Whooper the invincible at Saturday's IRC National Championship

by James Boyd on 25 Jun 2017 While conditions on day one built to a brutal 30 knots, today it was equally challenging at the Royal Ocean Racing Club's IRC National Championship. There was marginally less wind, but stronger gusts coming through in the squalls. Once again two windward-leewards were held followed by a longer round the cans race.

Today it was the turn of Giovanni Belgrano's classic 1939 Laurent Giles sloop, Whooper in IRC Three to score straight bullets. On top of her two from yesterday, she now holds a nine point lead that will be tough to better.

'I guess it is her weather - maybe if it is less windy tomorrow, we'll get a break,' observed Ian Braham, whose MG 346 MS Amlin Enigma, was second best scorer today in IRC Three with a two – two - four, despite sailing one man down on a boat that Braham admitted is optimised for lighter conditions. 'It was quite hard work, but the courses were great again. We made some good starts and it is really enjoyable.'

In IRC One the largest fastest boat in the fleet has prevailed. The Ker 46 Lady Mariposa scored two bullets yesterday, but was forced out of the final race with broken battens. Today they scored a two – one - two and, with a discard kicking in, they have now taken the lead in their class.

Skipper Dan Hardy admitted that in the second race they had gone off the boil, which allowed through their smaller sister, Andy Williams' Ker 40 Keronimo. 'We felt pressure from them today - their game has come up and they won't let us get away with it, especially if we make any mistakes.'

As the fastest rated boat at the IRC Nationals, Lady Mariposa quickly ends up sailing her own race. As Hardy puts it 'We have to make sure that we really get a clean start, get going and try not to look behind. We have to keep the hammer down, try to sail as simple and as fast as we can and, when we hit traffic, try to deal with that as best we can.' They were frequently catching and passing the FAST 40+ class today.

Johnny Vincent's Ker 40+ Pace has edged three points clear in the FAST 40+ class, although Peter Morton's new Carkeek Mk3, Girls on Film has scored more bullets, including two more today, albeit these sandwiching a sixth. RORC regular, Ireland's Niall Dowling, stood in for Vincent today in what was his FAST 40+ baptism. 'It was fantastic. They are great boats, fairly full on - we were doing 15-18 knots downwind. It is like sailing a dinghy. The key thing was keeping her going, to take the loads off to a minimum, especially off the wind. The guys did a great job to get me around.'

A few of the FAST 40+s had contretemps with a starboard tack IRC Three boat whose intentions seemed unclear. A casualty of this was Pace whose kite went for a dramatic trawl. 'We had to stop the boat and go backwards to get it out of the water' recalled Dowling.

On the final beat to the finish of race three it was interesting to see Keronimo in IRC One holding her own against the FAST 40+s. As her tactician and sailmaker Kevin Sproul observed: 'They are quicker downwind, because they are a ton lighter. VMG upwind, we were only a tiny bit slower.'

The string of bullets came to an end for Ed Fishwick's Sun Fast 3600 Redshift Reloaded in IRC Two where today defending IRC National Champion, Adam Gosling and his JPK 1080+ Yes! were top scorers, posting a one – one - two, leaving them just one point off the lead.

'He is a good sailor and they are sailing that boat really well' observed Gosling of his opponent. 'This is the first time we've sailed the boat this year, so we're getting rid of all the cobwebs and trying to remember how to sail her again.' And it simply being day two rather than day one was what Gosling attributed their performance to today, despite Redshift Reloaded appearing to be a weapon in big conditions, whereas Yes! has been re-optimised for lighter conditions. Yes! came out on top in today's first race despite being fouled at the leeward by a FAST40+ which was bound for the finish as they were trying to head upwind.

Today the Tiny Mitchell Trophy winners were decided for the boats which performed best on day two of the IRC Nationals (with no discards). These were: Girls on Film (FAST 40+), Lady Mariposa (IRC One), Yes! (IRC Two) and Whooper (IRC Three) and will be awarded at tomorrow's prizegiving at the RORC Cowes clubhouse.

In the meantime two more races are scheduled tomorrow with the wind forecast to be closer to 15 knots than 20.

Full Results:

2017 IRC National Championship - Fast40+

Provisional Results

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6
1	GBR9463R	Pace	Ker40+	Johnny Vincent	1.270	9	2	2	1	2	2	6
2	GBR50R	Girls On Film	Carkeek 40 Mk3	Peter Morton	1.270	12	1	3	10	1	6	1
3	GBR1542R	42° South	GP 42	Mark Rijkse	1.270	14	3	4	4	5	1	2
4	NED8809	Hitchhiker	Fast 40	Bastiaan Voogd	1.264	17	4	5	2	3	4	4
5	GBR4921R	Ino XXX	HH42	James Neville	1.267	25	7	7	3	7	5	3
6	SUI19	Jubilee	Gp 42	Tony Dickin	1.267	31	6	6	10	6	3	10
7	GBR1682R	Tokoloshe II	GP 42	Michael Bartholomew	1.264	34	8	10	10	4	7	5
8	GER6999	Silva Neo	GP 42	Heinz-Peter Schmidt	1.258	40	9	1	10	10	10	10
9	GBR4242C	Zephyr	Gp 42	Steve Cowie	1.265	45	5	10	10	10	10	10

