Cowes Week - King of XODs retires with injury

by Sue Pelling/CWL on 7 Aug 2010
Cowes Week - Stuart Jardine, known as ‘the man to beat' in the extremely competitive 88-strong XOD fleet, had to retire earlier this week with a sailing injury.

Seventy-six-year-old Jardine has won the Captains Cup for the overall winner of the XOD fleet eight times (1956, 1996, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009) started the week off well in Lone Star with a 2,1 but on Day 3 of the regatta on Monday, he was involved in collision just before the start which resulted in a broken knuckle and a split chin.

According to Stuart's son Mark, who's crewing this week, the incident happened on a committee boat startline in a shifting breeze. Mark commented: 'The wind was so shifty we actually had to tack up to the pin end of the line and everyone was in odd positions. Relaxation went for a bear away and didn't see us and hit our stern quarter. The impact was so intense, the tiller ripped across at full force and hit my dad's hand so hard it actually broke his knuckle on his finger closest to his thumb. There was also blood everywhere because the tiller then flipped up and split his chin open.'

Mark confessed to the crew also being very concerned about the condition of the boat, commenting: 'Our first thought was we were going to sink because it was such a hard thud. Thankfully however, the boat's come off remarkably well.'

Despite medical advice to rest for the remainder of the week, Stuart decided he would be fine and was on the start line the following day. Mark continued: 'When they [the hospital] said rest it for two week he just laughed but, after another day on the water with his hand looking like it had a squash ball underneath the skin, and with the pain seriously starting to set in, he decided to take the wise decision to rest.'

Stuart handed over the helm of this 1960-built boat to Mark, who is continuing to do a good job at the head of the fleet. Going into today's penultimate race, team Lone Star are in fourth place overall.

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