Yachts & Yachting – August 2019

infringement in race 3, Lallekonig

was only one point behind McFly

at the top of the leaderboard for the

nal day. Competition down the eet

was equally strong, with Chris Jones’

Journeymaker ll on 14 points, and

both Jan Van Berne’s Red Herring and

Cornel Fiklin’s Jitterbug tied on 15.

e rst four boats – McFly,

Journeymaker ll, Jitterbug and Lallekonig

• were only 12 seconds apart at the nish
  of the penultimate race in the series.
  A second win for McFly sealed her
  overall victory, ahead of Lallekonig,
  while the three-way ght for third overall
  was resolved in favour of Journeymaker
  ll, thanks to another second place.

PERFORMANCE 40

is 11-strong eet went into the nal

day with Christopher Daniel’s J/122e

Juno leading the class, counting four

points from three races, just one point

ahead of Michael Blair’s King 40 Cobra.

Another King 40, Roger Bowden’s

Niy, had also shown good promise

earlier, but was disqualied from race

three in the protest room following

a start line collision with Cobra.

e opening race of the nal day

was close, with the rst and last boats

on the water separated by only two

minutes. Niy made gains in stronger

favourable tide on the right hand side

of the course, arriving at the top mark

with Ian Schenkel’s Ker 39 Rumbleurg,

Juno followed just behind, as did one

of the lowest rated boats in the eet,

Andrew McIrvines’ Fast 40 La Reponse.

Juno was rst across the line, saving

her time on La Reponse by 14 seconds.

Another First 40, Richard Patrick’s Dusty

P, took third on corrected time, just 12

seconds behind La Reponse. Juno took

another decisive victory in the nal race

to win overall, a decisive 10 points ahead

of Cobra. Niy and Dusty P tied on 17

points, with the former taking third

overall thanks to victory in race four.

FAST 40+

is eet again provided amazingly

tight racing – four boats entered the

nal day battling for second overall

and separated by two points. Michael

Bartholomew’s Tokoloshe led this group

on 12 points, ahead of Steve Cowie’s

Zephyr and Peter Morton’s Girls on Film,

who were tied on 13 points, while Niall

Dowling’s Arabella held h overall on

14 points. However, Niklas Zennstrom’s

Ran had a comfortable overall lead,

counting only four rst places.

So the three short races on the nal

day were closely fought. Girls on Film

and Tokoloshe started early, while Ed

Fishwick’s Redshi bailed out early

before the gun, gybing onto port.

Redshi then held out alone on the right

hand side of the course, before leading

into the windward mark on the port

layline, tacking a length ahead of Ran.

ey were followed by Zephyr, which

had a small lead on Fillip Englebert’s

FEATURE VICE-ADMIRAL’S CUP

Elvis and Tokoloshe, with all three

overlapped on the short spreader leg.

Ran led again at the nish, while Zephyr

had slipped back to h. Redshi

took second in this race, six seconds

ahead of Girls on Film in third place.

In the next two races Ran scored a

rst and third, nishing the series with

a commanding overall lead of nine

points. A second and fourth for Girls

on Film was just enough for Morton

to secure second overall, half a point

ahead of Tokoloshe’s nal score of 22.5.

“We had big tides and big windshis

today, which made for tight layline

calls,” said Ran navigator Tom Needham

aerwards. “It’s great that the race

committee was able to get so many

races o in tricky conditions and we’ve

been really happy to see all the boats

on the water, including new teams,

for the rst Fast40+ event this year.”

While many of the competitors at

the Vice Admiral’s Cup have a focus

on inshore campaigns, it’s also clear

that eligible oshore yachts have a lot

to gain from this type of competition.

e practice inherent in so many

starts during a weekend, along with

lots of mark roundings and close

boat-on-boat racing, all stand a crew

in good stead on a longer race.

e event also provides a great

opportunity for crews to put some of

the lessons learned in the RORC Easter

regatta into practice. It deserves to be

at least as well supported next year.

Below left

J111 McFly won

the class

Below right

The Fast 40+

rivals Ran, Zephyr

and Arabella

68 Yachts & Yachting August 2019 yachtsandyachting.co.uk