Etchells at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

Etchells at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week © Rick Tomlinson / www.rick-tomlinson.com

A small but enthusiastic fleet of 11 Etchells enjoyed fabulous racing at Cowes Week 2011, with strong winds accompanied by mostly sunny and warm conditions, and, as ever with the fleet circulating in close company. In the absence of serial winners Graham and Stephen Bailey (with boat builder David Heritage in the middle) the trophy would have a new name on it and from the start of the week the top 3 edged out a little lead on the rest of the fleet. Racing was intense all through he fleet however with newcomer Matt Kavanagh getting to grips with his chartered boat on several occasions and Wilfred Wagner also getting himself frequently into the fray.

Race 1 went to Laurence Mead and his hastily gathered crew on “Freelance” who circulated ahead of the Downer family on Moonlight for a race which varied between 10 knots and a flat calm. In the end the Downer family were pipped by Robert Elliot / David Bedford and Doug Flynn, an ex UK Etchells sailor, now relocated back to the Sydney fleet, who went offshore up the last beat and had enough line bias to pip the Downers. Rob Goddard on Ragtime hit a mark and took the penalty handing Lymington sailor Steve Avery 4th place in Let Rip.

Race 2 in more breeze went to the Downers from Mead and Elliot in 3rd with Geoff Gibbons, only out for the weekend, in 4th this time.

Race 3 and a pattern was starting to form. Mead led from Elliot but the Downers got a nice 20 degree left shift as the fleet beat up Southampton Water to lead and they went on to win again from Mead and Elliot which gave them the overall lead as well. Rob Goddard took 4th this time and the fleet was starting to see a replacement for the Team Bailey/Bailey/Heritage juggernaut take shape.

This looked even more ominous when Race 4 went to the Downer family as well. The only bad course of the week was a complete walk in the park for them as they led off the start line and with no passing lanes they had an easy sail round to win. Mead got caught badly off the start line and trailed around a long way back while Wilfred Wagner and his crew took a good 4th to lift them up the standings. With 3 bullets in a row the Mark, Jo and George Downer were starting to grab the series by the scruff of the neck and the other pretenders for the top slot knew they had to stop the winning streak or see themselves sailed out of the regatta before mid-week. This was the only bad course in the week which was sailed in pretty strong winds throughout and with some great broad reaching legs that made a nice change from the windward-leeward courses most one-designs sail these days.

Race 5 started to have an important look about it for the regatta and this became a classic race with the top 3 circulating together and sharing all of the top places throughout the race. No one boat could get a lock on the top slot and they traded places all the way around the race course. Downer had looked exposed on the first run to the East but a heading breeze saw him sail over the boats to leeward, that were in turn saved by a big gust which saw them roar into the leeward mark with spray shooting off the shrouds. Up the beats Mead dropped back twice only to grind the leaders back down on the runs and as they rounded the last leeward mark Mead sheeted on and almost rolled Elliot to lead but couldn’t quite get over the team on “Esprit”, while the Downers rounded behind and outside Mead. As they went to tack away Mead made a quick decision that whatever happened the team on “Moonlight” couldn’t be allowed to win again so he tacked off and covered them all the way up the last beat such that Elliot won by 500 metres but Mead succeeded in pushing the Downers into 3rd to keep the series alive.

Thursday dawned with a very windy forecast for race 6 and the Downers didn’t make the start line but with 2 discards allowed during the week that didn’t make a huge difference for the overall results, except that Mead got his campaign back on track with a win from Elliot with Rob Goddard filling the podium and Nick Stagg in his chartered boat getting a fabulous 4th in a very tough race despite rolling it in on one of the runs! While it wasn’t easy to break into the top 3 everybody else had a look at the top places and Nick, sailing in his first regatta with a tiller, showed he was getting to grips with the class quickly! This race was all about keeping it upright and made for a cracking sail round the Solent.

