Wind disappears

For final day of the Red Funnel Easter Challenge

Crews racing on Easter Sunday in the 13th Red Funnel Easter Challenge were once again faced with very little or no wind for the third and final day of the regatta. All classes in the fleet got underway on a windward mark off Ryde Bank for race 5 in the series, the first race of the day. With only a light north easterly 2-3 knot breeze, the race was shortened for some of the classes resulting in a handful of finishers in IRC1 and IRC2 and unfortunately abandonment for those racing in IRC 3.

Eventually the wind filled in from the south west and reached just over 7 knots so Jamie Wilkinson, the RORC's Chief Race Officer set a course for the last race of the regatta starting off a mark at Royal Southern and taking the fleet onto the Hill Head plateau once again to reduce the effect of the tide. As the fleet approached their windward marks on the Knoll, the conditions during the race went extremely light but the fleet managed to finish the course, although at one stage 2XL, Dave Murrin's Farr 40 and Bear of Britain kedged for just a short while. The Europrix 45 Wolf sailed up to the finish line well, although in IRM1 it was Atomic, another Europrix who rounded the windward mark first.

Some boats however performed extremely well in these light conditions. These included Bob Fisher's Mumm 36 Zzing and Doug Hassell's Humphreys 12m Eclipse VII, whose large headsail enabled them to keep going in the light airs, with other boats in the fleet still struggling as the wind died.

Kit Hobday and his crew on the Farr 52 Bear of Britain competing with the big boats in IRC Super Zero and Zero had a good start to the day, winning race five but developed problems in the final race. This allowed Minnie the Moocher, Anthony Richards' Ker 11.3 to take pole position in race six, closely followed by Eclipse VII in second place. However Bear of Britain went on to collect prizes at this afternoon's prizegiving as overall
winners in IRC Super Zero and Zero, holding onto their lead with 16 points in the series.

Shaun Frohlich's Exabyte III in the same class, continued to improve their form on the race course and took second place overall, followed by Minnie the Moocher in third.

In IRC1, Edd Clayson & John Gimson's Mumm 30 won race five today but were not so successful in the last race, with a seventh position in the fleet. By the time of the prizegiving, they also had a change of boat name to Media Networks International and proceeded to take first place overall in their class. Although closely followed in second place for race 5 by Dominic Chappell's IMX40 Maverick 2, Nick Jones' First 40.7 Tarka won the final race and took second place overall in IRC1, followed by Jerry Otter's IMX 40 Exabyte 2.

In IRC2, one boat performed consistently throughout the regatta, the Irish Ker 32 owned by Eamon Crosbie, Voodoo Chile. They retained their lead, winning the last five races and thus securing first place overall, giving them a 21 point series lead over the Jonathan & Lisa Goring's J/109 Jeronimo, who were second overall followed by Peter Scholfield's HOD 35 in third. Last year's winners for this class, Capitali$m raced by Tim Harrington also had a good last race, with a fourth place bringing them fourth position overall.

In IRC3, with only one race today, Ian Maclean's Software Mistress, the Sigma 362 was first overall, followed by Sareema, Robert McLeod's Fulmar and Terry Rowe's Corby 25, Drakes Drum who are based locally in Cowes.

In the IRM1 fleet, Peter Morton & Adrian Stead's Europrix 45 Atomic held the lead with an overall class win although racing was close with I-Site the Ker 11.3 who won the final race of the day but second place overall. In third overall, Glynn Williams Europrix 45 Wolf also had a good regatta with two first places in race 3 and 4 and a third on the final race of the day.

The two Mumm 36s racing in IRM2 saw a good performance from Bob Fisher's Zzing, winning both races today and with 10 series points, only two points behind the overall class winners, Simon Henning's Alice.

Once all the boats were safely back in Cowes Yacht Haven, the overall prizegiving ceremony for the regatta was held. After a successful three-day regatta, the crews of the winning boats from today's two races were presented with the customary Easter egg prizes. Overall winners in all classes were then awarded engraved decanters by the RORC and prizes from the regatta sponsors presented by Director of Red Funnel Group Ltd, Wiet Stokhuyzen, who commented: "We are delighted to be associated with this long-running regatta and support it as part of our on-going commitment to sailing. The regatta has been a great success and we hope it will provide an auspicious start to a new seasons racing."

