RORC Channel Race kicks off tomorrow
by Louay Habib 23 Jul 05:54 PDT
24 July 2021
80 boats for the 2021 RORC Channel Race © Rick Tomlinson / RORC
The Royal Ocean Racing Club Season's Points Championship continues with the Channel Race, which will start on Saturday July 24th from the RYS Line, Cowes.
80 boats have entered the non-stop overnight race with the majority of the fleet expected to finish the race in about 24 hours. The Channel Race is the ninth race of the RORC Season's Points Championship with an international fleet racing under IRC and Class40 Rules. The Channel Race is the final RORC race before the main event of the season, the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race.
Favourites for Line Honours and the Hugh Astor Trophy will be racing in IRC Zero. David Collins' Botin IRC 52 Tala took line honours and IRC Zero for the Channel Race in 2019. Eric de Turckheim's NMYD54 Teasing Machine, second in 2019, will be Tala's main opposition. Lance Shepherd's Volvo Open 70 Telefonica Black and Ross Hobson's Open 50 Pegasus Of Northumberland, will hope for strong reaching conditions to be first to cross the finish line. Jean Pierre Dreau's Mylius 60 Lady First 3 will be racing with his team from Marseille, France.
Greg Leonard's Kite and Manic skippered by Brian Thompson will duel for Class40 honours.
IRC One
Michael O'Donnell's J/121 Darkwood leads IRC One for the 2021 RORC Season's Points Championship and is a contender for the overall title. Darkwood will be defending the Channel Challenge Cup, as overall winners in 2019. Ed Fishwick's GP42 Redshift is second in class for the 2021 season, and with a good result in the Channel Race, could take the lead from Darkwood.
RORC Commodore James Neville, racing HH42 Ino XXX, will be in a confident mood after winning the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race overall. Mark Emerson's A13 Phosphorus II, and Andrew Hall's Lombard 46 Pata Negra, will both be racing and looking to improve their points tally for the season. The Tall Ships Youth Trust has two entries. The 72ft Challenger Yachts will be skippered by Michael Miller and Sue Geary. Teams from overseas include, Jacques Pelletier's French Milon 41 L'Ange De Milon, winner of IRC One in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet, and Steven Verstraete's Belgian Sydney 43 Morpheus.
IRC Two
The overall leader of the 2021 RORC Season's Points Championship will be racing. Thomas Kneen's JPK 1180 Sunrise is the clear leader by over 100 points. However, Ed Bell's JPK 1180 Dawn Treader has scored one less race for the season and is very likely to close the gap after the Channel Race. The same mathematics is true for Ross Applebey's Scarlet Oyster.
Five Beneteau First 40s will be in action including three entries from Sailing Logic: Lancelot II sailed by James Davies, Merlin sailed by Simon Zavad with CSORC, and Arthur sailed by Jim Bennett. Promocean's First 40 Hoeoca Sfida and Susan Glenny's First 40 Olympia's Tigress will also be in the mix. Teams from the Netherlands, both racing Two-Handed are J/122e Moana, sailed by Frans van Cappelle and Michelle Witsenburg and JPK 1180 Il Corvo, sailed by Roeland Franssens and Astrid de Vin. Benedikt Clauberg's Swiss First 47.7 Kali will be taking part in their sixth RORC race of the season.
IRC Three
23 teams are expected to be racing in IRC Three, including many teams racing Two-Handed. Fully crewed entries include Trevor Middleton's Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep. Skippered by Jake Carter, Black Sheep is the leading fully crewed team in IRC Three. Five fully crewed J/109s will continue their close rivalry for the season. Kevin Armstrong's Jazzy Jellyfish is leading the J/109s for 2021 ahead of Mojo Risin' skippered by Rob Cotterill.
IRC Two-Handed
28 teams are entered racing Two-Handed, the majority racing in IRC Three and Four, the top two double handers for the season so far will be in action. Rob Craigie's Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing with Deb Fish, is less than ten points ahead of James Harayda's Sun Fast 3300 Gentoo, racing with Dee Caffari. Two Sun Fast 3600s are battling for third for the season. Gavin Howe's Tigris, racing with Maggie Adamson, is 13 points ahead of Nick Martin's Diablo, racing with Calanach Finlayson. Two-Handed teams from France include Max Mesnil and Hugo Feydit racing J/99 Axe Sail, and Gilles Courbon and David Guyonvarch racing First Class 10 Shortgood.
IRC Four
Sun Fast 3200 Cora sailed Two-Handed by Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews is leading the class for the season. Cora will be looking to hold off a spirited challenge for the series from Stuart Greenfield's S&S 34 Morning After, also sailed Two-Handed with Louise Clayton. 20 teams are entered in IRC Four including Gavin Doyle's Irish Corby 25 Duff Lite and Pierre Legoupil's French classic Le Loup Rouge Of Cmn.
Yachts taking part in the Channel Race will start to gather off Cowes Parade from around 1000 on Saturday 24th July. The full entry list and AIS tracking link can be found at yb.tl/channel2021 and also via smartphones with the YB App. Results will be available with live updates at www.rorc.org