Banks Sails : Banks > Reports and results

Tarka

NEW: 9.8
Tarka wins Cork Week overall fully powered by Banks Sails

In varying wind conditions, Nick and Glenn Jones's Beneteau First 40.7 triumphed at Cork Week, taking home the "Boat of the Week" award.

Winning Class 2 IRC with an impressive four first places and two seconds she also triumphed overall out of the entire fleet of 505 boats, a staggering achievement.

Tarka was fully powered by her Banks Carbon Checkmate Mainsail and headsails as well as her series 2000 spinnakers.

"We were certainly a little faster than the other 40.7s upwind...the sails are not oversize so we were the bottom-rated boat," commented Nick Colborne, helmsman for the week.

Banks have been in constant development with Tarka all season and have worked on the sail designs as well as optimising the yachts handicap down to the point where she's still very fast but the lowest rated of all the 40.7s in IRC. Hugh Myers has done a lot of work on the boat and from the rib in tuning sessions as well as Paul Worswick regularly racing with Team Tarka.

Well done to all the crew, Nick, Tim, Jenny, Peter, Jules, Biddy, James, Carina, Ant, Lucy, Cara, Glen and Nick.

5.8
Three out of three for Kalina

Roger Challinor competed in the Waller Harris two handed triangle race in the channel this weekend (3 July) with his wife as co-skipper.

On Saturday from Jersey to Binic (40+ miles) to windward in strong winds and rough seas, then to Lezardrieux (24 miles) under spi in winds from 5 to 22 knots, then back to Jersey (40 miles) under spi again in lighter breezes. A real all-round test of the boat and sails.

With Mrs Challinor driving in this triangle 99% of the time - her first serious series as skipper - Kalina won the first leg by over seven minutes on corrected, the second by five minutes and the third by just eight seconds!

Congratulations Rodney! Does this mean that Mrs Challinor will be driving more often now?

Optimumm in action during Aegean Sailing Week

5.8
Optimumm wins Aegean Sailing Week

Optimumm, the Banks-powered Farr 52 owned by Nick Lazos and Pericles Livas triumphed in the premier Greek regatta of the season (27/07/04).

After a frustrating first two legs with several breakages, Optimumm 3 - Wash and Go was lying in fourth place. Once the various failures were cleaned up the team, ably assisted by renowned yachtsman Jez Fanstone, moved up a gear for the final two offshore legs, winning both.

Banks have been doing lots of sail development and the old wardrobe is gradually being replaced with a full suite of Banks Checkmate Carbon and Series 2000 sails. The latest sails we are looking at are a code 3 asymmetric and a heavy jib to be ready in time for the Middle Sea race in October, perhaps the most prestigious Mediterranean offshore of the season.

NEW: 7.7
Banks Sails in the 2004 Magellan 3 Peaks Race
By Major A M Britton RTR

The Magellan 3 Peaks Yacht Race from Barmouth to Fort William is one of those truly classic events which everyone seems to have heard of. It is a true feat of seamanship, endurance and mountain running, that has been widely copied across the world.

This race is the original, real McCoy and genuine article; 389 miles of difficult coastal sailing, 30 miles of cycling, 72 miles of running and 17,000 feet of climbing, and was to prove an immense challenge to the five Majors drawn from the DTC MA/MSc courses at RMCS Shrivenham.

There is much to be said for the DTC MA course at RMCS. Hours and hours spent in the Lefroy lecture theatre are conducive to dreaming of new challenges and adventures away from the environs of not-so-sunny Swindon. As running and sailing are my two key sports, I thought it natural to combine them in one extreme event and fortunately persuaded Jason Hones RE, Dominic Rutherford STAFFORDS, Rob Thomson RE, and Jonathan Parrott RA to join me. We decided to enter the Tilman trophy, where 4 of the crew of 5 have to complete at least one mountain; generally the larger boats had 3 dedicated sailors and just 2 runners.

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Tarka

NEW: 19.6
Tarka wins Myth of Malham

After a disappointing weekend (judged by their season so far) at the inshore trials, Nick Jones and his crew on Tarka knew that the second weekend of qualifying, the RORC Myth of Malham race, was a make-or-break weekend.

