Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week - Challenged by winds on day 1

by Rupert Holmes/CWL on 3 Aug 2014 The opening day of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week saw competitors challenged by winds that varied from well under 10 knots to more than 20. After a weather front cleared the race area at lunchtime, the breeze settled into a brisk south-westerly of 16-20 knots, giving glorious racing conditions and once again bathing Cowes in warm sunlight.

By the time of the first start, for the 15-strong Etchells class, the first band of rain had cleared leaving a southerly breeze of around 10 knots in the middle of the Solent, but rather less on the start line in the lee of the Royal Yacht Squadron. With the fleet heading initially to the west, against an adverse tidal stream, a key question for teams was whether there would be an advantage in hoisting a spinnaker after the start.

Andrew Cooper’s Ice led the fleet into the start line, but at the cannon Rob Goddard’s Stampede was to windward of him and sailing faster, while Jack Wilson’s Idea, a length further back and to windward was already hoisting the spinnaker. It wasn't long before the rest of the fleet followed suit, starting with the Downer family’s Moonlight, the closest boat to the inner end of the line, although Ice and Stampede were relatively slow to do so and suffered an initial disadvantage as a result.

It turned into a very close race for the fleet, with the first 10 boats crossing the line in just five minutes. Shaun and Emily Frohlich’s Exabyte V was first to finish, followed by Moonlight. Rob Elliot’s Time and Tide was just seven seconds after Moonlight, but accepted a time penalty for a rule infringement, allowing Ice into third place and Nick Stagg’s China White into fourth. However, with Moonlight, Time and Tide and Stampede, who finished ninth on the water, all involved in protests the final order may change further.

Starting 10 minutes after the Etchells, the Daring fleet took a less cautious approach, with Edward Grimston’s Division Belle over at the start at the inshore end of the line. Defiant was next closest to the line, further offshore, but Giles Peckham’s Dauntless, starting just half a length astern and to windward was first to hoist her kite, gaining a small early advantage. Dauntless held a commanding lead at the end of the three-hour race, finishing with an advantage of more than four minutes. However, the battle for second place was much closer, with only 12 seconds separating of Michael Campbell and Charles Matthews’ Damsel and Jeremy Preston, R Laird and P Morton’s Defender.

In the J/80 class Colin Simonds’ Doolalli 4 led the pack into the middle part of the line seconds before the start. However, she was moving relatively slowly, leaving Stu Southan’s Joyeuse, Ben Richards and Andrew Dallas’ Boysterous, and Douglas Struth’s DSP, looking like the best-placed boats and taking an early lead, initially without their asymmetric spinnakers. However, when the breeze inshore went very light it was three boats further offshore, Jon Powell’s Betty, Doolalli and Geoff Payne’s Surf and Turf that sailed around the outside of the fleet to take the lead three minutes into the race, despite being in the stronger adverse tide. This order was almost unchanged as the fleet approached the finish, with Betty taking the winning gun, followed 53 seconds later by Doolalli. Jamie Diamond’s Seafire had moved up to third, more than a minute ahead of Surf and Turf, which took fourth.

The Dragon fleet as a whole was closer to the line than earlier classes, but none were over at the start. The Old Bailey, sailed by Rudy Jurg, Michiel Insinger and Sara Antila, initially looked best placed mid line, while further back in the pack Simon Barter's Bertie was first to hoist a spinnaker. Martin Makey amd Mark Lees in Ganador quickly followed suit and it was not long before they were overhauling Jurg, who hoisted just as Makey decided he couldn't hold his kite any longer and dropped it – a move that saw them pull ahead of the Dutch and Finnish team on The Old Bailey.

Having seen the gains enjoyed by the northern-most J/80s in the previous start, Graham and Julia Bailey’s Aimee started at the outer end of the line. However this time the advantage transferred to two of the Dragons further inshore, John Mellows’ La Traviata and Eric WIlliams' Ecstatic, who both picked up a line of breeze to pull ahead into a useful lead five minutes into the race, with neither boat using spinnakers. It wasn’t long before Williams took the lead, holding it almost to the finish. However, on the final leg Gavia Wilkinson-Cox’s Jerboa overhauled Williams to finish 11-seconds ahead. Aimee finished just 29 second later to take third place.

Williams is one of the longest-standing competitors at Cowes Week, having raced at the event since 1959, five years before the formation of Cowes Combined Clubs 50 years ago brought the previous loose collection of daily regattas that were organised by different clubs under a system of coordinated race management. 'We had an interesting course today – it was difficult in the sense that there were lots of wind shifts and tidal benefits,' he said. 'On the last leg we underestimated how high we needed to sail to reach the finish – Gavia tacked to the line first and we should have followed immediately, but we waited about 10 seconds longer, which was enough for her to get ahead.'

The big yachts in IRC Class 0 had an energetic race, with some 15 legs over a 35 mile course. An incident between two of the most competitive boats in the class – Piet Vroon’s Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens and Michael Bartholomew’s GP42 Tokoloshe ll – saw both retire, leaving Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel Pugh 52 Cape Fling ll to take line honours by more than 45 minutes. It was a big enough lead for Laidlaw to retain the lead on corrected time by 13 minutes over Richard Rankin’s venerable 12-Metre Italia. Despite accepting a penalty for an infringement of the rules, the de Graaf family’s Ker 40, Baraka GP, took third place on corrected time.

In IRC Class 2, Adam Gosling’s Corby 36 Yes!, last year’s overall Black Group winner and the second-slowest rated boat in the class, had a cracking start. Despite her low rating Yes! was third across the finish of the 29-mile race, just two minutes 20 seconds behind line honours winner Jim Macgregor’s Elan 410 Premier Flair and 23 seconds behind Andrew McIrvine’s First 40 La Reponse. Premier Flair retained her win on corrected time, but La Reponse was unable to save her time on Yes!, who took second on handicap by a margin of more than three minutes.

Tomorrow the forecast is for a bright and sunny day, with a south-southwesterly wind of around 12-18 knots, which promises sparkling racing conditions for all the 40 classes here at Event website