News - 2017

13:41 Wednesday 2 Aug 2017 Rupert Holmes/CWLDay 5 - lunchtime update

Pre-start action among the big boats competing in the Sevenstar Triple Crown championship. Photo: Paul Wyeth

A change in the weather, after a string of glorious sunny days, has failed to dampen spirits at Lendy Cowes Week. Day five began with the spectacle of 23 of the largest yachts, including the 100ft foiling supermaxi CQS and the entire Volvo Ocean Racing fleet, starting on the Royal Yacht Squadron start line for the second day of the Sevenstar Triple Crown championship.

The biggest boats had a lively race around the Isle of Wight, with the VOR65 Mapfre smashed the world record for a monohull yacht on the course, subject to ratification. She re-crossed the RYS line just after 1300, to finish in a time a 3 hours 13 minutes and 11 seconds, beating the previous record by almost seven minutes.

Today’s courses for the three dozen other fleets at Lendy Cowes Week were kept deliberately short to enable classes to finish before the wind increases to give gusts well over 30 knots in the Solent this afternoon. The J/70, Etchells, Daring, SB20 and Dragon classes have already all finished, and the last of the White Group dayboats are expected to finish on the Shrape line off East Cowes before 1430. The Black Group classes also have shortened courses, with the last boats expected to complete their races at a similar time, although they will have further to travel to reach Cowes after finishing.