Daring Class's Giles Peckham is King of Cowes

by Event media on 2 Aug 2008
The 2008 Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes at Skandia Cowes Week exploded into life today with three glorious races sailed in conditions ranging from eighteen up to twenty five knots.

As the wind whistled around the Cowes Yacht Haven, there were lots of nervous faces amongst the twenty nine teams who gathered at eight o'clock this morning for the official briefing from race officer Tony Lovell.

The racecourse was set in the lee of the land in Osborne Bay to provide the competitors with some shelter from the forecasted steadily increasing breeze and the fleets' sleigh ride journey down there gave several of the 2007 Cowes Week class winning helms their first true experience of the Laser SB3 downwind at speed.

As the fleet hit the line for the start of race one, first to show at the pin end were RS K6 Class winner Richard Talbot, Victory representative John Tremlett and Dragon Class winner David Palmer.

As the fleet approached the windward mark the racing could not have been closer with the top fifteen boats rounding in a tight pack, headed by 1720 representative Mark Greenaway. Most of this leading bunch chose to continue on starboard allowing Ian Kirkpatrick from the IRC6 class to take the initiative by gybing on the mark and heading out into the stronger breeze on the left.

This tactical call rocketed him from tenth to first at the leeward mark. Also making big gains on the downwind leg were Graham Bailey from the Etchells Class and the Daring Class's Giles Peckham.

At the finish, Ian Kirkpatrick had extended on the fleet to pull off an impressive race win. Graham Bailey came through second having managed to hold off a fierce attack from Giles Peckham on the final downwind leg.

The breeze had notched up a couple of clicks for the second race and it was the Dragon fleet's David Palmer who having started at the pin end of the line found himself leading the fleet at the windward mark.

Having learned their lesson from the first race, almost the entire fleet gybed immediately at the weather mark. The SB3 fleet all under gennaker was a spectacular sight as the boats blasted downwind totally obscured by spray. Victory Class helm John Tremlett had the bit firmly between his teeth and closed the gap on David Palmer sufficiently to be able take advantage of a poor drop at the leeward mark.

Having taken the lead John Tremlett was never challenged and went on to win the race from Mark Greenaway who slipped past David Palmer on the final downwind to take second.

At this point in the proceedings Graham Bailey from the Etchells Class on six points, held a three point lead over Giles Peckham (Daring Class) and Mark Greenaway (1720 Class) who were tied on nine points.

The wind was up to a steady twenty five knots for the start of the final race which was sailed around a round the cans course finishing off Cowes.

At the windward mark Glynn Williams from the IRC 2 Class rounded just ahead of Giles Peckham, Russell Mead (Hunter 707) and David Palmer. On the downwind leg these four were engaged in a high speed battle for the lead which culminated in Russell Mead rounding the leeward mark just ahead of Glynn Williams.

On the next beat Giles Peckham demonstrated blistering pace to move into first place and as he set off down a tight two sail reach to the next mark he was followed by John Tremlett (Victory), Glynn Williams and Russell Mead (Hunter 707).

On the next long beat to the Gurnard Buoy, Mark Greenaway kept his podium aspirations alive by moving from sixth up to second. The final leg to the finish just outside the mouth of the Medina River saw the leaders pass the Royal Yacht Squadron at full chat and clearly at the limits of control. Giles Peckham successfully held his nerve to take the gun and was quickly followed by Mark Greenaway in second with John Tremlett coming through third.

When the results were calculated, Giles Peckham's impressive 3, 6, 1 scoreline had secured him an overall win and the title of 2008 Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes at Skandia Week. Only a single point behind in second was Mark Greenaway and Graham Bailey's fourth in the final race was enough to earn him a well deserved third place overall.

At this evening's prizegiving, held at a packed Volkswagen Touareg hospitality stand, Giles Peckham along with his winning crew, boat owner Craig Burlton and bowman Steve White was officially announced as the winner of the 2008 Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes. Giles was also presented with the keys to a brand new Volkswagen Touareg and Craig received a voucher for a Mark Warner family sailing holiday.

The Nexus Marine award for most passionate performance of the regatta went to Mark Greenaway, in recognition of his amazing comeback in the final race, which saw him move from almost last at the first mark, to second at the finish.

Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes - Final overall positions

1st Gill Race Team - Carjacked GBR 3042 Giles Peckham Craig Burlton Steve White 3 6 1 10pts
2nd Team Earls Court GBR 3053 Mark Greenaway Geoff Carveth Sarah Allen Catherine Summerhayes 7 2 2 11
3rd I Maximus GBR 3106 Graham Bailey David Brown Pedro Rebelo de Andrade 2 4 16 22
4th Rumbleflurg GBR 3032 Russel Mead Ian Schenkel Darren Ballard 10 8 4 22
5th Sail Navy GBR 3215 Adam Gosling Joe Henry Kirsty Gallacher Paul Campbell-James 8 7 7 22
6th Helly Hansen GBR 3152 John Tremlett Jorgen Stromquist Anthony Gullan 19 1 3 23
7th Pressure Cooker GBR 3503 Harry Roome Tom Kiddle Prue Roome Matthew Kiddle 6 5 14 25
8th Sail Army GBR 3304 David Palmer Alex Tucker Jamie Lea 17 3 6 26
9th Sbeed GBR 3010 Glynn Williams Toby Litton Martin Jones 9 9 10 28
10th Platinum Blond AUS 3469 Tim Spalding Daniel Geoghegan Chris Hamel 4 12 13 29
11th Liftingsafety.co.uk GBR 3044 Chris Sherlock David Atkinson Tim Burnell 12 16 5 33
12th Ribidium GBR 3019 Michael Moss Sam Cook Jerry Collingwood 5 23 12 40
13th 3 Sad Old Blokes GBR 3465 Edward Donald Jerry Hill Dr. Mark Tomson 22 11 9 42
14th Team Touareg GBR 3134 Iain Kirkpatrick Jono Shelly Chris Blackburn 1 14 30.0 DNF 45
15th Striptease GBR 3075 Matthew Boyle Edward Dyer Joe Llewellyn 21 20 8 49
16th Wosterstock GBR 3169 Kevin Downer Luke Wooster Graham Sunderland 16 19 15 50
17th Yachts & Yachting GBR 3509 Ian Andrew Mark Jardine Fred Kemp 24 17 11 52
18th Twerk NED 3289 Simon Russel Martin Lossie Richard Lovering 13 10 30.0 DNF 53
19th edigitalresearch.com GBR 3163 Steven Anderson Alec Russell 15 22 17 54
20th Go Hard or Go Home GBR 3047 Alister Evans Pieter Heyn Duncan McCarthy 11 15 30.0 DNF 56
21st Seacape Media GBR 3309 Steve Johnson David Bates Mark Cam 18 18 21 57
22nd Darling Associates GBR 3212 Jill Stevenson Chris Darling 25 13 20 58
23rd Bathstore GBR 3146 Philip Cotton Tim Cork Colin Jackson 23 24 18 65
24th Barbarian GBR 3012 Noel Dobbs Ben Sturges Michael Orange 27 21 19 67
25th Chilli Chaser GBR 3515 Richard Talbot Ian Southworth Nigel Smith 14 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNC 74
26th Millgate Homes GBR 3080 Gavia Wilkinson-Cox Jonathan Edwards Liz Rushall Sarah Marriott 20 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNC 80
27th Excuse Me Gents GBR 3079 Andrew Porteous Sean Dwyer Jeremy Westbrook 26 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNC 86
28th Virtual Human Resources GBR 3173 Simon Barter Danny Brooks Alisdare Barter 28 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNF 88
29th GBR 3069 GBR 3069 Michael Briggs Steven McLean Nick Griggs 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNF 30.0 DNC 90