In the bag for Bear

Final report and overall results from the MeesPierson Yachting IRC Championship Trophy PLUS full results

Bear of Britain were announced overall winners today of the MeesPierson Yachting IRC Championship Trophy, consolidating her lead in the series with 12 points after competing in eight races over the three day regatta. Racing consistently well in the Championship, Jonathan and Lisa Goring’s J/109 Jeronimo were also awarded the Jackdaw Trophy at the overall prizegiving ceremony held after racing today in Cowes Yacht Haven.

It was another exciting and challenging day out on the water with racing taking place in the Western Solent when predicted winds of around 250deg along with heavy showers came true. The first race of the day got underway in a strong easterly tide with a 10 knot breeze and a number of moveable marks were laid to get the racing off to a good start. With about 25-30deg of port end bias, the boats were tempted down to the far end of the line and were evenly distributed.

However, around midday a vicious squall came through bringing rain and winds gusting to over 30 knots, causing some problems out on the race course. By the last race of the day, the tide had turned and several more squalls came through causing Panther, the Mumm 36 in IRC1 to lose her mast on the last downwind leg of the course. She broached into Passion who carried her forestay away as they parted. She was assisted by the Venturers Rescue Service and another boat went to help recover the mast. A medical emergency also occurred on board Leo Lady in IRC3 after an crew member suffered an eye injury caused by a shackle and they were aided by the Hamble Lifeboat.

In the first race for IRC0 Yes! was over the line at the start but rapidly dipped back and did not suffer a penalty with Flag ‘P’ flying. The remainder of the class got away without incident and I-Site managed a first place ahead of Bear of Britain and El Gringo after a good race, however the wind was then beginning to swing right causing some bias on the line.

Racing in IRC1, Magnum started close to the ODM taking a fourth place in the race although the majority of boats in the same class favoured the committee boat end despite their being a 15deg bias on the line to encourage boats out into the tide. Tundra led their class in this race closely followed by Tarka, Exabyte 2 and Magnum II.

The smaller boats in the fleet in IRC2 and IRC3 bunched up at the committee boat end of the line to keep out of the fast running tide and most boats short tacked up the mainland shore to keep out of the tide. Jeronimo led the fleet in IRC2 followed by Voodoo Chile and Civils with Flair but and it was Software Mistress who had a good start in IRC3 taking a third position. However, Whooper continued to consolidate her lead and stay ahead of Exile.

A thunder storm and heavy squalls in the last half of the race with heavy rain and winds up to 31 knots caused a number of boats to experience difficulty in the challenging conditions.

For the last race in the Championship, the tide had turned and the first boats set off in a gentle leeward going tide. In IRC0 El Gringo seemed late to the line but went on to take a good start as they hoisted their genoa while crossing the start line although only managed a 9th position with Minx taking the lead followed by Bear, I-Site and Exabyte III.

The squall came through for IRC1 and there were two boats over the line - Salvo and Shockwave. However, they both make a rapid return to the start and incurred a 20% penalty. Exabyte 2 finished in first place with close racing between Bare Knuckles, Tundra and Magnum II.

In IRC2 there was a general recall due to the majority of the fleet misjudging the fast turning tide and thus going over the line at the start. A ‘Z’ flag was flown giving a 20% penalty and all but four boats were penalised. The class re-started again at the end of the sequence and a Black flag was hoisted giving a clear start. Quokka led their class in this race with Capitali$m in second place and a third for Voodoo Chile followed by Jeronimo.

With the wind still swinging both ways, it was decided to move the line for the remainder of the classes and IRC3 completed the final race in extremely squally conditions finishing in 25 knots of wind which was enough to cause several incident and boats to struggle with their spinnakers. White Mischief took a lead in the final race over Great Scot II and Whooper in third place but it was Whooper, Giovanni Belgrano’s Laurent Giles design who took first place in class at the end of the Championship, with White Mischief in second and Exile third overall.

After a great regatta and three days of highly competitive racing for all the fleet, the RYA selectors for the GBR team for the forthcoming Rolex Commodores’ Cup had seen the hopeful teams perform in a variety of conditions which should help make their final decision in the next few days.It was also a good opportunity for the Irish team to compete against their potential GBR competitors.

IRC SZ an Z:

	Boat		Owner	Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8
1	Bear of Britain	Farr52	Kit Hobday / Tim Louis	12	3	1	1	1	16	2	2	2
2	Flying Glove	Ker 39	Colm Barrington	25	4	2	3	2	7	1	7	6
3	El Gringo	Ker 11.3	Nick Hartshorn	33	1	4	7	6	20	3	3	9
4	I-Site	Ker 11.3	Robbie Cameron-Davies	35	6	6	6	4	16	9	1	3
5	Flirt	Corby 50	Richard Matthews	41	7	3	2	8	14	4	9	8
6	Yes!	First 44.7	Adam Gosling	41	2	5	5	5	8	5	13	11
7	Minx	Corby 41	Andrew Ritchie & Alex Thomson	46	5	10	9	10	10	1	14	1
8	Exabyte III	IMX 45	Shaun Frohlich	46	8	8	4	3	11	21	8	4
9	Swantastic	Swan 45	Grant Gordon/Klaus Diederichs	58.5	14	13	8	7	4.5	6	6	16
10	Minnie The Moocher	Ker 11.3	Anthony Richards	63	9	9	12	9	6	13	20	5
11	Erivale	DK 46	Mike Greville	65.5	13	7	11	11.5	17.5	7	4	12
12	Highlife	Ker 11.3	Peter John Rogers	69	10	12	10	13	10	10	10	7
13	Too Steamy	Farr 40	Nick & Anne Haigh	80.5	20	15	15	15	4.5	16	5	10
14	Eclipse VII	Humphreys 12m	Doug Hassell	82.5	20	16	13	11.5	7	8	12	15
15	El Syd	Sydney 41	Ian McKinney	93	16	17	18	17	1	11	20	13
16	Skip Jack	Kerr 11.3	Fenton Burgin	97	15	18	17	14	9	14	11	17
17	Kerisma	Ker 11.3	Stephen Bromley	103	11	11	14	20	19	18	16	14
18	Blue Belle	Ker 11.3	Michael Cover	109	12	14	20	16	20	12	15	20
19	Disco Inferno 2	First 47.7	Matt Abbiss	125.5	20	19	16	18	17.5	15	20	20

