Skandia Life Cowes Week 2001 Day 2 Report

by Dick Johnson on 6 Aug 2001 Age seems to suit David Walters.

Well, at least it suits his ten-year-and-a-day old boat, the J39 Jackdaw. On her tenth birthday yesterday she won Class 2, move on a day and she also won, but this time by less than a minute from Aera, the Greek Swan 46 owned by Nick Lykiardopolo, followed by Sebastian Piech's Danebury First Call, which took 3rd despite a bottom that was covered by a layer of slime.

As always the big boats take the attention and the glory, with Class 0 being 'specially attractive with the massive Skandia Life Leopard of Mike Slade, sailed by Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie towering over everything, even the two 12 Metres, Australia II and Crusader, sailed by Skip Lissman and Richard Matthews respectively. Slade's boat understandably ran away from the fleet - it is a good 20 feet or more longer than the rest, but all eyes were on Australia II as she came to the line for a first competitive outing since she took the America's Cup from the Americans in 1983. Australia II had the better start of the two and when they came to the finish after some 32 miles of racing, it was the Aussie boat that was out in front, by over three minutes. On handicap, the class was won by Tim Louis and Kit Hobday's Bear of Britain sailed by Mark Campbell-James and a crew of talented youngsters, with the runner-up spot going to Peter Ogden's Swan 60 Spirit of Jethou. Bear's sister ship Chernikeef 2, Peter Harrison, following in 3rd. Australia II took 4th.

While on the White Group's inner start line things were delayed by the Etchells having two general recalls - much to the disgust of the race committee who tot up the £15 or so cost of each extra gun - the Black Group also had their problems with Class 10 being postponed. In fact most of the class started anyway, but there was a radio problem interrupting communications between the Royal Yacht Squadron Platform and the Committee boat at the outer end of the line, Finnigan. While the race committee pretended that it was a technical problem, investigative journalism later revealed that someone -no names - had forgotten to charge the batteries on Finnigan's hand portable . . .

Eventually Class 10 was herded back to the line and 40 minutes later than advertised they started. Eventually Moose on the Loose, Messers Gutteridge and Money, took the first slot, with Wild Child and Jump the Gun following. Line honours boat, Stephen Fein's Full Pelt, sailed by GBR Challenge's designer Jo Richards, slipped to a lowly 13th after a penalty.

Down among the little boats, Purple Haze, J & J Dudley, took line and handicap honours in Class 6 - any mutterings about her rating? - followed by the pretty Folkboat Madelaine, E Donald and Dr K Orchard. By rights, Class 7 should be smaller still, and while it contains boats as different as the Ocean 60 Ocean Venture, Tony Wyeth and the Corby 25 Drake's Drum, Terry Rose, racing is generally close. Today it was the power of the big boats that mattered - as well as the long offwind legs against the tide and upwind with the tide which favoured her schooner rig - with Ocean Venture coming home in front on the water and on corrected time. Even the comfortable cruising Nicholson 39 Conteza sailed by Dr David Kirkley, saw the front of the fleet with 5th. A South Coast One Design again took Class 8, but this time it was Felix Hetherington's Verity of Cowes and yesterday's winners Tiggy, Rev John Morris, might have been celebrating too well to succeed.

Battle royal was joined in the X-One Design Class, as you might expect, with a four-way battle at the final mark turning into a six-way battle by the time the line was reached. After plenty of place changing, David Kingsbury's Peridot got through to 1st, Adrian Jardine snatched 2nd from P Lawrence's Catherine just on the line, and previous 2nd, Adrian's twin brother Stuart slipped to 4th with Robin Balme's X-Ray just sliding in 5th

Yesterday's winners in the Sunsail 36 class, Pennant 9 Yacht Club from the Vaal Dam in Johannesburg, South Africa, repeated the performance pipping Marsh 1 by nine seconds. Later in this fleet, many boats had trouble finishing properly, thanks to the strong tide sweeping them towards the outer limit mark of the finish line. Some luck - or skilled helmsmanship - avoided too many dings.

Generosity was properly rewarded when Yellow Rose, Marten Jan Ringers took 1st in the X332 class from Martin Ozard and Steve Morris's X-Celerator as Yellow Rose had lent a spare spinnaker to the boat that came 3rd, Francois Lognone's Brittany Ferries.

