SORC Offshore Series Races 7 & 8: Cherbourg and back

SORC Cherbough and Back Races winner © Nigel Colley

Light airs did not detract from very close competition in the final two Offshore Series races, from the Solent to Cherbourg and back, with some close results and a maiden SORC win for Richard Clark on his Sun Fast 3200 "Fury".

We went in to the final two races with the series results wide open and all to go for. In the event it went to the final miles of the final race.

Simon Mitchell on Roxanne sums the weekend up....

Tide was a big factor yet again in this season's characteristic light winds.

The outward leg breeze was better than forecast and almost looked like holding until it dropped at dawn just a few miles from Cherbourg. As the sun came up tricky navigation choices in near-zero wind conditions defined the results. Well done to Richard on Fury for taking his first SORC win, and for Donald Macdonald on winning Class 2 in Rainmaker.

Nice relaxing day in Cherbourg and a very pleasant evening and dinner.

Unlucky for the class 2 boats that had the tidal door close on them on the return race and fair play to Paul on Oi Oi for sticking it out into the early hours, hasn't he got a home to go to?

I was working hard to keep the space between Fastrak and Roxanne down to a minimum, which left no time for Sunday afternoon napping, and finished just 1 minute & 5 seconds apart on corrected time...

Jerry got the routing bang on and nailed it home with a convincing win! Nikki Curwen on Voador caught up fast towards the end but could not quite get ahead of Roxanne or Fastrak.

A great finale to a great 2018 Offshore Series.

Now all 8 Offshore Series races are concluded and 3 discards applied, it is interesting to see just how close the results have been in this hotly contested series. In Class 1 Fastrak and Azora tied on points, with Fastrak winning the tie on count back. However, Azora gets her own back in the Overall results by finishing 2nd, beating Fastrak into 3rd place, but again equals the winner Oi Oi on points and loses on the the count back again! Maeva wins Class 2 beating Oi Oi and British Beagke into 2nd and 3rd place respectively, but finishes the overall results in 6th, behind Oi Oi and British Beagle! Fastrak, winner of Class 1, only finishes 3rd in the overall results. In the overalls only 2 points separate the top four boats.

Overall Results: