Day five was North Sails Race Day with the glamour race for the prestigious Britannia Cup, presented by King George VI in 1950 for the biggest boats in the regatta.
Over the last few years, the organisers have combined IRC Class Zero, Class One and the Cape 31 class into a supergroup to compete for the Britannia Cup.
Long beats against the tide to the west suited the TP52s, which took the top four slots overall.
Karl Kwok’s TP52 Beau Geste (Hong Kong) were the victors, claiming the Britannia Cup ahead of James Neville’s Ino Veritas, Tony Langley’s Gladiator and Malcolm Offord’s Braveheart.
With predictions for near-30-knot winds expected and rescheduled class starts aimed to have everybody back on the dock by about 2 pm before the biggest of the breeze arrived. Unfortunately, for the smaller boats and keelboat fleets in the White Group, the forecast precluded any sailing.
Having dominated the G7 mini-series, Martin Dent in Jelvis retired back to the bar, leaving Lady Khumbu, sailed by Jacintha Hamilton-Love and her team, to win Wednesday’s race in the J/70 class, and take a small lead on the overall North Sails Cowes Week scorecard.
Also racing in the fleet was Sir Ben Ainslie who today was leading a team of sailors in his Athena Pathway youth programme. The crew revelled in the fresh conditions.
The X One Design didn’t sail Wednesday (following on Tuesdays abandoned race) giving Phil Lawrence, David King and Nick Froud on Lonestar an opportunity to enjoy their overall lead ahead of last year’s winners, Astralita of Tim Copsey, John Tremlett and Fraser Graham. Can they hold back the dominant team in the XOD class with two races to sail?
The forecast for Thursday and Friday is looking good for racing. Lighter winds from the north-west will test the course setters, but with the strength of the tide slowly easing through the week, there will be plenty of passing lanes on the racecourse.
More detailed results of all 45+ classes are available here on the Cowes Week results website pages.
Leave a Reply