Prima 38 Nationals at Skandia Cowes Week & Rolex Fastnet

The Army Sailing Association's Longbow beat twelve other Prima One Designs to be convincing winner of the 2005 class championship, dominating the inshore leg of the event sailed within Skandia Cowes Week and coming second among the Primas racing in the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Longbow led for most of the first inshore race, only to be overtaken by Tom Hayhoe and Natalie Jobling's Mostly Harmless at the final mark. But Mostly Harmless fell foul of congestion on the tidally-favoured inshore track to the final mark allowing Longbow to win. Paul King's Serendip set the pace in the second race leading the fleet down the first beat past Lee on Solent, but Longbow recovered to take her second bullet. Don Kennedy kept his cool in very tricky light airs conditions in race three, steering Oz Privateer into the lead from the second mark despite the race turning inside out a couple of times, pushing Longbow into second place. The results in the fourth and fifth races were reproduced in the inshore leg overall results, with Longbow winning by a comfortable margin Kylidh, with Mostly Harmless third.

Top Prima 38 in the Fastnet was Rodney Emberson's Bounty Hunter, skippered by Roger Dunstan, winning IRC1 overall as well as the one design result. Demonstrating her intentions from the outset on the morning of Sunday 7th August, Bounty Hunter hit the Royal Squadron line on the gun at full pace with Mostly Harmless in hot pursuit. After a tricky reach down the Solent, Longbow and Oz Privateer joined Bounty Hunter to lead out into Christchurch Bay, while further back no less than three other Primas made contact with the Shingles Bank as windless conditions and spring tides made escape from the Solent especially hazardous.

Settled high pressure making for slow progress, the class had an eventful time, with Mostly Harmless retiring from gear failure, Born Slippy sailing blind after suffering engine problems and unable to recharge batteries and Oz Privateer's crew forming a five man sewing circle to replace a damaged mainsail. But the three leading boats remained in very close contact, with Mervyn Hughes' White Knuckles just under an hour ahead of Longbow at the Fastnet, with Bounty Hunter close behind. The gaps closed up during the sail back to Plymouth, with Longbow and White Knuckles only a hundred yards apart all the way to the Lizard, before the Fastnet Rock order was reversed with Bounty Hunter coming home just before midnight on Thursday, with Longbow and White Knuckles finishing and hour later only five minutes apart.

Overall Results: