Panerai British Classic Week 2016 - Day 2
by Jakob Huth 18 Jul 2016 22:40 BST
16-23 July 2016
The second day of racing at Panerai British Classic Week brought glorious sunshine, but a frustrating lack of solid breeze. The Race Committee's decision not to run the Around the Island Race today was vindicated, but despite their best efforts it was only possible to complete a significantly truncated race for the 6 Metre and 8 Metre Classes. They did get a race underway, the second in the series, for Classes 1 to 4, but the wind rapidly died away again and ultimately the race committee was forced to abandon those classes.
Racing started to the west on a nine mile course initially heading upwind to East Lepe and then onwards to Newtown East buoy. The 6s and 8s started in the lightest of south-westerly sea breezes and with the last of the ebb under them managed to get away from the line in reasonable order.
It was slow going, made harder as the tide turned flood against them, but an hour later the leading 6s were approaching the second mark of the course. With the flood building and the south-westerly faltering, the race committee wisely elected to shorten the race at that point. 6 Metre victory went to Robin Richardson's St Kitts, with Andy Short's Nancy second and Tom Richardson's Thistle third. Asked for the secret of their success Rupert Richardson of St Kitts said, "Not doing anything extreme! We could see a spinnaker coming into the Solent from the West so we knew the wind was there and just made sure we avoided the edges and kept the boat going. We only did about half a dozen tacks all race." Overall St Kitts leads the regatta by three points from Thistle with Nancy in third.
The 8 Metres followed the 6s across the line and on the water Christopher Courage's Helen was first with Murdoch McKillop's Saskia second, Peter Wilson's If third and Avia Willment's Siris fourth. However, Helen had fouled If on the start line and was forced to take a 2% time penalty which dropped them down into second. Speaking after racing Helen's Mike Jones explained; "It was a simple port/starboard on the start line and we were in the wrong, but in the light airs we couldn't tack the boat quickly enough and If was forced to luff to avoid us. It was very frustrating as we won the race by around a minute, but with the penalty Saskia beats us by twelve seconds." Overall Saskia now leads the 8 Metre Class by three points from If with Helen two further points behind in third.
For Classes 1 to 4, who were starting together, the situation was very different and they came to the line in a rapidly dying wind as a classic Central Solent battle between south-easterly and south-westerly sea breezes got underway. Initially the boats were beating off the line but half an hour in they had made only a few hundred yards progress, mainly thanks to the last of the ebb. For a while boats were pointing in all directions as they lost way trying to tack, but eventually the south-easterly worked its way west past Cowes and the boats on the mainland side of the channel were hoisting spinnakers, whilst those towards the Island were still beating. Twenty minutes later and the south-westerly was back so spinnakers were down and light number ones were up. Sadly the flood tide was now building fast and the race committee had no option but to abandon racing for these classes.
Whilst the racing conditions may not have been up to scratch, the same cannot be said of Panerai's hospitality and back ashore the sailors enjoyed delicious Italian antipasto and wines in the Panerai Lounge, followed by a special briefing to update competitors on changes to the schedule for the coming days.
The forecast has improved considerably and the Race Committee has announced that the Around the Island Race sponsored by EFG will be run for Classes 1 to 4 tomorrow starting at 08.00 with the fleet heading east/clockwise around the Island. There will also be an inshore race starting at 10.00 for the 6 and 8 Metres and those not electing to go around the island.
Wednesday will now feature two inshore races with the first start at 10.00 and the second as soon as possible thereafter. The Long Inshore Race sponsored by Classic Boat will take place on Thursday starting at 10.00 and the final race of the series, sponsored by Sandeman Yachts, will start at 10.00 on Friday.
You can follow the racing action as it happens via the Live Race Tracker.
News, results and photographs from Panerai British Classic Week will be posted at the regatta website www.britishclassicyachtclub.org/regatta.