Starting in variable breeze on the squadron line of 14 - 20 knots, Tarka was well behind the line, however, sailing in clean air, and on the line out of the Solent which tactician, Dave Lennard, wanted to be on.

A fetch from the Solent got broader past the Needles and it was a drag race to the first mark 20 miles south of Poole. Good attention to trim and steering, as well as committed hiking, helped Tarka to keep pace with the higher-rated IMX40s and J120s while keeping the other 40.7s firmly in the rear-view mirror.

Continued concentration throughout the 124-mile course saw Tarka finish shortly after 11 on Saturday morning, averaging just under eight knots for the whole race!

It was confirmed later on that Tarka had won the Myth of Malham overall by over three minutes - a great result for Nick and the crew especially considering that this was the first time that Tarka had been offshore since Nick has owned her and that one of the crew had never sailed at night before!

As far as qualification for the English team at the Commodore's Cup is now concerned, Tarka lie in second place, just one point behind the leaders Exabyte 2 and eight points clear of Maverick 2, another IMX40.

Attention is now turned to the next weekend, the third of the trials, and also the IRC nationals. Report to follow.

Rageur

11.6
1720 Southern Area Championships

This weekend, Mark Links and Christian Thompson, co-owners of Rageur, competed in the 1720 class Southern Area Championships hosted by the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club out of Cowes. Rageur has a full suit of Banks sails.

Joining the Solent fleet was King Quick, fresh from her Scottish Series victory the previous week, and Aquatack, skippered by the legendary Prof O Connel, a true veteran of the 1720 fleet.

Racing in very light and difficult conditions, place changing was common on the Saturday. In the first race, Rageur went from second to sixteenth to second in the same race!

Due to the conditions, only two races were held on Saturday, Rageur leading overnight with a second and first place to her name.

Similar conditions prevailed on Sunday, with a little more wind later in the afternoon. In the first race Rageur got the start wrong and never recovered, finishing a disappointing ninth. The second race of the day was better with the boys placing a fourth.

Overall Rageur were third, beaten only by Aquatack and King Quick, which left her as the top boat from the south coast. Well done to Christian, Mark, Aaron, Sam, Woogie and Jess - the crew for the championships.

Rageur are racing again this weekend in the Royal Southern Regatta out of Cowes. The next major event will be Cork Week as the boys are sitting out the UK championships due to other commitments.

Tarka's Medium Genoa

10.6
Commodore's Cup selection trials - first weekend

Paul Worswick of Banks joined Nick Jones and his crew of Tarka for the first of three weekends of trials for a chance to represent England in the Commodore's Cup in July.

This weekend was a series of windward leeward races and one longer round the cans inshore last thing on Sunday.

The wind on Saturday was light and fickle, but the race committee (Royal Thames) got the boats off at the appointed time (10am). This caught out a lot of the competitors and unfortunately Tarka was one of them. Crossing the line three minutes after the gun she never recovered and placed a lowly 14th out of the 20 boats racing.

The first race seemed to set the tone and the next two on Saturday were equally poor, and by the end of the day Tarka was propping up the bottom of the table.

Some very good debriefing followed that evening, not least from Jez Rowles, Tarka's tactician, and the crew were fired up to give it a another go on Sunday.

A great start called by Jez and the helm, Nick Colborne, on the Sunday morning and we were back in the hunt. In the first race we posted a second place - beating the likes of Bear of Britain - and we were climbing back up the table rapidly!

In the next two races Tarka was consistently in the top ten, with her overall place after Sunday up to 11th in the fleet of 20.

This weekend the RORC Myth of Malham race is a qualifier for the Commodore's Cup and Paul Worswick of Banks will be joining the Tarka team again - look for an update next week on this event.

Thirtysomething

9.6
Scottish Series report
29 May - 1 June

Paul Worswick was up in Scotland for this event joining John Hall and his crew on Thirtysomething, a Beneteau 31.7 fully powered by Banks sails.

Thirtysomething was entered in Class four for the regatta along with 5 other 31.7s, all of which were from Ireland.

The racing over the four days was very tough. On the first day the wind briefly edged over 10 knots but for the rest of the regatta it was very light and shifty. In fact on Tuesday all racing was cancelled due to there being no wind!

