Final Showdown at the RORC Cherbourg Race
by Louay Habib 15 Aug 2024 17:48 AEST
6 September 2024
RORC Cherbourg Race © Paul Wyeth / RORC
The Royal Ocean Racing Club Season's Points Championship, the world's largest offshore racing series, comes to a conclusion with the sixteenth and final race of the series on Friday 06 September with the Lewmar Cherbourg Race (with JOG), which will feature a myriad of designs among the RORC fleet of about fifty yachts.
Racing under the IRC Rating Rule, the 12-month long RORC Season's Points Championship is heading for an exciting finish with IRC Class position changes a distinct possibility.
The 75nm race to Cherbourg, starting from the RYS Line Cowes, will have multiple starts from 1800 BST on Friday 06 September. The results from the dash across The Channel will decide the overall winner under IRC for the series, as well as IRC Class winners and MOCRA and Class40 Champions. The top five teams for the 2024 RORC Season's Points Championship will all be in action. This year, the RORC Cherbourg Race also includes the JOG Series Points Championship.
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Rob Craigie's Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing doublehanded with RORC Commodore Deb Fish, will be racing to Cherbourg. Bellino won the Jazz Trophy in 2023 for the Overall Win under IRC for the season, and a successful Cherbourg Race may result in Bellino retaining the overall win for 2024. Currently ranked second overall for the season is Simon Tom's Sun Fast 3300 Zephyr, also racing doublehanded with Josh Dawson. Zephyr is 76.7 points behind Bellino.
"We're not taking anything for granted - Zephyr are pushing us hard in the overall championship and have delivered some outstanding results this year," commented RORC Commodore Deb Fish. "We're looking forward to resuming our long-running tussle with Black Sheep and Scarlet Oyster in IRC Two as well. One thing is for sure - we will all get a great reception in Cherbourg and we're looking forward to returning to Cherbourg next year at the end of the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race."
Zephyr's Simon Toms added: "We've had a fun season so far and so just hoping for a good final race of the year!"
In third place for the season with one race to go is Ross Applebey's Oyster 48 Scarlet Oyster, which is the highest place fully crewed team for the season so far. "We still have an outside chance of winning IRC Two for the season, as well as winning the Applebey Trophy which would be fantastic," commented Ross Applebey. "Scarlet Oyster has a reasonably good chance of winning The Assuage Trophy again. So we are in with a chance of lots of trophies, if we do well in The Cherbourg Race. However, we are also in danger of winning nothing! So I suppose the IRC rating is doing a good job, making everything really close." Conclude Applebey.
Fourth overall for the 2024 RORC season is Trevor Middleton's fully crewed team on Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep, skippered by Jake Carter. "Mathematically it's wide open so very hard to say what the outcome will be after The Cherbourg Race," commented Black Sheep's Trevor Middleton. "We could stay fourth overall, but gaining a place or dropping one is also likely. In IRC Two, we are currently third, but second or fourth is also possible. But as I say, mathematically it could be a lot different, if for example we broke something and did not finish." Concluded Middleton.
Fifth overall for the season, going into The Cherbourg Race, is Nick Martin's Sun Fast 3600 Diablo, which is also ranked third for the IRC Two-Handed Class. Nick Martin has undergone shoulder surgery but Diablo will be racing with his regular race partner Cal Finlayson as skipper. Alongside will be fellow Scot, Maggie Adamson. The duo will also be racing for Great Britain in the forthcoming Double Handed World Offshore Championship in Lorient this September.
"A huge thank you to Nick (Martin) for letting us take Diablo for the final race of the season," commented Cal Finlayson. "We will do the best job we can to get a good result in the race and for the Season's Points Championship. It has been a privilege to be led by Nick on the good ship Diablo, we hope to live up to her name!"
A close battle between the top four teams in IRC Three will come to a conclusion with The Cherbourg Race. Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews racing Sun Fast 3200 Cora lead IRC three with one race to go. Ranked in second place by less than 12 points is Rob Cotterill's team on J/109 Mojo Risin'. In third, less than 21 points behind Cora is Jean-Lin Flipo's J/99 Yalla! The winner of IRC Three, as with all the class divisions in the RORC Season's Points Championship, is decided by the best five race results for the season. Cora has the advantage but the entire podium can change following the results from The Cherbourg Race.
In IRC Four, all seven boats racing are over 30 years old, proving that IRC racing promotes longevity in boats designed for offshore racing. The oldest boat in IRC Four is Oli Hawkins' 1982 Gibsea 90 Sailfish but the oldest boat in the race is Andrew Tseng's 1971 Nicholson 55 Quailo III, racing in IRC Two.
Two Contessa 32s, Gareth Penn's Jemima of Farley and Davies & Lockhart-Miram's Musketeer II will race head to head. Also racing in IRC Four are Dudley Stock's X-302 Xtract and Palle Hansen's Sun Odyssey Sisterblysse. The lowest IRC rated boat in the race is Peerless & Wagner's Sigma 38 Kindred Spirit.
Fans of the famous 1980s BBC series Howard's Way, featuring Laser 28 The Flying Fish, will be delighted to see the entry list for The Cherbourg Race includes James Holmes' Laser 28 Blazer. Let's hope the Blazer crew wear some cracking jackets for Paul Wyeth's RORC photographs from the race!
For more information and on-line entry for The Lewmar Cherbourg Race visit: www.rorc.org