Thanks to Suzanne and Alan for their report from the Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup. In their own words. Ed
After the royal visit on Wednesday and one short race the 21 boats in this year’s Commodores’ Cup sailed two races on Thursday.
With the leaderboard changing each day for the first three days of the regatta would these two races see GBR Red retain their top spot?
Weather conditions remained more Mediterranean than this British summer, but by moving the race area from the Solent to Hayling Bay there was hope for some wind.
This provided a generally more regular course, a 7-10 knot easterly that veered slowly right through the afternoon, and less tidal effect until the second race when a few boats got caught out being washed down on to the weather mark and were obliged to carry out penalty turns.
Up until these two races the Hong Kong team had performed disappointingly, but on Thursday they were able to turn this around with the combined results of their three boats – ‘Peninsula Signal 8’, ‘Team Ambush Quokka 8’ and ‘EFG Bank Mandrake’ – making them the top team of the day. However at the end of the day the top three positions were 1-GBR Red, 2-GBR White and 3- France.
Friday saw an early race start with a Round the Island Race for the teams to undertake with the scheduled course anti-clockwise around the Isle of Wight.
All 21 boats certainly saw some changeable weather conditions. For some boats it was the most wind their crews had seen all week with wind speeds up to 18 knots. However, two thirds of the fleet was becalmed on the final approach to the finish.
There was not much breeze at all for the sail to the Needles but once past this point the fleet divided into those which hugged the shore and those which ventured more out to sea.
Passing the Needles and heading down the southwest side of the island there was a significant split in the fleet. While the majority headed inshore, Magnum III and the French team’s ‘Beelzebuth 3′ remained offshore. Soon the boats inshore were trapped by lack of wind and Magnum III made massive gains offshore.
Approaching St Catherine’s Point, she was almost two miles ahead of the competition but later the offshore wind died down and the fleet came back into play.
Despite the changing conditions one team managed to put in a consistent performance with all three boats in GBR Red finishing in the top five. This left them in good shape going into final double points scoring for the inshore race on Saturday.
So, after eight competitive races over the week team GBR Red came out triumphant. This was the eleventh edition of the Biennial Commodores’ Cup and featured Brewin Dolphin as the title sponsor for the first time.
Executive Chairman of Brewin Dolphin Jamie Matheson is a keen sailor and has a boat based in Cowes and is therefore a regular visitor to the Island.
Having bought Edward Heath’s boat ‘ Morning Cloud’ he renamed it ‘Opposition’. Jamie is also a keen gardener and Brewin Dolphin, a stockbroking company celebrating their 250th anniversary, has sponsored a garden at Chelsea Flower Show for the last three years.
At this year’s show they commissioned award-winning garden designer Cleve West to create a show garden on Main Avenue. Jamie would not be drawn on continued financial input at Chelsea but he committed his company to the 2014 and 2016 Commodores’ Cup.
GBR Red’s three boats were: ‘CNBC’. ‘Dignity’and ‘Keronimo’. It was the consistency of the latter that was the bedrock of the team’s success with ‘Keronimo’ having the best individual score over the whole regatta.
Second place was taken by GBR White represented by ‘Joopster’, ‘Magnum III ‘and ‘Philosophie IV’. Before the regatta commenced France were well fancied to take overall honours. By the Offshore Channel Race they were looking strong but their challenge faltered and they had to settle for third place.
Consolation came when the French team was hailed as the best mainland European entry. ‘Beelzebuth 3’, ‘Eleuthera’ and ‘Nutmeg IV’ represented an (almost) all French squad. A last minute injury to a crew member on ‘Nutmeg IV’ gave Island resident Jonathan Jones from Newport a chance to sail for France.
David Aisher’s ‘Yeoman of Wight’ one of the GRB Black trio of boats was awarded the newly inaugurated Brewin Dolphin Trophy. This team consisted of members of the British Keelboat Academy and the young crew was praised for their performance against top opposition.
Held in the Royal Yacht Squadron, the prize giving ceremony started with a film of the week’s racing introduced by Eddie Warden-Owen, Chief Executive of the R.O.R.C. who is well known to all competitors as he was selected to compete in the 470 class in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
He never had the chance to represent GB however as the RYA refused to sanction the GB Sailing Team’s participation in this controversial Games.
Welcoming everyone to Cowes was town mayor David Walters who is also well known to those who enjoy sailing and is a member of the R.O.R.C.