In the light airs all the Beneteaus suffered against the other boats in the class. The best 31.7 was Sosumi, managing only 11th overall in a fleet of 20 yachts. Thirtysomething ended up 15th, disappointed but still enjoying the series.

Paul did a lot of work with John on the rig set-up over the four days and the speed was definitely improving over the series.

On returning to Dublin, John and the crew raced in the Dublin Bay Thursday night race in 18 knots of breeze and blew the competition away, winning by over two minutes on corrected time! Definitely not a light airs design!

Tarka

9.6
Beneteau 40.7 Nationals
22/23 May

This weekend saw the inaugural 40.7 national championships held out of Gunwharf Keys in Portsmouth and hosted by the Royal Naval Club and the Royal Albert Club.

On Saturday, three windward/leeward races were scheduled. Early in the morning a brisk 20 knots was felt but this gradually eased throughout the day. Banks was represented by Paul Worswick on Tarka and Scott Kaczor on Genie.

Delivering Genie’s new Checkmate Carbon mainsail, number 1 and number 3 sails, Scott worked with the crew on the set-up and trim of the new sails.
Boat speed against the other 40.7s was good, however a few issues with wind shifts didn't help Genie's cause.

Andy Jackson, Genie's owner, has also been experiencing some problems with his yacht's high rating. Scott is working on bringing this down by reviewing the rig and sail sizes.

Still, the crew were happy to be beating Shockwave on the water on the first day - normally Shockwave are far ahead of Genie - even if on corrected they were behind.

The crew of Tarka seemed to be suffering from too much hype in the first race. A very poor start saw them ending up in fourth with Euphorix taking honours in race 1.

Race two was a different matter and Tarka "did a horizon job" on the fleet.

After that race it was all between Tarka and Euphorix, with Sunday ending up a match race between the two. It came down to the last race but on the first run - after leading at the windward mark - Tarka misjudged a gybe, dropped behind Euphorix and never recovered.

Congratulations to Euphorix for winning the event and well done to Tarka for their second place overall.

Rageur

20.5
Rageur up to pace

Christian Thompson and Mark Link's Rageur, the new name for the 1720 formerly known as IRL1723, was out competing in the Royal Southern's May Regatta at the weekend.

This was only the team's third weekend racing on their new boat and things certainly seemed to be slipping into place. In light airs on the Saturday they counted a first, second and a third. En route to their first place, Rageur beat the rest of the fleet by almost two minutes in a one-hour race!

Lying in second place overall after Saturday's results, Rageur placed third in the only race on Sunday (the second race having been cancelled), a tantalising 15 seconds from winning the regatta!

Mark, Christian and the rest of the crew were very happy with a second overall in the regatta.

"We were really happy with both height and boat speed in the light to medium range over the weekend and are now working towards maintaining it through the wind ranges," commented Christian. "Having the confidence in boat speed gave us so many more options".

Paul Worswick from Banks was sailing on the boat again this weekend and we are now working on our second-generation 1720 sails for Rageur.

20.5
Blue Belle sails to success in Manches Cup

Lawyer Michael Cover, owner of the Ker 11.3 Blue Belle, was at the helm for last weekend's legal regatta the Manches Cup. It was the first time that Michael had sailed the boat with her new Banks Code 2 and Code 3 Checkmate Carbon Jibs.

In light airs Blue Belle, crewed by Michael's colleagues and clients, sailed to a class win in Class 1 ahead of some 30 boats.

This is the first of three major legal regattas which Blue Belle will compete in this season and a win's a great way to start!

More reports on Blue Belle's progress to come throughout the season.

Thirtysomething in full livery!

29.4
Thirtysomething wins on first outing of season

John Hall's Dublin-based Beneteau First 31.7 lined up on Saturday for the first race of the Dublin Bay Saturday series. The forecast had been for around 12 knots but on the day breeze up to 27 knots was recorded!

John and his team had a good first race of the year taking first place in IRC2 by almost three minutes over the 1 1/2 hour race! Thirtysomething was sailing with her new Banks Checkmate Carbon Mainsail, John commented,

"Even when the breeze was down to the early teens and we only had the number three up, the new mainsail gave us plenty of power and the boat was still going very well."

