Glorious, Stormy Cowes Race Week

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Yet again, the Cowes Combined Clubs had another amazing, diverse week of sailing during their famous LENDY Cowes Week Regatta, sailed from July 29th to August 5th on the Solent- famous for crazy currents and often very shifty breezes.  Overall, J/Crews had a great time sailing in light airs to more than epic, “fresh to frightening” conditions all week.  Here is how it all went down for the intrepid J/sailors on the Solent.

Day 1- Shifty winds
The opening day of Lendy Cowes Week dawned with bright sunny spells and a westerly breeze of around 10-15 knots. However, a weather front that gave rain to most of southern England moved across the race area at lunchtime, depressing the wind strength. The result was intensely tactical racing with persistence, along with good – and occasionally brave – decisions needed to achieve top results.

By the time of the first start, for the 31-strong J/70 class, the breeze close inshore under the Royal Yacht Squadron had reduced to 10 knots. With a strong east-going stream running, the most aggressive starters held up as close to the line as possible before the gun. A pair of the Royal Thames YC’s boats started on port tack in the better tide close inshore and initially led the fleet away from the line, despite having less wind than the boats further offshore.

However, they soon fell into a wind hole and four minutes into the race crossed tacks a few lengths astern of a group of three boats – Ali Hall’s SCEPTRE, Vilija Velyvyte, Sophie Sheldon and Will Jackson’s AURORA, and Guy Stephen’s BABY J – as the fleet made their way towards their first mark. Hall took the winner’s gun in a tight race that saw the first three boats cross the line 16 seconds apart. Nick Phillip’s CHAOTIC took second place and Paul Childs’ F’in MAGIC 2 third.

The class’s second race of the day was over a windward/leeward course, starting from a committee boat stationed near Hill Head on the north shore of the Solent. This was won by a clear margin by Swiss entry Lorenz Mueller’s YCB Team ahead of John Greenland’s JUMBO and F’in MAGIC 2.

After the first two races in their eight-race mini series that’s taking place over the first four days of the regatta, YCB Team is leading the fleet with a score of five points.

“Although I have sailed at Cowes Week many times before, this is the first time in the J/70,” said Mueller. “We qualified within the Swiss sailing league to compete here and the team’s very happy with our performance. Today’s win was all about playing the shifts – I think we tacked on every shift, and it seemed to pay. We’re really enjoying our time here and are looking forward to the next two races tomorrow.”

Day 2- Wild, blustery, sunny!
Competitors enjoyed a bright and sunny day with challenging, but exhilarating, racing in a gusty west south-westerly wind in which the gusts topped 25 knots. Many of the larger Black Group yachts finishing on the Royal Yacht Squadron line experienced multiple broaches and spinnaker wraps, much to the delight of the throngs of spectators lining the shore.

The blustery conditions also took their toll of boats across the fleet, with most classes seeing multiple retirements, with reasons including rig damage, groundings and collisions.

Most of the White Group dayboats, starting on the Royal Yacht Squadron line, had to contend with a strong adverse tide. In the J/80 class Chris Body’s MOCKINGJAY and yesterday’s winner, Jon Powell’s BETTY, were closest to the line at the start, with Powell having the benefit of being in weaker tide close inshore. He quickly sealed this advantage with a neatly executed early tack onto port in a favorable wind shift, with Barney Dykes’ JANE following suit just behind.

For the first couple of minutes of their first half-mile long windward leg to Kingston Marine Services buoy these two boats looked as though they were extending away from the bulk of the fleet further offshore. However, JANE stayed on the offshore tack for too long, standing out into the stronger stream offshore and handing second place at this stage back to MOCKINGJAY. BETTY finished unusually far down the fleet, leaving MOCKINGJAY to take first place exactly five minutes ahead of Terence O’Neill’s AQUA J. Felix Trattner’s UKSA 3 took third place.

By the time of the IRC Class 1 start at 1030 the wind was already gusting above 20 knots at it wasn’t long before the gusts in the central Solent were topping 25 knots. The fleet was more spread out along the line than the earlier classes, with boats jockeying more for clear air than a specific end of the line. Marco van Driel’s Dutch J/111 SWEENY attempted to cross the fleet on port tack, but failed and had to tack under a group of second-row starters.

The preference in this fleet was for earlier tacks towards the north shore than the two faster classes that started earlier. It was not long before the fleet was short tacking in the shallow water to the east of Lepe Spit.

By the time of their finish, just before 1430, the wind had backed further into the southwest and moderated slightly, with the maximum gusts down to 22-23 knots. Nevertheless, the light displacement asymmetric yachts reveled in the conditions, planing at speeds well into double digits as they sped to the finish.

The top boats enjoyed a close, planing-mode finish, including Tony Mack’s J/111 McFLY that took third on corrected time.

Day 3- Sun, Wind, Perfection
The Solent magically delivered yet more racing in blazing sun and a perfect southwesterly breeze of 12-16 knots that gradually built to a peak of 20 knots by the end of the afternoon. It was a day of intensely close racing for many competitors, with numerous podium places decided by only a handful of seconds after more than three hours of racing.

It was also the Cowes Week “Charity Day”, supporting the Andrew Simpson Foundation. Inspired by Bart’s Bash, the annual international day of racing for which an overall winner is calculated

Day 4- Gorgeous, classic conditions
A ridge of high pressure over the English Channel brought more bright and sunny weather, with a classic southwesterly breeze, to day four.  The first start was for the big yachts in the Sevenstar Triple Crown fleet that are competing some of event’s biggest trophies, including the historic gold Queen’s Cup.

