10:25am Thursday 26th August 2010
This year’s South West Region IRC Championship was run as part of Falmouth Week with six of the races being run on windward-leeward or trapezoidal courses in Falmouth Bay, or inside the Carrick Roads, and the seventh race as part of the Champagne Day racing on the Wednesday of Falmouth Week.
It is normal to run the races entirely in the Bay, but on Tuesday the weather was so grim, with high winds and poor visibility that morning, that discretion prevailed over valour and the day’s races were run in rather fluky wind in the Roads. The event attracted 26 yachts, including some well-known local yachts but also some visitors, including some who had sailed their boats here from South Wales to take part. There were three separate divisions: Division 1 for the largest yachts, then Divisions 2 and 3 for the smaller yachts, and some excellent, close and highly tactical sailing was enjoyed in all three divisions. Some of the starts were very closely fought, causing the Race Officer (Roger Hollingsworth) to unleash the black flag on a couple of occasions. The Champagne Race this year turned out to be less demanding for the more tactical nd experienced sailors: just two short windward legs followed by a long run out towards Gull Rock. Nevertheless, in Division 1, John Pollard in Xcellent, from Torbay, although not the fastest boat on the water, took first on handicap, holding off local RCYC boat Daring (Damien Bloor). In Division 2, an excellent start by Tim Cunliffe, in his Half Tonner Insatiable, allowed him to lead at the first mark and hold off another similar yacht Per Elisa (Robbie Tregear) on the nine mile run out to the east. Covering closely thereafter, Insatiable slowly drew ahead to win the Champagne Race from Ian Jakeways’ General Khaos, who pipped Per Elisa into third place. Geoff Davies in Scorpion did similarly in Division 3, to put an end to Phil Samuel's run of first places.
For the other, windward-leeward, races, in Division 1 the scene was set on the first day in the Bay when Xcellent won both of the day's races and continued to dominate the championship with a clean sweep of firsts as the week progressed. Second place overall was keenly contested by visitors NJOS (Tim Octon), Mighty Max (Andy Williams) and local boat Daring (Damien Bloor). The racing was closely fought but in the end NJOS prevailed, securing 2nd place, just two points ahead of Daring on 17 points overall. Division 2 was less clear cut but the results showed that consistency pays off. Four yachts hotly contested each race with the Mustang 30 (William Prest) joining in the fight on occasion. Overall, however, the RCYC yacht Insatiable (Tim and David Cunliffe) was the clear winner with five firsts and one third; Demolition (Mel Sharp) came second with one first, one second and four thirds; and local sailmaker Robbie Tregear, in Per Elisa, came third with five seconds and a fourth, just one point overall behind Demolition. In Division 3, the J24 Jethro (Phil Samuel) won the first four races but then tailed off later in the week to allow Scorpion (Geoff Davies) and Blink (Nick Masson) to enjoy wins. However, Jethro had done enough to secure first overall, followed by Scorpion with 13 points and Blink with 17 points.
Results - Division 1: Xcellent (J Pollard) 1, NJOS (T Octon) 2, Daring (D Bloor) 3. Division 2: Insatiable (T & D Cunliffe) 1, Demolition (M Sharp) 2, Per Elisa (R Tregear) 3. Division 3: Jethro (P Samuel) 1, Scorpion (G Davies) 2, Blink (N Masson) 3.
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