Thirtysomething will be competing in the Dublin Bay club events this season and will also be travelling to Tarbert for the Scottish series at the end of May where Paul Worswick from Banks will be joining the crew for this four-day regatta. Watch for a report on the yacht's progress in the series in early June.

27.4
Xploiter in the Nab Tower Race

On Saturday in light and difficult conditions, Steve Blake's X332 Xploiter competed in the JOG (Junior Offshore Group) race round the Nab Tower.

Due to the weather it proved a long race, Xploiter finishing in just over eight hours, with more than half the fleet retiring during the race. Xploiter, however, came third on corrected time in IRC4 out of a class of thirty boats.

Afterwards Steve commented on how happy he was with his 2004 Banks Checkmate Carbon Mainsail and Light number one genoa which were his weapons of choice for the day.

Xploiter will be doing the full JOG series in addition to Cork Week this year. Check here for more updates on their progress.

The winning crew from Tarka

NEW: 27.4
Tarka wins Spring Series with four first places out of four!

Sunday saw the last race of the Raymarine Spring Series run by Warsash Sailing club. Tarka needed a fourth place or better to clinch the series as she was still carrying a DNF (did not finish) from a previous race of 27 points.

In what is becoming typical fashion for Nick Jones and his crew, Tarka led from the start eventually winning by almost two minutes from the second-placed boat on corrected time.

"There was a clear straight line speed difference between us and the other 40.7s," Nick commented after the racing. Tarka were using her 2004 Banks Carbon Checkmate Main, Light number 1 Genoa and Series 2000 0.5oz Spinnaker.

Next up for Tarka is the 40.7 nationals in May. This inaugural event is being run from Gunwharf Keys in Portsmouth. Banks will be represented by Paul Worswick and Scott Kaczor. Paul will be sailing on Tarka and Scott is sailing on Andrew Jackson's Genie, who have ordered two new Banks Checkmate Carbon headsails which will be delivered in time for the event.

NEW: 27.4
1720s - Second Day of Warsash Spring Championships

On Saturday Paul Worswick of Banks joined IRL1723 (the name is still to be decided!) for the crew's second weekend of racing on the new boat.

The conditions were a complete contrast to the previous Saturday (when it had been blowing 25+ knots at times) as the wind never made it to double figures!

From the ten boats racing, IRL1723 counted a fifth, sixth and eighth from the first three races. In the last race, tactician and co-owner Mark Links made an excellent call up the first beat (half the fleet went left, half right - we went right) and the day was finished with a third place. Sure signs of improvement in this very close, competitive fleet.

The first-generation sails were right on the pace upwind, however there is always room for improvement and over the next month the design team at Banks will be producing the second generation of white sails for IRL1723.

Off the breeze is the priority and work has already started on the Masthead spinnaker. The crew felt the boat was slow downwind and Paul is feeding lots of data back into the design team to assist in producing a faster second-generation sail.

22.4
Banks Sails in Falmouth

The Beneteau 31.7 Minx has just taken delivery of a carbon medium/heavy #1 genoa and carbon mainsail. The sails' first outing was the Flushing SC pursuit race on 17th April with Banks Sails' Scott Kaczor onboard.

Unfortunately due to the wind being a very gusty 18 to 24 knot south-westerly, the new genoa could not be used. The course was a 100-minute round the cans in the Carrick Roads. Minx was the last to start.

By 90 minutes, only one J24 and a Contessa 26 remained in front. The race finished in this order. Charles Choak who only bought Minx this season was a very happy man with his new sails—"Great sails and superb service".

Pictured (left) is Banks' sails in action on John Halls successful Dublin-based 31.7.

Banks' Paul Worswick will be on board Thirtysomething for the Scottish series along with a new carbon mainsail and carbon medium/heavy #1.

Report to follow in early June.

Tarka (First 40.7) out on her own again!

21.4
Tarka takes two more wins in Spring Series

Tarka, Nick Jones' First 40.7 (left), continued her recent good form scoring a win in both of IRC2's races in the Warsash Spring Series. She won the first race on Corrected by over two minutes and the second by almost three minutes in a good field of over twenty yachts.

Interestingly enough, as IRC2 sailed the same course as IRC1, on Corrected Tarka would have beaten all of the IRC1 boats as well!

All eyes will be on next week's final race to see who wins the series overall. Tarka is currently lying in seventh overall, though as she is carrying a 29th from an OCS in the first race (along with three first places), the prize will be hers providing she finishes fourth or above next week.

Good luck to Nick and all the crew on Sunday.

Tarka was sailing with her 2004 Banks Checkmate Carbon sail inventory along with her 2004 series 2000 Banks Spinnaker.

NEW: 21.4
1720 campaign - first day's racing report

Banks Sails along with Paul Worswick were onboard the imaginatively titled IRL1723 (left; the new owners have yet to think of a suitable name!) for the first Saturday of the Warsash Spring Championships. None of the five crew have ever raced a 1720 before and we knew it was going to be tough.

This was proved in the first race coming tenth out of the twelve competitors; the second race was a little better with a seventh; and in the third race the crew finished fifth. The planned fourth race was binned due to increasing winds, and after one rig and one boom were lost from the fleet in the afternoon nobody argued when the boats all headed back into Hamble!

A very positive first outing—the straight line speed was well on the pace but just getting round the corners proved difficult with the inexperienced crew. We dropped the kite in the water three times on Saturday, eventually ripping it in the last race. However, the progress was obvious and morale was high by the end on Saturday - well done Christian, Mark, Katie and Andy.

IRL1723 will be out racing again next weekend in the Warsash series and campaigning all the major events this season. Once we have some more data on the sails we will be developing a new set later in the year.

Kalina (Buchanan 40)

20.4
Kalina wins first race:
Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club Commodores Cup 2004

On Good Friday, Rodney Challinor and his crew on Kalina, a Buchanan 40 (left), won the IRC Class for the first passage race of the season.

With her full Banks inventory she won on a corrected time of 5.35.49 - more than three minutes ahead of her closest rival.

Exabyte 2 (IMX40) in action

15.4
Red Funnel Easter Challenge 2004

A very light, shifty frustrating weekend for all racers as the wind varied between nothing and topped out at 12 knots on the Saturday afternoon.

Banks sails were well represented in Class 1 IRC with both Tarka (Beneteau 40.7) and Exabyte 2 (IMX40) in this very competitive fleet. Both boats sailing with Banks Checkmate Carbon sails.

The conditions favoured the lightweight Mumm 30 "Media Networks international - she won with two firsts, 3 fourths and a sixth in the no-discard event (20 points).

Snapping at her heels in second place was Tarka counting 2 firsts herself and finishing on 28 points, at one stage in the final race on Sunday she was actually in front of the Bear of Britain (Farr 52) who'd had a ten-minute start! There were 5 other 40.7's in class, but the nearest was 13.5 points adrift. Well done to Nick and all those racing on Tarka.

Exabyte 2 had a storming regatta counting a first in one race and came third overall behind Tarka. A great result for Jerry and the crew in their first season on the boat. They were racing with the successful 2003 sails but showing how well they've lasted after a hard season in 2003. The next IMX 40 (there were 4 racing) was 15 points behind Exabyte.

7.4
Saponetta wins on first outing of new season.

Saturday 27 March saw the first Junior Offshore Group (JOG) race on the Solent. In very challenging conditions, Luca Rubinelli's Saponetta came out on top in Class 4 to record a win in their first race of the season.

Afterwards Luca commented on how nice the Mainsail set, despite being supplied by Banks back in June 1999!

Mr Jones Snr. collecting Tarka's champagne for first place from Fiona Pankhurst of Raymarine

3.4
Tarka wins first time out with new Banks sails

After two frustrating weeks of high winds and no racing in the Hamble River
Winter series, racing finally got under way on Sunday. There were two scheduled races for IRC2 and Tarka - Beneteau First 40.7 - was sporting her new checkmate carbon main, light number 1 and 0.5oz runner - all new over the winter.

In the first race Tarka was first over the water by 2 1/2 minutes from Euphorix the next 40.7. Unfortunately she was adjudged OCS (as were 9 others in the class!). In the second race no such problems and Tarka scored a convincing win beating Euphorix by over a minute on the water and on handicap. We look forward to more impressive victories for Nick Jones and the crew of Tarka.

Elsewhere in IRC1 Exabyte scored two top ten finishes, impressive at it is the new crew's first race. Well done to Jerry and his crew.

Read the archives for 2003