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RORC
What a spectacular day we had for the Race the Wight – the first of the RORC Summer Series of day races. Everyone finished with a smile on their face as completing the course was a challenge with a maximum crew of six, as well as a pleasure because of the spectacular conditions. It was classic Solent weather with the sou’westerly sea breeze developing as the fleet of 133 boats lined up for the start and the Solent chop steadily building up as the ebbing west-going tide increased in strength. I have done this course too many times to remember but only
twice before on a multihull, both times in light airs. This year my ride was the MOD 70 PowerPlaywith Pete Cunningham, with whom I did my first Atlantic crossing in 2018. Pete had been in quarantine for two weeks after returning from lockdown in the USA high up in Lake Tahoe and this was his first sail afterwards. I reminded him that conditions never get better than this and what a fabulous sail it was, six-up to comply with RORC’s Covid restrictions and lots of tacking on the way to the Needles. The MOD 70 sails upwind at
18-20kt and downwind at 30-35kt and we completed the 55-mile course in just over three hours. A second lap was suggested but we felt a good lunch at the RORC clubhouse in Cowes would better round off a very special sail! The large fleet was divided into
two divisions with IRC classes 3 and 4 in the first start and the rest of the IRC fleet including Class40 and multihulls in the second. Michael Bartholomew’s Fast 40 Tokoloshe IIwon the race overall with Giovanni Belgrano’s classic yacht Whooper a close second by only two minutes on corrected time. There was an encouraging fleet of 10 multihulls with Power- Play taking the overall honours from James Holder’s very quick Dazcat 1295 Slinky Malinki.
Guess who? We had expected a large fleet of two-handed sailors as these were the first group of racers who were able to go racing as lockdown restrictions were eased – and 42 boats in the Race the Wight underlined the increasing interest in this discipline. RORC members Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt showed that
dates confirmed so far are Saturday 26 September and Saturday 10 October with races lasting around 24 hours.
Merde encore For the first time in the history of the club the RORC Season Points championships has had to be cancelled. A minimum of three races is required to make the series and with the Covid situation still ongoing and current restrictions making it impossible to run offshore races other than shorthanded the committee had no option but to cancel the last race of the season, the Cherbourg Race. So, frus- tratingly, only the RORC Transatlantic and RORC Caribbean 600 have been completed and we congratulate the winners: Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt for the RORC Transatlantic and Tilmar Hansen and his Outsider team winning the RORC Caribbean 600. The first race of the 2021 Season Points Championships will be
the Rolex Middle Sea Race in October and we keep our fingers crossed that this race is allowed to go ahead, followed by the
Above: the wonders of IRC… seriously. Victory in the new Race the Wight event went to the Fast40 Tokoloshe 2, designed by Carkeek and built by Longitud Cero in 2010, while the runner-up just two minutes behind on corrected time (but two hours on the water) was Giovanni Belgrano’s 81 years young Laurent Giles design Whooper. Total race entry 133 boats… everyone reallywants to go racing
winning our 2020 Transatlantic Race in their JPK 1010 was no one- off and beat a fleet with some real experience. Second overall was a Sunfast 3300 sailed by Henry Bomby with double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson, both RORC members. The longterm aim of this team is the mixed two-handed sailing at the 2024 Olympics in France. Another team sharing the same goal is Dee Caffari and James Harayda (another RORC member!) whose promis- ing debut outing in the Drheam Cup secured them selection by the RYA for this month’s Mixed Offshore European Championship.
More more To support the growing interest from the two-handed community, who are now allowed to race overnight, the RORC have created a series of autumn races, the first starting on Friday 4 September. This was to have been a race to Cherbourg but that is now under review due to the changing Covid position in France. The other two
Transatlantic race in January 2021 and the Caribbean 600 in February. Interest in the Transatlantic race is strong and, as I have said before on this page, the club is committed to running both these events as long as we are allowed to.
However… I am delighted to be able to announce that the London club will open on 7 September with Mark Newens and his team making all the necessary changes to keep staff and members safe from the virus. It feels as if a milestone has been achieved to do this and the staff are all looking forward to seeing members back in the club. I have missed the camaraderie and spirit of the clubhouse and look forward to seeing it busy again. Central London is still a kind of strange ghost town and there
is no better and safer time to visit us. Walking around is a joy with barely any tourists. Wonderful in short bursts. But I hope you will never see this wonderful city like this ever again. Eddie Warden Owen, CEO
q SEAHORSE 59
PAUL WYETH
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