HRH The Princess Royal beats her husband

Britannia Cup day at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

After a gentle start, today was another one of shifty southerly and southwesterly winds that reached 15 knots at times in the afternoon. The day started with a minute’s silence, while HMS Mersey sailed past the Royal Yacht Squadron with a gun salute in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1.

Today the big yachts in IRC Class 0 were racing for one of the regatta’s most prestigious trophies, the Britannia Cup, presented by King George Vl in 1951. Today his granddaughter, HRH The Princess Royal was competing for the Cup, racing against her husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence on the two identical Farr 65 yachts entered by UKSA, the official event charity.

At the start, the fleet was crowded towards the pin end of the line, with Richard Rankin’s 12-Metre Italia leading the fleet and shutting out the de Graaf family’s Ker 40 Baraka GP at the inner distance mark. At the same time, Andy Budgen’s VO70 Monster Project was already accelerating through the fleet, having made a long timed run in to the start. Of the two UKSA yachts, Albatross ll, with the Princess Royal on board, was well up in the pack at the start, with her husband on Whirlwind ll a few lengths astern and a little to windward.

Irvine Laidlaw’s Reichel Pugh 52 Cape Fling ll was first across the finish line, almost 15 minutes ahead of Michael Bartholomew’s GP42 Tokoloshe ll. However, Laidlaw was unable to save his time against the smaller boat and Tokoloshe ll won the coveted trophy by 12 seconds on corrected time. Piet Vroon’s Ker 46 Tonnere de Breskens 3 was fourth across the line, behind Monster Project, but took third on corrected time.

In the match race that naturally developed between the two UKSA boats, Albatross ll extended her lead around the 24-mile course, with HRH The Princess Royal on the helm as she crossed the finish line. After the finish, UKSA young ambassador Brendan Kearley, 26, who was on board said: “Princess Royal helmed us to victory so it was a good day. I spoke with the Princess, mainly talking about sailing – her experiences of sailing and mine. As a young ambassador for UKSA, I have got more qualifications through UKSA in a couple of years than I did through school.”

Richard Thornton, UKSA Chief Executive, said afterwards: “We had a fabulous day, quite competitive while racing and Her Royal Highness helmed us across the finish and brought the boat in. We were absolutely delighted to welcome the Princess Royal on board, and she was pleased to be back here at the end of the day waiting for her husband.”

The start of IRC Class 5 saw Libby and David Greenhalgh’s J/92 J’Ronimo take pole position at the windward end of the line, after neatly manoeuvring past the inner limit mark, positioned a few lengths behind the line. While most boats continued under white sails after the start J’Ronimo opted to hoist a big asymmetric spinnaker. However, the hoist was not as neat as their pre-start manoeuvring and, by the time they were ready to sheet the sail in, Jamie Muir’s SJ320 Scarlett Jester was overtaking to leeward, followed by Ed Holton’s J/110 Shades of Blue.

Once J’Ronimo got her kite set in the 12-14 knots of breeze a few minutes after the start, Bert Janssen’s Belgian Oyster SJ41 Prince de Petarcq was also looking well placed, just a few lengths behind the leaders. However, it was another of the highest-rated boats in the class, Nick and Adam Munday’s J/97 Induljence, that led at the finish. She managed to save her time on another J/97, Chaz Ivill’s ETB Tyres Just Like That, to hold onto first place on corrected time. Ian Braham’s MG346 Haven KJ Enigma finished seven minutes later to take third on corrected time, by an 80-second margin over J’Ronimo.

The Sigma 33 start saw Stuart Whitmore’s Sixes and Sevens with a lead of a couple of lengths ahead of the fleet at the inner limit mark at the gun. David Rolfe’s Shadowfax was again ahead at the finish, maintaining his clean sweep of first places this week. However, the fight for second place couldn’t be closer, with five boats separated by just four points at the start of the day. A second place in today’s race for Toby Gorman’s Stan the Boat left him with 17 points overall, while third place today for Allan Fraser’s Prospero saw him retain second overall with 15 points. Jeff Worboys’ Workout and Sixes and Sevens are just one point adrift, with 18 points overall.

While in earlier starts, only one or two boats took advantage of the possibility of gaining an advantage by wriggling windward of the inner limit mark, the ultra-competitive Quarter Ton fleet was not so timid. Paul Robert’s Bad Toad manoeuvred ahead of a tight pack of boats to lead away at the start. While many boats hoisted spinnakers, Bad Toad remained under main and jib, with the chasing pack of Tony Hayward’s Black Fun, Mark Yeabsley’s Illegal Immigrant, and Catrina Southworth and Lincoln Reading’s Whiskers all closing the gap in lulls, but falling back in gusts.

However, it was Hayward that led the fleet across the finish, just 10 seconds ahead of Peter Morton’s Bullit. It was a tight margin, but one that enabled Hayward to claim the race win by just one second ahead of Morty. Places seven, eight and nine were similarly close, with the three boats just 20 seconds apart, while only two seconds separated Bad Toad in 11th place from Simon Smith, Nick Young and Robert Stewart’s Enigma in 12th.

