Rolex Commodores' Cup - Jamie McWilliam wraps it up for HKG in CAPS

by Jamie McWilliam on 23 Aug 2010 'What we've got here is a failure to communicate: some men you just can't reach. So, you get what we had here last week: which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it!'

OK, this was the Rolex Commodore's Cup, not Cool Hand Luke, but the constant 11-15kn mumbleswerve of the first 6 days definitely was not the way we wanted it - so it was FANTASTIC when for the final day's double-point race it blew a rock solid 20-30kn out of 225, for a windward-leeward style thrash around some cans in the central Solent. Magic!

While the Irish basically just had to get around the track to secure their win, it was all a bit tight for second to fifth and as we were in second place going into the race, the pressure was on us to stick in 3 good ones and avoid slipping right at the end. Mandrake set the ball rolling in fine style, getting a BELTER of start mid-line and cruising off to the tidally-favoured left side of the track; right up till BOTH their jib clew J-locks exploded in their first tack and the boys were left floundering trying to re-attach the sheets. Crikey! Anyway they did a good job of getting back on track and from then on managed their way around the track in sensible conservative style as our nearest threats - the French and the Brits - had horrors in a MASSIVE puff on the first run to shred their kites and snuff out their challenge. Mandrake eventually came home with a tight fourth to secure third overall in class. The South African Landmark 43 won the last race to at least provide a highlight after a disappointing week for them.

Blondie was next off and was more conservative at the start, coming off a bit slow at the boat end to flip away onto port and set up on the hip of the pack. Mariners and Quokka had beauties from the middle to lead into the top mark, but we had the hammer down hard and were in a safe third going down the run. At this point the breeze was at about its low point for the day, only blowing 18 or so, and the symmetric boats rolled up to us again, but with the increased pressure we were able to really get her moving and we got round in a good third place.

The next beat was pretty shifty but Pat and Tom were really in sync (Lord only knows how they'd go if they sailed together all year) and with Marty/Tiger/Arthur running a three-man tacking team in fine order we got round the top mark having extended clearly. This next leg was the final run of the regatta and as if the wind gods knew this, it got pretty sporty pretty fast; wipeouts were all over the place, so learning from the French A35 in 2008 we gybe set at the starboard hand top mark to ensure we only had to throw one more gybe into the bottom mark, and SENT it out to the right to close in nicely on the two leaders and vanish away from the pack behind.

It was as we approached the bottom mark that the highest breeze was recorded and just as we got the headsail up and were wondering how on earth we were going to get the kite down we got a good break (SHOCKING pun - Ed.) as the kite tack line fitting - max working load 4 tonnes - exploded and a simple leeward drop was immediately available. Right at the same time Quokka, just ahead of us, suddenly rounded up and dropped their mainsail, as the bottom foot or so of their carbon rig had crumpled and they had to retire - uncanny considering how our last-race effort to see the same guys off for the Class 3 win in 2008 was scuppered by another competitor losing their rig at the last bottom mark! It was so fresh now that we tacked round at the bottom mark instead of gybing, and with a solid last beat and a lovely final layline call from Frosty The Layline (sung to the tune of Frosty The Snowman) we came home behind Mariners but not quite enough ahead of Coup Du Coeur to take a third and third overall in class. Mariners won, and were undoubtedly the seriously class act everybody expected. The boat's for sale...!

In Class 3 the ever-increasing dominance of Rockall leads to a fairly short report: they got a good start and blemmed off into a big lead and won by two minutes from Roxy 6 to wrap up a very convincing win in this class, and be third-lowest scoring boat overall in the event.

So a funny sort of outcome: we averaged 3.3pts per boat per race, which would have won a lot of previous Commodores' Cups, and all our boats finished in the top 10 overall, another leading indicator from previous events. But the Irish were simply fantastic and in my opinion looked like the best team ever assembled at this event. They finished up first (Antix, Class 1), second (Mariners Cove, Class 2) and fourth (Roxy, Class 3) overall. Mind blowing stuff, and it definitely begs the question of how we can find a way of getting up to that standard going forward. It looks like a combo of sail programme, crew togetherness, and time on the boat. Not to mention of course having three very nice pieces of hardware!

So there we go. Second overall, and a boatload of experience and stories to bring back to Hong Kong. Special thanks go to our Team Captain Warwick Downes who made a damn good fist of the tricky task of analyzing our performance daily, and offering constructive criticism of our setups and tactics - no mean feat with a lot of alpha characters on the team; Rules Adviser Peter Jolly who was extremely helpful in terms of interpreting the NoR and SIs and keeping us in touch with the Jury - not to mention being key in the Rockall redress hearing. A special mention for Iain Chapman who has been involved in organising this entire effort from about 18 months ago, with that classic understated-but-achieving style of his which is such a pleasure to work with. Lovely stuff Chapster, and next time I promise we'll bring you a snorkel (or scuba gear!) for the approach to South West Shingles!

We were extremely fortunate to have four outstanding Cat 3 pros with us: David Bedford and Jonathan 'Boycey' Taylor on Mandrake, Tom 'I'm The Younger One, Honest' McWilliam on Blondie, and John Brinkers on Rockall. Guys, you were brilliant, both on and off the water. We also loved having many of our non-HK mates on board to join us, and it is a tribute to them that even after a few days together you'd have been hard pressed to figure out which of the crew wasn't actually from Hong Kong: so thanks again to Fletch, Baldrick, Lauren (really a HKer!), Bish, Louise, Charlotte, Frosty, Arthur ('R2!'), Kirsty, Tim, David, and Koen. We hope you enjoyed sailing with us and we'd love to see you 'at home' - and hopefully with us again in 2012!

Finally a MASSIVE vote of thanks from all of us to our three skippers: Nick Burns, Ant Day, and Chris Opielok - and also Helmuth Hennig for his generous offer of Blondie, and Fred Kinmonth as co-owner of Mandrake - without whom none of us would have been here. It's no mean commitment on any basis, either cost, or time (a thousand emails?), or effort, and we are enormously grateful. Thanks guys, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Back to HK in the next few days, see you all soon. Hope the weather's better at home!

Cheers
Jamie