Skandia Cowes Week 2007
It’s that time of year again in Cowes with 8,500 sailors crowding into the Isle of Wight for the 181st year of Skandia Cowes Week. Around 1,000 boats are competing on the Solent waters and they were greeted with a blisteringly hot start to the event over the weekend. Sunday proved a classic as the tricky conditions thrown up by the strong flood tide and baggy breezes caused a series of upsets. The first major shock of the day was the seamless choreography that marked the start of the Laser SB3 class. After last year’s problems in getting 87 boats onto the race track, Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC) this year decided to allocate 25 minutes to the SB3 starting sequence to allow for general recalls.
That time provision was needed on Saturday when dozens of boats were OCS at the start but today the 98-strong fleet were given a round of applause from race officials on the Royal Yacht Squadron platform after just two boats were recalled.
'Your reward for good behaviour yesterday is a difficult ‘upwind uptide’ course,' Principal Race Officer Malcolm MCKEAG told the fleet over the radio prior to the start. In the tricky conditions, with light variable winds and a strong east flowing tide, the fleet made its way to the central Solent before heading up to Lepe Beach.
The second surprise came in the leaderboard as the boats passed Alpha Buoy. No places for the usual Laser blazers as Glenn BOURKE in Musto was boxed in and Geoff CARVETH, Saturday’s winner, was way back in the fleet on Earls Court Boat Show. Instead it was Kit GLOVER’s Outkri and the awesome ladies on Team McLaren who were making all the running in the early stages.
By the time they were closing in on the finish, CARVETH had carved his way through the fleet to second whilst the winner, by one minute and 31 seconds, was RumbleFlurg owned by Dave CUMMINS with Colin SIMONDS in Doolalli in third. Musto arrived home in 26th place while Russell PETERS in Selden Seen posted a fifth, which all serves to heighten the bitter sweet rivalry.
A Striking Charge From Class 5
Another shocker was a general recall in Class 5 IRC which started off the RYS line. No one could remember Class 5 ever being black flagged but when they did eventually get going, just three boats over at the second attempt, they provided a striking vista, as they charged off towards Gilkicker Point at the precise moment that the SB3 spinnakers came powering through in the opposite direction behind them.
After completing their 20 nm course, Cowes regular Harry EVANS, the man who supplies the millions of plastic beer glasses to Cowes Yacht Haven each year, had his paws on the Victory Trophy after taking both line honours and victory on corrected time in his Swan 48 Alvine Jacobite, recording a 1 minute and 23 second advantage over Tontin, a brand new Joubert Nivelt 35 from Belgium owned by Wouter BORGHIJS.
Tricky Conditions
All skippers returned to Cowes talking of tricky conditions at various points around the race track. As Chris TIBBS reported at the outset, the breezes started out as east southeasterlies and veered to southwesterlies as the day went on. Winds in the East Solent were likely to be SE and in the west, southwesterly though a band of light variable airs in the middle would, TIBBS predicted, make life awkward for boats passing through it. And he was right. By mid to late afternoon, the breeze was strictly southwest and force 3-4 which tested the fleet but they also benefited from some searing sun and cloudless blue skies, with temperatures reaching 25 degrees. No flashing brine or roaring tempest in the Solent today then though according to weather predictions, the Skandia Cowes Week fleet could savour a taste of the tempest later in the week. Back at the Squadron, large crowds lined the waterfront to watch the flag officers hoist and lower ensigns, the cannon firers discharge their guns and Sea Cadets raise the essential course boards.
In Class 6 IRC, there was mayhem at the start as a few boats were forced the wrong side of Alpha Buoy and had to turn around. These included the beautiful 8 m Athena, campaigned by David GLASGOW and The Earl of Cork and Orrery. Two Sigma 38s flew protest flags and Vanilla, Niek SPILJARD’s X332 that won on Saturday, was forced to retire.
Moving into the last days sailing at Skandia Cowes week and after a frustrating four hour wait for wind, all but six classes at Skandia Cowes Week had their racing abandoned as light airs and shimmering seas proved ill-suited to sailing though perfect for Cowes infamous spectacular firework display. The decision to abandon was taken by race officials of Royal Southern Yacht Club and Island Sailing Club when the sea breeze, forecast to fill in from the south-west, arrived too late for the hard-pressed race team to get courses, even shortened courses completed. A three gun signal was greeted by cheers from crews who had been lolling around in the hot sun hoping that conditions for racing would improve. From the outset this however, the forecast had been disheartening with, at best, a Force 3 possible later this afternoon.
There was word of a blow down in the western Solent so the four big boat classes were dispatched down to Lymington Bank for a Committee Vessel start while the course setters agonised over where to send them. “It was a difficult decision to abandon,” said Stuart Quarrie, Cowes Combined Clubs director. “Whatever the Principal Race Officer Simon Hands did was going to be wrong with some people but we felt that after the late finishes of Thursday, no one would welcome hanging around for such weak and fluky sea breezes. “Also with 1,500 to 2,000 extra boats coming into the race area for the fireworks, we didn’t want boats still out on the course.”
For some classes, the abandonment signalled the end of Skandia Cowes Week 2007 and the crowning of some undisputed champions. In the Laser SB3 class, Glenn Bourke and Musto snatched victory from SB3 National and European champion Geoff Carveth in Earls Court Boat Show, by the small matter of four points. Colin Simonds in Doolalli came third but well behind on points, indicating the degree of intensity in the contest between Carveth and Bourke who kept the fleet and race spectators entertained all week with their superb sailing and compelling rivalry. The theatre carpenter from Virginia Water looked invincible in the early races, despite some troublesome starts but Bourke, the CEO of Volvo Ocean Race, saved his best to last, posting three consecutive wins in tricky conditions to take the title.
Tim Spalding and Gareth Lloyd Jones pretty well wrapped up Class 4 IRC with an impressive sixth victory in seven races, this time by just 54 seconds over Peter Newland’s Healthsure. Amey Love Shack, their Beneteau First 40.7 has proved consistently fast this week and every aspect of the crew’s teamwork has been faultless, earning them the overall lead in the Black Group.
The TP52s cruised round a shortened course in the Western Solent and once more it was Flash Glove that posted the fastest time with a four minute advantage over Charles Dunstone’s Cockburn’s Red, which has picked up pace substantially as the days have gone by. In third place was Benny Kelly’s Panthera but it is Colm Barrington’s exquisite thoroughbred that should pick up the overall Class 1 IRC prize tomorrow after posting four victories so far.
Class 2 IRC also looks like an open shut case with Glynn Williams once more dominant in his Swan 45 WISC though his race with Klaus Diederichs and Grant Gordon’s Fever could not have been closer, just 17 seconds separating them. A mouth-watering climax is due on the final day’s racing in Class 3 IRC after another win by Sander Speet’s Holmatro, which makes up for their expensive disappointment on Thursday. Ed Leask came third in Uxorious III and with just three and a half points separating first, second and third after discards, the last race is set to be a thriller. Whatever happens in the class, the talented young Speet, the 24 year-old Holmatro skipper from the Netherlands has had a stunning regatta and is set to win the Skandia Young Skippers Trophy, awarded to the Skipper, aged under 25, who achieves the best results over the course of the entire week.
The Multihull class will also go to the wire tomorrow after a nail-biting finish today with Ben Goodland’s winning margin in his Raider 302 Team Eberspacher by just five seconds. Carbon Tiger 2, campaigned by Brian Haynes and Phil Cotton’s Buzz were the other podium winners today with everything up for grabs tomorrow. For Cowes regular David Lemonius, the 2007 regatta signalled the end of an era. After 22 years of ferrying around the press in his ex-RNLI lifeboat John Alexander, the Yarmouth Marine Services boss has hung up his boots though he promises he will be making ‘guest’ appearances in future years. So thank you David and we’ll see you next year!!
