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Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup 21. - 28. Juli 2012
http://commodorescup.rorc.org/ - Übersicht
GBR Red Takes the Lead
Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup
21st -28th July 2012
Day 4: Wednesday 25 July, Cowes, Isle of Wight, Offshore Race Report (Race 4)
Teams competing in the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup raced close to the indexland
shoreline at Lee-on-Solent
Credit: RORC/Rick Tomlinson
The Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup fleet received an inadvertent visit from HM Queen
Elizabeth II this morning, her Diamond Jubilee Tour taking in Cowes Yacht Haven
where the 21 boats are based in this premier three boat team event for international
amateur crews.
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Foto: RORC/Rick Tomlinson
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This afternoon only one race was held, again along the Lee-on-Solent shoreline as
it was on the first day with the 6 - 9 knot southeasterly, enough for the boats
to race. The boats then had to head out into the tide to round the first mark and
spreader mark before heading back downwind. The course was shortened, when a southwesterly
sea breeze filled in after a brief transition just short of the finish line.
Winner of the day was the young British Keelboat Academy crew on former RORC Commodore
David Aisher's J/109 Yeoman of Wight competing in RYA Team GBR Black, whose time
corrected out to more than two minutes ahead of John van der Starre's J/111 Xcentric
Ripper in the Benelux team. However it was RYA Team GBR Red which put in the best
performance of the day slipping into first place on 151.5 points, although they
are just three points ahead of yesterday's leaders, France.
The British Keelboat Academy's Racing Manager and head Coach, Luke McCarthy praised
their helmsman Stevie Beckett and said he was pleased that their win today wasn't
a big boat/small boat issue, it had been one of tactics.
While the majority of the fleet went inshore two winners defied the majority and
headed out into the Solent. "We initially thought that on the right the tide wouldn't
have started to ebb quite so much," said McCarthy. "We also felt that if there was
going to be any sort of a shift it was going to go right and that is what made us
the gain upwind for sure, so we were well in among the 40ft middle of the fleet
boats."
They had also anticipated the southwesterly sea breeze filling in, the GBR teams
having discussed it this morning at their weather briefing. "During the boat briefing
on the way we said that we just wanted to have eyes up the Solent for boats coming
down from the western Solent with spinnakers. Half way down the run one of the guys
at the front of the boat saw a boat popping out past Cowes with a spinnaker- after
that we looked to push and be the first boat to make that transition and that was
another big gain at the end."
In addition to winning today, after four races Yeoman of Wight and her young crew
is the leading boat across all seven teams at the Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup,
having taken over from RYA Team GBR Red's small boat, CNBC, that had her worse day
of the regatta today.
"GBR Black was put together as a bit of a development team," observed McCarthy.
"We have got some young sailors from the British Keelboat Academy on board, very
much looking at this as being about getting experience of sailing at this level.
Other people on the Black team maybe haven't done the event before and are looking
at it with a longer term perspective." An additional benefit is that all three of
their boats have ended up being optimised for the light conditions. However the
Black team still has some ground to make up although in fourth place they are less
than 20 points from first.
Leading the boats around the course today was Andrew Pearce's Ker 40 Magnum III,
which also made early gains over her three international sisterships by heading
away from the coast more. One of Magnum III's two professional sailors is Andy
Beadsworth, former America's Cup helmsman and Olympian who is also the sole person
competing at this year's Brewin Dolphin Commodores' Cup from the winning Irish team
of 2010.
"We've led every race this regatta and haven't managed to end up at the finish leading,
but today we did," said a relieved Beadsworth. "Our strategies have been generally
good all week, our speed is generally okay, our preparation is generally okay and
you should never expect, but there was no reason why we shouldn't be doing as well
as we've been doing."
indextaining their lead on the water ahead of the other well sailed Ker 40s was made
no easier by them having to negotiate the transition, although the Magnum III crew
was anticipating it. "We were worrying about it because we could see this area of
light air and there were other boats in the vicinity which were on jibs at funny
angles, so there were hallmarks that it would change," said Beadsworth.
"And we could see the flags on the committee boat and they stayed southerly right
until we were 200-300m from the finish and then we hit the wall and the jib was
just going up when we hit it, so we transitioned very well."
Magnum III did well to finish third overall on corrected time, helping to ease GBR
White up the leaderboard to third place. "It is very difficult to expect a Ker 40
to do well overall in these lighter conditions against some of the boats that are
obviously stronger in these conditions," concluded Beadsworth.
After trailing the other Ker 40s up the beat, Jonathan Goring's Keronimo in GBR
Red, pulled back to second on the water behind Magnum III, finishing fourth on corrected.
Despite CNBC's lacklustre result today, and Dignity's 'best left forgotten' offshore
race yesterday when it took two tides to get them around one mark, it was Keronimo's
performance today that elevated the Red team into first place today.
Tomorrow there are two more inshore races are scheduled, due to start at 10:30.
ENDS/...
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