In the 42-strong Sunsail Match F40 class, the fleet was tightly packed in the pre-start but generally conservative in their approach to the line. Deloitte Blue was first away, with a three-length advantage at the gun, followed by Deloitte Green, Simply and CVH Racing, with this chasing pack initially tending to hold up to weather of the direct line to the first mark. Simply, Deloitte Blue and CVH Racing remained among the leaders at the end of the 18-mile race.

However, Chaotic was first across the line, taking her first win of the event, 45 seconds ahead of First Sailing. Aberdeen Sunsail 1 was third today, finishing 40 seconds after First Sailing. Today the Finance Challenge also took place within the fleet, which saw Aberdeen Sunsail 1 take first place ahead of Deloitte Blue and Red Funnel 1.

The first four days of the regatta were host to the inaugural J/111 Euro Cup, with two races per day for the 13-strong fleet. In a high-scoring series, two third places today for Cornel Riklin’s Jitterbug saw him retain first place overall with 26 points, while a first and second for Stewart Hawthorn’s Plan J comfortably secured him second overall. A disappointing sixth and seventh place today for Tony Mack’s McFly saw him retain third overall, just one point ahead of James Arnell’s Jeeze Louise.

White Group

White Group dayboats headed east from their start on the Royal Yacht Squadron line, with a strengthening flood tide tending to sweep boats over the line. Most of the early classes had individual recalls, although the fourth start, for the Dragon class, was subject to a general recall.

The fleet got away cleanly on their restart, under a black flag, with the boats then enjoying some of the closest racing of the week, with a number of protests and disqualifications and the entire fleet finishing within seven minutes. The top three boats – Martin ‘Stavros’ Payne’s Full Speed, Gavia Wilkinson Cox’s Jerboa and Graham and Julia Bailey’s Aimee – finished just 14 seconds apart. Further down the pack, a further four mid fleet boats finished in only 32 seconds.

The Redwing class has also been enjoying close racing this week, with only one point between the top two boats – Bruce Huber’s Quail and John Raymond and Matt Alexander’s Harlequin – at the start of today’s race, and Colin and Becky Samuelson’s Toucan just points adrift in third place. Quail made the best start today, ahead of George Greenwood’s Rosetta and Rupert MacInnes and Jessica Speare-Cole’s Avocet, with both overtaking Quail to windward a few minutes after the start.

However the top boats in this fleet have a reputation for superior speed that allows them to pull ahead of any boats ahead. Today was no exception – in a tight finish that saw the top three boats cross the line only 75 seconds apart, Quail was ahead, with Toucan second and Harlequin third.

The Mermaid class made a conservative approach to its start, with the pack well back from the line at the start, giving Andrew, Jo and Alex Neill’s Cynthia an initial lead of three lengths on John Turner and Mike Randall’s Rosemary and Fred Few Brown’s young crew on Zara. At the finish it was Charles Tiley’s Halluf that crossed the line first to take a second successive win. Cynthia was second, 16 seconds ahead of Guy Mattinson and Jeremy Pocock’s Mimosa.

Over the first four days of the regatta two of the White Group classes – J/70s and SB20s – have been competing in a mini series with two races scheduled for each day. At the start of today Wouter Kollmann’s Plaj was leading the J/70 fleet overall, counting just seven points. However, there was a four-way battle for second place, with Ian Wilson’s Wilson Covers and Simon Ling’s RAF Benevolent Fund both on 12 points, Diaro Levi’s Fremito D’Arja on 13 and Jack Davies’ Jugador on 14.

A second and third for Kollman in today’s two races saw him retain the lead, while a first and second place for Ling today saw him take second overall. Wilson took third overall, just two points behind and with a cushion of four points on Davies.

In the 34-strong SB20 fleet, which was racing in the UK leg of its Grand Slam series, Jerry Hill’s Sportsboatworld.com started the final day at the top of the leaderboard, just one point ahead of Rob Gullan’s F5 Synthesis, with Steve McLean and Matt Waite’s Sponge Bob six points adrift in third overall.

Two further first places for Hill today saw him secure the overall Grand Slam title by a four point margin on Gullan, while McLean and Waite retained third overall, despite a strong challenge from Nigel Grogan’s Hyde Sails, which took second in the first race of the day.

“Today was another long hard day,” said Hill. “When we started the first race, we were only a point ahead of F5 Synthesis, so we had plenty on. But they had an OCS in their scoreline and we hadn’t used a discard so we were in quite a strong position. In the first race Rob got the first shift and I was going to tack underneath him, but saw [the 100ft] Leopard in the distance in a massive right-hander. We sailed over to the shift, with the breeze going 30 or 40° right, the rest of the race effectively became a reach, so we got into the lead at exactly the right time.

“It’s been great to see the Oman boats here, as well as visitors from Holland, Belgium, Germany and a few charter boats – they’ve all had a great time.” Hill added. “This is about as hard as it gets, when you add in the tidal navigational – it’s a big challenge for people just starting out, but they all enjoyed it and this event should go from strength to strength.”

Tomorrow promises to be the windiest day so far at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, with gusts potentially reaching 24 knots behind a weather front that will cross the Solent area in the morning.

More photos from Chris Ison