Musto Vice Admiral's Cup - Down to the wire on final day

by Fiona Brown on 20 May 2013 Conditions on the final day of the 2013 Musto Vice Admiral's Cup might best be described as 'Good weather for ducks' as grey was the predominant colour and oilskins were the preferred attire (good news for sponsor Musto!).

Fortunately nothing could dampen the spirits of the 58 competing teams who took on two final races to decide this hugely competitive series. Winds were predominantly from the northeast, but with some very big shifts and velocity ranging from sub five to around ten knots the tacticians and trimmers certainly got a strenuous workout. Once again Rob Lamb took the small boat fleet onto the Bramble Bank and Bob Milner returned to the Ryde Bank area with the big boats.

Tony Langly's Weapon of Choice continued to dominate the TP52s of Class 0, scoring two further wins to take the series by a five-point margin. Sir Keith Mills 5 West and Johnny Vincent's Pace traded places through the day with each boat claiming a second and a third place but it was 5 West who took the second podium step with Pace five points behind her. After racing double Olympic Silver Medallist and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing Volvo Race skipper Ian Walker, who was guest staring as tactician aboard Weapon of Choice, was full of praise for his crew's teamwork and expertise and also paid tribute to the race committee saying 'They did a good job to get the racing in, particular in today's conditions. It was a fun regatta and we had some really close racing.'

In Class 1 for the Farr 45s, Jeff Blue's Espresso Martini and Stewart Whitehead's Rebel both did their best to unseat overnight leader Kolga, owned by James French, but ultimately Kolga tenaciously hung onto her lead and won the final race of the series and the regatta by six points from Espresso Martini. Rebel won today's opening race and followed this up with a third, which put them onto equal points with Espresso Martini, but were pushed down to third on count back.

The final result of the J/111s in Class 2 went down to a protest between Duncan McDonald and Phil Thomas's Shmokin' Joe and Tony Mack's McFly regarding a pair of incidents on the run into and rounding of the leeward mark in the final race. McFly protested Shmokin' Joe about an overlap issue in the approach to the mark, followed by a claim that their spinnaker sheet made contact with the mark. The Protest Committee elected to hear both protests together and ultimately found that Shmokin' Joe had not infringed. A very relieved Shmokin' Joe were delighted to claim overall victory in the class from James Arnell's Jeez Louise. Having had to pull out of yesterday's race seven David and Kirsty Apthorp's J-Dream was back in the hunt today and a third and fourth place put them into third overall, just one point ahead of McFly.

In Class 3 for the J/109s, William Edwards' Fardonyx and David Richard's Jumping Jellyfish battled it out for supremacy with each boat adding a and second and a first to their totals. For Jumping Jellyfish the hard work paid off with overall victory by a confident twelve-point margin, but Fardonyx had to settle for fifth overall having been unable to compete on the opening day. The battle for second and third was incredibly close with half a dozen boats in contention for a podium place going into the day. Paul James of Jigsaw had held second place on count back from Tony Dickin aboard Jubilee, but just couldn't seem to find traction in the difficult conditions and after two disastrous results dropped down into sixth. Jubilee meanwhile played it conservatively taking a third and fifth and put themselves onto the second step of the podium. Thanks to a third place in the final race Steve and Jody Maine's J2eau snatched third overall, just one point ahead of Andy Johns and David Rolfe's Shadowfax.

The Quarter Tonners in Class 4 saw their second dead heat of the series, between Sam Laidlaw's Aquila and Louise Morton's Espada for fourth place in race seven. Once again this historic revival class provided some of the best thrills and spills of the day with two different race winners in the shape of Willy McNeill and Mike Pascall's Illegal Immigrant in race seven and Rob Gray's Cote in race eight. Peter Morton aboard Bullit had to be content with a pair of second places, but this was enough to give him the overall series by 4.5 points. The tousle for second and third went down to the closing moments of the final race with Aquila grabbing second from Rickard Melander's Alice II by two points.

For many of the Quarter Ton teams this was a first opportunity to test their metal against their competitors in preparation for the 2013 Quarter Ton Cup, which will be hosted by the Royal Corinthian from 15-17 July. Amongst the new faces in the fleet were Richard Fleck and his crew sailing Per Elisa who were delighted with their ninth place with Richard saying, tongue in cheek, 'Anywhere was better than last!' Also very pleased to be racing against the full Quarter Ton fleet for the first time was Panic's new owner Geoff Gritton, who had travelled down from the East Coast specially for the event. Having completely refitted Panic over the past winter they were looking extremely smart and were very pleased to achieve several top ten results. 'It's been a steep learning curve but we've loved it and are looking forward to racing against the full fleet in July.' Said Geoff.

