(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The Royal Ocean Racing Club's Cervantes Trophy Race provided a challenging start to the European season for the RORC Season's Points Championship. A bitter northerly wind, with squalls gusting over 30 knots, produced a challenging race for the impressive fleet of 108 boats. Starting from the Squadron Line, the fleet headed east out of the Solent passing No Man's Land Fort and into the open waters of the English Channel. After passing south of the Nab Channel, the fleet headed east, blast reaching to Owers, followed by an upwind leg to Littlehampton Outfall. Cracking sheets and hoisting downwind sails, the fleet headed south for a 77 mile dead-run across the English Channel. An energy sapping upwind leg of over 20 miles, from Cussy Buoy to the A5 Buoy, further tested the fleet, before a downwind section to the finish.
The eighteen-boat IRC 2 Class features saw the famous J/133 PINTIA sail yet another strong race. The duo of Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine has won the Cervantes Race several times in the past, both in class as well as fleet overall. This time, they settled for the silver, missing the class win by just 20 minutes. Then, Patrice Vidon’s French team on the J/111 J4F finished just 30 minutes on corrected behind PINTIA to take the bronze!
In the very large thirty-six boats IRC 4 Class, Robert Nelson’s J/105 BIGFOOT held on to take eighth place, not bad for their doublehanded efforts. In fact, in the IRC Doublehanded Class of 35 boats, BIGFOOT placed sixth. Sailing photo credits- Rick Tomlinson / Paul Wyeth. For more RORC Cervantes Trophy sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.
|
