RORC IRC Nationals - Round two FAST40+ Race Circuit - Day 1

by Fast40 Class on 25 Jun 2016 2016 RORC IRC National Championship - Girls on Film showed guile and skill to come out on top for the Second Round of the FAST40+ Circuit, held at the RORC IRC National Championship. Invictus showed impressive downwind speed to lead the class after three races but a problem in the last race cost Invictus the overnight lead. Seven of the eleven Fast40+ fleet made the podium on the first day.

With boat on boat action throughout the four races, the adrenalin rush was felt right across the fleet. As the southwesterly breeze built from 13 to 23 knots, and so did the sea state with the changing tide. The Eastern Solent was churned up to fully launch the FAST40+ fleet.

Peter Morton's Carkeek 40 Mk3 Girls on Film scored two – one – five - one on Day One to lead the FAST40+ Class for the regatta by six points. The Girls on Film after guard read the shifting breeze better than most to score well but a below perfect start and a problem with a spinnaker set in race three cost the team a perfect set of podium places on the first day. Girls on Film started well in all bar one race, showed great pace upwind and downwind, and their ability to read the shifts reaped the rewards. Morty's team deserved their lead after four races.

Sir Keith Mills' handed over the tiller to his son Alex Mills for the day, and the team came out of the blocks with a fine win in the first race. Bill Coates' Ker 43 Otra Vez led at the first top mark, but Invictus showed great pace downwind to overhaul Otra Vez and sailed a great race to cover Girls on Film. This was the first win on the series for Invictus, and the team followed that up with a decent third place and another bullet. However, Invictus got the wrong side of a shift on the first upwind leg of race four and had a problem with a spinnaker set, to finish the day with a 10, when fourth place or better would have given Invictus the lead.

Bill Coates' Otra Vez couldn't get off the line in the first race of the day but it got better from there, showing great upwind speed, as the breeze and sea state increased, so did their results. Finishing the first day in third place on equal points with Invictus.

Mike Bartholomew's GP42 Tokoloshe II had a mainsail issue just before the start of the first race but looked very fast today and ended up fourth on the leader board just one point ahead of Tony Dickin's GP42 Jubilee.Steve Cowie's Scottish GP42, Zephyr had a great day on the water posting their first podium place if the series in race three, which was hotly contested; the top seven team finished within a minute of each other on corrected time.

Andrew Pearce's Ker40+ Magnum4 made her Fast40+ Series debut and to end the first day with the satisfaction of finishing ahead of three other boats. Mark Rijkse's 42 South showed impressive downwind speed today but had to take a penalty turn after hitting a top mark, which cost them several places on the leaderboard.

Quotes from the Boats

Steve Cowie GP42 Zephyr - “Since we started racing the boat last Easter, we have come a long way, we knew then how far behind we were, so to come out today and really compete with these top teams is immensely satisfying. Today, Ian Budgen did a great job on tactics, especially downwind, where there were big gains to be made by gybing on the shifts and staying in the pressure and the mood on board was fantastic.

Moray Clark was talking with our grinder Sandy Grier and he summed it up by saying that today just put a smile on everyone's face. Every mark was nose to tale, you can't ask for better racing than that.”

Rob Greenhalgh Ker40+ Invictus - “As a team, we haven't done that much sailing, we are still a bit green. We knew we could do better than the Vice Admiral's Cup, and make top three in this competitive fleet. We started pretty well today, we are still struggling for speed upwind but downwind we are going well.

In this fleet anyone can win a race and a mistake will knock you out of top five, two mistakes and its back of the fleet. It's nip and tuck, fantastic racing, sitting on 19-20 knots downwind, these boats are such fun to sail.”

Tomorrow the wind is expected to be lighter, with 10-12 knots forecast from the southwest. Race Officer Stuart Childerley intends to stage one windward-leeward race and two round the cans. As he explains: 'We want to get three races in, because on Sunday it looks quite light and there might be a slight delay too. I don't want to leave more than two races on the table for Sunday, which is why we pushed hard for four races today.'