Lendy Cowes Week 2018- Day 6

A combination of light and shifty north-westerly winds of 6-12 knots and strong tides gave navigators plenty of challenging tactical decisions on day six of Lendy Cowes Week 2018

The White Group dayboats started to the east from the Royal Yacht Squadron line, on a spinnaker reach against a building ebb tide.

There was a benefit at the inshore end of the line to gain relief from the stream, but not if this led to sailing in disturbed air downwind of the rest of your fleet.

The Sportsboat class had a close race, with the entire fleet finishing within three minutes of each other. Malcolm Roberts’ Ker 9m Sunshine started closest to the shore, but could not escape from the lee of the pack and was therefore slow to accelerate.

Boss Hog’s modified Cork 1720 Spider Pig was first away at the outer end of the line, followed by David and Kirsty Apthorp’s J/88 J-Dream and Tom Richardson’s Cork 1720 Premier Cru.

J-Dream took line honours in the 12.5 mile race, but slipped to fourth place after time correction, behind Spider Pig, Paul Lewis’s Rum n Cork, and Sunshine.

The stream was running hard for the Victory class start just before midday.

Carol Evan’s Peregrine was early and had to luff with her spinnaker flogging to avoid a premature start and even then was “living very dangerously” according to the line officer on the RYS platform. 

The XOD class was by far the most numerous fleet to start on the Royal Yacht Squadron line today. 

Peter Lawrence’s Falconet managed to pull just ahead of the inshore pack and into clean air, while two of the class leaders – James Meaning’s Gleam and John Tremlett’s Lass -languished side by side in disturbed wind.

These two boats finished just 11 seconds apart, but in eighth and ninth places respectively. Penny Fulford’s Madeleine notched up her first win of the week, finishing more than four minutes ahead of Rory and Amanda Paton’s XL. Chris Torren’s Madcaptook third place 76 seconds later.

The Black Group yachts starting on the Bramble line headed to the west, with the increasing tidal stream tending to carry them over the line. 

IRC Class 0 was racing for the Triple Crown of some of the sailing world’s most prestigious trophies.

Today Peter Morton’s Fast40+ Girls on Film won the King George trophy ahead of Igor Yakunin’s Ker 46 Lady Mariposa and Tony Langley’s TP52 Gladiator.

In the HP30 class Jacques Blanc’s Swiss Farr 280 Buzz was clearly a couple of lengths over at the gun and had a painfully slow creep back to start correctly.

The overall class leader after the first five days of racing, Malcolm Wootton’s Farr 30 Pegasus Dekmarx, started closest to the southern end of the line under spinnaker and also responded to the recall signal.