News - 2014

17:44 Saturday 2 Aug 2014 Sue Pelling/CWLDay 1 quotes

Team Delight lead the XOD class – photo Rick Tomlinson/CWL

SB20 class

Steve McLean and his team of Matt Waite and Marshall King from Warsash on Sponge Bob, started the week well with a first place in race one in the 36-strong SB20 class. Race two was disappointing for the team however, because they broke their spinnaker pole and had to retire.

McLean commented: “We had a bit of a coming together with another boat which resulted in a broken pole. The first race was great though, and we’re really pleased. We had an average start but played the shifts well and rounded the top mark in third or fourth place. It was all very close but once we took the lead at the last mark we pulled out a good lead when the two boats behind us gybed off. We are looking forward to tomorrow and hope to continue where we left off in our first race today.”

Sigma 38 class

The Sigma 38 class is always highly competitive with the overall results often decided in the closing stages of the regatta. Last year Chris and Vanessa Choules from the RAFYC, took the overall class win aboard With Alacrity and after today’s impressive result at the head of the fleet, look set continue where they left off.

Chatting after the race this afternoon, Chris Choules said it was good teamwork that really made the difference today. “It was a tough day on the racecourse and, as always in this one-design fleet, the racing was close. I think what paid today was our tactics. We managed to play the shifts well up the island shore on the beat. Our team always have a good tactical debate upwind and it certainly worked well for us today.”

XOD class

Stuart Haill’s beautifully restored XOD Delight scored an impressive first place today in the opening XOD series of races. Haill, who broke his toe on the final day of Classic Week was not onboard today but Chris Trainer and team managed to pull off a win despite a string of errors which included jotting down the incorrect rounding of a mark.

“It was a bit of a calamity to be honest. We first of all forgot the spinnaker and had to return to shore to pick it up, then had no idea where the course was taking us, so it was a case of covering the fleet all the way round and winging it. We knew John Tremlett on Lass in second place wouldn’t make a mistake, so we had to keep a careful eye on him. We also wrote down the rounding of the final mark incorrectly but managed to spot the error and retain the lead. Thankfully we had really good speed which made all the difference.”