Magnus Wheatley's Cowes report - Day 7

by Magnus Wheatley on 5 Aug 2006 After six days of blustery, testing conditions for the 8,500 competitors at Skandia Cowes Week, day seven of the regatta dawned with light north-westerly breezes, sunshine and a smooth Solent race track.

Racing got underway on time with the Laser SB3’s living up to their reputation of being the hardest charging of all the fleets with a general recall followed by a black flag start.

Crowds of spectators lined the canon hustings of the Royal Yacht Squadron to view the amazing sight of the SB3’s second start that got away on a reaching leg down to the eastern Solent. A blanket of asymmetric spinnakers flopped across the mouth of the Medina River with Glenn Bourke onboard Musto wriggling through the moored dayboats parked on Cowes Roads to emerge as the front-runner.

Bourke sailed a blinding race on this, the last day of the series for the SB3’s and held off the fast-charging Price Waterhouse Coopers of Jono Shelley and the triple race winner Russell Peters on Selden Seen to win by some 29 seconds. After discard has been applied, Russell Peters takes the best of five race series from Jono Shelley with Bourke sneaking into third spot. It’s been a brilliant week of sailing for the SB3’s who have handsomely repaid their fleet sponsor Volkswagen and provided acres of newspaper and newsreel coverage for the world’s media as well as being one of the talking points of Skandia Cowes Week.

Across the fleets there were some new names at the top of the race results as the light conditions favoured the lighter displacement boats in the IRC divisions and mixed up the results in the one designs.

Class Zero IRC got away in just 8 knots of breeze to the eastern Solent under huge asymmetric and code zero kites with the Volvo 70 ABN Amro One streaking into its customary massive lead by the first mark. However, today was not to be theirs as the rest of the fleet took advantage of this ocean thoroughbred’s light air misgivings and relegated her to last place on corrected time.

Colm Barrington’s Magic Glove secured her first win of the regatta by the huge margin of 6 minutes 53 seconds on corrected time from the late Kit Hobday’s Farr 52 Bear of Britain with the TP52 Panthera of Benny Kelly making up the podium in third. Barrington’s beautiful Ker 50 was the class act of today displaying crew work honed through a very successful first season and some excellent light-air boatspeed that pulled Magic Glove through the patchy breezes of the eastern Solent.

Class 3 IRC also saw a new name at the top with the X35 Yellow Rose of Marten Jan Ringers from the Netherlands scoring the race win from overall leader Peter Newlands on Anticipation. Newlands extends his lead in the overall standings going into the last day of racing and has been the stand-out performer in the fleet from a whole host of Beneteau First 40.7’s. In Class 2 IRC the Belgian entry of Ship Shop Aquaholic, a Beneteau 34.7 made all the running as she scored a healthy 2 minute 52 second corrected time win over Chris and Hannah Neve’s No Doubt to end a terrific run of five straight wins by Harry Evans’ chartered Alvine Jacobite that could only manage third today.

Class 7 IRC saw a return to form of the 1904 built Clyde 30 Mikado that used her long waterline length to great effect to score a 5 minute 41 second corrected time race win over the previously unstoppable quarter-tonner Espada Wanchai Belle of Jamie McWilliam.

Class 8 ISC saw the Beneteau Oceanis 311 Tickety Boo score a popular race win over Richard Scarff’s Cloudy Bay whilst in Class 2 IRC it was the turn of Marinerscove.ie to return to Monday’s winning form as she scored an impressive 6 minute 59 seconds race victory.

Despite some new names in the IRC divisions, it was business as usual for the front runners in the one design fleet with Graham Bailey scoring his sixth race win of the week in the International Etchells fleet and place one hand on the overall White Group crown. Bailey has, quite simply, been outstanding this week in a very competitive fleet that is warming up for its world championships in Cowes next year. It was very nearly another Bailey family double celebration today as Graham’s wife Julia pushed hard right from the starting gun in the International Dragon fleet but found Jeremy Field’s Rascal Rat just too hot to handle and had to concede first place today by just 56 seconds.

The Bailey’s really have been the toast of the regatta in the one design fleets and going into the final day it looks almost a racing certainty that Graham will claim the coveted overall White Group title and scoop the fabulous prize of a Corum Admiral’s Cup watch courtesy of Corum.

Scoring their fifth race win of Skandia Cowes Week in the Contessa 32 fleet, Ray Rouse’s Blanco recovered from a buried, mid-fleet start and had to work hard to secure the race win. Just 2 seconds separated Blanco and Eldred Himsworth’s Drumbeat after nearly two hours of racing showing just how close these evergreen one-designs are on the water.

Another close finish in the Hunter 707 fleet saw Harry Hall’s This Is Jeff squeak a 16 second victory over Howard Morris’ Double Trouble whilst overnight fleet leader Peter Dickson on Star Born 3 could only manage third today. Despite taking a percentage penalty in the International Flying Fifteens, Rupert and John Mander on Men Behaving Badly still scored the race win by just 3 seconds over the beautiful Composite Craft built FFlux of Gavin Tappenden.

Out on the 18 nautical mile multihull course that saw some very conservative starting by the fleet, the Dragonfly 920 Force X continued their winning form of yesterday with a 34 second victory over the Farrier 33, Carbon Tiger 2 of Maidenhead’s Brian Haynes whilst the dominant Team Eberspacher of Ben Goodland could only manage third.

The Sunsail 37 fleet are having a vintage Skandia Cowes Week with beaming crews coming off the water to some excellent hospitality by the Sunsail team. The racing has been fast and furious on the water with these equally matched boats producing desperately tight finishes and it’s looking like going down to the wire in the overall standings between Nick Willis on Pall Europe and the Spring Law team. Today Pall Europe secured second place just behind Nick Craig’s Gartmore & Allianz who totally mastered the conditions and scorched away from the fleet to win by the massive delta of 4 minutes 11 seconds.

The Sigma 33’s saw a two way battle between P Wright’s Ephesian and Michael Birmingham’s Oxygen right from the gun off a committee boat start line in the eastern Solent. Just 14 seconds separated the two at the death in the favour of Ephesian after two and a half hours of sailing with Richard and Valerie Griffiths bringing Cerefe home in third. The 33’s bigger cousin, the Sigma 38’s saw Andy Budgen’s beautifully maintained The Project score a convincing 2 minutes 50 second victory over Kevin Sussmilch’s Mefisto and securing the regatta victory with a race to spare. Meanwhile in the Sonar fleet it’s going to the wire between Simon Barter’s Bertie and Duncan Bates on Asbo with Bertie scoring a big win today to go into the final race with a six point overall lead.

One boat with a firm handle on the Skandia Young Skippers Trophy is the 1720 of James Clay, Finn M’Coul who carded a third place today but is clear of David Miller’s Class 8 ISC White Heather who could only manage a lowly 18th. Clay just needs a reasonable result in tomorrow’s racing to lift the coveted trophy that rewards young skippers under the age of 25 although he will have to work hard to win his class as the overnight leader Crescendo of James Flynn finished second today behind Neil Angel’s dominant All Talk.

At the top of the Black Group standings it’s incredibly tight between