The Red Funnel Easter Challenge Prix d'Elegance Trophy will be awarded to Adam Gosling's brand new First 44.7 Yes! at the RORC's Annual Dinner in London.

Complimentary drinks during the presentation were courtesy of Red Funnel Ferries and certainly encouraged a large number of competitors to attend the final ceremony before heading off back to their home port for the remainderof the Easter holiday.

Summing up the regatta this year, RORC's Racing Manager, Janet Grosvenor said: "The light conditions this Easter have made it extremely challenging for the Chief Race Officer to set courses over the past few days but we have managed to get in some good racing and once again the crews and boats have used this regatta as a shakedown for the busy RORC racing season ahead.

This particular regatta has been running now for 13 years and we have gradually seen the level and standard of racing within the fleet rise. Primarily a running regatta with a strong emphasis on fun, we now see more and more of the strong competitive edge of racing coming through. For this reason, this year we decided to provide an additional coach and Eddie Warden Owen was out on the water with Jim Saltonstall and Barry Dunning. The post race debrief analysis sessions once again proved extremely popular with competitors."

More photos on the following pages

Results

Pos	Boat	Type	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
	IRM1
1	Atomic	Europrix 45	Peter Morton & Adrian Stead	1	1	2	3	1	2	10
2	I-Site	Kerr 11.3	Robbie Cameron Davies	3	3	3	2	2	1	14
3	Wolf	Europrix 45	Glynn Williams	6	5	1	1	6	3	22
4	Rebel	Europrix 45	David Franks & Duncan Morris	8	4	4	6	5	7	34
5	2XL	Farr 40	David Murrin	12	2	5	5	4	8	36
6	Too Steamy	Farr 40	Nick & Anne Haigh	5	9	6	4	8	4	36
7	El Gringo	Ker 11.3	Nick Hartshorn	2	7	8	8	9	5	39
8	Audacious	Europrix 45	David Wadsworth	7	8	7	7	3	11	43
9	Blue Belle	Ker 11.3	Michael Cover	4	10	10	9	10	6	49
10	Skip Jack	Kerr 11.3	Fenton Bulgin / Alex Spring	12	6	9	10	7	9	53
	IRM2
1	Alice	Mumm 36	Simon Henning	1	1	1	1	2	2	8
2	Zzing	Mumm 36	Bob Fisher	2	2	2	2	1	1	10
	IRC SZ and Z
1	Bear of Britain	Farr 52	Kit Hobday & Tim Louis	1	2	1	2	1	9	16
2	Exabyte III	IMX 45	Shaun Frohlich	8	1	3	1	2	5	20
3	Minnie The Moocher	Ker 11.3	Anthony Richards	2	10	2	3	7	1	25
4	Yes	First 44.7	Adam Gosling	3	4	4	4	6	4	25
5	Minx	Corby 41	Andrew Ritchie & Alex Thomson	7	3	6	5	4	3	28
6	Eclipse VII	Humphreys 12m	Doug Hassell	5	5	7	7	5	2	31
7	Kerisma	Ker 11.3	Stephen Bromley	6	6	5	6	3	7	33
8	Hooligan V	Max Fun 35	Edward Broadway	4	7	9	9	9	6	44
9	Mad Max	Max 35	Andy Uren	10	8	8	8	8	8	50
	IRC1
1	Media Networks International	Mumm 30	Edd Clayson & John Gimson	1	4	4	4	1	6	20
2	Tarka	First 40.7	Nick Jones	12	1	3	7	4	1	28
3	Exabyte 2	IMX 40	Jerry Otter	5	6	1	8	6	10	36
4	Salvo	Sydney 36	Peter Morton	3	9	6	5	14	4	40.5
5	Shockwave	First 40.7	Nick Lutte	11	2	9	3	14	3	41.5
