Red Funnel Quarter Ton Cup - Ed Dubois leads

by Fiona Brown on 7 Jun 2006 It was nail biting stuff on the Red Funnel Quarter Ton Cup course today as the sun came out and the sea breeze filled in to provide perfect conditions for races four through six in this supremely fun regatta, supported by day sponsor by UK Halsey Sailmakers.

In the overall standings Ed Dubois' Enigma continues to lead but Peter Morton and his team aboard Espada ensured that he didn't have it all his own way today and have managed to close him down to just a two point lead. Espada took races four and five and ran Enigma hard in the sixth race.

On the final run of the day the two boats were virtually match racing and no quarter was given. As Ed Dubois said after sailing 'At one point on that final run Morty was taking us up and up and for a moment I thought we were going to let the other boats through.'

Whilst Enigma and Espada dominate the top of the leader board there is still plenty of action further down the fleet to keep everyone entertained. Second to eighth place, filled by Paul Treliving's Odd Job; Tony Dodd's Purple Haze; the Irish Manzanita, owned by Joxer O'Brien and Neil Kenefick with designer Ron Holland at the helm.

Louise Morton's Super Q, helmed by Liz Rushall; Darren Marston and his Hamble likely lads aboard Catch and Graydon Dawson's Diamond, respectively are separated by only 9 points and the racing between them has been stunning to watch.

Even at the far end of the fleet it couldn't be tighter as Stephen Patterson's Pacifist and Ken Bruneflod's Alice demonstrated in race four when they finished in 19th and 20th place respectively but just five seconds apart.

Although everyone on the race course is hugely competitive this regatta is as much about having fun as it is about winning. Back ashore everyone wanders the dock comparing notes, checking out the competition's deck layouts and gizmos and trying to pick up ideas. When ever anyone has a problem there's always a slew of volunteers ready to help get them back up and running.

Naturally the après sailing activities are as important to our teams as the racing and tonight the crews are gathering at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club for the Red Funnel Quarter Ton Cup Gala Dinner at which Ed Dubois will speak. If the inaugural dinner in 2005 was anything to go by we can reasonably expect this to be a long night full of 'do you remember the time' and 'it wasn't like that in my day' stories!

Three final races are schedule for tomorrow and we are looking forward to a nail biting close to this brilliant event.

Event website: http://www.rcyc.co.uk