News - 2014

15:59 Sunday 4 Aug 2013 Sue Pelling/CWLDay 2 winners at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

5 Degrees West flying downwind

Class 3 – Premier Flair – Elan 410

Jim Macgregor was sailing with several members of his family on board today including brother Rob and daughters – Olympians Lucy and Kate Macgregor.

“We are incredibly pleased with our win particularly as we had several members of the family on board. It was great having my daughters Lucy and Kate sailing with us because they made a big difference. Lucy helmed and, to be honest, I think she concentrated a bit more than I would have done. We probably gained the most on the breezy run home because we managed to hold our big kite, plus we had Kate on spinnaker trim, and my brother Rob on main.”

Dragon, Aimee

Graham Bailey, helmsman, took his second win in the Dragon class.

“It was a game of two halves. Everything was difficult today until the second half when we had plenty of reaches. Thankfully we were ahead by then. We were beating with the tide and running against it so no matter we you did upwind we had to be careful not to get swallowed up downwind. There was a lot of forward thinking involved to ensure that by two miles off, we’d secured the inside berth. Normally it pays to think two marks ahead but with sort of racing it is more like three marks ahead.”

IRC Class 1 – 5 Degrees West

Sir Keith Mills, helmsman. This team beat Jonny Vincent and team on Pace by just two seconds on corrected time.

“We had a very comfortable lead until the last run where frankly we had a shocker on our last gybe. We just sat in a hole for 20-30 seconds. Then we had to put in a couple of extra gybes coming up to the finish line so it could have gone two second either way. It was a really exciting race and a testing course with short downwind legs, so the guys were flat out.”

Rob Greehalgh, tactician

“A complex race with a lot of legs plus there was more south in the breeze than we are used to in The Solent, so as we got further up the Island shore it became more shifty. Ninety five per cent of the race we did quite a nice job but we lost a bit towards the end, which was probably a bit of bad luck rather than anything else.”