IRC 1:

	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8
1	Bare Knuckles	Prima 38	Robert Gateshill	21	4	1	4	8	4	1	5	2
2	Magnum II	IMX 40	Andrew Pearce	21	1	2	2	5	3	6	4	4
3	Exabyte 2	IMX 40	Jerry Otter	22	2	4	5	1	6	9	3	1
4	Tundra	Seaquest 36	Sharp & McCormac	23	7	5	6	2	2	4	1	3
5	Salvo	Sydney 36	Peter Morton	33	6	3	3	6	1	5	9	9
6	Tarka	First 40.7	Nick Jones	38	3	18	17	3	5	3	2	5
7	Euphorix	First 40.7	Paul & Joanna Dentskevich	45	5	8	8	11	7	2	8	7
8	Maverick 2	IMX 40	Dominic Chappell	51	13	6	1	7	8	10	7	12
9	White Knuckles	Prima 38	Mervyn Hughes	69	11	7	7	9	11	7	17	17
10	Leopard	Reflex 38	Formula 1 Sailing	72	10	12	9	10	12	11	14	8
11	Shockwave	First 40.7	Nick Lutte	73	17	17	17	4	9	8	6	12
12	Freckles	J 120	Mike & Ann Riley	73	9	9	10	12	13	12	11	10
13	Charley J	J 120	Charles Ivill	82	12	11	12	14	10	13	13	11
14	Closing Time	Prima 38	David Riley	92	15	10	11	13	14	17	12	17
15	Panther	Mumm 36	James Stableford	98	14	13	17	15	15	14	10	17
16	Anticipation	First 40.7	Peter Newlands	110	8	17	17	17	17	17	17	17

IRC 2:

	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8
1	Jeronimo	J 109	Jonathan & Lisa Goring	16	3	4	2	3	1	2	1	7
2	Voodoo Chile	Ker 32	Eamon Crosbie	22	2	3	5	2	2	6	2	6
3	Quokka	Elan 37	Peter Rutter	24	1	2	7	6	4	1	8	3
4	Capitali$m	HOD 35	Tim Harrington	30.5	8	7	1	1	5.5	7	5	4
5	Civils with Flair	Elan 37	Jim Macgregor	32	5	5	3	4	7	5	3	13
6	Glide-X	X 332	I M Dawson	38	4	8	4	5	3	8	6	24
7	Passion	Elan 40	Paul Jones	40.5	7	1	6	9	5.5	3	9	24
8	Reckless Rat	X 332	Tom Peters	57	6	6	8	13	8	4	12	24
9	Carpetbagger	HOD 35	Michael Ronson	66.5	9	24	9	7	15	9.5	7	10
10	Deuce	Elan 40	Martin Gee	79	13	12	14	24	11	14	4	11
11	Malice	HOD 35	Michael J Moxley	80	12	9	12	8	13	25	10	16
12	Gauntlet of Tamar	Sigma 38	Royal Naval Sailing Association	86	14	11	16	19	9	13	11	12
13	Barking Mad	Swan 40	Stuart Greenfield	87.5	11	10	11	17	18	9.5	14	15
14	Sanguma	Ker 31	Chris Walmsley	90	10	16	10	12	20	15	15	12
15	Eximius	X 412	Paul Fuller	106	15	14	13	10	19	11	24	24
16	Scarlett O'Hara	Sun Fast 37	David and Michael Rider	110	17	24	15	20	16	12	16	14
17	Jumunu	J 109	Alistair Ray	114	16	13	19	14	17	20	17	18
18	Timberland One Life	SunFast 37	Jeremy Baker	116	18	15	17	16	14	18	18	24
19	Doris J of Fivestar	J 109	Five Star Sailing	127	24	24	24	11	12	19	13	24
20	High Tension	J 109	H20 Yachting	131	24	24	18	15	10	16	24	24
21	Scarlet Jester	SJ 320	Jamie Muir	141	19	17	20	21	21	24	19	24
22	Steady Barker	Bavaria 38	Michael Brough	153	24	24	24	18	22	17	24	24
23	Zebedee	Sunfast 37	Bill Howard	165	24	24	24	22	23	24	24	24

IRC 3:

	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7
1	Whooper	One off	Giovanni Belgrano	11	3	2	2	2	1	1	3
2	White Mischief	Hanse 291	Andy Hind & Mark Harris	16	1	1	4	5	4	5	1
3	Exile	X 312	Nicolas de la Fourniere	16	2	3	1	3	5	2	6
4	Software Mistress	Sigma 362	Ian Maclean	26	4	9	3	1	8	3	7
5	Sareema	Fulmar	Robert McLeod	29	6	4	6	7	3	6	4
6	Great Scot II	Adams 10	Eurof Phillips & Barbara Mackay	31	5	5	9	8	2	9	2
7	Tsunami	Bolero T/R	Roger Patrick Swinney	35	7	6	7	4	6	7	5
8	Leo Lady	Sigma 362	Graham Nixon	37	8	7	5	6	7	4	9