Fluky wind conditions test fleet

A report from day one of the Red Funnel Easter Challenge

Three races were held on the second day of the Red Funnel Easter Challenge in shifty wind conditions with the fleet of 76 boats setting off for the first race of the day in 7-8 knots of breeze.

Jamie Wilkinson, Chief Race Officer for the RORC described the conditions: "The forecast last night led us to believe that there was going to be very little wind. This morning there was only about two to three knots so thought we would be lucky to get in three races. But, as we headed out on the committee boat, the wind was already blowing six knots although it did go flat and swung round. We finally sent them off in a decent breeze that held up across the Ryde Bank, so we ran a course down to the Island shore and back to the mainland before ending on the Ryde Bank."

The wind was not to hold though and went light half way through the race, but luckily there was enough with the tide across the course to enable the boats to make progress towards the next mark. Finally the wind did come in and the boats in IRC Super Zero and Zero finished the course, with the smaller boats finishing at the top mark so as not to stem the tide on the final leg.

By the time of the start of race three, there was enough depth to get the fleet up into the Hill Head Plateau on the far side of the Brambles Bank and the Race Committee took the decision to run the last two races of the day in this area of the Solent. By race four, the wind had increased to 12-14 knots but as Jamie Wilkinson added: "Looking at the forecast, the wind shifts were never as expected or anticipated making course laying extremely difficult today. We had a lot of shifting around trying to get the start line correct but we managed to get in the three races and I think this was probably pretty good because it was quite difficult, particularly in the morning."

There were a large number of general recalls with boats over the line at the start but most classes responded extremely well to the running commentary by the Chief Race Officer.

In IRC Super Zero and Zero, the competition is now hotting up with only one more day of the regatta to run. Last year's winners, the Farr 52, Bear of Britain owned by Kit Hobday & Tim Louis, and Shaun Frohlich's IMX 45, Exabyte III are battling it out. The Farr having raced well today with a second place in the first race of the day followed by first in race 3 and another second in the final race. They are currently leading their class overall after four races, 7 points ahead of Exabyte III, whose form was good today achieving two wins in race 2 and 4. Shaun Frohlich commented: "We had much better racing today. It was a very good but we could do with a bit more breeze really. We are racing again this year with the same crew and we are getting it together now. We have got a lot more optimisation to do on the boat so we are chuffed with our result today."

Crew member Stig, racing on board Adam Gosling's Beneteau First 44.7 Yes! who are placed 3rd overall in the same class, commented: "We only launched the boat on Thursday night, it's brand new so we want to do a little better tomorrow but we are testing out the boat during this regatta and moving things around."

In IRC 1 Edd Clayson & John Gimson's Mumm 30, I've Had Ya Mumm still held onto their series lead with 13 points, having come in 4th position in all three races today. Following the IMX 40, Exabyte 2 are two boats competing for 3rd and 4th positions overall with 23 points each - Nick Jones' First 40.7, Tarka, who won the first race of the day and Peter Morton's Sydney 36 Salvo. Both are closely followed by another First 40.7, Nick Lutte's Shockwave who achieved a good final race today with a third place win and are only two points behind.

No surprises for the winning boat in the largest fleet of the regatta, IRC 2, with Irish entry, Voodoo Chile, Eamon Crosbie's Ker 32 from Dun Laoghaire, Dublin taking three consecutive wins and a second in the first race of the day. Jonathan & Lisa Goring however have also held onto second place in the class with their J/109 Jeronimo. Two HOD35's follow, Peter Scholfield's Zarafa and 2003 class winners, Tim Harrington's Capitali$m, whose best race of the day was a second place in race 4.

In IRC 3, again Ian Maclean's Software Mistreess, the Sigma 362 had a successful day out on the water with three wins. Robert McLeod's Fulmar Sareema is two points behind in the series followed by Rory Carter and Jon Yorke's Elan 333 Evelyn R.

In IRM 1, Peter Morton & Adrian Stead's Atomic, a Europrix 45 took a first, second and a third today making them overall leaders in their class with 7 points, however Robbie Cameron Davies' I-Site beat them on the final race of the day and are four points behind. Glynn Williams Europrix Wolf also had a good day, winning the final two races and putting them into third position overall at the end of day two.