The Llewellyn/Wakefield/Virgus partnerships Henri-Lloyd/Forelle Estates had put in such a consistently good performance in the SB20s Class 5 that they did not need to sail in the final race, winning the regatta overall by eight points. Whilst the winner might have been clear cut, second through fourth were anything but, with three boats all tied on 22 points at the end of the series. On count back Jerry Hill's Sportsboatworld.com took second place from Scott Graham's Chill Pill +, with Craig Burlton's Gill Race Team sliding into forth.

Sadly Mark Lloyd's Chaos was unable to race today, giving Andrew Pearce's Ker 40 Magnum III a clear run at victory in the two-boat Class 6 for 39-43 footers. Although they were already certain of victory, Magnum III still elected to come out and race today and make the most of the great courses laid on by the Musto Vice Admiral's Cup race management teams.

Speaking at the prize giving, event originator and winner of Class 4 Peter Morton thanked event sponsor Musto for their most generous ongoing support of the regatta. He also paid tribute to the competitors for making this one of the biggest Musto Vice Admiral's Cup entries ever and recognised that the success of the event was entirely down to their good will and enthusiasm. Originally conceived as a fun way to fill the gap left by the cancelled Admiral's Cup of 2005, Peter noted that the event's willingness to evolve to meet the sailors' needs was a major part of its appeal and he asked everyone to continue providing their feedback to help with future planning.

Provisional Results 

Class 0

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	Hcap	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R 7	R 8	Race 9	Nt Pts
1	GBR 5252R	Weapon of Choice	Tony Langley	1.373	1	1	(3)	2	2	1	1	1	1	10
2	GBR 1851	5 West	Sir Keith Mills	1.381	(3)	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	3	15
3	GBR 528R	Pace	Johnny Vincent	1.372	2	(3)	1	3	3	3	3	3	2	20

Class 1

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Race 9	Nt Pts
1	GBR 5955T	Kolga	James French	2	(4/OCS)	2	1	1	1	1	2	1	11
2	GBR 9160T	Espresso Martini	Jeff Blue	1	1	(3)	2	2	3	3	3	2	17
3	GBR 8448R	Rebel	Stewart Whitehead	(3)	2	1	3	3	2	2	1	3	17

Class 2

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Nt Pts
1	GBR 7611R	Shmokin' Joe	Duncan McDonald & Phil Thomas	3	1	2	(7/DSQ)	1	1	2	1	3	14
2	GBR 5811R	Jeez Louise	James Arnell	1	3	3	1	2	2	1	(4)	2	15
3	GBR 7111L	J-Dream	David & Kirsty Apthorp	2	4	1	2	3	4	(7/DNF)	3	4	23
4	GBR 111N	McFly	Tony Mack	4	2	5	3	4	(7/DNF)	3	2	1	24
5	GBR 8711R	Icarus	Andrew Christie	5	(6)	4	4	5	3	4	5	5	35
6	BEL 11111	Djinn	Sebastien de Liedekerke	(6)	5	6	5	6	5	5	6	6	44

Class 3

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R 8	Nt Pts
1	GBR 2709R	Jumping Jellyfish	David Richards	1	3	(4)	4	2	4	1	2	17
2	GBR 2986L	Jubilee	Tony Dickin	4	2	7	5	3	(9)	3	5	29
3	GBR 9694T	J2eau	Steve & Jody Maine	6	5	1	8	4	(10)	8	3	35
4	GBR 7509R	Shadowfax	Andy Johns & David Rolfe	7	1	3	9	(10)	2	5	9	36
5	GBR 6603	Fardonyx	William Edwards	(14/DNC)	14/DNC	14/DNC	3	1	3	2	1	38
6	GBR 2L	Jigsaw	Paul James	12	7	6	1	6	1	9	(13)	42
7	GBR 1L	Alice	Alastair Speare-Cole	2	6	9	6	(11)	8	6	7	44
8	GBR 8809R	Inspara	Tor Mclaren	9	4	(14/BFD)	2	7	7	7	11	47
9	GBR 5109R	Designstar 2	Roger Phillips	11	10	2	11	(13)	6	4	4	48
10	GBR 9760R	Stalker	Steven Tapper	5	9	8	7	5	5	(11)	10	49
11	GBR 1466R	Diamond Jem	Robert Stiles	3	8	5	12	12	(14/DNS)	10	8	58
12	GBR 7901R	Basic Instinct	Jonathan Hearth	8	11	10	10	9	11	(13)	12	71
13	GBR 9091R	Juke Box	Chris Copeland	10	12	11	13	8	(14/OCS)	12	6	72

