RORC De Guingand Bowl Race - Preview

Noel Racine's JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew © Rick Tomlinson

The Royal Ocean Racing Club's Season's Points Championship continues this weekend with the De Guingand Bowl Race, the fifth offshore race of the annual RORC offshore championship. The current entry list will see two well known teams returning from the Caribbean to join the RORC season, together with yachts already challenging for the championship and class honours.

The reigning RORC Season's Points Champion, Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens 3, will be returning to RORC racing later in the season as the Ker 46 is currently being shipped back from a highly successful Caribbean season. Nevertheless the regular Tonnerre crew, including Piet's son Carlo, will be racing this weekend on the Dutch Lutra 56, Formidable 3, a class winner of the 2006 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.

"Tonnerre will be back!" smiled Carlo Vroon. "But in the meantime, we want to keep the team racing and we sailed Formidable from Breskens to Hamble last weekend to get her ready for the De Guingand Bowl Race. Formidable hasn't raced since 2008 but she is in good order and all of the crew are looking forward to getting back together again."

Competition will be hot in IRC One as Jens Kuehne's German RP48, Sjambok, returns for its first RORC race since the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race, and will face the Danish crewed Oyster 625, Lady Mariposa, which is making its RORC debut. Alongside them, hoping to repeat their success in winning the class at last month's Myth of Malham Race, RORC Commodore Mike Greville will be racing his Ker 39, Erivale III. Meanwhile the current series leader for IRC One, Steven Anderson's Corby 40, Cracklin' Rosie will be aiming to extend their lead over the class.

Vincent Willemart and Eric Van Campenhout's MC34, Azawakh, will be racing in IRC Two. The Belgian team currently lead the RORC Season's Points Championship overall and the yacht, when sailed by Géry Trentesaux, won the 2013 De Guingand Bowl Race. Ross Applebey's Oyster 48, Scarlet Oyster, was second in last year's race but is another yacht still on its way back from the Caribbean although Ross will nevertheless still be racing this weekend. "We have chartered a First 40, Rocketdog 2, for the De Guingand Bowl Race," confirmed Ross. "This will be the first time that the Scarlet Oyster team for the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race will have sailed as a unit and we expect to have a close battle with the two other First 40s racing. Obviously Azawakh is the boat to beat and she is extremely well sailed, however there are some conditions that should favour us and we will be going out to win our class, as we always do."

The current class leader for IRC Three will be racing this weekend; Louis-Marie Dussere's French JPK 10.10, Raging Bee, also leads the Two- Handed Class. The 2012 RORC Yacht of the Year, Nick Martin's J/105, Diablo-J, is also racing two-handed and will be keen to close the gap on the French leader. Three well sailed British J/109s, Kevin Armstrong's Jazzy Jellyfish, Christopher Palmer's J-T'Aime and David Richards' Jumping Jellyfish, should have a great battle within the class and, with a good result in the De Guingand Bowl Race, all have the potential to climb the scoreboard in the RORC Season's Points Championship.

Two RORC racing veterans are set for a great battle in IRC Four. Harry Heijst's Dutch S&S 41, Winsome, leads the class in the RORC Season's Points Championship by just one point from Noel Racine's French JPK 10.10, Foggy Dew, which is the defending class champion from last year. The two yachts exemplify the huge variety of yachts racing with the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Designed to last 24-36 hours, the De Guingand Bowl Race starts and finishes in The Solent and is a flexi-course allowing the Royal Ocean Racing Club to design a bespoke course.

"Without the constraint of finishing the race in a totally different location, we concentrate on the weather and tidal conditions to decide the course," explains RORC Racing Manager, Nick Elliott. "We try to get all of the fleet to finish the first beat in the same tidal vector, so as to avoid a tidal gate early in the race and that is often why we start the slower yachts first. After that, wherever possible, we try to set turning marks that give tactical options to yachts during the race although trying to predict exact wind speed and direction can be difficult. The race should last over 24 hours but the breeze looks to be going light on Sunday and we will probably factor that into the length of the course."

Start: June 7 @ 10:00, Cowes
Flexi-Course starting and finishing in The Solent

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