The position of the two boats in IRM 2 remains the same after racing today, with Simon Henning's Alice winning all three races closely followed by Bob Fisher's Zzing.

Also on the water checking out the runners and riders for the first major regatta of the season was David Aisher who is Chairman of the selectors for the GBR teams in the Rolex Commodores' Cup, taking place between 25 July and 1 August. Although trials consisting of two inshore weekends and an offshore race have been announced by the RYA, Aisher commented: "I was out today observing all the boats, many of which have been performing quite well in the regatta. I really wanted to see who was out there and what they were doing. I can see a few potentials already. "

Once ashore, the last of the debrief sessions by Jim Saltonstall and his team took place once again to a packed attentive audience. Saltonstall commented on the debriefs: "I think crews learn a tremendous amount in the three days that they are in the regatta and take away a lot of knowledge from the debrief sessions but they have now got to take that knowledge away from here and work on it. To a degree some have already put what they learnt in the briefing yesterday into practice, but it only needs the conditions to change and you are talking about a different scenario and a different
problem."

Following the debrief, a prizegiving ceremony took place with prizes which have become a trademark of the regatta, with a presentation of large amounts of Easter Eggs to winners of races over the last two days.

After a much needed drink, the exhausted crews exchanged tales of their day's racing and looked ahead to their final day out on the water on Easter Sunday, before enjoying a special BBQ laid on as part of the social programme in Cowes Yacht Haven.

