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English Commodore's Cup Team Trials
RORC Morgan Cup Race, June 18th
Cowes - DZ (B) - North Head - Poole Wreck - Nab Tower - Warner
For the second week of the Trials, the
participants joined the RORC fleet for the RORC Morgan Cup.
The race took place around a set course of 112 miles and as
it turned out we had an excellent mix of beating, reaching and
running.
At the 11am start off the Squadron line the fleet was split
on whether or not to set a spinnaker. Aboard Quokka we hoisted
our Series 2000 Asymmetric but soon realised that a Genoa would
be a better choice and set the Medium No.1. On passing the Shingles
Bank the fleet set shy spinnakers. We again opted for our Asymmetric
and began to gain on many of the larger boats ahead who were
struggling to hold their symmetrical sails. With the tide underneath
us we were making rapid progress towards DZ (B) and we peeled
to the 3/4oz AP as the wind freed us further.
With such a strong tide, a tidy rounding of the mark was imperative
so we dropped the kite early and gained on the larger boats
who had rounded a couple of minutes ahead. We could see one
of the other contenders for the Small Boat slot in the team,
Fair Do's, only a few minutes ahead and this gave us something
to aim at. The fleet headed for the shore in the light breeze
and began to short tack up the Dorset coast.
Fair Do's pulled well ahead as battled it out with a bunch of
larger boats including Prima 38s, a J120 and a 40.7. As we approached
the beginning of Poole Bay, the breeze died further and staying
offshore allowed us to catch Fair Do's and gain over the rest
of the fleet. It was then a long starboard tack fetch to North
Head and we rounded a couple of minutes behind the First 40.7,
Sir Jasper. We set off on the run to Poole Wreck under our Series
2000 1/2 oz runner. After about 30 minutes we spotted our sister-ship,
Shakermaker 2, still beating towards North Head - apparently
they had been very late for the start!
As we approached Poole, darkness fell, the breeze died but we
managed to slowly coax the boat along, overtaking both Fair
Do's and Sir Jasper, but we could see the boats astern catching
up rapidly as we sat in a big hole! The last couple of miles
took an eternity and we were very pleased to slip round and
head offshore to catch the last of the favourable tide towards
St Catherine's Point while the boats around us struggled to
reach the mark.
The night was spent beating in light airs and we managed to
catch up a First 47.7 which raised spirits aboard. After that
we couldn't see any navigation lights and we continued alone
towards St Cats, tacking on the shifts as we aimed to head inshore
out of the tide which had now turned against us. At daybreak
we spotted Shakermaker 2 around 15 minutes astern. As the two
IRM 9 meters and the French X-382, Lance L'Eau, tacked inshore
we gained a couple more minutes and with only around 20 miles
to go until the finish we were pleased to be leading the Small
Boat trialists.
We were tacking under Medium No.1 in about 12 knots true just
off St Catherine's Point when disaster struck. A loud bang signified
a forestay failure. We quickly clipped spare halyards to the
bow to hold the rig up as we assessed the damage. The fitting
at the mast had failed and to say that beating with no headstay
tension was slow would be an understatement! Shakermaker 2 went
by as we dropped the genoa and forestay to effect repairs. We
eventually hoisted the forestay on a spinnaker halyard as we
headed towards the Nab. As we rounded, Shakermaker 2 was three
minutes ahead and although we pulled back a minute on the short
run she piped us by just less than a minute on corrected.
Results for the trials were as follows:
1st 2XL
2nd Shakermaker 2
3rd Quokka
4th Fair Do's
5th Yeoman
6th Born Slippy
- - - STOP PRESS! - - -
20 June: News has just broken that both Shakermaker 2 and Yeoman
have been withdrawn from the results for the Morgan Cup race
for not having a valid IRM certificate.
The amended results are as follows:
1st: 2XL
2nd: Quokka
3rd: Fair Do's
4th: Born Slippy
The Trials conclude next weekend with the IRM Nationals in the
Solent.
Hugh Myers,
Banks Sails, aboard Quokka (shown above during testing on her
Series 2000 Asymmetric, 11.6.00)
Back to Reports
and results
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