Friday 25 March 2005

Red Funnel Easter Challenge - Day One Race Report :

The forecasted light South Easterly winds arrived as predicted, a direction unusual for this time of year. The race committee took a gamble to let the first race start but it was the correct decision as the breeze filled in.

IRCSZ & Zero

With the tide opposing the wind direction it was always going to be an interesting start to the first day of the Red Funnel Easter Regatta making it difficult for the competing yachts to judge time and distance to the mark. After a general recall with several offending yachts, Class Zero restarted at the back of the grid with the Z flag flying. Even with the deterrent of a 20% penalty three boats found themselves marginally over - Shockwave, Patches-Team Tonic, and Murka 2.

Billed by the RORC as a training regatta, it just goes to show that even the best can get it wrong! Shirley Robertson OBE, double Olympic Gold medallist was in charge of tactics on Patches-Team Tonic. Though over the line early, she could see the funny side of things and was still smiling at the end of the race. Shockwave made a marvellous recovery and clawed their way back to 7th place.

First place went to Fever who managed a great start and a solid performance on the course with smooth mark roundings, followed in second place by Crackerjack who beat Exabyte III into third place by a mere six seconds on corrected time. However race 2 saw professional starts from two of the offenders from the first race; Patches-Team Tonic winning from Colm Barrington’s IRC weapon Flying Glove.

A special mention for third place Murka 2, after being OCS in Race 1, the Russian owner Misha Mouratov was seen to punch the air after beating the other two Swan 45s in race 2 coming in third place.

IRM

In race 1 there were three boats foul of the Z flag including Rebel the Farr 45. Despite picking up a huge penalty, they still managed to win by over a minute from Atomic, with Too Steamy in third place.

In the second race Too Steamy worked the puffs extremely well downwind to win by a very comfortable margin. Alice, the Mumm 36 was second and Atomic finished a consistent third.

IRC1

The class managed to get away cleanly and were the fastest on the racecourse; Peter Morton has been campaigning Salvo for many seasons and his experience paid off with a win in race 1. Jack Pringle’s Mankie was delighted to have beaten Jerry Otter’s Exabyte 2 into third place.

In race 2 it was the second bullet of the day for Salvo beating Exabyte III into second place followed by White Magic in third.

IRC 2

Peter Rutter’s Elan 37 Quokka was first with virtually the same crew from his Commodores’ Cup campaign from last year and experience in light airs was the order of the day. Me’Julie was second followed by Jugular. In the first race a special mention must go to Flair IV for a text book pin end start.

Race 2 went to Graeme Brooks’s High Tension, beating Quokka into second place just ahead of Sanguma

Three races tomorrow and more breeze predicted.

By Louay Habib