Patterns are starting to appear throughout the fleets, with the same boats coming out on top for the second time. In the Etchells, the prosaically named The Shed, Barry Parkin and Gary Lane, was well in the lead - from a boat with a family name perhaps, Tom Spalding's Love Shack. . . Geronimo, sailed by Team Geronimo, won the Sonar's again, Jeremy Lear's Zinnia took the Victory's for the second time and Barking Mad, James Richardson, retained his grip on the Farr 40 Class, though today he did drop a race in their three-a-day series, finishing 15 seconds adrift in 3rd to Ken Bruneflod's Hurricane III and Mark Heeley's GRB 25. One minute and 20 seconds covered the complete fleet of 12 boats - that's close racing.

Today's conditions could hardly have been bettered, with a wind that started at about nine to ten knots and built during the day to 15 or 16. The sun shone, just about, throughout and even when the tide turned, the chop was manageable for most of the boats. There were a few mishaps on the downwind legs against the tide for some of the smaller craft, with broaches being the order of the day. Pity poor Odds On, Messers Barhams and Staples' Mustang 30, who broached out, couldn't get it back under control in time and ended up dinging the shining white topsides of a brand new Oyster moored in Cowes Roads - oops.

Class 0 IRC
1, Bear Of Britain (Kit Hobday & Tim Louis)
2, Spirit Of Jethou (Dr P J Ogden & Mr Owen Parker)
3, Chernikeeff 2 (Peter R Harrison)
4, Australia II (Skip Lissiman & John Bertrand)
5, Loco (David Lowe)
6, Island Fling (Paul F Winkleman)
7, Crackerjack (Keith Miller)
8, Wolf (Glynn Williams)
9, Serano (Robert Condon)
10, Crusader (Richard Matthews)

Class 1 IRC
1, Flying Swiss IV (Toni Lutz)
2, Team Tonic (Nick Hewson)
3, Desperado (Richard Loftus)
4, Kirribilli (Douglas Flynn)
5, On A High (Michael S White)
6, Azure (Ed Dubois & John Brinkers)
7, Maverick 2 (Robert Barr)
8, Nokia (Charles Dunstone)
9, Peregrine Systems (Peregrine Systems)
10, McFly (Tony Mack)

Class 2 IRC
1, Jackdaw (David Kenneth Walters)
2, Aera (N F Lykiardopolo)
3, Danebury First Chall (Sebastian Piech)
4, T&G (Keith Passmore)
5, White Knuckles II (Simon Brown & Deirdre Horneck)
6, Crescendo (Mr Martin Jacobson)
7, Fat Diva (Roger Lee)
8, Born Slippy 2 (Julian Bates)
9, Alvine Xii (Harry Evans)
10, Royal Blue Addict (Austin & Handley)

Class 3 IRC
1, Menenes (Graham Deegan)
2, Extra Djinn (Neville Hodkin)
3, Zarafa (J Delacave & P Scholfield)
4, Inis Mor (Bernard Gouy)
5, Zeal (Bob Fisher)
6, Capitali$M (Tim Harrington)
7, Triple A With Flair (Jim MacGregor)
8, Carpetbagger (Michael Ronson)
9, Calima (Javier Pujol)
10, Owl (Peter Bruce)

Class 4 IRC
1, Software Mistress (Ian Maclean)
2, Prime Cut (P Parker)
3, Starspray (Peter & Flavia Bateson)
4, Adastra (Simon Briscoe)
5, Charger (Cdr A W Pheby and Capt M A Pheby)
6, The Red Dragon (Mr Geoff Lynch)
7, Sibelius (Didier Dardot)
8, Radianz (David Rider, Michael Rider & Richard Major)
9, Spirit Of Daedalus (Joe Johnson)
10, Thunderflash (Mark Bouch & Alan Westwood)

Class 5 IRC
1, Spirit Of Defiance (Mark Jephcott)
2, Maxirati (D C Munro & G Williamson)
3, Peanut (Jonathan Butler)
4, Dynamite (John McIntosh)
5, Volante Of Ville (John & Michael Donnelly)
6, Swara (Andrew Hughes)
7, Slender Delta (Barbara Harmer)
8, Bacchante II (Ben Williams &