So the fleet was down to the last 2 races and the top 3 were separated by only 2 points. Downer still led after discarding his DNS by a point from Mead who was one ahead of Elliot and what a race it proved to be. A beat from the RYS start line up to Beaulieu in 8 to 12 knot NW breeze with the first of the ebb tide saw all the fleet nip and tuck as they sought out the best shifts and the best tide up the left hand (island) side of the beat. Downer was the first onto port looking to strike out for the mainland but he looked light and Mead and Elliot had the better tide on the island side when Downer met the very last of the incoming flood tide in mid channel. In an intriguing battle however, this reversed in the last 500 metres of the beat with Downer getting into the mainland shore ebb tide and sweeping round the bow of Mead and Elliot. Rob Goddard also got this tidal gain to be 2nd round as the top 4 set off against the tide with chutes up. Mead slowly but surely managed to get alongside and inside Downer while Elliot’s middleman, Solent legend David Bedford, had his boat virtually on the shore at exactly the right times to grind their way back into the fray.

The leaders all just scrapped the bottom at Lepe Spit but all got past it, just! Mead led round the next mark and shot off on the tide but by the last windward mark Downer had got by on a right hand shift upwind to lead and, while he and Mead set up for the long run down the island shore to the RYS finishing line against the tide, Elliot and Goddard struck out for the mainland shore to see if they could pull of a buffalo girls move right around the outside of the top 2. Mead harried Downer and by half way down the run had got level but was outside and didn’t have an easy passing lane. Downer got a puff to extend away again but on the dog-leg out to East Lepe, right slap bang in the middle of 3 knots of adverse current the top 2 were neck and neck again.

They both gybed round the big solid steel mark, missing it by inches as they gybed back towards the shore. In doing so Mead managed to get over the top of the Downer team and he finally led again. The battle wasn’t over however with the two boats literally side by side 8 inches from the wall at Egypt Point as they battled down the Green off Cowes in a classic Royal Yacht Squadron finish against the tide.

With the Daring fleet wrapped up in the melee it was all hands on deck with shouts for water, shouts of protest and the local Cowes Week Radio giving a running commentary through its promenade speakers. Who needs Xtreme 40’s?! In fact the Xtreme 40 VIP’s got a very close dose of the action when the leaders were squashed against the Xtreme dock searching for the closet bit of water to the land.

In the end Mead won it by a boat length having got a nice puff at the end and the day got worse for both the other top 3 players with Downer disqualified after a protest hearing and Elliot losing out by one second to the hard charging Goddard. Andrew Green on Pensive Temptress (GBR108) showed that his years of sailing on the Solent have been well spent by getting his trusty steed, the oldest Etchells sailing in Europe, into a great 4th place.

Although he had the series wrapped up Mead came out for the last race and once again the fleet had a belter of a race with a tough tactical choice needing to be made on the first run after the downwind start. Sail high and get the best angle and breeze or sail lower and get out of the first of the (again!) adverse ebb tide which was building on the shore. Half way down Downer led but Mead changed plan, dialled down hard and sailed pole back and in the end was able to come up round his bow to lead from start to finish.

Elliot sneaked past Downer for 2nd in the race up the 2nd beat but despite this tying their point’s score, Elliot lost the count back and saw Mark Downers team get 2nd overall with Goddard in 4th both in the last race and overall. Matt Kavanagh put the fleets loaner boat (available for anyone interested in a trail sail in the class -thanks to long standing member Ted Fort) in 6th at the end of the race, his best result in a very tough introduction to the class and his parting words were “We’ll be back!”. So ended a truly wonderful weeks sailing, great competition, great sailing and really demanding tactical conditions that made Cowes Week 2011 one of the best!

Talisker Keelboat Championship

This weekend is one of the Talisker series, anyone intending to sail please let me know so that we can inform the Race committee. A few young good crew are available to sail.

Reminder

The UK Etchells Nationals sailed from Cowes are on September 10-11 & 17-18 (both weekends, 2012 worlds qualifiers).

The Irish Nationals are on the 27th 28th in Howth near Dublin, and boats are available to charter from as little as €300 for the weekend, and Flybe still has cheep flights from Southampton.