Dragon Edinburgh Cup - Champagne sailing on day 2

by Rupert Holmes on 8 Jul 2014 Day two of the 2014 Dragon Edinburgh Cup supported by Aberdeen Asset Management and hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club provided champagne sailing in bright sun and 10-15 knots of breeze. Today's was a closer race than yesterday's, with the lead changing on every leg and new faces appearing at the front of the 24-strong fleet.

Lawrie Smith's Tigger emerged ahead of the pack on the final beat, to take victory in the Open division, 24 seconds ahead of Graham and Julia Bailey's Aimee, with Mark Dicker's Rackham finishing third. With Aimee again the first boat in the Corinthian Division, Jono, David and Lynette Brown's Storm took second place and Mark and Amanda Wade's Avalanche third.

With two races completed Lawrie Smith shares equal points with Graham and Julia Bailey but claims the overall lead on count back. Quentin Strauss sailing Rumours, finished fifth today, moving up to third overall. The Baileys continue to lead the Corinthian Division with a four-point margin over second placed Jono Brown, with Eric Williams three points adrift in third.

In today's race the fleet split after the start, with the main pack going up the middle of the course, while smaller a group of 10 boats went well to the right. Simon Barter's Bertie, a boat he bought from Lawrie Smith last year, started nearest the pin and was first to find a vein of increased pressure on the mid-left hand side of the course. Near him was Smith, yesterday's Open and Corinthian division winners, Graham and Julia Bailey, Eric Williams' Ecstatic and Mark Dicker's Rackham.

All were well positioned as they approached the end of the first beat, but it was Barter that reached the top mark first, followed just four seconds later by Smith, then Williams after a 30 second gap, and Dicker a further five seconds later. At this stage the Baileys were in fifth place, very close behind Dicker.

Two thirds of the way down the first run, the Baileys gybed onto port and pulled away from the boats nearby, but Barter and Smith were still clear ahead and almost overlapped. Smith took the slightly advantaged right hand side of the gate, while Barter went left, five seconds behind. 12 seconds later the Baileys followed Smith round the right hand mark.

By the time they were approaching the top mark at the end of the second beat, the order had changed again, with the Baileys having gained 40 seconds on Smith during the leg. They rounded first, 15 seconds ahead of Dicker, with Smith in third place eight seconds later.

The Baileys continued to extend their lead on the final run, again taking the right-hand side of the gate at the end. The entire top half of the fleet followed suit, with the exception of Smith who took the left hand mark, rounding 40 seconds after the Baileys. Although it looked to observers as though he might have planned to split from the fleet, he tacked back after a couple of minutes. There followed an intense battle, with Smith eventually tacking ahead and to weather of the Baileys, forcing them to tack off.

By this time the fleet was split right across the racetrack, with the leading trio of boats towards the far left. At the finish Smith was 24 seconds ahead of the Baileys, with Dicker taking third and the first of the boats coming from the right hand side of the course, Grant Gordon's Louise, fourth.

The first race for the Chairman's Decanter was also held today, with Mike Holmes' Hands Off crossing the line first, ahead of Eric Williams' Ecstatic and Selina Dicker, who was helming Rackham.

Provisional Results as of 16:16 on July 7, 2014

Race 2 - 07 July 14 at 12:00:00

Start: Start 1, Finishes: Finish time, Time: 12:07:00

Rank	Boat Name	Sail NO	Yacht Club	Helm Name	Crew Name	Crew Name 2	Crew Name 3	Elapsed	Points
1	Tigger	785	Glandore	Lawrie Smith	Tim Tavinor	Simon Fry		1:58:02	1.0
2	Aimee	720	Royal Yacht Squadron	Julia Bailey	Graham Bailey	Keith Tippell	William Heritage	1:58:26	2.0
3	Rackham	610	Royal Yacht Squadron	Mark Dicker	Selina Dicker	James Campbell	Sophie Bubb	1:58:48	3.0
4	Louise	780	RORC	Grant Gordon	Ruairidh Scott	Andrew Palfrey		1:58:58	4.0
5	Rumours	708	Upper Thames SC	Quentin Strauss	Martin Collen	Nigel Young		1:59:07	5.0
6	Storm	770	Royal Corinthian YC	Jono Brown	David Brown	Lynette Brown		1:59:51	6.0
7	Avalanche	722	Royal Corinthian YC	Mark Wade	Amanda Wade	Duncan Grindley		2:00:00	7.0
8	Bertie	763	CCYC	Simon Barter	James Barter	Donald Wilks		2:00:16	8.0
9	Quicksilver VI	788	Royal Corinthian YC	Rob Campbell	Luke Malissa	Lisa Guy		2:00:56	9.0
10	Little Hook	USA 310	Captiva YC	Ted Sawyer	Martin Payne	Mark Hart		2:01:36	10.0
11	Ecstatic	682	Royal Lymington YC	Eric Williams	Rory Paton	Matt Walker	Carol Dunning	2:01:46	11.0
12	Fei-Lin's Flirtation	633	RFYC	Ron James	Julia Walsh	Kasper Harsberg		2:01:48	12.0
13	YEVIS II	JPN 50	Enoshima YC	Bocci Aoyama	Tetsuya Sasaki	Norio Igei		2:01:49	13.0
14	Naiad	764	Aldeburgh	Mike Hayles	Monique Hayles	Julian Brooke Houghton		2:02:52	14.0
15	Chime	741	Royal Corinthian YC	Jenny Stutley	Gillian Hamilton	Anthony Shanks		2:03:10	15.0
16	Pageboy XI	792	Royal Corinthian YC	Clive Page	Graeme Page	Rory Page		2:03:18	16.0
17	VIBE	797	Royal Lymington YC	Paul Woodman	Ray Mitchell	Simon McCarthy		2:03:31	17.0
18	Christianna	791	Royal Corinthian YC	Oliver Morgan	Matt Alexander	Rupert Morgan		2:03:45	18.0
19	Ganador	704	Royal Corinthian YC	Martin Makey	Geoff Butcher	Philip Green		2:03:46	19.0
20	Scimitar	755	Medway YC	Julian Sowry	Claire Sowry	Johann Napp	Tamaryn Napp	2:03:54	20.0
21	Hands Off	760	Royal Corinthian YC	Mike Holmes	Tim Wilkes	Teresa Wilkes		2:05:17	21.0
22	BBB	483	Royal Southern YC	Mike Foster	Anthony Edwards	Peter Turner		2:08:08	22.0
23	Moonshine	702	Royal Western YC	David Jephcott	Nick Over	Peter Kent		2:08:31	23.0
24	Excite	795	Royal Solent YC	Tom Vernon	Neil Payne	Dug Henderson		OCS	25.0

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