Rolex Commodores' Cup Fleet Review

by Trish Jenkins on 17 Jun 2006 Thirteen teams from six countries will be pitching up in Cowes, Isle of Wight at the end of next week ready for the 26 June start of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s biennial Rolex Commodores’ Cup.

'We’re very pleased with the response this year,' says Peter Wykeham-Martin, General Manager of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. 'We are delighted to see some new faces with the first Russian team in the event and it is good to see old friends returning to the Solent.'

Each of the 13 teams comprises three boats and each of these in turn must fall into a different performance band determined by its IRC rating. Thus teams will comprise slow, medium and fast-rated boats. The small boats, for example, range from the high performance Ker 32 Checkmate, competing in David Dwyer’s Ireland White team, to the larger cruiser racer Elan 40 Civils Building With Flair, skippered by Jim McGregor and sailing for England Black alongside Peter Harrison’s Farr 52 Chernikeef II, which is now managed by the UKSA, and Jack Pringle’s IMX40 Mankie.

Racing takes place over six days and includes seven inshore races, a short passage/coastal race on the Wednesday of up to 12 hours duration, while the event as usual will culminate in the 24-36 hour long offshore race finishing on the Saturday. Two years ago the long offshore race ran as part of RORC’s Channel Race, but this year it will stand alone. The duration of the races also dictates their scoring, thus the inshore races count for half points, while the long offshore race concluding the event scores double, ensuring the event does not climax until the final moment.

Despite this being a traditionally a cruiser-racer event – only 25% of each boat’s crew can be ISAF Category 3 professionals - competition has never been so high as it will be for this year’s Rolex Commodore’s Cup. Of the six nations, Great Britain, France and Ireland are all fielding three or more triple boat teams.

'The Irish who were just beaten last time are clearly determined to win it,' says Wykeham-Martin. 'But they face strong competition from not just the home teams but also from the traditional competitors like the French and Dutch. We are looking forward to a close series with some of the best Corinthian sailors in Europe competing for the Rolex Commodores’ Cup.'

While Serguei Kotsiouba’s Russian entry Follow Me sailed for Team Europe in 2004, this time the Russians return with their own three boat team. This will be led by Swan 45 Murka, regularly raced on the Solent by owner Misha Mouratov. Sergey Bryuzga’s Sinergia 40 Juga, from St Petersburg spent last season competing in the Baltic. Bryuzga says his crew is freshly formed but includes a mix of seasoned amateurs some with 20 years experience, plus some younger sailors. Making up the Russian team is the chartered HOD35 Zarafa to be skippered by Vice President of the Russian Sailing Federation Vladimir Loginov, also with a crew from St Petersburg, including two Olympic sailors.

But the team to beat this year are probably the Irish. After seeing victory slip through their fingers at the end of the long offshore race two years ago when they fielded a single team, this year the Irish are back in force with three teams, including several brand new yachts.

'They came so close last time and we were encouraged by that,' says Fintan Cairns, Commodore of the Irish Cruiser Racer Association (ICRA). 'It was important to have more than one team, so we got all interested owners together and left them to develop it from there and they have gone the full hog and got new boats built and everything.'

Leading the charge, as he was two years ago, will be Colm Barrington, this time in a brand new Ker 50, Magic Glove. He is teamed up in Ireland Orange with another new Jason Ker design, the 37 footer Jump Juice belonging to Cork-based sailing couple Conor and Denise Phelan and Anthony O’Leary Corby 35, Antix, the ICRA’s 2005 Boat of the Year.

Tim Costello’s Mills 40 Tiamat is the ‘big’ boat in Ireland Green. Aside from winning the Scottish Series last year immediately after her launch, Tiamat also won her class at last weekend’s IRC Nationals in the Solent. Costello is joined by Eammon Rohan’s brand new Corby 37 Blondie and Andrew Alen and Colm Monahan’s J/109 No Naked Flames.

Another new boat is David Dwyer’s Mills 39 marinerscove.ie 2 in the third Irish team. While Dwyer will be skippering his 39-footer, he is also entering another boat, marinerscove.ie 1, a brand new DK 46 with a skipper yet to be announced. These two are joined by the Ker 32 Checkmate sailed by the Cork-based MacCarthy brothers.

Team line up:

Ireland Orange: Magic Glove (Colm Barrington), Jump Juice (Conor and Denise Phelan), Antix (Anthony O’Leary)

Ireland Green: Tiamat (Tom Costello), Blondie (Eammon Rohan), No Naked Flames (Andrew Alen/Colm Monahan)

Ireland White: Marinerscove.ie1 (David Dwyer), Marinerscove.ie2 (David Dwyer), Checkmate (Mike McCarthy)

Russia: Murka 2 (Misha Mouratov), Juga (Sergey Bryuzga), Zarafa (Vladimir Loginov)

Belgium: Moana (Francois Goubau), Oxigen (Alex de Cock), Ship Shop Aqua-holic (Bernard Wilmet/Phillippe Bergmans)

Holland: Fatboy (Robertjan Zonneveld), Roark (Kees Kaan), Swisslife (Ralph Berkmans)

France Blue: Courrier du Coeur (Géry Trentesaux), Paprec Recyclage (Stephane Névé), Batistyl (Cyrille Legloahec)

France White: Codiam (Jean-Claude Nicoleau), Guyader (Erwan Dubois), TBS (Pierre Follenfant)

France Red: Saga (Alain Foulquier), AON (Jacques Pelletier), Pen Azen (Philippe Delaporte)

GBR Blue (Scotland): Exabyte III (Dave Cullen), Absolutely II (Kelly/Bramall/Plummer), Salamander XVIII (John Corson)

GBR White: Fair Do’s VII (John Shepherd), Maverick II (Dominic Chappell), Quokka (Peter Rutter)

GBR Red: Bear of Britain (Kit Hobday), Software Mistress (Ian Maclean), No Doubt (Chris and Hannah Neve)

GBR Black: Chernikeef 2 (Peter Harrison), Mankie (Jack Pringle), Civils Building with Flair (Jim MacGregor)

The Rolex Commodores‘ Cup will be held off Cowes, Isle of Wight, from 25 June to 2 July 2006.


Event website: http://www.rorc.org/comcup/index.php