Cascais Race

1^st September 2006

The RORC Cascais race started on time at 1600 on Friday 1^st September under grey skies and a moderate south-westerly breeze. Shaun Murphy’s two-handed entry Slingshot had the best start with the fleet making an understandably conservative start on this 838 mile race. Azure and Night Owl started late after resolving last minute problems.

All boats had been fitted with OCTracker units and their tracks available to the public through the RORC website.

With a depression forecast to sweep up the Channel the yachts faced a heavy airs beat all the way to Ushant

The first few days of the race were tough for all boats; with 30-35 knots of breeze flowing through the English Channel.  Two boats, Hope and Glory and Brightwork retired and headed back to port.

For the remaining seven boats the conditions continued on their way through the Bay of Biscay.  Night Owl called in her retirement on Tuesday afternoon due to lack of progress and time commitments of their crew although they still continued down to Cascais.

First to finish was Chieftain in light airs on a hot and sunny morning at 0929 BST on 6th September which proved enough to hold off the rest of the competition to take BCT IRC.

Just over a day later the next three boats; Aquis Granus, Azure and Hooligan V all finishied within 24 hours of each other but their times were not good enough to beat that already set by Chieftain.

Slingshot was next to arrive on 9^th September at 0257 BST with Tantrum of Langstone arriving some 3 days later after suffering engine difficulty early on in the race.

A successful prizegiving party was held in the Skipper Bar with all the crews present having a good time.

Chieftain, Azure and Slingshot are going on to Malta for the Rolex Middle Sea race and Night Owl to the racing division of the ARC from Gran Canaria.

Trophies and Medallions

BCT IRC winning the Lekeitio Cup – Chieftain, Ger O’Rourke

1^st IRC SZ & 0 winning the Gordon Greville Trophy – Chieftain, Ger O’Rourke

1^st IRC 1 winning the Heneage Ogilvie trophy – Hooligan V, Edward Broadway

1^st IRC 2 winning the Gay Gannet – Slingshot, Shaun Murphy

1^st IRC 3 winning the Sawyer Guillois shield – Tantrum of Langstone, Chris Staples

1st IRM winning the Rebel Maid trophy - Hooligan V, Edward Broadway

1^st 2 Handed Division – Slingshot, Shaun Murphy

1^st yacht home winning the Adrian Mencarelli Endurance Trophy – Chieftain, Ger O’Rourke