| Skandia Cowes Week – Day 1 Round-up Report 29/07/06 |
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 The 180th Skandia Cowes Week Regatta got underway today amidst changing conditions as an occluded front swept eastwards across the British Isles testing the record fleet of 1,028 yachts across some 37 classes. The morning started with hazy sunshine breaking through mild cloud cover with winds gusting to a fresh force three but as the afternoon wore on, and the majority of boats hit the mid point of their races, rain clouds covered the Solent and stiffening winds blew the early cobwebs away and produced some thrilling racing. The town of Cowes is alive with yachting enthusiasts and interested spectators as some 8,500 competitors and an expected 80,000 visitors descend for this annual festival of sailing. The skies filled in the evening with the Blue Raiders Helicopter Display Team and the town thronged to the sounds of street performers, salsa dancers and a Brazilian drumming group whilst the yacht clubs filled to capacity as Skandia Cowes Week began in earnest. The first cannon boomed out from the Royal Yacht Squadron garret bang on time at 10:20 signalling the start of eight glorious days of Solent sailing with expectations high for a truly classic week as the weather looks promising for the coming days. Stars from across the sailing world mingled happily with Corinthian sailors with the likes of Volvo Round the World Race winner Mike ‘Moose’ Sanderson, British solo heroines Dee Caffari and Dame Ellen MacArthur and Olympic medallists Ben Ainslie, and Nick Rogers all taking part on the opening day. Indeed the sight of the Volvo 70 ABN Amro One streaking around the Solent at breathtaking speeds held the thousands of shoreside spectators in awe at the sheer power of these super charged yachts as she cruised to line honours in IRC Class Zero clear ahead of the rest of the fleet by just under an hour! The main action and talking point of the morning starts from the Royal Yacht Squadron inshore line however was the almost inevitable general recall of the 85-strong Laser SB3 fleet who were all pushing hard for the front row of the grid. With some twenty or more boats clearly over the line early, Principal Race Officer Malcolm McKeag representing the first Triumvirate of the Royal Thames, Royal London and Royal Southampton yacht clubs had no choice but to Black Flag the fleet for the second start. Luckily the eager helms in this, the biggest class at Skandia Cowes Week, played fair and the fleet got underway to the west for a 20 mile course that brought them back to the Central Solent around the tricky tidal waters of the Bramble Bank and Hill Head Shore. At the head of the fleet an old rivalry was ignited with ex-Olympian Russell Peters and Volvo Race CEO Glenn Bourke enjoying a hard fought tussle for the lead with Peters just edging ahead at the end of the race to snatch an early psychological advantage by just 51 seconds. This rivalry promises to be one of the talking points of the regatta and will be a fascinating unfolding drama as the rest of the fleet look to get up to the lead boats impressive standard. Jono Shelley was third today on Price Waterhouse Coopers over five minutes astern of Peters and Bourke highlighting just how tough it will be to catch the leaders. Interestingly in the SB3’s, all the boats are trialling onboard tracking devices that accurately allow spectators to view positions on the race course in real-time. The early results would suggest that the trial is successful and will be a major feature for the class in the future. The rest of the inshore White Group fleets got away with just individual recalls whilst the offshore Black Group showed some serious ring rust with few boats judging the start line to perfection. The competitive Class Zero got away cleanly with the late Kit Hobday’s Bear of Britain leading away at the Alpha buoy before ABN Amro One released the hounds and scorched away from the fleet. The TP52’s of Charles Dunstone’s Red and Benny Kelly’s Panthera jostled for position up the first beat out towards the Needles whilst Richard Loftus’s Hotel California and the new Danebury of Sebastian Piech enjoyed a private battle of their own. However the big winner was ABN Amro One with its all-star crew of Volvo Race winners who totally outshone the rest of the fleet and provided some picture-perfect manoeuvres around the 38.3 nautical mile course to win the first major piece of silverware of Skandia Cowes Week 2006 in the Queen’s Cup - a first rate performance from an awesome team. One of the most competitive fleets at Skandia Cowes Week 2006 is the resurgent International Etchells fleet who are warming up for their class World Championships in Cowes in 2007 and attracting some of the top names in world yachting. This year the regatta has attracted a quality field of 24 boats that saw Isle of Wight boat builder Nigel Harley shade a very tight race by just 16 seconds in Mac a Do ahead of Andrew Cooper’s hard driving China White. Graham and Stephen Bailey’s Arbitrator grabbed third spot just over 30 seconds behind as the top five filtered