RORC Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race
Friday 4th July 2003
Clear skies and a filling westerly breeze greeted the yachts for the RORC Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race on Friday afternoon off the RYS Line. Starting at ten minutes intervals to the west, first away were the Multihulls at 15:00 followed by IRC Super Zero & Zero, IRC 1, IRC 2 and finally IRC 3 at 15:40, in all a total fleet of 204 yachts. The decision to send the fastest yachts first was made for safety reasons given the large number of competitors.
The course was to take the fleet from the Needles Fairway buoy to cross the Channel and leave Alderney, Burhou and all outlying rocks to port, then on to Guernsey once again leaving the island to port. From here the fleet headed south to NW Minquiers and SW Minquiers, both to port to finish at the Banchenou buoy off St Malo. The light winds were, as in so many of the RORC races this season, once again made it a race that required total concentration. Some of those who didn’t fair so well took an early decision to retire and quite a few enjoyed dinner in St Peter Port
The yachts which chose to go west of the rhum line faired better especially when passing Guernsey where they avoided getting caught by the reduced pressure nearer the coastline as the tide turned foul.
Taking line honours and the Sandison Memorial Salver was ‘Spirit’, Pure Sailing’s Volvo 60 sailed by Hamish Oliphant at 11:04 followed only 30 minutes later by Robert Davies’ J145 ‘Roxy 9’ a performance that won them not only the Noryema Trophy for first in IRC Zero but also the king Edward VII Cup for first overall
Roxy’s performance along with that of Chris Bulls J145 Jazz (which was second in IRC Zero) earned them the John West Trophy for RORC in the Club Challenge
IRC Super Zero, which featured action between competitors in the forthcoming RORC Admiral’s Cup, was won by Peter Harrison’s Farr 52 Chernikeeff, which beat the other Admiral’s cupper Nick Lykiardopolulo’s Area into second place
In IRM it was a battle between the two Ker 11.3s with the winner being John Shepherd’s Fair Do’s V
The first IRC 1 boat to finish at 14:47 was ‘Cajou’, Pierre Blayau’s IMX 40. Cajou finished before many IRC Zero Yachts and won the Yeoman Bowl for IRC 1 and was second overall in IRC, she also won the Yacht Club de France Shield for first French yacht home in IRC
At 18:40 reports had been received from a local source that an ‘Armada’ of yachts could be seen on the horizon heading for St Malo. The reports were verified when shortly after 19:15 the invasion began, with what had been a gentle stream of yachts crossing the line turning into a monsoon of approximately 30 boats per hour until 23:30
IRC 2 was won by Harry Heijst sailing “Winsome” Harry reported that it had been a warm but very dark night and they had hoisted the kite at 0300 and carried it all of the way to the finish. Interestingly Winsome has won Class 2 of the Cowes – Dinard – St Malo before; this was in 1980 when she was called “Colombe” by her second owner Mons D’Andrimont (the first owner David May christened her “Winsome”).
In IRC 3 two French Nicholson 33s battled it out with Axel D’Esperey’s Biack beating Jean –Yves Chateau’s Iromiguy to the podium.
Keeping pace with the bigger Monohulls ‘Triohe’, Richard Roscoe’s 31-foot F9AX trimaran had a very credible race to be the first Multihull to finish at 12:47, the eleventh boat to cross the finishing line. It was thought that his success was down to the strawberries & raspberries they had after their pasta meal and the use of titanium mugs!
The Race reflected the international nature of RORC racing, there were Dutch, American, French, British, Belgian, Australian and Greek boats in the race.
The RORC would like to thank the following people for their generosity and kind assistance:
MICHEL LAUDE– Adjointment au Marie de St Malo (Town Mayor)
MICHEL LEDUC – Representant le President du Yacht Club de France
SOCIETE NAUTIQUE DE LA BAIE DE ST MALO
JEAN PIERRE COSSON – President of SNBSM
FRANCOISE RIMBAULT - SNBSM host to race Officers ashore
CHRISTIAN FOUGERAY & GERARD FOUGERAY (Vice President of YC Dinard) for providing the Committee boat and being excellent hosts to the Race Officers
Cowes – Dinard – St Malo Race 2003
Prizegiving
King Edward VII Cup – BCT IRC Roxy 9 Robert Davies
Derek Boyer Trophy – 2nd BCT IRC Cajou Pierre Blayau
RORC Prize – IRC Super Zero Chernikeeff 2 Peter Harrison
2nd Area Nick Lykiardopulo
Noryema Trophy – IRC Zero Roxy 9 Robert Davies
2nd Jazz Chris Bull
3rd Fair Do’s V John Shepherd
4th Anthem Thomas Gill Jr
5th El Gringo Nick Hartshorn
Yeoman Bowl – IRC 1 Cajou Pierre Blayau
2nd Exception Patrick Ponchelet
3rd Lady F Amel Reminiac
4th Ster Wen IV Benoit Charon
5th Fastwave II ACP Sailing Chris Brown
YC de Dinard Trophy – IRC 2 Winsome Harry Heijst
2nd Trop Petite Emmanuel Winsback
3rd Nautilix Oliver Caplain
4th Pen Azen Philippe Delaporte
5th Xaossa Jean Michel Carpentier
IR Trophy – IRC 3 Biack II Axel D’Esperey
2nd Iromiguy Jean-Yves Chateau
3rd Exile Nicholas de la Fourniere
4th Sigress David & Fiona Crawforth
5th Cas Philippe Falle
Holman Cup – BCT IRM Fair Do’s V John Shepherd
2nd El Gringo Nick Hartshorn
3rd Tonnerre de Breskens Piet Vroon
Seahorse Division Anthem Thomas Gill Jr
RORC Prize – Multihulls Triohe Richard Roscoe
RORC Prize – 2 Handed Division
Thunder 2 Donald Wilks & Kieron O’Connell
John West Trophy – Club Challenge for 2 – yacht teams scored in IRC overall
RORC Jazz Chris Bull
Roxy 9 Robert Davies
Roulette Trophy – best Contessa 32 belonging to the Class Association
Moonshadow II Ian Coglin
Newcome Hoare Trophy – best IRC yacht on corrected time with 25% of the crew under 25
Iromiguy Jean-Yves Chateau
Yacht Club de France Shield – 1st French Boat Home IRC
Cajou Pierre Blayau
Sandison Memorial Salver – 1st Boat Home IRC
SPIRIT Pure Sailing Hamish Oliphant
Passmore Bowl – most numerous production boat class in IRC
SIGMA 38 El Greco Impression Marine
RORC medallions will be presented on Tuesday 9th September, 19:30 at the Clubhouse, 20 St James’s Place, London, SW1. All crews welcome.