J/70 – Charlie Esse, Darwin Property Investment Management Ltd
“We got a big left-hand lift at the start and were in the front row, and were the first boat to tack out. It was against us and Spitfire all the way up the first beat. They overtook us at the windward mark but we sailed a little bit lower, and faster at a better angle and pulled ahead on the run by sailing the boat flat and fast, and just pulled away from there really.
“The wind topped 15kts knots in the gusts and to be honest the rig was a bit too slack at the end. We made a decision to go up to a slightly heavier wind setting than yesterday but actually we could have gone up even more.
“We all enjoyed it, it was a fantastic day on the water and, as always the team worked exceptionally well.”
Daring – Giles Peckham, Dauntless
“We didn’t start so well, we were a bit too conservative. Our philosophy at regattas is to avoid being anyway near OCS but we took it a bit too far today. Consequently we had a bit of a fight on our hands trying to find a lane.
“We were in reasonable shape at the windward mark, then downwind we just had to fight to try to keep our air all the time and finally we took the lead as the result of a navigational advantage. Basically we spotted the mark while the others were still struggling and that got us into the lead. From there on it was all about boat speed and covering and keeping the others behind.
“The reach across to the north shore was all about keeping in clear air, we timed a couple of gybes really well to break away, which helped a lot.
“I find myself a lot more comfortable when I am in the lead with the other members of the team telling me what’s going on behind and I am able to focus 100 per cent on the tell-tales while having all the information from the race course fed to me.
“Basically today’s win was down to concentration and good crew work.”
Sigma 33 – David Rolfe, Shadowfax
“We had a terrible start and had to work extremely hard all the way out to The Needles. We managed to benefit from a bit of favourable tide out in the Central Solent and pulled through into the lead at around Hurst.
“As we headed out The Solent to Needles Fairway mark the wind really freshened up, to about 17kts and it was fairly choppy out there.
“It actually turned out to be a long windward/leeward course, a round trip of about 30 nauticial miles. Once ahead it was a case of keeping our closest rivals on Stan the Boat, behind. Consequently it was a really tough day because our win was down to good crew work.
"We are a happy boat and we are all looking forward to getting back on the water again tomorrow.”
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