Lendy Cowes Week 2018 – DAY 4

After a relaxed morning waiting for a breeze to build, teams were thoroughly tested by a series of wild fluctuations in the wind that accompanied short showers that passed over the race area in the afternoon.
Lulls saw to wind drop to as low as three knots while some gusts topped 20 knots, while the direction at times swung through 90 degrees.
More than 30 per cent of competitors at Lendy Cowes Week are women and many of them are helming.

In IRC Class 6 Amanda Marino’s Half Tonner Chimp was defending the Royal Southern YC’s Ariel trophy for the best placed woman helm. However, a fourth place saw her team fall just outside the podium this year.
This is a tough class to win this year, with Giovanni Belgrano’s extremely successful classic yacht Whooper winning ahead of Toby Gorman’s Sigma 33 Stan the Boat, and Simon Cory’s Cory Yachts 290 Icom Cool Blue.
Belgrano said;
“We drove her like we stole her! And they didn’t catch us it was a fantastic day of racing.”

IRC Class 5 was won by Harry Heijst’s S&S41 Winsome, helmed by Laura Dillon, ahead of overall class leaders, Phil Plumtree’s Half Tonner Swuzzlebubble and Andy and Anne Howe’s J/97 Blackjack ll.

White Group
A small band of rain moved across the start area as the Daring fleet was getting away, leaving a five minute belt of lighter and more fickle winds in its wake that split the fleet.
With the tide against them, the back markers in the Daring class failed to clear the line before the start of the J/80 and Sportsboat classes.
The lowest rated boat in the Sportsboat class, Boss Hog’s modified Cork 1720 Spider Pig, took line honours in today’s race.

In the Fast40+ fleet, two firsts and a third place lifted Niklas Zennström’s Ràn into first overall, two points ahead of Peter Morton’s Girls on Film.
Bas de Voogd’s Hitchhiker sailed a consistent series and took third overall.

The HP30 class saw a tighter battle between Malcolm Wootton’s modified Farr 30 Pegasus Dekmarx and Glyn Locke’s Farr 280 Toucan.
Locke showed very consistent form, scoring second places in all but one race, however Wootton secured overall victory by two points.