Class 4

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	Hcap	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Race 8	Nt Pts
1	FRA 7891	Bullit	Peter Morton	0.905	2.5	(4)	3	4	1	1	2	2	15.5
2	GBR 8414R	Aguila	Sam Laidlaw	0.901	2.5	2	2	5	2	(7)	4.5	4	22
3	SWE 7744	Alice II	Rickard Melander	0.906	5	3	(10)	1	3	2	3	7	24
4	GBR 902R	Whiskers	Ian Southworth	0.899	1	1	6	(11)	7	3	7	3	28
5	GBR 50R	Espada	Louise Morton	0.905	4	(6)	4	2	4	4	4.5	6	28.5
6	GBR 501	Illegal Immigrant	Willy McNeill & Mike Pascall	0.904	(10)	5	7	3	5	9	1	5	35
7	ESP 3090	Cote	Rob Gray	0.905	11	7	1	6	6	5	(16/DNF)	1	37
8	GBR 7259Y	Magnum Evolution	Eric Reynolds	0.866	7	8	5	9	(11)	10	6	10	55
9	GBR 222R	Per Elisa	Richard Fleck	0.904	6	10	8	(12)	10	8	11	8	61
10	GBR 502	Catch	Olivia Chenevix-Trench	0.913	(13)	12	11	8	12	12	8	9	72
11	FRA 9371	Menace	D Morland & T Rees	0.89	(16/DNC)	16/DNC	16/DNC	7	8	6	9	11	73
12	GBR 7299	Panic	Geoff Gritton	0.901	8	11	9	13	9	(16/DNF)	12	14	76
13	GBR 7557	Innuendo	Roger Swinney	0.905	9	13	13	10	(14)	11	10	12	78
14	GBR 2736R	Joker	Edward White	0.907	12	9	12	(14)	13	14	13	13	86
15	GBR 6262	Rum Bleu	Lucy Wood & Tara Stone	0.859	14	14	14	(16/DNF)	15	13	14	15	99

Class 5

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Nt Pts
1	GBR 3082	Henri-Lloyd/Forelle Estates	Llewellyn/Wakefield/Virgus	4	1	1	1	3	1	3	(17/DNC)	14
2	GBR 3339	Sportsboatworld.com	Jerry Hill	(7)	2	5	4	1	5	1	4	22
3	GBR 3710	Chill Pill +	Scott Graham	1	4	2	(6)	4	2	6	3	22
4	GBR 3042	Gill Race Team	Craig Burlton	2	3	6	2	2	(8)	5	2	22
5	GBR 3106	Whyaduck	Tom Clay	5	6	(7)	5	5	3	2	7	33
6	GBR 3510	What Recession?	Tom Foskett	3	7	3	(10)	6	6	4	5	34
7	GBR 3276	Trouble & Strife	Ian Armstrong	11	5	4	3	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	7	1	48
8	GBR 3041	Sharc	Charles Sheppard	9	9	(11)	9	8	4	11	8	58
9	GBR 3096	Red Kite	Roger Harford	8	11	8	7	11	7	(12)	6	58
10	GBR 3362	Polar Bear	Tim Newton	12	(13)	9	13	9	9	8	10	70
11	GBR 3291	Stormforce Coaching 1	Doug Innes	6	10	12	(14)	13	13	13	9	76
12	GBR 3547	Trigger	Laurence Cross	10	8	10	12	10	11	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	78
13	GBR 3010	Sbeed	Toby Litton	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	17/DNC	8	7	10	10	12	81
14	GBR 3561	Wight Dragon	Mark Irons	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	17/DNC	11	12	12	9	11	89
15	GBR 3560	Odontoblast	Dudley Stock	13	12	13	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	106
16	GBR 3069	Slinky	Ian Hudson	(17/DNC)	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	17/DNC	119

Class 6

Rank	Sail No	Name	Helm	Hcap	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Race 9	Nt Pts
1	GBR 39R	Magnum III	Andrew Pearce	1.193	1	1	1	(2)	1	1	1	1	1	8
2	GBR 9181R	Chaos	Mark Lloyd	1.172	2	2	2	1	2	2	(3/DNF)	3/DNF	3/DNF	17