Morgan Cup Race

Sunshine and a light north easterly breeze greeted the RORC fleet as they gathered off the RYS line for the start of the 2005 Morgan Cup Race on the evening of Friday 10th June. The Sailing Instructions promulgated a choice of five varying length courses that may be used, however, after much deliberating and speaking to the weather gurus it was decided that none of these courses would be suitable, taking into account the possibility of the breeze failing inshore.  Classes Super Zero, Zero, 1 & 2 were sent east out of the Solent to round Ocean Safety Offshore Buoy to starboard before bearing away and west to the RORC Offshore Buoy rounding to starboard.  Heading once more to the east to round the Ocean Safety Offshore Buoy to port and reaching to round the Nab Tower to port and on to the finish at Royal Albert off Gilkicker, a distance of 149 miles.  Class 3 were sent on the same course with the exception of the second rounding of Ocean Safety. Instead they headed straight to the Nab Tower from the RORC Offshore Buoy, rounding to port and to the finish, a distance of 133 miles.

First away was Class 3 at 18:30 followed by Class 2 at 18:40.  There would then be a short postponement whilst the QE2 transited the start area.  Class 1 was able to get away at 19:05 and finally Super Zero and Zero at 19:15, the fleet of 94 yachts heading straight into a very dark and gloomy looking sky to the east.

The RORC would like to thank the Royal Thames Yacht Club for making available their trophies for this race  and especially to Malcolm McKeag with Thames V for assistance at the start.

The breeze held during the night giving the fleet 16kts from 060º.  Chris Brown / Peter Harding’s DK 46 Fidessa-Fastwave was off St Catherines Point at 01:55 having rounded Ocean Safety at 22:50.  By mid morning the majority of the fleet were well on their way back to Ocean Safety and Nab Tower on their respective courses however the breeze was now showing signs that it may not last.  Taking the bullet and winning the RORC Salver for First Boat Home was Sleeper, Jonty Layfield’s Swan 47 at 15:49 which would also be enough on corrected time for her to collect the Warsash Cup for IRC 3.

Venom, Windward Sailing’s Volvo 60, sailed by Derek Saunders was second across the line off Gilkicker at 16:17 followed by Bear of Britain, Kit Hobday’s Farr 52 at 16:22.  Having been set a slightly shorter course the Class 3 boats were mixing it at the finish with the larger yachts.  Arbitrator, Peter Hopps / Hilary Cook’s Sigma 38 was forth to finish ahead of Nigel Goodhew’s Sigma 38, Persephone of London giving them 1st and 2nd respectively in the battle of the twelve Sigma 38s level racing in Class 3, Dominic Cahill’s Supernatural 3rd.

First boat to finish in  Class Zero was Piet Vroon’s Lutra 52 Tonnerre de Breskens at 16:35 ahead of the duelling DK 46s.  Mike Greville’s Erivale had lead Fidessa-Fastwave from the gun, only to overtaken at the very end and loosing out by just over a minute on the water.  To rub salt into the wounds, when the correction factor was applied Fidessa-Fastwave took Class Zero and the Knightsbridge Cup by just 17 seconds from Erivale. 

By 18:00 the breeze had all but vanished leaving those who had not rounded Ocean Safety or the Nab Tower with the knowledge that they were going to be parked up for some time.  It was possibly even more frustrating for the 20 or so yachts within sight of the line who found themselves having to kedge to stem the foul tide.  It turned out to be only for a short period but when the breeze did begin to fill it came from the south west giving a beat to the line.

Class 1 saw a ding dong scrap for their line honours between two IMX 40s, Andrew Pearce’s Magnum II and Sean Hurst’s Meta Baron.  The fight was won by Magnum II by just 2 seconds, who would also go on to lift the Queensborough Cup on corrected time.  In Class 2 NJOS, Tim Octon’s Corby 35 was 1st on the water, finishing at 19:05 but Sean Muskett’s J109 Doris J takes the Charles Ball Challenge Cup on corrected time, NJOS 2nd.  The Colin Campbell Challenge Cup was awarded to Creative Play, H2O Yachting’s Farr 40 for best corrected time in IRM.

Due to the yachts having sailed the different courses the calculation for the Overall results and the Morgan Cup was derived from the yachts corrected average speed as follows:-

1. Each boat will have the number of miles in its course divided by its elapsed time to complete the course to give its average speed.
Course miles divided by elapsed time = average speed
E.g. 100 miles / 10 hours = 10 Knots average speed

2. The longest course distance will be divided by each boats average speed to give the time it would have taken each boat to do the long course.
E.g. 150 miles / 10 knots = 15 hours

3. The longest course times will be multiplied by the boats TCC to give corrected times.

4. The corrected times will be ranked in ascending order to give the overall finishing positions.

5. Points will be applied in the normal way.

Note: Class results will be worked out in the usual way.

Morgan Cup – BCT IRC  Sleeper  Jonty Layfield

Knightsbridge Cup – Class Zero    Fidessa-Fastwave    Chris Brown / Peter Harding

2nd  Erivale  Mike Greville

3rd  Jeronimo Jonathan & Lisa Goring

4th  Eclipse VII Douglas & Clare Hassell

Queenborough Cup – Class 1  Magnum II Andrew Pearce

2nd  Scarlet Oyster  Gordon Applebey

3rd  Euphorix  Race Euphorix  Keith Greenwood

4th  Puma Logic  Sailing Logic  Phillippe Falle

Charles Ball Challenge Cup – Class 2 Doris J  Sean Muskett

2nd  NJOS  Tim Octon

3rd  Slingshot Shaun Murphy

4th  Night & Day Pascal Loison

5th  Fay-J  Paul Griffiths

Warsash Cup – IRC 3  Sleeper  Jonty Layfield

2nd  Arobase 3 Thierry Leprince

3rd  Xtra-Time Mark Alperovitch

4th  Arbitrator Peter Hopps / Hilary Cook

5th  Persephone of London Nigel Goodhew

Colin Campbell Challenge Cup – BCT IRM  Creative Play H2O Yachting

RORC Salver – First boat home Sleeper  Jonty Layfield

2 Handed Division Scaramouche of Southampton Andrew Magrath

Sigma 38 Arbitrator   Peter Hopps / Hilary Cook

2nd   Persephone of London Nigel Goodhew

3rd   Supernatural   Dominic Cahill

Trophies will be presented at the Royal Thames Yacht Club prizegiving dinner on 15th November.  RORC Medallions will be presented on Tuesday 14th June 19:30 at the Clubhouse 20 St James’s Place, London SW1. All Crews welcome.

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