(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- This year the Royal Yacht Squadron,
founded in 1815, achieved its bicentenary. To mark the occasion, the
Squadron hosted an invitational regatta to bring together as many clubs
and friends as possible from around the globe, who share their common
interests and love of sailing. The event took place from the 25th to
31st July, hosted at the famous “Castle”, sitting prominently along the
Cowes waterfront, facing that wild & woolly body of water known
simply as “the Solent.”Twenty-five yacht clubs participated in the event for five days of spectacular racing in a 200-strong fleet, including modern and classic boats racing under IRC, J/70s team-racing 2x2, and three spectacular J-Class yachts. Here are the daily summaries of the weeklong festivities.
Race Day 1The first day was canceled due to a mini-gale. With gusts up to 40 kts, the fact that morning coffee, tea & crumpets could not be served on the “Castle’s” lawn for breakfast was a bit upsetting, even un-nerving for some. Nevertheless, the opportunity to catch up with friends and commiserate on “what might have been”, especially amongst the J/70 sailors, made for animated and amusing conversations. Ribald tales of sailing 21 kts offshore were remarkably well-lubricated by copious buckets of Pimms (or were those “dark’n’stormies”) as the more fashionable, posh crowd demurred, and retired back to their grande boudoirs anticipating with great, unbridled passion the next day’s yachting on the Solent.
Race Day 2
The second day it was on. On like Lewis Hamilton’s McClaren-Mercedes F-1 car blasting off the starting at Silverstone in a high-pitched howl of 1,000 ear-splitting decibels!! Yep, it was on! And, it was happening. There was no way the sailors weren’t going sailing Tuesday. Yes, there was good breeze (a lightish gale, perhaps), but nothing that proper yachtsmen couldn’t handle.
Would they or wouldn’t they go racing this morning? That was the question at breakfast that crossed thin, pursed lips sucking the edges of fine bone china for the last drop of Jamaican Blue coffee. There was tremendous anxiety as well as fire-breathing anticipation amongst the sailing cognoscenti as winds and sea state were still looking strong in the morning (a.k.a.- “fresh to frightening”). But, thankfully, the call was made and racing was on, and it turned out to be a fantastic decision- even “Jeeves” would have approved!
“I
applaud the race committee for their decision yesterday and I applaud
them for the decision again today.” Those were the words of tactician
Terry Hutchinson, multiple world champion, J/70 owner, and winning
America’s Cup tactician, who was on board BELLA MENTE. On a breezy start
line where early gusts of 30 knots were still being recorded, the
starters pushed the Royal Yacht Squadron line on a downwind start with
startling acceleration. “We crossed the start line doing 24 kts boat
speed,” observed Hutchinson. “We had a great race, and it was all down
to how the guys handled the boat. Just like I sail my J/70 with my kids
on the Chesapeake! The Solent is a challenging place to sail, but try
sailing with your kids some day— they’re telling me what to do in this
stuff!”There was plenty of action elsewhere on the race course. The J/70 team racing fleet enjoyed some lively racing in the shelter of Osborne Bay, with Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, captained by Jacopo Pasini, Kieran Chung’s St Francis Yacht Club and Erik Storck’s New York Yacht Club all scoring straight wins, no losses.
Race Day 3- Round Island clockwise!
It was a sunny start on the Solent on the third morning of the Bicentenary and the Royal Yacht Squadron Race Committee announced that the Race Around the Island would go ahead as per the schedule. The course was clockwise off the RYS start line, pass between No Man’s Land and Horse Sand Forts, Bembridge Ledge Buoy to Starboard, St Catherine’s Point to Starboard, Bridge Buoy to Starboard, Gurnard Buoy to Starboard, to finish on the Royal Yacht Squadron Line. While the big boats enjoyed wind speeds of around 17-20 knots to help them on their way, the J/70s were having a scream sailing on Osborne Bay in front of the castle. The J/70 team racing fleet got some good racing in today. Jacopo Pasini’s YC Costa Smeralda team heads the leader board after two Round Robin series.
Race Day 4
Today was a day where local knowledge was the winning advantage for the races ‘around the cans’ for many teams. However, there were some fierce competitions going on in parts of the Solent, with intense and close racing between very skilled sailors, and it’s the foreign visitors that were leading the fray.
The two classes are the Level Rating Class and the Team Racing Class, and they are being dominated by overseas clubs who have been invited specially to the event to mark the Royal Yacht Squadron’s 200th anniversary.
