting trophy for the day, the New York Yacht Club Challenge Cup, was sailed for by the combined Class 0 and 1. Early indications showed that Peter Ogden’s Spirit of Jethou, with Owen Parker as tactician might have taken the big pot, but after some delay – thanks to sorting out the mayhem caused when 20 boats cross the line abreast sailing downwind with spinnakers up and the race officers totally unable to see the sail numbers – they awarded it to Desperado, Richard Loftus. Ironically, Owen Parker used to sail aboard Desperado and had only recently swapped allegiance. Spirit of Jethou was given 2nd, with Adam Gosling’s Yes! T&G 3rd.
During the racing, the two 12 metres, Australia II with John Bertrand at the helm and Crusader sailed by Richard Matthews and Harold Cudmore, fought it out round the course in a fashion probably not enjoyed since the memorable cup tussles of 1983 and 1987. The mark roundings were hotly contested and despite their advancing years, the crew who had been aboard Australia II in 1983 were able to hold off Crusader and win comfortably.
Down among the White Group boats, Decanter, Jeremy Preston’s highly successful Daring was beaten into 3rd place by Decoy , Messrs Norton, Chaplin and Goodwin, and Dionysus, Bruce Huber and Jonathan Goodwin. Another successful boat in its class, Nick Wood’s Emu Excursion, beat Paul Curtis’ Sparkle and Vince Hayter’s Crazey Horses yet again to hold on to the overall lead in the Hunter 707s. Yesterday’s winner, Black Sheep, James Ross, could only manage 26th – it’s a hot class the 707s.
Falklands veteran Sandy Woodward fought the good fight in the small Sonata class – depleted by the closeness of the Sonata National Championships on the River Medway and no time to get to Cowes from the East Coast – finishing just a few seconds ahead of G M Palin’s Crisis and Paul Mecklenburgh steering Spellbound. In the Dragons Eric Williams is sailing in the fashion of Napoleon – conquering all before him, and hopefully not meeting his Waterloo – while the newest boat in the fleet, Edward Sawyer’s Clairvoyant improved to 2nd over Tim Squire Saunders, Colin Lloyd and Peter Nicholson’s Virago.
All conquering Saffina, R S Palmer, fell from Flying Fifteen grace today by being over at the start, having to struggle back against the tide and then trying to carve through the fleet. She only managed to get to 5th, which has also tumbled her down the overall White Group standings. Overall in the group at the moment, Jeremy Lear’s Victory, Zinnia leads from the Mermaid’s Halluf, Noel Dobbs, with the winner of the Skandia Life Young Skipper’s Trophy, Archie Massey, sailing the Swallow Skua in 3rd. Saffina is now 7th.
Matching boat names between the Swallows and Redwings brings you to the winners of the boats with the red sails, but this time sailed by the Morrison family. Edmund Peel’s Quail was in an unaccustomed 2nd spot. Business as usual in the Mermaids and the Sunbeams with Noel Dobbs taking Halluf to her 6th win in the Mermaids, Michael Moss and Michael Law taking Daisy to her 6th in the Solent Sunbeams. More success in the Victory class for Jeremy Lear in Zinnia, triumphing over Peter Madden, Andrew Thomas and John Hughes in Fenella and Nigel Sefton-Smith’s Woozle. The official time sheet from the Next Generation Results system shows, not surprisingly, that Kingfisher was not seen to start – it was she who succumbed to the elements yesterday and still lies on the bottom of the Solent near Sunsail Buoy. Last, but by no means least of the regular successes was Stuart Jardine in Lone Star in the X One Design with David Kingsbury’s Peridot 2nd and Stephen Lawrence in Catherine in 3rd. Overall in the class, Lone Star now leads comfortably from Catherine, with Stuart Jardine’s twin Adrian in 3rd. Peridot lies 13th; unlucky for some.
If you are wondering where the results for the Black Group might be, we must refer you back a few paragraphs, to the reference to the Race Officers and the mass of boats finishing at the same time. It might have been seen as being a little silly to have so many boats crossing the line at the same time, and I am sure that the Race Officers now think so as they pour over the written reports and the video tapes of the line that help to unscramble the just who finished where; on the other hand, it was a superb spectacle for the spectators on the Green and the Parade – and a lot of fun for the competitors.
We do, with great trepidation and many caveats, however, bring you the following items of interest from the provisional standings, placings which will be confirmed later.
We’ll let the positions in the Britannia Cup stand, with Spirit of Jethou winning Class 0 and Desperado winning Class 1. In Class 2 the perennial Jackdaw, David Walters managed an 18 second win from Keith Passmore’s T&G, the Prima 39 White Knuckles II, Simon Brown and Deirdre Horneck 3rd. Jackdaw remains at the top of Class 3 overall, from T&G.
Overall in the Black Group, the Contessa 32 South Haze, Messrs Holloway, Paton and Paton lead from their sister ship Blanco, Ray Rouse et al, with today’s winning Sigma 38, Polyphagus, Stephen Porter. Gwili, today’s winning Sigma 33, Fred Gooderham from Ipswich in Suffolk is 4th overall and it’s not until you get to Peter Ogden’s Spirit of Jethou in 7th that you find the big boys in sailing.
Just for a change Graham Deegan’s Menenes didn’t win the class, leaving honours to Tim Harrington’s Capitalism from Inis Mor, Bernard Gouy, from France, and 3rd Extra Djinn – no more tonic thank you – Neville Hodkin.
With the amounts of midnight oil that will have to be burned to sort out the confusion and to get the results into apple pie order, all the above – well, the results anyway – have to be taken with a pinch of salt. According to the race officers the problem was 26 knots of wind on the line, mainsails well out and twisted, no need for numbers on spinnakers under the new sailing rules and many boats not carrying their number dodgers as required by the sailing instructions . As one of the officers commented, it’s all very well planning to penalise those that don’t carry their dodgers, but in today’s conditions if they don’t carry their dodgers we can’t identify them to penalise them . . .
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