6	Longbow	Prima 38	Andersen/Smith ASA.	8	14	2	11	3	13	50.5
7	Maverick 2	IMX 40	Dominic Chappell	4	5	23	2	2	15	51
8	Magnum II	IMX 40	Andrew Pearce	23	3	7	6	14	2	54.5
9	Kylidh	Prima 38	Guy Spurr	8	7	5	9	5	24	57.5
10	Mystery	First 40.7	407 Racing	10	8	13	14	14	8	66.5
11	Offbeat	Mumm 30	Ian Gill	2	11	17	16	14	9	68.5
12	Euphorix	First 40.7	Paul & Joanna Dentskevich	14	10	15	1	23	12	75
13	Closing Time	Prima 38	David Riley	15	19	11	12	14	7	77.5
14	Fat Diva	Prima 38	Roger Lee	6	18	8	13	14	23	81.5
15	Meta Baron	IMX 40	Sean Hurst & Ivan Fawcett	18	15	10	17	14	14	87.5
16	Playing Around	First 40.7	Peter Robson	23	12	19	18	14	5	90.5
17	Leopard	Reflex 38	Formula 1 Sailing	16	17	14	15	14	16	91.5
18	Serendip	Prima 38	Paul King	13	13	12	10	23	23	94
19	Panther	Mumm 36	James Stableford	9	20	18	20	14	23	104
20	Unruly	First 40.7	Charles Bull	17	23	23	23	14	11	111
21	In X Celsis	X 119	Peter Jones	23	16	16	19	14	23	111
22	Mankie	IMX 40	Jack Pringle	23	23	23	23	14	23	129
	IRC2
1	Voodoo Chile	Ker 32	Eamon Crosbie	2	1	1	1	1	1	7
2	Jeronimo	J 109	Jonathan & Lisa Goring	1	5	2	4	14	2	28
3	Zarafa	HOD 35	Peter Scholfield	3	2	6	3	14	3	31
4	Capitali$m	HOD 35	Tim Harrington	9	4	4	2	14	4	37
5	Sanguma	Ker 31	Chris Walmsley	11	3	5	5	14	5	43
6	Kier Building with Flair	Elan 40	Spinnaker Yachts	6	7	9	11	14	15	62
7	Jumunu	J 109	Alistair Ray	4	13	13	7	14	13	64
8	X-To-Sea	X 332	Steve Maine	8	10	8	15	14	12	67
9	Panache	Elan 333	Spinnaker Yachts	7	9	18	9	14	11	68
10	Jo Jo Gunne	J 109	Richard Creer	10	8	12	14	14	10	68
11	Festina Lente	Sigma 38	Philip Meakins	15	11	10	12	14	8	70
12	White Knight of Wessex	HOD 35	James Neville	28	6	15	6	14	6	75
13	Hazard Chase	HOD 35	H20 Yachting	12	12	21	10	14	9	77.5
14	Malice	HOD 35	Michael J Moxley	21	14	7	8	14	17	80.5
15	Gauntlet of Tamar	Sigma 38	Royal Naval Sailing Association	16	15	3	16	14	20	84
16	Barking Mad	Swan 40	Stuart Greenfield	5	16	11	28	14	19	93
17	Slingshot	J 105	Shaun Murphy	13	22	17	13	14	14	93
18	Diablo - J	J 105	Gary Fry & Nick Martin	19	21	16	18	14	18	106
19	Beth of Fivestar	J 109	Five Star Sailing	20	17	23	17	14	28	119
20	Dragonfly Too	X 332	Mike Ridley	24	27	14	20	28	7	120
21	Bellerophon of Wight	Sigma 38	Amanda Bradbeer	17	26	24	19	14	21	121
22	Zebedee	Sunfast 37	Bill Howard	18	25	19	22	14	28	126
23	Scarlet Jester	SJ 320	Jamie Muir	24	23	28	23	14	17	129
24	Parthia	Lightwave 395	Andrew Scurr	14	18	28	28	14	28	130
25	Mustigo II	Sigma 38	Stephen Scholefield	24	24	21	21	14	28	132
26	Brightwork	W 30	Brenie Bingham	24	19	25	24	14	28	134
27	Minx 2	First 36.7	Johnathan Gardiner	24	20	22	28	14	28	136
	IRC3
1	Software Mistress	Sigma 362	Ian Maclean	3	1	1	1	2		8
2	Sareema	Fulmar	Robert McLeod	1	3	2	2	3		11
3	Drakes Drum	Corby 25	Terry Rowe	4	4	3	4	1		16
4	Leo Lady	Sigma 362	Graham Nixon	6	5	5	3	4		23
5	Evelyn R	Elan 333	Rory Carter & Jon Yorke	2	2	8	5	7		24
6	Curved Air	Impala	David Sprague, Gareth Morris & Rob Mason	5	6	4	6	7		28