News - 2014

11:35 Wednesday 6 Aug 2014 Sue Pelling/CWLOne hour race for Victory

Photo – Rick Tomlinson/CWL

Top level sailors are in Cowes today to help celebrate the 80^th anniversary of the Victory class with an exhibition race that will be held off the Green at 1730 this afternoon.

The fleet of 21 boats racing here at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week include the oldest boat in the fleet Z6 – a pre-war built boat – and the latest glassfibre version. Leading the fleet is Variety sailed by Janet Dee and Shaun Hopkins with a four-point advantage with four races to go.

Gareth Penn, Victory class captain, chatting about the class and the overwhelming support it has received in its anniversary year, said: “We couldn’t have asked for more. The Exhibition One Hour Victory Race this evening will hopefully draw the crowds.  One of the hot favourites to watch out for is Nick Gill, sailing with Geoff Carveth in Gill (Z53).

“The idea of today’s race was to invite all the sponsors of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week to get together a couple of crew to come and race against each other for fun and a bottle of rum. The racing if off the Green and hopefully the wind will hold up for some good racing.”

The Victory class, which is in great shape at the moment, thanks to an enthusiastic association membership and the introduction of glassfibre boats some years ago, seems to be going from strength to strength. Although the Victory class is mainly sailed in Portsmouth, there are also some in Gibralta and, according to Penn, one in Bombay. Penn concluded: “We have just found out about the boat in India. Interestingly we have one of our members heading out there on holiday next week, so he is hoping to track it down. He may even be able to have a sail.”