International 14 Prince of Wales Cup Week at Royal Cornwall Yacht Club - Day 3

Wednesday was the POW race, the one-race National championship, and the fleet arrived to a wet and changing breeze.

The Race Officer chose to postpone for one hour which was absolutely the correct choice as the fleet launched in to a building Northerly with nice flat seas allowing for shifty tactical racing, whilst releasing the carbon i14 machines downwind.

The obvious arrivals for the main event were the new boats. There were two factory ready B6s and a cuckoos nest home build from Liam Stacpoole. They all looked very smart, and barring some teething issues showed that they were right on the pace out of the box.

The tradition for the POW is six lap sausage/triangle courses with no shorten course, but luckily in the variable 15/20 knots this was not going to be an issue.

International 14 UK National Championships 2019 - the Prince of Wales Cup race - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

The race got off to a clean start with Neale Jones/Ed Fitzgerald, Douglas Pattison/Mark Tait, the Partington's and Jack Hawkins/Chris Thomas getting the jump on the fleet at the starboard end. As the fleet worked their way up the shifty beat the new B6s of Archie Massey/Harvey Hillary and Andy Fitzgerald/Rich Dobson, and Dan Holman/Alex Knight starting pulling through to the front group.

But at the top mark it was the early leaders who led the fleet away down wind with glamour full-on sailing. Unfortunately the group was cut to 4 when Hawkins/Thomas took a quick dip, but this enabled a full on battle royale to occur between them, Fitzgerald/Dobson and Andy Shaw/Rob Struckett. This group saw 15+ place changes over the remaining laps with Hawkins/Thomas taking the initiative up the final beat and never relinquishing followed by Shaw/Struckett and Fitzgerald/Dobson. Dan Holman/Alex Knight were also making a charge till a broken lower forced an early end to their challenge.

At the front of the fleet Jones/Fitzgerald has stretched their legs and opened up a big gap on the rest of the fleet. The Partington's and Massey/Hillary traded blows until damage left the Partington's alone to chase the leaders but had to settle for second, with Pattison/Tait in third followed by Hawkins/Thomas.

International 14 UK National Championships 2019 - the Prince of Wales Cup race - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

However, this was not the end of the drama. On arrival back to shore it was noted a number of boats had not sailed the correct course taking the starboard leeward gate mark on the triangle. After a number of retirements and a protest the Partington's took the win and the National Championship to add to their World Championships title in 2018.

Two more days of racing remain with the prize for the week all to play for after some heavy discards... on to Thursday!

International 14 UK National Championships 2019 - the Prince of Wales Cup race - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk

National Championships Final Results: (after protest)
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International 14 UK National Championships 2019 - the Prince of Wales Cup race - photo © Lee Whitehead / www.photolounge.co.uk