IRC Class 2 also had a clean start, with Nick Southward and John Scott’s J/122 Team WHISKEY JACK making a perfectly timed start, hitting the southern end of the Bramble line at speed.

IRC Class 3 also had a clean start. However, the pin end of the line was favored in terms of tide, as boats starting there would emerge more quickly into the strongest favorable tide. Chris Ivill’s new J/112E DAVANTI TYRES took 2nd place, losing by a margin of just four seconds!

This day also marked the end of the eight-race mini-series for the J/70 class that had been taking place for the first four days of the regatta. Subject to protest, Paul Childs’ F’in MAGIC 2 was winner of the J/70 series, on 16 points. Ali Hall’s SCEPTRE was second on 24 points, just ahead of Jack Davies’ YETI, on 24.5 points.

Day 5- Windy, blustery, epic day!
There was a lot of fast and furious action on the Solent, with winds hitting 25+ kts again. “On the way out to the start it looked like the Apocalypse was coming, and with a short course, there were a lot of corners coming up really fast,”

In IRC Class 5, Nick Munday’s J/97 INDULJENCE was sitting in 2nd place and was hoping to catch the leader. In turn, he had a 3.5 point cushion on another J/97, Bob and John Baker’s JAYWALKER in third overall.

As it turned out, Mike Sellers and Chris Miles’ J/97 JET got a third for the day. A closely fought match for fourth place saw four boats separated by only 50 seconds. They were led by another J/97, James and John Owen’s JET, while INDULJENCE suffered her worst result so far in sixth place.

Youth Day
Lendy Cowes Week actively supports and encourages the next generation of sailors, as do many of the classes that actively encourage, support and coach young sailors, including J/70s and J/80s. The fifth day also marked the regatta’s Youth Day, which highlights the success of the many young sailors at the event.

This year there are 29 teams in which the entire crew is under 25. In the rankings for the Under 25 trophy, last year’s winner, Jack Davies’ J/70 YETI took fourth place.

Day 6- Squally day
The Solent delivered big winds to the big boats at their start. A shower, with gusts close to 35 knots, blasted across the start area at the warning signal for the race, creating a bit of chaos, to say the least.

As a result, conditions were declared too severe for the other classes to race, so the day’s racing was canceled.

Day 7- Sunny shorts and shades!
Day Seven dawned sunny and bright and in 10-15 kt winds, the fleet enjoyed a classic gorgeous Solent day on the water.

Day 8- Squally Saturday
The final day dawned bright and sunny, with a west northwesterly breeze of 7-10 knots. All starts took place from the Royal Yacht Squadron’s inner line, with an accelerated starting sequence for the reduced number of entries in Black Group, which finished their points series yesterday.

The forecast included a low risk of the showers that were predicted further north on the mainland also affecting the race area. The cloud built over the mainland shore during the morning, as predicted, but by the time of the first start at 1215 hrs a powerful squall line could also be seen working its way up the western Solent.

The postponement signal went up at 1218 for the remaining three starts, with the starting area now pummeled with driving rain and gusts above 25 knots. Many of the dayboats preparing for their starts scurried back into the shelter of the River Medina, while one of the big Cowes Harbormaster’s RIBs was towing in a stricken cruising yacht.

With the rain blowing horizontally through the RYS starting platform, any race officials that could be spared scurried off to shelter, leaving a skeleton crew at the leeward end of the shelter. The lone figure of Cowes Radio’s Simon Vigar was left facing the onslaught, while valiantly continuing to broadcast from the weather end of the platform.

The sun was back 10 minutes later and the postponement signal came down at 1229. A stream of boats headed back to Cowes having retired, some with no visible damage, but others with headsails in tatters, plus a Redwing with a broken mast that was towed back by a RIB from the RYS.

The winner of the J/88 class was clearly David & Kirsty Apthorp’s J-DREAM, winning five of the six races sailed.  Taking second was Paul Ward’s EAT SLEEP J REPEAT and fourth was SABRIEL JR.

In the J/70 class, a win for Jack Davies’ YETI, by just one second over Robbie King’s THE JANITOR cemented Davies’ overall win for the week.  They finished ahead of Lorenz Mueller’s Swiss YCB-Team and Paul Childs’ F’in MAJIC 2.

Jon Powell’s BETTY finished the week on just six points in the J/80 class, winning the series three points ahead of Chris Body’s MOCKINGJAY. Terence O’Neill’s AQUA J was a further 10 points further back in third overall.

In IRC Class 1, Mack’s J/111 McFLY took third, followed by Martin Dent’s J/111 JELVIS in 5th.  That same finish order applied to the J/111 class- McFLY 1st, JELVIS 2nd and SWEENY third.

In IRC 3 Class, the J/112E DAVANTI TYRES ended up in 4th place in a closely fought series. In the IRC 5 Class, the two J/97’s finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, INDULJENCE & JAYWALKER.  Taking 5th was the Greenough family’s J/92 J’RONIMO and sixth place went to another J/97- HIGH JINKS.  For the J/97 Class, the placings were the same for 1-2-3.

The huge eighteen boat J/109 class saw a command performance by JACK RABBIT, scoring three 1sts and two 2nds on their way to an 11-point margin of victory.  After posting a 1-3 in the final two races, DIAMOND JEM took over second place.  Then, JUKEBOX continued to sail consistently to take third overall.  For more LENDY Cowes Week sailing information Add to Flipboard Magazine.