The view back to the rest of the fleet from Fandango during Race 2 at the RORC Easter Challenge Fandango wins RORC Red Funnel Easter Challenge 65 boats participated in this year's Easter Challenge held in the Solent over April 29th-31st. The largest class by far was IRC 1 which had a 26-boat fleet that included many production boats such as First 40.7s, Prima 38s, Reflex 38s, Hod 35s and various Swans as well as some one-offs. Following on from a win in Race 2 at the Warsash Spring Series the crew of Fandango were looking forward to an intensive three-day regatta and the opportunity to work on fine tuning crew work and boat speed. Race 1 started at 2pm on Good Friday with a light east-southesterly breeze at around 10-12 knots on a short windward leeward course. Fandango showed good speed all round the course and took the gun for first across the line and scored second place on corrected behind the consistently well-sailed J39 Jackdaw. Race 2 and things got even better. Once again Fandango flew her Checkmate Carbon No.1 Genoa and this time managed to stay ahead of the Class 0 boats Assuage and Hero who were sharing the same course and start line. A downwind finish saw Fandango extending her lead with her Series 2000 1/2oz Runner to be first in Class across the line, nearly a minute and a half clear of the Prima 38 Serendip who was second on the water. Fandango corrected out just under two minutes ahead of second placed Triple A With Flair. Race 3 was started at 10am on Saturday but with the strong tide and lack of breeze many boats failed to finish in the time limit. After a poor start Fandango crept back up the fleet to score a 5th place on handicap therefore keeping up a strong challenge for 1st overall. By the start of Race 4 the breeze had built to around 10 knots and with a weather going tide IRC 0 and IRC 1 had a general recall followed by a black flag start. After a few tense minutes as the breeze faded at the last leeward mark Fandango finished second on the water to the Prima 38 Closing Time and took first on corrected from the Hod 35 Capitali$m. Going into the last day Fandango now had a lead of 6.5 points over second-placed Capitali$m and with no discards allowed sailing conservatively was going to be the order of the day. For Race 5 there was more breeze than the previous races, with a 15 knot south-westerly. Aboard Fandango we could have done with some more crew weight but still managed a 5th. This left us leading with only one race to go. Race 6 and by now the breeze was up to a solid 20 knots with gusts to over 25. Off the start Fandango showed excellent height and speed with her Checkmate Kevlar No.3 set and arrived at the windward mark in a good position. A problem with the spinnaker sheet caused a broach on the run which cost a bit of time but a good recovery had Fandango scoring a 4th place which was enough to take the regatta. Powered exclusively by Banks Sails Fandango showed great consistency across varying conditions in a highly competitive fleet to score 2,1,5,1,5,4. The final results for IRC 1 were: 1st: Fandango (First 40.7) 18 points 2nd: Capitali$m (Hod 35) 25.5 points 3rd: Fastwave 2 (First 40.7) 27 points 4th: Serendip (Prima 38) 42 points 5th: Walk On By (Reflex 38) 55 points To find out what Banks Sails can do for you contact me at the loft. Roger Cerrato, Banks Sails Back to Fandango minisite homepage