RORC Cowes to Ouistreham Race – A double handed victory for ‘Night & Day’

The penultimate race of the RORC Seasons Points Series for 2004 started from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line at 10:00 on Saturday 28th August under clear blue skies with a very light breeze from the southwest, so light in fact that the yachts drifted across the line on the fair tide.  The forecast for the race was for the breeze to remain light prompting the Race Committee to set course ‘B’, the short course.  This would take the fleet west out of the Solent to round the Needles Fairway Buoy to Port before bearing away straight to the finish at Ouistreham, a total distance of approximately 110 miles. ‘Venom’, Derek Saunders’ Volvo 60 was first at Needles Fairway followed by ‘Yeoman of Hamble’, David Aisher’s JV 44 one-off and ‘Minnie the Moocher’, Anthony Richards’ Ker 11.3.

The majority of the fleet did not hoist their kites at Needles Fairway but ‘Minnie’ made good use of her Code 0 and ‘Serendip’, Paul King’s Prima 38 hoisted her kite earlier than most.

By mid to late afternoon the breeze had picked up from the west in the channel to between 8 - 13kts and the yachts were able to free off to reach to the finish, the pressure holding for the majority of the night. ‘Magnum II’, Andrew Pearce’s IMX 40, ‘Euphorix’, Paul & Joanna Dentskevich’s First 40.7 and others who went west of the rhum line ended up running very deep when the wind veered mid channel. Those who had opted to go further east had a faster angle and benefited.

The 2 handed yachts, ‘Night & Day’, Pascal Loison’s J 105 and ‘El Greco’, John Williamson’s Sigma 38, had a great battle with Andrew Pearce’s IMX 40 ‘Magnum II’ hot on their heels.

‘Venom’, was 20 miles from the finish at 21:10 in a very light north easterly and a boat speed of 4 to 5kts, the breeze dying as they closed the French coast, being becalmed for approximately 20 minutes at one point.

At 00:26 on Sunday morning ‘Venom’ took line honours, she was followed at 01:10 by ‘Minnie the Moocher’. ‘Yeoman of Hamble’ was third across the line at 01:16. The corrected time winner in the combined IRC Super Zero and Zero was ‘Minnie the Moocher’ with a time of 17h 34m 45s giving them the Solent – Ouistreham Trophy, beating ‘Yeoman’ by nearly 10 minutes having been neck and neck for most of the race.
‘Minnie’ also took the Ouistreham Trophy for IRM.

In IRC 1 ‘Serendip’ took line honours at 01:31 and also won on corrected time by 2m 27s over sister ship ‘Mostly Harmless’, Tom Hayhoe & Natalie Jobling picking up the Teddy Hicks Memorial Trophy. Third on corrected time was Andrew Pearce’s IMX 40 ‘Magnum II’.

Continuing on from their good start, ‘Night & Day’ was the first yacht home in IRC 2 at 02:10 followed by Philip Pascall’s ‘Doris J of Five Star’ 9 minutes later. ‘Winsome’, Harry Heijst’s S&S 41 was third over the line.  ‘Night & Day’s’ solid efforts were rewarded with them collecting the Charles Oxley Memorial Trophy for Best Corrected Time – IRC, the Griffin Trophy for IRC 2 and the RORC Prize for the 2 Handed Division.

A steady procession of finishers through the early hours of Sunday morning saw the first of the IRC 3 yachts, ‘Apsara’, Jean-Michel Mercier’s First 31.7 over the line at 03:37, followed by Bertrand Lavandier’s X 342 ‘Excalibur III’ at 04:03.  ‘Droopy’, Jean Frances Mallet’s First 305 would take the Commodore Trophy for IRC 3 however by 5 minutes on corrected time and the RORC Prize for the Seahorse Division.

At 0621 BST the last yacht finished, in time fore the lock opening at 0715 and the bar in the Société des Régates de Caen-Ouistreham at 0800.

The Race Officers on the Committee boat were grateful for the assistance of the competitors in identifying their boats on the finishing line in the dark. The majority of the fleet sailed close to the Committee boat after finishing which was a great help.

A prizegiving was held in the Société des Régates de Caen-Ouistreham, at 14:30 local time Sunday 29th August, the prizes being presented by Mme. Girot, Adjointe au Maire and M. Philippe Bossé. 

Once again the RORC are very grateful to the Société des Régates de Caen-Ouistreham, the President M. Philippe Bossé, and the club members for their assistance in the finishing of the Cowes to Ouistreham race, also for providing the Committee boat ‘President Thierry’ manned by M. Bo Malmborg and M. Patrick Blanc alongside the RORC race team.

RORC Medallions will be presented on Tuesday 28th September at 19:30, in the Clubhouse, 20 St James’s Place, London, SW1.  All crews welcome.