This year's Channel Race was blessed with good breeze around the 130 mile course with sunshine during the day and warm air temperature at night. The overall winner was the First 40, La Réponse, owned by Peter Morton and RORC Commodore Andrew McIrvine by just under three minutes on corrected time from Neil Kipling's J 122, Joopster. Charles Ivill's Grand Soleil 54, John B, was third but did win Class Zero against some stiff opposition.

"It was a real surprise to win overall," admitted Andrew, co-owner of La Réponse. "Perhaps the tide favoured the medium size boats better but we made full use of it; taking a line down the south side of the island putting us in the strongest tide possible. I must say it was a real delight to have a RORC race with a 60-mile downwind leg; something that doesn't happen too often. A boil in the bag dinner on deck, under spinnaker was a real joy. I will be back at work on Monday, just like everybody else but offshore racing is an excellent way to get away from the stress of work, much better than staring at your navel for the weekend." La Réponse were also victors in IRC One with Joopster second and Sailing Logic's Reflex 38, Visit Malta Puma, third.

"Absolutely thrilled," admitted Jeremy Hill, "it has been a tough week in some pretty big breeze. Our speed off the line was great and that meant that when we got away well at the start, we were confident of winning every race, we managed five wins in the series. However, on the occasions that we did not get away well, we managed to convert a low position to a top ten result by some excellent downwind work; Grant Rollerson is a highly accomplished skiff sailor and his asymmetric experience was a big part of our win."

Full results at http://worlds2010.lasersb3.com/

Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with the Royal Yacht Squadron.
START: Saturday 24^th July from the RYS Cowes to the West.

The Channel Race is the last RORC offshore race prior to the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race and some well known boats will be competing in the race which will last between 24-36 hours on a flexi-course. The top boat under IRC will win the Channel Challenge Cup and there are plenty of contenders.

In IRC Super Zero Derek Saunders' CM 60, Venomous, will be hoping for strong winds to propel him to victory but John Merricks II are on a roll having just won the Cowes Dinard St Malo race and will be hard to beat.

Piet Vroon's Tonnerre de Breskens 3, who is leading the Season's Points Championship by a country mile, is back after winning the Round Ireland Race earlier this month. However John Shepherd's Fair Do's VII, Chris Radford's Relentless on Incisor and Charles Ivill's John B will also be looking for a good result in IRC Zero. All of these boats go head to head in IRC Zero for this race and the 1760 mile Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race next month.

There are only a few weeks to the close of entries at this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup. Whilst most teams have finalized their boats and crews, others are still engaged in discussions to determine their line-ups. For all teams, both settled and prospective, certain things are set in stone. Most importantly there must be three boats, one in each of the stipulated rating bands, and, all teams must be on the starting grid for the first race on Sunday, 15 August. At present, organisers', the Royal Ocean Racing Club are expecting 11 teams representing France, Ireland, Hong Kong, South Africa and the United Kingdom to contest the international trophy.

The shaping field looks to be as competitive as ever. The sea battles that have been fought in recent weeks off the coasts of France and Ireland, and, of course, on the event venue waters of the Solent suggest that a no quarter given epic is in the making.

Neutrals, with an eye for the outsider, are likely to follow the progress of the South African team over the course of the Rolex Commodores' Cup. 2010 marks the first time a team from the world's second largest continent has participated. As with Hong Kong's presence in 2008, for this to happen a number of stars have had to be in alignment.

According to Mike Bartholomew, skipper of the team's Class 2 yacht, the King 40 Tokoloshe, "it was Eddie Warden Owen from the RORC who actually suggested to Rick Nankin and myself that we should consider putting a South African team together. The whole thing really just grew from there. We approached two others we knew well, Phil Gutschi and Rick Garratt, to see if they could join the party. Both were enthusiastic from the word go." Gutschi owns the Landmark 43, Windpower, to be skippered by Nankin in Class 1, and Garratt has chartered the J-109, Zelda, to be skippered by Dave Hudson in Class 3.

  Full Article on the Rolex Commodores' Cup Minisite [Rolex Commodores' Cup draws South Africa]

Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race
Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with UNCL, Yacht Club de Dinard, Société Nautique de la Baie de St. Malo and the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Course: Cowes – Casquets - Les Hanois – St Malo. Approx. 164 miles.

This year's race to St Malo proved to be a light airs affair but that is something that can happen in any yacht race. Jim Saltonstall is a proven coach at the top level and he recognizes that racing in little wind requires just as much effort as other conditions; "Whether you are sailing in big waves with 40 knots of wind or ghosting along in light airs, you need to sail to the best of your ability to get the results that you wish for. In very light conditions, sailors really need to concentrate on maintaining their focus. Boredom can create mental apathy and the bottom line is that concentration levels have got to be 100% in light airs, just as much as at any other time."

