RORC Morgan Cup Race. Cowes-Dieppe.

June 13, 2016

On the podium, third place, with mixed emotions. Crew Leen, Boj, Renze, Paul, Herman, Alexander, newcomer Luuk van de Moosdijk and myself.

The race started very well, though we were taken by surprise that all classes started at the same, contrary to the Course Instructions of RORC, which only mentioned Class 4 to start at 1900.

We managed to position WINSOME  at one boat length from the starting line, moving North i.e. parallel to the starting line, where we had surprisingly few competitors blocking our way. So our start was excellent. At the gun we we were ‘only 0,6 boat lengths below the line at gun’ according to Expedition.

Every tack direction No Man’s Land brought us more forward in the field except for CRACKLIN ROSE (Class 1) which pointed not only higher than WINSOME, but had a better speed at the same time.

FOGGY DEW stayed behind, pointing lower at less speed. After the race Noël Racine told me they were taking seaweed away from the hull pulling a line around it. A simulation of keel-hauling? Considering that delay, FOGGY DEW did a great job by after all winning our Class.

I do not know, if these events on board brought them close to the East Side of the Isle of Wight [IoW] or that they positioned her there on purpose. Anyhow the wind disappeared, making WINSOME look like a duck turning 720 degrees. Here we must have lost the race since FOGGY DEW kept a good tide close to the IoW. It must have been Noël’s navigation skill, coupled with a good dosis of luck.

When the wind picked up, we had FOGGY DEW, BIG FOOT (a Maltese registered boat) end KIA ORA (a 9,60 JPK similar to FOGGY DEW a 10.10 JPK) in front of us.

During this leg we passed KIA ORA so there remained two boats ahead of us, whilst SILVER SHAMROCK with a 11% better handicap (meaning she may finish within approximately three hours from us and still be winning) stayed far behind, though it was impossible to predict if she would stay within three hours from our finish time. After all it did not happen.

Then not so far from Daffodilis Buoy (the last Mark on the above chart, North of Dieppe) I could see that the distance to BIG FOOT, all of a sudden started shrinking. At 13:00 it was still 5,85 Nm, at 13:30 only 4,80 Nm, at 16:50 less than 4,0 Nm. Just before BIG FOOT rounded Daffodilis Buoy, it was exactly 1,0 Nm so the race was becoming exciting i.e. it looked like we could still get the second place on the podium. Unfortunately we made no gain anymore after that rounding, so either the crew of BIG FOOT was getting awake or smelled the food prepared by Alexander and Herman or the circumstances for them improved.

At their finish we were some 3 minutes behind our schedule to beat BIG FOOT on rating, so our position remained third. Someone will be happy at least: Mariana Mifsud of Malta.
Some comments from the crew after this race:
Paul, there was no yoghurt nor muesli on board
Alexander, his knee did not hurt at all
Leen, had fun
Luuk, liked the race (so we may see more of him in the future)

Our next race(s) will be the RORC IRC National Championship, starting 24th of June.