Thanks to Suzanne and Alan for this sailing update. Ed
This event will be running on the Solent from Good Friday (3rd April) to Easter Sunday (5th April) so anyone visiting Cowes over the weekend can expect to see some pretty big yachts in the Solent.
This event provides an opportunity to ease teams into the UK season, to test their latest gear and sails or, in some cases, boats, with the unique opportunity of free assistance, both on the water and ashore, from the RORC’s coaching team led by Jim Saltonstall.
New hardware
There is a sign that the UK, at long last, is emerging from darker economic times, with IRC One Class seeing new hardware. Mike Bartholomew’s GP42 Tokoloshe is facing stiff competition from the de Graaf family’s Ker 40 Baraka GP, plus there are three new additions to the RORC Easter Challenge fleet.
Anthony O’Leary, who we saw lead the Irish team to victory in last year’s Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup, has upgraded Antix, trading in his highly successful Ker 39 for American Marc Glimcher’s ‘turboed’ Ker 40, Catapult – the big boat in the Irish winning team.
Smallest in IRC One, but with a rating that indicates she will competing with the 40 footers is Nigel Biggs’ Checkmate XVI, a new US-built C&C30 One Design from Mark Mills that is both a high performance sports-boat and mini offshore race boat.
On the water coaching
This RORC Easter Challenge is unique in the RORC calendar for being a coaching regatta. During the event, on the water coaching is available from the team led by Jim Saltonstall and RORC CEO Eddie Warden Owen (himself a former America’s Cup team coach) with assistance from Chuck Allen and Andreas Josenhans of North U Regatta Services, who are coming across from the USA especially for the regatta.
One team that is planning on making use of this free coaching is the Cowes Race School Mills 39 Zero II, skippered by Jamie Gair who said,
“It is one of those unique opportunities where not only is on board coaching allowed but this time you can change your sails during the regatta.”
Referring to the amendment to the Notice of Race that allows a crew to change sails provided the measurement of the replacements is the same or less than those featured on their yacht’s IRC certificate.
He added,
“So we can experiment with lots of different headsails. The post-race debriefs are invaluable, from Jim Saltonstall and North U Regatta Services team identify different areas supported by video and show you who did what well and who did what badly – the great moments and the moments you’d like to forget about. It is an invaluable tool when you have these guys off the boat. They see things that it can be very difficult to see from on board.”
Zero II was formerly raced in two winning Commodores’ Cup teams, as marinerscove.ie for the Irish in 2010 and as Dignity for GBR Red in 2012
A maximum of nine races could take place during the regatta with the first warning signal on Friday at 1255 BST and the first warning signals at 0955 on Saturday and Sunday.
Image: © With kind permission of RORC/Rick Tomlinson