2017 IRC National Championship - IRC One

Provisional Results

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6
1	GBR6255N	Lady Mariposa	Ker 46	Daniel Hardy	1.296	6	1	1	14	1	2	1
2	GBR6889R	Keronimo	Ker 40	Andy Williams	1.199	8	2	2	1	2	1	2
3	GBR4669R	Pata Negra	Lombard IRC 46	Giles Redpath	1.164	18	5	4	2	6	4	3
4	GBR1111X	Jitterbug	J/111	Cornel Riklin	1.095	20	4	3	4	10	3	6
5	GBR8888N	Cobra	King 40	Michael Blair	1.117	27	10	6	3	4	7	7
6	GBR236R	Erivale III	Ker 39	Michael Greville	1.117	27	6	9	6	5	5	5
7	GBR5940R	Nifty	King 40	Roger Bowden	1.116	30	3	14	14	3	6	4
8	GBR8611R	Kestrel	J/111	Simon Bamford	1.099	39	9	7	5	11	8	10
9	GBR5811R	Jagerbomb	J/111	Paul Griffiths	1.097	44	14	5	14	8	9	8
10	GBR7751R	Journeymaker II	J/111	Chris Jones	1.100	47	11	8	7	12	10	11
11	GBR562R	Night Owl II	Mat 12	Edmund Hall	1.124	50	7	14	14	9	11	9
12	GBR1180X	Gallivanter	Mat 1180	Tor McLaren	1.195	57	8	14	14	7	14	14
13	GBR759R	Eclectic	Azuree 46	Colin Campbell	1.131	68	12	14	14	14	14	14

2017 IRC National Championship - IRC Two

Provisional Results

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6
1	GBR419R	Redshift Reloaded	Sun Fast 3600	Ed Fishwick	1.050	7	1	1	1	4	3	1
2	GBR4863R	Yes!	JPK 1080+	Adam Gosling	1.060	8	4	2	2	1	1	2
3	NED6169	Elke	First 40	Frans & Carla Rodenburg	1.086	16	2	6	3	2	4	5
4	BEL3590	Amaris 2	Archambault A35	Gabriel Krier	1.029	19	5	4	5	5	2	3
5	GBR3213L	Dusty P	First 40	Richard Patrick	1.076	27	3	9	7	3	5	11
6	FRA76	Pegasus	Farr 30	Malcolm Wootton	1.047	29	7	3	4	8	7	9
7	GBR4013R	Adventurer out of Sailplane	First 40	Rob Bottomley	1.083	32	6	5	17	7	8	6
8	GBR7122X	Juno	J/122e	Christopher Daniel	1.093	43	9	17	6	12	12	4
9	GBR7737R	Aurora	Corby 37	Roderick Stuart & Bill Ram	1.094	43	17	7	10	10	9	7
10	GBR979R	Malice	HOD 35	Mike Moxley	1.022	47	17	10	8	9	10	10
11	GBR4070L	Incognito	First 40.7	Paul McNamara & Tony Lowe	1.050	50	8	8	9	17	17	8
12	GBR42N	La Réponse	First 40	Andrew McIrvine	1.080	56	10	17	17	6	6	17
13	GBR8405R	Olympia's Tigress	First 40	Susan Glenny / Tigress Sport	1.085	57	11	12	11	13	11	12
14	GBR9235R	Mad Max	Max Fun 35	Andy Williams	1.083	69.5	12.5	11	12	17	17	17
15	GBR011	Pandemonium	Farr 280	Jamie Rankin	1.093	70.5	12.5	17	17	11	13	17
16	GBR1010L	Xinska	X 40	Bernard Olesinski	1.068	85	17	17	17	17	17	17

2017 IRC National Championship - IRC Three

Provisional Results

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Handicap	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6
1	GBR363R	Whooper	One Off	Giovanni Belgrano	0.923	5	4	1	1	1	1	1
2	GBR1405R	Elaine	Elan 37	Mike Bridges	1.008	14	1	8	4	4	3	2
3	GBR4365T	MS Amlin Enigma	Mg 346	Ian Braham	0.950	14	3	3	5	2	2	4
4	GBR581R	Antix	X 302	John Allen	0.927	19	5	4	2	3	5	17
5	GBR8185	Quokka 9	Half Tonner	Peter Rutter	0.951	29	17	2	6	6	7	8
6	GBR9202R	Nightjar	J92	Jack Banks	0.975	30	7	6	7	9	4	6
7	GBR5678T	Scarlet Jester	SJ 320	Jamie Muir	0.970	32	6	7	17	8	6	5
8	GBR347L	Cobra	First 34.7	John Stevens	0.994	40	17	10	8	7	8	7
9	KZ3494	Swuzzlebubble	Half Tonner	Philip Plumtree	0.974	44	2	5	3	17	17	17
10	GBR9700N	Only Magic	J/97	Richard Sparrow	0.984	45	8	9	9	10	9	17
11	GBR9224R	Upstart	J92s	Robin Stevenson	0.982	59	17	17	17	5	17	3
12	NED8925	Wings	Quarter Tonner	Berry Aarts	0.915	79	17	17	17	11	17	17
13	GBR953R	Belinda	Quarter Tonner	Tom Hill	0.914	85	17	17	17	17	17	17
13	GBR3033L	Rigit On Wild Child	Corby 30	Brian Wilkinson	0.986	85	17	17	17	17	17	17
13	GBR6895T	Xcitable	X 362 Sport	Peter Hodgkinson	0.996	85	17	17	17	17	17	17
13	NED118	Winsome	S&S 41	Harry J. Heijst	0.990	85	17	17	17	17	17	17