More of Hamo Thorneycroft's photos on pages 2 and 3

Results

Pos	Boat	Type	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
	IRM1
1	Atomic	Europrix 45	Peter Morton & Adrian Stead	1	1	2	3	7
2	I-Site	Kerr 11.3	Robbie Cameron Davies	3	3	3	2	11
3	Wolf	Europrix 45	Glynn Williams	6	5	1	1	13
4	Rebel	Europrix 45	David Franks & Duncan Morris	8	4	4	6	22
5	2XL	Farr 40	David Murrin	12	2	5	5	24
6	Too Steamy	Farr 40	Nick & Anne Haigh	5	9	6	4	24
7	El Gringo	Ker 11.3	Nick Hartshorn	2	7	8	8	25
8	Audacious	Europrix 45	David Wadsworth	7	8	7	7	29
9	Blue Belle	Ker 11.3	Michael Cover	4	10	10	9	33
10	Skip Jack	Kerr 11.3	Fenton Bulgin / Alex Spring	12	6	9	10	37
	IRM2
1	Alice	Mumm 36	Simon Henning	1	1	1	1	4
2	Zzing	Mumm 36	Bob Fisher	2	2	2	2	8
	IRCSZ & Z
1	Bear of Britain	Farr 52	Kit Hobday & Tim Louis	1	2	1	2	6
2	Exabyte III	IMX 45	Shaun Frohlich	8	1	3	1	13
3	Yes	First 44.7	Adam Gosling	3	4	4	4	15
4	Minnie The Moocher	Ker 11.3	Anthony Richards	2	10	2	3	17
5	Minx	Corby 41	Andrew Ritchie & Alex Thomson	7	3	6	5	21
6	Kerisma	Ker 11.3	Stephen Bromley	6	6	5	6	23
7	Eclipse VII	Humphreys 12m	Doug Hassell	5	5	7	7	24
8	Hooligan V	Max Fun 35	Edward Broadway	4	7	9	9	29
9	Mad Max	Max 35	Andy Uren	10	8	8	8	34
	IRC1
1	I've had Ya Mumm	Mumm 30	Edd Clayson & John Gimson	1	4	4	4	13
2	Exabyte 2	IMX 40	Jerry Otter	5	6	1	8	20
3	Tarka	First 40.7	Nick Jones	12	1	3	7	23
4	Salvo	Sydney 36	Peter Morton	3	9	6	5	23
5	Shockwave	First 40.7	Nick Lutte	11	2	9	3	25
6	Kylidh	Prima 38	Guy Spurr	8	7	5	9	29
7	Maverick 2	IMX 40	Dominic Chappell	4	5	23	2	34
8	Longbow	Prima 38	Andersen/Smith ASA.	8	14	2	11	35
9	Magnum II	IMX 40	Andrew Pearce	23	3	7	6	39
10	Euphorix	First 40.7	Paul & Joanna Dentskevich	14	10	15	1	40
11	Fat Diva	Prima 38	Roger Lee	6	18	8	13	45
12	Mystery	First 40.7	407 Racing	10	8	13	14	45
13	Offbeat	Mumm 30	Ian Gill	2	11	17	16	46
14	Serendip	Prima 38	Paul King	13	13	12	10	48
15	Closing Time	Prima 38	David Riley	15	19	11	12	57
16	Meta Baron	IMX 40	Sean Hurst & Ivan Fawcett	18	15	10	17	60
17	Leopard	Reflex 38	Formula 1 Sailing	16	17	14	15	62
18	Panther	Mumm 36	James Stableford	9	20	18	20	67
19	Playing Around	First 40.7	Peter Robson	23	12	19	18	72
20	In X Celsis	X 119	Peter Jones	23	16	16	19	74
21	Unruly	First 40.7	Charles Bull	17	23	23	23	86
22	Mankie	IMX 40	Jack Pringle	23	23	23	23	92
	IRC2
1	Voodoo Chile	Ker 32	Eamon Crosbie	2	1	1	1	5
2	Jeronimo	J 109	Jonathan & Lisa Goring	1	5	2	4	12
3	Zarafa	HOD 35	Peter Scholfield	3	2	6	3	14
4	Capitali$m	HOD 35	Tim Harrington	9	4	4	2	19
5	Sanguma	Ker 31	Chris Walmsley	11	3	5	5	24
6	Kier Building with Flair	Elan 40	Spinnaker Yachts	6	7	9	11	33
7	Jumunu	J 109	Alistair Ray	4	13	13	7	37
8	X-To-Sea	X 332	Steve Maine	8	10	8	15	41
9	Panache	Elan 333	Spinnaker Yachts	7	9	18	9	43
10	Jo Jo Gunne	J 109	Richard Creer	10	8	12	14	44
11	Festina Lente	Sigma 38	Philip Meakins	15	11	10	12	48
12	Gauntlet of Tamar	Sigma 38	Royal Naval Sailing Association	16	15	3	16	50
13	Malice	HOD 35	Michael J Moxley	21	14	7	8	50
14	Hazard Chase	HOD 35	H20 Yachting	12	12	21	10	55
15	White Knight of Wessex	HOD 35	James Neville	28	6	15	6	55
16	Barking Mad	Swan 40	Stuart Greenfield	5	16	11	28	60
17	Slingshot	J 105	Shaun Murphy	13	22	17	13	65
18	Diablo - J	J 105	Gary Fry & Nick Martin	19	21	16	18	74
19	Beth of Fivestar	J 109	Five Star Sailing	20	17	23	17	77
20	Zebedee	Sunfast 37	Bill Howard	18	25	19	22	84
21	Dragonfly Too	X 332	Mike Ridley	24	27	14	20	85
22	Bellerophon of Wight	Sigma 38	Amanda Bradbeer	17	26	24	19	86
23	Parthia	Lightwave 395	Andrew Scurr	14	18	28	28	88
24	Mustigo II	Sigma 38	Stephen Scholefield	24	24	21	21	90
25	Brightwork	W 30	Brenie Bingham	24	19	25	24	92
26	Minx 2	First 36.7	Johnathan Gardiner	24	20	22	28	94
27	Scarlet Jester	SJ 320	Jamie Muir	24	23	28	23	98
	IRC3
1	Software Mistress	Sigma 362	Ian Maclean	3	1	1	1	6
2	Sareema	Fulmar	Robert McLeod	1	3	2	2	8
3	Drakes Drum	Corby 25	Terry Rowe	4	4	3	4	15
4	Evelyn R	Elan 333	Rory Carter & Jon Yorke	2	2	8	5	17
5	Leo Lady	Sigma 362	Graham Nixon	6	5	5	3	19
6	Curved Air	Impala	David Sprague, Gareth Morris & Rob Mason	5	6	4	6	21