across the line within just one minute of the leader! We can expect to see fireworks in this fleet as the week progresses and for sure, consistency will be the key to winning the regatta overall. One boat that has traditionally finished near the top of the White Group overall standings is the Flying Fifteen of Rupert and John Mander, Men Behaving Badly who today suffered a rare defeat at the hands of Jo Mayes in Last Fling. The Fifteens have attracted some serious competition this year with a host of new boats competing for the top spot so the Mander’s know that they’re in for a tough battle to defend the crown that they’ve won for the last two years. Another familiar face appeared at the head of the J/80 fleet as Liz Savage guided Savage Sailing cleanly away from the start line amidst the Sportsboat fleet and recorded a healthy 3 minutes 12 second victory over Robert and Jonathan Fox aboard Jevan. In the Redwings it was the familiar story of James Wilson bringing Quail across the finish line to score his first bullet of the regatta with a healthy 38 second victory over Nicholas Robertson’s Musicus despite having running backstay problems throughout the race. Wilson’s middle-man for the week is Yachts & Yachting online editor Mark Jardine who is taking a sabbatical from XOD racing for this year’s event and he was delighted with the first day of racing saying, “It couldn’t have been a better opening day. The course was first class and the conditions were great. It was a real test for our boat handling especially when the breeze filled in ahead of the afternoon rain as it shifted to the South West. We basically concentrated on keeping Musicus between us and the finish but it’s looking promising for the week.” The ever competitive Victory fleet were the last away from the Squadron line just before 12.30pm and once again Jeremy Lear’s Zinnia showed a very clean pair of heels with Solent legend John Tremlett on the helm to score a 2 minute 45 second victory over Roddy Bowerman’s Steadfast. Meanwhile in the Dragon fleet, David Palmer brought Princess Jalina home some 3 minutes 32 seconds ahead of this very tough fleet. Ex-Etchells sailor Milo Carver scored a handy win in the Daring fleet whilst Nick Emery won a very hard fought race in the 33-strong National Squib fleet and looks good to repeat his 2003 regatta win in the class. The National Swallows had four boats scored as OCS but it was Neville Upton who scored the victory today by over 2 minutes and is looking good to avenge his second place of last year aboard Goosander. The IRC fleets enjoyed some tactical racing in the western and central Solent with Class 1 IRC notching up a five hour plus race over 33 miles that saw Professor John Shepherd’s Ker 46 Fair Do’s VII score a big corrected time win over Glyn Williams’s Swan 45 Wisc. Olympic 470 silver medallist Nick Rogers guided the Farr 45 Team Volvo into third place in this 17-strong fleet. Harry Heijst meanwhile brought the beautiful Sparkman & Stephens designed Winsome across the line to record a 2 minute 42 second corrected time victory over David Clementi’s Hotwatch II in Class 5 IRC whilst the oldest boat in the regatta at 101 years old, the Clyde 30 Mikado used her enormous waterline length to good advantage to win Class 7 IRC. Simon Osgood led from start to finish in Class 9 ISC aboard his Folkboat So! and will be tough to beat this week as Mike Tattersall’s Beneteau 31.7 Electra narrowly edged a 12 second corrected time victory in Class 6 IRC from the MG346 Dean & Dyball Enigma of Ian Braham. In Class 2 IRC the hotly anticipated Corby 37 of Adam Gosling was soundly humbled by the class production yachts as the Prima 38 of Nick Barlow Oz Privateer scored a big win over the J/133 of Stewart Hawthorn Jump with Francois Goubau’s Beneteau First 47.7 Moana securing third place. In the 29-strong Sunsail 37 fleet, which truly shows the spirit of sailing for all, the Fort Vale Engineering team from Portsmouth overturned an early deficit to score a big 2 minute 37 second victory ahead of the Bank of Scotland team whilst in the huge XOD fleet (67 entries) Solent ace Peter Baines brought Caprice home just under three minutes ahead of a very competitive fleet. It was business as usual in the Contessa 32’s with Ray Rouse guiding the evergreen Blanco to victory whilst at the other end of the speed scale Ben Goodland ripped around the multihulls 30 nautical mile course aboard Team Eberspacher to score a 47 second victory over Grant Kelly’s Velox. So as some very happy sailors came ashore to enjoy the first evening of Skandia Cowes Week, the stage is set for more of the same tomorrow as a westerly breeze fills in overnight to deliver expected 15-20 knot sea breezes and some squally showers. Competitors will be looking to recharge their batteries and all the talk in the various bars and beer tents is of a cracking opening day to one of the world’s finest regattas. Summer in Cowes…there’s nowhere better on earth! For further information, the latest news and and the results service, log onto: www.skandiacowesweek.co.uk Related Items:
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