The young aspiring crew from the British Keelboat Academy carried off the spoils, toughing it out on their TP52, John Merricks II, winning the King Edward VII Cup for best yacht overall under IRC and the Lloyds of London Salver for best yacht in IRC Super Zero.

Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race
Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with UNCL, Yacht Club de Dinard, Société Nautique de la Baie de St. Malo and the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Start: Friday 2^nd July from the RYS, to the West.
First warning signal: 1450
Course: Cowes – Casquets - Les Hanois – St Malo. Approx. 164 miles.

The 164 mile race to St. Malo from Cowes has always been popular and with 123 boats already in, it is the biggest entry for a RORC offshore race so far this season.

Mike Slade's Farr 100 Maxi, ICAP Leopard, will be hot favourite for line honours for this weekend's race to St. Malo and make no mistake; the world record breaking yacht will be attempting to break their own course record, set in 2008.

"We have held the record in four different boats, Ocean Leopard took about 19 hours, in Longabarda we took about 16 hours, Leopard of London about 15 hours and racing ICAP Leopard we got it down to about 11 hours. We will be hoping to get a good westerly wind so that we can lay the Casquets and then charge off towards St. Malo under spinnaker.

I have been doing this race for about 20 years and we are running out of restaurants that will have us! Hopefully we will be in by Saturday morning and have an enormous celebration!" commented Mike Slade.

There are sixteen RORC trophies up for grabs and there will be some intense battles right through the fleet. Four Class 40s will also be racing including World Champion, Concise, skippered by young aspiring yachtsman Tom Gall.

RORC IRC National Championship Report – Day 3

The tension was mounting at the start of the final day of the RORC IRC National Championship. The international fleet from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Netherlands and South Africa were waiting to act out the final chapter of the championship. The seabreeze kicked in from south west at about 1100 and the fleet got into race mode for the last two races of the championship.

During the day, the southwesterly built from a wispy six knots to a stiff sixteen knots with wind over tide, giving the Western Solent some degree of swell; truly sublime racing conditions.

There were dramatic scenes right from the off with a bevy of boats infringing the start line of Race 7. Johnny Vincent's TP52, Pace, was called over the line and got back smartly to not only recover but to win Race 7. In IRC One there were no less than five boats hauled back to restart.

The Luck o'the Irish was with the RORC Team who won the team honours in the Conway Media Round Ireland Yacht Race 2010. The race was organised in association with the RORC and is part of the RORC's 2010 Season's Points Championship.

Tonnerre de Breskens 3 led the team, winning line honours, first overall and first in class for IRC Zero.

Visit Malta Puma topped IRC One and was awarded third overall, and Psipsina narrowly missed out on first in IRC 2, but won the Two - Handed Division.

Tonnerre was off to a flying start on a beautiful Sunday morning in Wicklow, racing away under her new Code Zero to an early lead and never looking back. She never relinquished her lead in the race, finishing in the early hours of Thursday nearly four hours ahead of the theoretically faster Open 60 Toe in the Water, sailing as Spirit of Rosslare Europort.

We have trialed a new inshore tracking system during the IRC National Championhip. You will find different races tracked, with a varying number of boats, mainly IRC Class 1. Mark positions are approximate and can move during the period of the trial.

Results are not corrected using the IRC TCC.

RORC IRC National Championship Report - Day Two

Yesterday's champagne opener was all about boat speed in the windy Western Solent. For Day Two, the international RORC fleet had a very different battle ground. The Solent was still blessed with brilliant sunshine, however it was the turn of the Eastern Solent to play host to the RORC fleet. Windward leeward courses were set on the Hillhead plateau for the first two races, to get the fleet out of the tide. By mid-afternoon depth became an issue and a seabreeze had developed which de-stabilised the gradient wind. Racing around fixed marks in the Central Solent became the racecourse of choice.

Getting the tactics right and trimming to erratic puffs of wind was akin to playing a game of three-dimensional chess for the competitors at the RORC IRC National Championship. By the end of the day, six races had been completed. Favourites had emerged but virtually all classes were nowhere near decided.

In IRC Super Zero after Race 4, protests were lodged by several competitors and results will be subject to a hearing by the Protest Committee. There was more drama in Race 5. Charles Dunstone's TP 52, Team Origin Rio, took penalty turns shortly after the start. Robert Gray's Farr 52, Bob, won Race 5 on corrected time, their first win of the championship.