Thanks to Suzanne and Alan for their take on Saturday’s charity challenges. Ed
While hundreds of boats were circling Vectis in the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Yacht Race on Saturday, a contingent of some 100 cyclists were undertaking their own challenge, riding around the Island in an anti-clockwise circuit.
Consisting of mainly staff from JP Morgan plus family and friends the riders were raising money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. Andy Graham from the JP Morgan Bournemouth office organised the challenge.
£20,000 target
Having raised £16K last year, Andy was presented with a trophy for the monies raised by the cyclists last year but they were back this year with a target of £20K. In fact, by Friday morning £19.3K had been pledged and as we spoke with Andy donations were thrust into his hand from sailors keen to add support.
Andy told us the logistics were daunting, with a large removal van pressed into service to transport all the cycles and riders gear.
Staggered starts
At 7.30am the first cyclists left Cowes. For safety reasons there were staggered starts to avoid congestion on the route. Everyone finished without any mishaps with the majority taking 3.5 hours.
This land based circuit started in a small way about seven years ago with 25 cyclists taking part in the first year.
Racing against the yachts
Every year the aim of the cyclists is to beat the time of the first boat to finish but this year there was no chance of this with Sir Ben Ainslie’s feat of setting a new record for the fastest passage by a multi hull.
Ben and his crew dedicated this feat to the late Olympian sailor Andrew Simpson MBE.
In memory of Andrew Simpson
On Friday Ben and Iain Percy were among the pallbearers at the funeral service of Andrew held in Sherborne Abbey.
Andrew and Iain won Olympic Gold in the Star Class in 2008 in Beijing. They followed it up with a silver medal in the same class in home waters last summer. Andrew had taken part in the 2011 JPMAM Round the Island race aboard the TP52 Team Origin.
Mementos
After his feat of Saturday morning, later in the day Ben was only too pleased to sign copies of his book and posters on the Henri Lloyd stand in the Race Village.
One of the largest queues of the day formed, with keen visitors to the Village eager to obtain a memento of the day.
Others competing
Back to the Yacht race, ‘Troika’ had been sailed down by her crew from Scarborough via Lowestoft and Dover with the passage taking three days. They sailed in the IRC Div 2D class.
Probably the oldest person taking part in the race was architect Ray Moxley 90. He made his name after designing Chelsea Harbour and his latest project was to design his own yacht ‘RA’ named after the Sun God of Egypt.
Ray had previously taken part six or seven times, collecting a finisher’s tankard on all but one occasion – then his crew had failed to register! Ray said he loves Cowes because his grandfather had a property there where family holidays were enjoyed.
Cowes resident Peter Morton won the ‘Elephant Trophy’ on Bullit in the Quarter Tonner class.
Winner of the Gold Roman Challenge Cup (Gold Roman Bowl) was 5 Degrees West- which we highlighted in the RORC Easter Regatta.
Truly a race for all.
