News - 2013

12:50 Saturday 3 Aug 2013 Rupert Holmes/CWLPerfect race conditions for the opening day of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

A tight start at the outer limit mark for the SB20 class. Photo: Rick Tomlinson/CWL

Competitors at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week are enjoying a glorious opening day, racing in a fresh south-westerly breeze, with enough wind to push the fastest boats at impressive speeds and for embarrassing broaches among the back markers.

By 1015 the central Solent was thick with boats, including SB20s and J/70s blasting past the Bramble Bank on their way to their first mark, an inflatable buoy laid on the Hill Head plateau. At the same time Etchells and Dragons were preparing to start on the Royal Yacht Squadron line, plus Multihulls and IRC Class 4 further north on the Bramble start line, while the huge black rig of the American Mini Maxi Bella Menta mingled between them. Later in the morning the giant MOD70 trimaran Oman Air also joined the fray.

The first start of this year’s regatta was for the new J/70 class, which was lined up for the first of two races today. Ten minutes later saw by far the closest start of the morning, with a big bunch of SB20s approaching the outer limit buoy from offshore on starboard tack, with many apparently having no room to manoeuvre and several boats crossed the line early. It was an incredibly close start from which it was impossible to pick a clear early leader.

The next White Group start, for Etchells, saw a very different strategy, with the fleet well to the west of the line and holding well back until only 20 seconds before the gun. However, even then one boat started prematurely. The next start for Darings saw a more gung-ho approach, with three boats early, one by a huge margin, and yet none turned back to restart. This was a pattern that was repeated in many of the following starts, with boats jumping the gun, each of them apparently confident that the recall signal was aimed at other vessels. By contrast, none of the early Black Group starts on the Bramble line saw individual recalls.

The first finishers among the White Group dayboats are expected just before 1330, while the earliest Black Group yachts are timed to finish in a classic spinnaker run past the Green from 1425 onwards.