The 10 yacht clubs taking part in the J/70 Team Racing Event from around the world and the UK continued racing on a small course in the sheltered waters of Osborne Bay, to the east of Cowes.
“There is terrific sportsmanship amongst the crews and a good team spirit,” reports their Race Officer Tony Singer. “We’ve already done 48 hours of racing and fitted in 90 races so far.”
After
three Round Robins, St Francis Yacht Club from San Francisco has won
each one and are firmly in the lead, looking all but unbeatable. Their
helmsman Kevin Laube revealed their secret, “three of us raced together
at Stamford and we’ve all been training together for three years.” He
adds, “We’ve really enjoyed the event. Today’s conditions were
pristine.”Hot on their heels with a second in both round robins is the YC Costa Smeralda, captained by Jacopo Pasini. And, with everything to play for with a second and third, the Royal Thames YC, whose crew includes Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Champion Ben Gratton. The Team Racing crews are all under the age of 30 and more than one third of the crews are female.
With the three Round Robin Series completed, the semi finals will be run tomorrow followed by the finals and petit finals.
Race day 5
The Royal Yacht Squadron’s Bicentenary International regatta is complete. “Four seasons in one week,” was the apt summary from crew member Richard Mason of Monday’s gales, and a gradual wind reduction to the windless afternoon that ended the regatta Friday.
Mike Broughton, navigator on a Mini-Maxi, explained the conditions in the Western Solent: “We started in a completely different breeze to the J-Class who had started upwind to the east in a south easterly,” he said. “Then, the westerly came and went a bit as it fought with the conditions to the east. Eventually, a light sea breeze prevailed but there were some big holes making the race a bit of a lottery. Added to that there is a spring tide, up to 3 or 4 knots, so the racing was extremely tricky. The Race Committee could have cancelled the race today given the conditions, but it was a good afternoon with lots of challenges and, ultimately, a good race.”
The
great untold story of the RYS Bicentenary event might easily be the
Royal Hong Kong YC team sailing the J/122 JACOBS LADDER. They were led
by J/109 WHISKEY JACK owner Nick Southward, a boat with a reputation as a
strong competitor racing in the waters off Hong Kong and the South
China Sea. After having some difficulties learning the boat on the
first heavy weather day, their learning curve went stratospheric.
Southward’s crew kept sailing faster and smarter and by the end of the
regatta had the top 3 record for the last three days. “If only there
were a next time,” is the oft-heard refrain. Even then, Southward’s
RHKYC team placed 6th, losing a tie-breaker to Adam Gosling’s YES (a
former J/39 owner) and just 3 pts out of third overall in IRC Class 2!!
There
was total American domination of the Team Racing and Level-rating
events (not surprisingly, virtually all the sailors had extensive J/22,
J/24, J/70, J/80 and J/105 one-design experience on their racing C.V.’s
at a National and World-class level). “Anything could happen today,” the
New York YC’s Vice-Commodore Phil Lotz had commented as he and his team
went into the final day of racing in the Level Rating Division. And,
indeed, it did. With Real Club Nautico de Gran Canaria leading through
the week (loaded with champion J/80 sailors), it took a 1st and a 5th by
NYYC to nudge into the lead in today’s two races and take the overall
win in the Level-rating class.Over their three days of racing the Team Racing sailors on J/70s managed to fit in a total of 126 races. With the light winds of Friday, the fleet didn’t complete their intended third Round Robin, instead moving straight to the semi-finals, in which the St Francis Yacht Club faced the New York Yacht Club, and Royal Thames Yacht Club against Costa Smeralda Yacht Club. As the wind died away the two victors that faced each other in the finals were St Francis YC versus Royal Thames YC. Conditions meant that only one race could be run – and celebrating at the end of the event was St Francis YC from San Francisco. “We had an awesome time,” said St Francis team tactician Taylor Baeder. “Our team have sailed with each other for a while. We made mistakes, but not too many, we stuck to the basics.”
The competitors were treated to a spectacular parachute display by the Royal Air Force “Red Devils.” who landed in the water just next to the assembled guests on the Royal Yacht Squadron’s iconic lawn. In wrapping up the event, RYS Commodore Chris Sharples thanked the crews from all over the world for sharing the club’s 200th birthday, saying, “this is not just for the club, but for the town of Cowes as well. The next two hundred years begins now!” Sailing photo credits- Paul Wyeth/ PWPictures.com For more Royal Yacht Squadron Bicentenary Regatta sailing information
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